- Finished The White Man's Burden. Interesting and the guy certainly has good points to make, but in the end way too far off in the Friedman/Gladwell end of the pool. Cutesy, lots of fluff and lots of using anecdotes or clever framing to make things appear the way the author wants. But not so clever that it's comfortable to read and accept.
- Finished "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Happy Ever After" and started "The Cossacks," all by Leo Tolstoy. Happy Ever After was good and such but "TDOII" was just spectacular. Tolstoy really didn't think too much of the bourgeoisie and petty upper class. Devastatingly incisive and observant without being sarcastic. Not that I read Russian, but I think the translation could probably have been a little more elegant. Not sure what to think of "The Cossacks" yet.
- Cool article about caloric restriction and longevity. Intermittent fasting is pretty interesting. Not really interested in it for myself at the moment but there seems to be a lot of anecdotal and experiential evidence that it has benefits all over the place.
- Another awesome article, this one about the potential of synthetic biology, and also somewhat about the issues and pitfalls that people are worried about.
I need a new book.
