Links #142

Alan Jacobs on literature being news that stays news. I like that framing. “It is not as though the New is all that matters. One of the things that’s great about being the kind of teacher I am is that you spend your life introducing new people to old things: when my students fall in love with Bonhoeffer or Simone Weil or John Donne or Pascal — things that happened this very term — it’s all new to them.”

Abby Schleifer on zines. “Hey, I work with college students often. Do you know what brings their attention back to the surface after years of Zoom classes, Generative AI cheating, and smart phone usage? Zines. Freaking zines.” I keep getting the itch to make a zine. Someday!

Foldscope, a foldable paper microscope. Had no idea this existed, but very cool. I wonder what other tools can be made using these types of materials and techniques. (Along with things like zines.)

James O’Donnell and Casey Crownhart on AI’s energy footprint. Another reason I don’t use LLMs.

Aircela has supposedly found a carbon-neutral way to make synthetic gasoline from air. Intriguing if true, and if it can be scaled up enough to be usable.