A most fascinating conversation this morning in Mexico City, apropos of which, this batch of links (some for me, some for my friend, and all for you):Agustín Cadena "Por qué leo"
Brief, brilliant. I wish people who didn't read books would at least read this one page (ish) essay. Then they'd read books. And then they'd be happier. (It's in Spanish. I'm almost finished translating it into English.)
Those marvelous marbled papers from etsy:
My Marbled Papers
Marbled Goods
Steve Jobs' TED video of his Stanford University Commencement Speech
From the University of Chicago President's Office webpage biography of Robert Maynard Hutchins:
"Hutchins was a strong advocate of academic freedom, and as always refused to compromise his principles. Faced with charges in 1935 by drugstore magnate Charles Walgreen that his niece had been indoctrinated with communist ideas at the University, Hutchins stood behind his faculty and their right to teach and believe as they wished, insisting that communism could not withstand the scrutiny of public analysis and debate. He later became friends with Walgreen and convinced him to fund a series of lectures on democracy."
According to Hutchins in The University of Utopia, "The object of the educational system, taken as a whole, is not to produce hands for industry or to teach the young how to make a living. It is to produce responsible citizens".
Quantifying an Aesthetic Form Preference in a Utility Function
Quantifying Happiness
Quantifying Rotation-Induced Illness in Squirrel Monkeys
Misery, Thy Name is Rumsfeld's Vacation Home
The Campaign for the IMF
People, get a clue.
Robert Darnton's new The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future
And last but not least, the podcast of my book presentation in Mexico City last week is now on-line. With Javier García Diego, Carlos González Manterola, Carlos Pascual, and Eduardo Turrent (En español.)
