Newsletter No. 8: ‘But is it Art?’

Rich Text

11 AUGUST 2017

Hello.

I recently replaced my beloved but technologically ancient iPad with a brand-spanking-new iPad Pro. It’s a wonderful piece of kit. I draft most of my writing on the iPad, including this newsletter.

Thanks to the electronic Apple Pencil that accompanies the iPad, I’m rediscovering the horror that is my handwriting, and the joys of doodling.

Moor grass doodle

Some stuff I thought worth sharing:

Nine shall be the number I shall recommend, and the number of the recommending shall be nine:

  1. I finally got round to listening to the phenomenally successful S-Town Podcast. It’s a seven-episode documentary about an Alabama town and a colourful character named John. Highly recommended.

  2. Science historian Mathieu Ossendrijver has translated five cuneiform tablets which show that Babylonian astronomers used geometry to track Jupiter.

  3. The wonderful Patti Smith reminisces about her buddy Sam Shepherd.

  4. James Kelman on his approach to writing, and how writer’s block is ‘an economic luxury’.

  5. The late, great Carl Sagan famously explained how we are all made of ‘star-stuff’. Now, computer modellers have calculated that around half our bodies’ atoms formed outside our galaxy. We’ve come a long way.

  6. The thought-provoking video What does photographer Pedro Meyer think?, in which the veteran Mexican photographer explains that we are living in a golden age of photography. (If you don’t have time to watch the full 16 minute video, you might like to start at around the 9-minute mark.)

  7. George Monbiot on why we need new words to convey life’s wonders. I was in two minds about this one, agreeing with many, but not all, of his examples.

  8. My friend GrrlScientist on how almost all modern horses are descended from a few oriental stallions. Long-form science blogging at its finest.

  9. This fantastic video of 21 days of bee development condensed into one minute.

Shameless plug

I recently wrote about my grandma’s organ donation. (Don’t worry, no surgery was involved.)


Five bonus points to those of you who spotted the Monty Python reference earlier.

Is it art?

Richard
richardcarter.com


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