Welcome to Friday,
Here are five things I’m excited to share this week:
J.G. Ballard offers his favorite books and his perspective on having read the classics at such a young age.
An immense world of color, via The Marginalian. “Even some human animals — those who have had their lenses damaged in some way — can perceive the UV end of the spectrum as a pale blue, none more famous than Claude Monet and his water lilies, the dazzling product of his refusal to have his cataracts — a progressive clouding of the lens that filters color — surgically removed; instead, he went on painting the world as he saw it, increasingly warping the electromagnetic spectrum into otherworldly colors.”
Journalist-owned independent outlet 404 Media is profitable in just six months, after launching in August of 2023. Is this a good omen for the journalism industry – and the sustainability of independent outlets – hopefully?
A listening project for 2024 I am looking forward to following along with; one year with the works of J.S. Bach.
Processed foods are in the news for all the wrong reasons, which have prompted the the FDA to (finally) crack down in the short-term on accurately labelling processed foods, with a long-term goal of understanding more clearly what these foods do to our minds, hormones, and of course, waistlines. The question of whether increased labels and notices on packaging will actually curb eating habits remains murky, but it is encouraging to see the country’s top food regulation officials voicing concern over the potential biological effects of these products.
Currently reading: “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
Photo by Meiying Ng on Unsplash
