Interstellar visitors, teaching Iliad to teens, peace in an air raid, language, and more

Seven links to worthwhile thin(g/k)s

Hello dear reader,

We are approaching June — any interesting summer plans on the horizon? Does the change in seasons signify anything for you — be it visual, mental, physical? To me, this time around, it’s a shedding of sorts and an embrace of more travel, more body movement, more adventure.

Up first will be a short trip to Seattle, Washington. Any recommendations!? Do let me know.

That said, here are seven links to bits of the world I have been exploring this week, shared with the hope that you will find them to be an inspiring springboard for deeper thinking.

1. What is coffee (including a giveaway)? By way of The Existentialist Cafe

2. A guy making noise while he exhales (a.k.a. Steven Pinker on language as a window to our brain)

3. Teaching The Iliad to teenagers

4. Interstellar visitors and an interesting perspective: “Perhaps . . . revealing your presence to a hostile cosmos results in your inevitable destruction, so sending messages into space may be something no sensible civilisation would do.”

5. Eric Hobsbawm: the consolations of history

6. Restaurant reservations and the state of the restaurant industry in recovery mode (in the United States, now nearly at 100% of its pre-pandemic baseline).

7. Virginia Woolf’s 1940 essay: thoughts on peace in an air raid

Until the first Friday of June!

Warmly,

Ani