... is really a book about science, nature, faith, toleration, humility, and public debate—the modern world seen through the lens of Browne. (The British title, The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century, better captures its interests; presumably Norton, the U.S. publisher, changed it on the theory that too few Americans would have any clue who Browne was.) Aldersey-Williams’ main argument—spread over a number of chatty chapters loosely organized around Browne’s own major interests—is that Browne’s gentle civility in confronting unreason offers a better alternative to the haughtiness of so much modern science writing and myth-busting.Sounds interesting to pick up, which I would if I didn't have half-a-dozen books waiting in the wings.
It can clearly be challenging to convey the magnitude of loss after a tragedy, particularly when that number is in the tens of millions, yet that is precisely what The Fallen of World War II, a documentary (also available as an interactive graphic) that examines the human cost of second World War, sets out to do. Written, directed, and narrated by Neil Halloran, the elegantly animated data visualization lays out the human losses of the war, and it’s devastating.The graphic that shows Soviet fatalities is mind blowing.
The 15-minute video is divided into three sections: the first examines military deaths, while the second deals with those of civilians, including victims of the Holocaust. The third offers an illuminating, and ultimately uplifting, comparison between WWII and other world conflicts. One particularly striking moment: when Halloran depicts Soviet fatalities as a seemingly endless parade of tiny red soldiers.
The Chaos represents a virtuoso feat of composition, a mammoth catalogue of about 800 of the most notorious irregularities of traditional English orthography, skilfully versified (if with a few awkward lines) into couplets with alternating feminine and masculine rhymes. The selection of examples now appears somewhat dated, as do a few of their pronunciations, indeed a few words may even be unknown to today's readers (how many will know what a "studding-sail" is, or that its nautical pronunciation is "stunsail"?), and not every rhyme will immediately "click" ("grits" for "groats"?); but the overwhelming bulk of the poem represents as valid an indictment of the chaos of English spelling as it ever did. Who the "dearest creature in creation" addressed in the first line, also addressed as "Susy" in line 5, might have been is unknown, though a mimeographed version of the poem in Harry Cohen's possession is dedicated to "Miss Susanne Delacruix, Paris". Presumably she was one of Nolst Trenité's students.It was tiring to go through. I think Soviet spies should have learned it.
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timeasmymeasure
