So what do you want to eat?
One of those conversations…
Quote of the Day
“The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind – a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish.”
- The late David Trimble, in his Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 1998
Mick Fealty (Whom God Preserve) wrote a thoughtful and generous obituary of him. Trimble was the only British politician I can remember who never seemed to want (or need) to be liked. Which was probably the key to his success.
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
BBC Proms 2011 | Cinema Paradiso | Ennio & Andrea Morricone
From one of the loveliest films I’ve ever watched, and watched… and watched.
Long Read of the Day
Toronto wants to kill the smart city forever
If I possessed a revolver, I would reach for it every time I heard anyone extolling the desirability of ‘smart’ cities. What they invariably mean are cities that are optimised not for humans but for data-guzzling corporations, fake ‘efficiencies’ and techno-solutionism.
In that context, one of the most hopeful things that happened during Covid was that democratic pushpack led Alphabet (neé Google) to abandon its preposterous plan to turn a waterfront area in Toronto into a showcase for the company’s vision of a ‘smart’ new urban area.
This essay in MIT’s Technology Review tells the story of the Google/Alphabet fantasy and of how its abandonment stimulated Toronto to think more imaginatively about how an urban area could be humanely revitalised.
My commonplace booklet
These Are the Most Famous Photos of All Time According to a New Study
From Petapixel. You can probably guess the #1 — the Hasselblad shot of Neil Armstrong on the moon. But some of the others are interesting.
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