It’s officially winter now as temperatures dipped below freezing for the first time. Friday night we bundled up on an unusually brisk evening to wander through Wild Lights at the Dublin Zoo. It was a blast!
With hot chocolate and a donut in hand we walked around their different holiday displays. They use a different style of lights than Portland does for its Zoo Lights, and in some ways I liked these more. They project more variation and they get more creative with plant life. Portland, though, does keep some animal exhibits open at night, which would have been nice to see here. The rain held off all evening, too, which was a plus!
On Saturday we walked through the Chester Beatty museum, which houses a wide collection of manuscripts and old books (especially from across Asia). If anything I wish it’d been larger; I could stare at old books all day.
I finished reading the first book of Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle. It’s perhaps the most plainly written novel I’ve read (a good thing!) and the pared back sentences flow in a way that encourages you forward. Knausgård’s simple language brings out a strong sense of place and imagery that I found absorbing. At this rate I’ll make quick work of the other 5 volumes in the series.
Recent articles that stood out include:
- Is AI an apocalypse? The historical concept of quickly replaced technology may not be as solid as we thought.
- The Healing Power Of Social Friction. A more convenient and predictable experience is not a more human one.
- Raccoons Are Showing Early Signs of Domestication. Reminds me of The Goodness Paradox, which is a fantastic read about human evolution.
- Who maintains the scaffolding of freedom? Loved for this concept: “ideas are like infrastructure. If you don’t maintain them, they decay.”
