An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for August 12, 2020

Here’s a variety of notable things I’ve recently found that you may also be interested in checking out:

• Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife by Ariel Sabar—”VERITAS is a tale of fierce intellectual rivalries at the highest levels of academia, a piercing psychological portrait of a disillusioned college dropout whose life had reached a breaking point, and a tragedy about a brilliant scholar handed a piece of scripture that embodied her greatest hopes for Christianity–but forced a reckoning with fundamental questions about the nature of truth and the line between reason and faith.”
• The Master’s Apprentice: A Retelling of the Faust Legend by Oliver Pötzsch, translated by Lisa Reinhardt; The Devil’s Pawn, Book 2 in the series is due in April 2021.—”A young man’s destined quest becomes a dance with the devil in a mesmerizing retelling of the Faust legend by the bestselling author of the Hangman’s Daughter series.”
• Hour of the Witch: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian, due April 2021—”A young Puritan woman–faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul–plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive historical thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.”
• Poulenc: A Biography by Roger Nichols; Poulenc: The Life in the Songs by Graham Johnson – review. Two entertaining biographies reveal a complex composer, whose music – like his colourful life – melded the incompatible.” About Poulenc: A Biography by Roger Nichols and Poulenc: The Life in the Songs by Graham Johnson.
• “What to Do About William Faulkner. A white man of the Jim Crow South, he couldn’t escape the burden of race, yet derived creative force from it.” About The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War by Michael Gorra, due later this month.
• “A Darker View of the Renaissance.” About The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West By Catherine Fletcher
• “The Problem of Force. Simone Weil‘s supernatural justice.”
• “Why We Dislike Shame—and Can’t Get Enough of It. Why shaming is essential in America today—and some suggestions for curbing its excesses.”
• Indigenous Australians ‘farmed bananas 2,000 years ago’
• Indigenous Activists Are Reimagining Language Preservation Under Quarantine
• Dwarf planet Ceres is an ‘ocean world’ with sea water beneath surface, mission finds. Ceres, believed to be a barren space rock, has an ‘extensive reservoir’ of brine beneath its surface, images show.”
• “Mars Map With Water: Incredible Terraforming Image Shows Elon Musk’s Dream. A new visualization imagines what Mars would look like with 71 percent of its surface area covered with water.”
• “Did this newfound particle form the universe’s dark matter? Say hello to the d-star hexaquark.”
• NASA drops “insensitive” nicknames for cosmic objects
• “The 2020 Perseid meteor shower peaks this week: How to watch the show. Each August brings nights lit up by up to 100 shooting stars and fireballs per hour.”
• Um, yeah. I can definitely say I’ve been in organizations with these traits. Maybe you have too? “An Analysis of Trump Supporters Has Identified 5 Key Traits. A new report sheds light on the psychological basis for Trump’s support.”
• How Stephen Miller Abandoned the Lessons of His Jewish Ancestors
• The Racist History of Celebrating the American Tomboy
• Quareia training advice – journals, practicing skills, and surviving!—”You have intelligence, common sense and integrity – use it. Stay safe, healthy, and sane!”
• Reverse Waterfalls?! Tweet—”A severe weather warning for damaging winds and damaging surf is current for Sydney, Central Coast, Mid North Coast, Hunter and Illawarra areas. At the moment, wind gusts of 70km/h are producing several reverse waterfalls in the Royal National Park.”

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