![]() It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life. This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt-or not. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life on the page. The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. Sapiens for natural a stirring, eye-opening journey into deep time, from the Ice Age to the first appearance of microbial life 550 million years ago, by a brilliant young paleobiologist. One The New Yorker ’s “The Best Books of 2022 So Far” Shortlisted for Waterstones ’s “Book of the Year 2022” ![]() *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE* ![]() *SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING* ![]()
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![]() ![]() I don't think LLMs/""AI"" will unlock some secret key to Finnegans Wake but I do think developments along this direction might give us language and concepts with which we can better describe and understand the unique impact of Finnegans Wake on the human mind. but we don't really have a meaningful word to describe or categorize FW that connects it to anything else. ![]() In otherwords, Finnegans Wake is something, it isn't a novel, it is something else. I feel like we have a pretty good idea of what the pieces that compose Finnegans Wake are at this point, we have dissected its themes, "characters", thunderwords and prose style into a semi-coherent picture, but I don't think we really have any idea of what Finnegans Wake ultimately coheres into in a wholistic sense. You can't train a LLM on just the Jabberwocky, most experimental prose just doesn't have the volume required to make something interesting (though Diane Williams or Claurice Lispector would probably be hilarious to train an LLM on, they both have a large body of short fiction). One of the cool things is that Finnegans Wake gives such a huge dataset of training material. I think it could be potentially very fun if only as a non-sense generator. ![]() ![]() She butts heads with her old medical professor and at one point battles a huge anaconda. Marina, the lab doc, has her problems living in the jungle. ![]() She makes us feel quite at home among the tribe whose women bear children late into life. She gives us the jungle and its flora and fauna, especially its bugs, in all of its fascinating and worrisome reality. So the set-up is slow, but the Amazon setting is something Patchett does rather marvelously. She flies to the Amazonian town of Manaus and eventually heads into the jungly territory of the Amazon. This doctor is an Indian-American named Marina Singh. The company next sends the dead doctor's lab partner, who's also a former medical student of the recalcitrant Dr. Swenson's research sends a company doctor down to ascertain the state of her progress. The big Minnesota drug company sponsoring Dr. Finding the essence of that drug is the goal of research performed deep in the Amazon delta by an elusive physician named Annick Swenson. There's a drug that allows women to become pregnant into their 70s and beyond. It's the latest novel from Ann Patchett called "State of Wonder."ĪLAN CHEUSE: The set-up for Patchett's ultimately quite attractive plot is a bit slow. ![]() Now a piece of literary fiction about a medical mystery deep in the Amazonian jungle. ![]() ![]() ![]() But they fear rank-and-file alt-rightists because, while engendering hatred toward Muslims is seen as safe, indeed beneficial, for Jewish neocons and their favorite causes (well, “cause,” singular-Israel), it’s believed that if you let in too many AmRen fanboys, you’ll start to accumulate people who are less-than-friendly toward Jews (and almost certainly, you will). ![]() I made the point earlier about how absurd it is to revere Geller and Schlussel while dismissing Taylor, and the neocon media higher-ups do understand that. Emphasis and links added.Ĭole is discussing Conservatism Inc.'s horror at the emergence of the Alt Right. The Conservative Media Meltdown, April 21, 2016. David Cole has had a wild career, most recently metamorphosing into a really interesting columnist at Takimag, where he just wroteĭuring my years as a high-profile (and very establishment) conservative writer and activist, every single National Review, FrontPage Mag, and PJ Media guy I worked with read and appreciated American Renaissance and VDARE…they would just never admit it publicly ![]() ![]() Of course her niece, Cat, has a new, problematic man (a tightrope walker!) in her life. Not that this is the only dilemma facing Isabel: she also crosses swords again with her nemesis, Professor Dove, in an argument over plagiarism. Now, when Minty takes Isabel into her confidence about a personal matter, Isabel finds herself going another round: Is Minty to be trusted? Or is she the perpetrator of an enormous financial fraud? And what should Isabel make of the rumors of shady financial transactions at Minty's investment bank? ![]() Minty had seemed to Isabel a woman of ruthless ambition, but the question of her integrity had never been answered. Isabel's son, Charlie, is now of an age-eighteen months-to have a social life, and so off they go to a birthday party, where, much to Isabel's surprise, she encounters an old adversary, Minty Auchterlonie, now a high-flying financier. Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction's most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life's questions, large and small. ![]() ![]() Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective. ![]() ![]() ![]() As sublimely simple and endearing as the playthings it portrays, agreed Publishers Weekly. Beautifully composed illustrations, said Booklist. ![]() It's a definite 10, commented School Library Journal in a starred review. A wonderful read-aloud for storytimes or one-on-one sharing. Each creature the ducks meet is seen in its own habitat and behaves in a true-to-life manner, offering a very simple first view of biology and geography. In this poignant and funny story, illustrated with strikingly designed collages, Eric Carle takes readers on an exciting voyage of discovery.įollowing the little ducks as they float to all parts of the globe, young explorers can see for themselves the meanings of directional words and learn simple math concepts, such as counting and the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers. Small readers and listeners will empathize with the little duck's plight-and will rejoice at the heartwarming surprise ending. But as the sun sets, the 10th little rubber duck is left all alone, bobbing helplessly on the big wide sea. One drifts west, where a friendly dolphin jumps over it. The ducks are swept away in various directions. All aboard for a world of learning and fun!ĭucks overboard! shouts the captain, as a giant wave washes a box of 10 little rubber ducks off his cargo ship and into the sea. ![]() ![]() ![]() To survive in the Iron Realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. With the unwelcome company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end - a quest to find a way to honor his vow to stand by Meghan's side. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Then Meghan Chase - a half human, half fey slip of a girl - smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. To cold faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl… I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. My name - my True Name - is Ashallayn’ darkmyr Tallyn. ![]() ![]() ![]() With every lead turning into a dead end, Damian and Roz must team up to find the killer, even if it means digging up buried emotions. As the body count climbs, the Palazzo is all too happy to look the other way-that is, until a disciple becomes the newest victim. ![]() Now a murderer stalks Ombrazia’s citizens. But three years spent fighting in a never-ending war have left him with deeper scars than he wants to admit… and a fear of confronting the girl he left behind. ![]() As the youngest captain in the history of Palazzo security, Damian Venturi is expected to be ruthless and strong, and to serve the saints with unquestioning devotion. In the city of Ombrazia, saints and their disciples rule with terrifying and unjust power, playing favorites while the unfavored struggle to survive.Īfter her father’s murder at the hands of the Ombrazian military, Rossana Lacertosa is willing to do whatever it takes to dismantle the corrupt system-tapping into her powers as a disciple of Patience, joining the rebellion, and facing the boy who broke her heart. ![]() ![]() ![]() “I would love to have children: boys, girls… I’m a person who loves kids and I’m a family guy,” The Sun newspaper has quoted Nadal as previously saying. Nadal is 36-years-old and is the third-oldest player in the current top 100 on the ATP Tour after John Isner and Roger Federer. Although he has previously hinted that he wanted to do so after his retirement from the sport. On the front cover of their magazine this week Nadal and Mery are pictured along with the caption ‘ Rafael Nadal and Mery are expecting their first child.’ No further information has been given and is unknown as to how far along they are in the pregnancy.Įarlier this year the former world No.1 spoke openly about his desire to have children in the near future. Hola Magazine has published a series of photos of the couple recently relaxing in Mallorca which they say shows Mery is pregnant. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In this charming, compelling, and ultimately joyful book, Oxenhandler records a journey that is at once comic and poignant, light and dark, earthy and spiritual. Thus began her initiation into the art of wishing brazenly. Still, she suspended her doubts and went for it all: a new love, a healed soul, and the 2RBD/1.5 BA of her dreams. A skeptic at heart, and a practicing Buddhist as well, Oxenhandler had grown up with a strong aversion to mixing spiritual and earthly matters. With little left to lose, she launched a year's experiment in desire, forcing herself to take the plunge and try the path of Putting It Out There. One New Year's Day, Noelle Oxenhandler took stock of her life and found that she was alone after a long marriage, seemingly doomed to perpetual house rental and separated from the spiritual community that once had sustained her. ![]() |