What I Learned Last Week

1. You cannot speed read (NYT)

Our favorite Woody Allen joke is the one about taking a speed-reading course. “I read ‘War and Peace’ in 20 minutes,” he says. “It’s about Russia.” 

... the big bottleneck in reading isn’t perception (seeing the words) but language processing (assembling strings of words into meanings).

 2. The power of salt water (via @MaxVenerator)

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the ocean." ~ Isak Dinesen

3. David MacKay passed away (The Telegraph) : His book on alternative energy (without the hot air), with a focus on common sense and basic numeracy, shaped a lot of my current thinking on energy and the human race, about 6 years ago.

4. The Motorway or Steiner Problem

5. Concept Creep and Safe Spaces on College Campuses (The Guardian)