1. A small-scale livestock farmer says he’ll keep raising animals to counter industrial-scale livestock production, but he wonders if we humans shouldn’t outgrow eating animals.
2. A possible hernia in Da Vinci’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man starts a biology lesson in how our human bodies have weaknesses because of evolutionary adaptation from earlier, non-vertical-walking creatures.
3. A commenter at The Dish makes a point about “epistemological” Original Sin — that is, examining one’s own ideas, actions, with the idea that these may be in error, that people are prone to error.
In other words – if I may be permitted briefly to mix religion and politics – Original Sin is a concept that liberals can embrace, from an epistemological if not a theological perspective. Perhaps after all it’s not something that should be “laundered out of our culture” … We need Original Sin as a restraint against our arrogant – and possibly evil – self-certainty.
4. Norwegians like watching unedited TV — boat trips, train trips in real time. I’m having a similar inclination these days: I like movies that have no plot, and PBS shows that have no interruptions (and also have lightly accented English by people cooking outdoors in windy locations).
5. The Misfortune of Knowing blog has a welcome fact-check on George Packer’s recent New Yorker article about Amazon’s influence in the book-publishing industry.
MonkeyMoonMachine 