It's Friday, which means time to trawl around the internet looking for interesting stuff to impart to you, reader.
- Insects superior to humans? In some respects, you could say so. E. O. Wilson, frequent HUP author, has got a book out with Norton on The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, reviewed here in the NYRB via Powell's Review-a-Day
- One thing about Augustus, he knew how to take a joke. But some rulers don't. Mary Beard on laughter in the ancient world. Her last book was on Pompeii; the one before that on the pride and folly of the Roman triumph.
- The Hollis Hip-Hop Museum, featuring artifacts from the neighborhood that spawned a musical universe (although denizens of the South Bronx might have something to say about that), opens in a new burger joint in Hollis, Queens.
- Scientists looking to weaponize lightning -- didn't the gods used to punish hubris?
Snowed again here last night (not too much though), hope it's warmer wherever you're reading this ...
