Photographer Christer Strømholm

Consensus cloud of the books everyone should read

Another depressing example of libraries failing to change with the times

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Arab spring: interactive timeline of Middle East protests

Very cool interactive graphic from the Guardian. It doesn't show where the "path of protest" is leading, but perhaps time will tell.

A digital library better than Google's

Harvard library director Robert Darnton applauds rejection of Google settlement earlier this week and calls for a public digital library.

In a nutshell:
This decision is a victory for the public good, preventing one company from monopolizing access to our common cultural heritage. Nonetheless, we should not abandon Google’s dream of making all the books in the world available to everyone. Instead, we should build a digital public library, which would provide these digital copies free of charge to readers.

Ski champ Petter Northug plays one of my favorites, Paderewski's Nocturne. Beautiful!

PETTER NORTHUG PLAYS PADEREWSKI'S NOCTURNE

Freeman Dyson on Science and Wikipedia

In the NYRB, Freeman Dyson says Wikipedia is totally unreliable, and surprisingly accurate. And science is more like Wikipedia than Encyclopedia Britannica.

Science is the sum total of a great multitude of mysteries. It is an unending argument between a great multitude of voices. It resembles Wikipedia much more than it resembles the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

10 best American poems, according to the Guardian

Bad reviews III

I've previousl confessed with shame, that I can delight in a a good, bad review. Emily St. John Mandel Post writes less despicably On Bad Reviews at the Millions (also has an interesting comment thread)

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