Dan has asked a very tough interesting and challenging question this week: At the moment of death, when you realize that there’s no way out, you worry about those being left behind — at least, we think we will. But this isn’t about who we would worry about. Instead, it’s about those who have already died. If you could go back and do a five minute “exit interview” with them, you could tell them the good (or bad) news about what happened in the years that followed. Which five people would you do this for? What would you be sure …
Month: October 2004
H. floresiensis
Hobbit remains found in Indonesia. Okay, no, they’re not like hobbits. They’re just little people. But they’re real, and I think the history of early humans just got a bit more interesting.
Mainly of interest to the sane
The following links are of interest only to the sane and semi-sane. Marmot’s got a couple of good links on, one about the newest trend in Korean plastic surgery and other assery; and another on the Taiwanese government’s idea of intelligent discourse… via food-fight. John, if you’re reading this, well, I am feeling even more strongly what I said about democracy last night: there has got to be a better system than this. Build the computers that are smarter than us. Engineer the supermen who can sort us out. Something, something… please. Finally, I’ve posted a comment after this very …
A Cool Cabbie, Once Again
I remember the days when, while first really studying Korean, I would take taxis with anticipation in my heart. You see, there is something that nobody tells you when you first arrive in Korea, about the act of learning Korean. Most people just want to learn survival Korean, as they don’t intend to stay long, so they have no idea. Others turn so bitter that they think the whole prospect is insane; or they are too lazy to make any headway; or they are, as I was for a while, burnt out in terms of studying Korean, and have forgotten …
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
On Sunday night I read the short novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. It wasn’t anything I spent money on, I actually got it at the place where it will shortly turn up once again: at a local bar, where English books are left for anyone who is interested in them to borrow them. This book is alright, I suppose, and while I don’t understand why the book won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1928. To me, it seems a somewhat unremarkable novel in almost all respects. Perhaps he affected American literature so profoundly that the …