GREAT!

Tomorrow, I leave on a five week road trip across the country with some great people, with the sole intention of seeing great sites and visiting other great people along the way.

SUMMER IN THE SOUTHEAST

I am so lazy! I am so free! I am so happy!

If you want to know who Obama is, really and truly, contrast the image of Obama, totally focused on the mission, with the image still in our brains of W making a flashy, theatrical entry in a mock aviators suit in front of the Mission Accomplished banner.

--anonymous comment from the NYT

Everyone knew that the restaurant at Haji Ali, like every other illegal nightspot in town that faked a close, would reopen in less than half an hour. Everyone knew about the bribes that were paid and taken. Everyone knew about the warning phone calls. Everyone profited, and everyone was well pleased. The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance, Didier once said, is that it works so well.

--Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE

“Living in the past may seem like a disadvantage, but it’s a cost that the brain is willing to pay,” Eagleman said. “It’s trying to put together the best possible story about what’s going on in the world, and that takes time.” Touch is the slowest of the senses, since the signal has to travel up the spinal cord from as far away as the big toe. That could mean that the over-all delay is a function of body size: elephants may live a little farther in the past than hummingbirds, with humans somewhere in between. The smaller you are, the more you live in the moment....“I once mentioned this in an NPR interview and I got flooded by e-mails from short people,” Eagleman said. “They were so pleased. For about a day, I was the hero of the short people.”

--Burkhard Bilger, The Possibilian

Things I like about this article: Eagleman, neuroscience, time, Brian Eno, short people.

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

Spring break, yo!

LUB DUB, LUB DUB

How do trite things get to be trite? Why is the truth usually not just un- but anti-interesting?

--DFW, Infinite Jest


Feeling not just un- but anti-interesting today. Gotta shake things up, gotta let go.

But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things.

--Jonathan Franzen, Freedom