Lost but Reading

However much you may acquire, you will always wish to acquire more; satiety is a dream which will always elude you.

The boa constrictor, when he has had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most part, are not like this

Man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise.

We have no right to name a substance long-known, and to the story of which we have added only a few facts; however, we will propose, without granting it any importance, the name chlorophyll, from chloros, color, and φυλλον, leaf: a name that would indicate the role it plays in nature.

Also I’ve yet to meet anyone (even the most erudite readers) online or off who said Audition by katie kitamura didn’t leave them feeling absolutely confused.

So Audition makes the shortlist but Endling gets snubbed? 🐌💔
Utterly disappointed. Better judges next year please #Bookerprize2025

Comme un tigre impitoyable,
Le mal a brisé mes os :
Et sa rage insatiable
Ne me laisse aucun repos. …
Ainsi de cris et d’alarmes Mon mal sembloit se nourrir; Et mes yeux, noyés de larmes, Étoient lassés de s’ouvrir. …

“I asked Grok.” “I asked Chat.” I didn’t ask anyone because I grew up without screens and reading encyclopedias was our sole source of entertainment. Now I’m a living compendium of useless knowledge and for the next twenty minutes we are going on an adventure of learning, Brian.

large language models (LLMs) accurately predicted big-five personality traits (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) from text interactions with human interlocutors.

the edge of a leaf may grow more quickly than its interior, so the leaf takes on a ruffled shape to account for this mismatch. This is driven by a phenomenon called Gauss incompatibility, which explains the waves commonly found on the edges of petals, leaves, and seed pods.

Be grateful for anything that still cuts. Dissonance is a beauty that familiarity hasn't destroyed yet.

Tuberculars and syphilitics, there’s the history of art in Europe—the public, the social, tuberculosis, or the private, the shameful, syphilis.

Sleep has never really wanted me, it abandons me very quickly, around midnight, after pestering me all evening.

🐘🥹🥹

Experience of conflict and a load of suffering has taught me that what matters above all is to celebrate joy for the eyes and the mind. It is much easier to terrorize than to charm… I live in a very unpleasant world because of its routine ugliness.

Smell of Cat urine - threat - avoidance behaviour T. Gondii : Amygdala → alters fear pathway ↑ Dopamine → altering reward pathway the neural circuits that are normally activated by sexual cues (like those involved in mating) are instead activated by cat odors

Ants can recognize themselves in a mirror.