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I was surprised at the controversy. Pond scum currently has a higher approval rating than Congress.

I argued that contrary to what most think … the more we learn about the Universe the more relevant we become, molecular machines capable of seeing far beyond our limited perception of reality.

You want to talk about Tsarnaevs,” said the mayor of this city on the Chechen border, a barrel-chested local strongman named Saigidpasha Umakhanov. “Do you know how many Tsarnaevs we have?

Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.

We have to demonstrate, we have to make it clear to the public at large — even to those who don’t use the library — that we can’t have the kind of society that we want, for ourselves or our children, if we don’t have the kinds of access to information, ideas, creation of new ideas, access to historical documents that the libraries have provided for ages.

And all the things that we can learn about ourself in the context of someone else.

One of the ways we’re learning to deal with the trade-offs inherent to real-time streams is a burgeoning self-awareness of their potential to spread misinformation in half a heartbeat. A mechanism that purports to make that stream more accurate—even though a corrections button would not fully prevent bad information from spreading—would lull us toward a more complacent, less critical view of that stream.

The new edition [of “The Great Gatsby”], with its Art Deco glitter, presents a stark choice for readers, as well as retailers who are trying to gauge the tastes of their customers.

At stores like Barnes & Noble, with its nearly 700 outlets, both editions will be available. But at Walmart, only the movie tie-in edition will be stocked, a tacit acknowledgment that the discount chain’s customers want books that appear fresh and new (even if they happen to have been released in 1925). And at independent booksellers like McNally Jackson in SoHo, customers who want “The Great Gatsby” can purchase only the original: not a single copy of the new, cinematic edition will be for sale.

Sneaky girl. You’re pretty.

No mayor wants his city to be defined by its worst moment, but rather by its response. Especially when the attention of the nation and perhaps the world is riveted to your home, you want to show resolve and a sense that the city will come back.