As probably the last person on the internet, I started reading economist Tyler Cowen's blog Marginal Revolution a little while ago. It is as worthwhile as everybody says. Also, his Conversations make a good addition to your podcast player, with quite an illustrious list of guests.

The old kitchen stove in our cottage is fully functional and I like lighting it for breakfast. When it is still on around noon, there is no need to use electricity for lunch.

At the gym earlier today I listen to the latest episode of Very Bad Wizards. I was slightly disapppointed that neither of them knew what a Klein bottle is, but I liked the update on the replication crisis in psychology (from 42:30 onward).

Retraction watch, @retractionwatch

While I certainly approve of drunk podcasting, the converstation between Tamler and his step-mother was a bit too inhoherent. The portrayed craziness on US campuses seems quite remote from a Swedish perspective, but usually Europe just lags behind and soon follows suit...

I listened to the full back-log of Very Bad Wizads during this summer's gardening and home improvement projects. Rarely did I need to skip an episode, so if you like the genre of "two dudes talking" and are even slightly interested in psychology and philosophy, give David and Tamler a chance.

The forest floor just behind our street in Brussels is in full hyacinth bloom right now, just like famous Hallerbos.

In my recent list of books I omitted the two that I have not finished yet. But even so, I am more than half-way through both and will most likely not find their remainders less excellent.

• Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene is of course a very famous book; and now even I know why. How selection pressure can steer behaviour in animals (us humans not excluded) is truly enlightening. I especially liked that the author co-reads the audio-version himself, which makes his included later commentary on the over 40 years old text extra entertaining.
• The Elephant in the Brain is written by Kevin Simler & Robin Hanson and was released earlier this year. It is about how unaware we are about our actual motivations. We deceive ourselves to get away with selfish acts while at the same time looking good and noble in our own eyes, and hopefully those of others.

I cannot put it into words yet how but the two books are very much related to each other. I mean in a deeper sense than that they are about behaviour.

Spring is very late this year in northern Europe. Finally, things are looking up though.

In recent months I've been cutting down on my following the news cycle and social media, and on some podcasts. This has freed up time for some books to read or listen to. Here are a few that I enjoyed quite a bit.

• The Gene: An Intimate History by Mukherjee, Siddhartha.
• Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari.
• Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson.
• If you are as skeptical toward "meditation" as I was, Sam Harris' Waking Up might convince you that it can be done without religious mumbo-jumbo.
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch.
• I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong.
• Last, Compelling Science Fiction periodically publishes ebooks with short stories. Not all brilliant, maybe, but some quite compelling indeed.

• Satellite photos at an angle
• A primer on climate change
• Beautiful real-time interative wind maps (and more)
• Compare headlines between news sites
• Visit Belgian Breweries (scroll down for map)
• Top 5 Clustering Algorithms
• Linguee and DeepL are good dictionary and translation services, respectively.