kenny

What have I read, watched, listened to, and considered this week? Here's a selection:

Books:

• Stephen King's 11/22/63. I had two plane rides last weekend, and I used that time to devour everything but the final few pages of 11/22/63. For me, this book is at its best when it reads like a spy novel, with Jake encountering bookies, mobsters, and FBI agents full of Cold War paranoia.

• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha. No progress this week.

• Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon. I've made disappointingly slow progress since my last update. The current chapter follows the growth of Chicago's packing industry. Like the grain and lumber trade, the packing industry bloomed along with the railroads. However, the industry didn't truly take off until refrigerated railroad cars were first utilitzed in the 1880s, keeping carcasses fresh and dispelling consumer prejudices against meat that wasn't from a local butcher. Also noteworthy was Cronon's treatment of hogs as a way for farmers to concentrate their corn (and sometimes skilfully arbitrage between the corn and hog markets).

Podcasts:

• Francois Chollet interviewed by Dwarkesh Patel. Chollet is often noted as an AI bear, but he seems to be changing his tune now that he has his own company ( Ndea).

• Seamus Murphy on the Conversations with Tyler podcast. A middling episode, but I did investigate and enjoy Murphy's photography comparing Russia and Michigan (titled Strange Love).