Stephen Fry Milk Trick: Stephen Fry has to be somewhere at the top of the list if one is asked to identify the finest human being who has the name, Stephen. eloquent and funny, with a passion for language and study that is unmatched by anybody else. The human brain is a wonderful creature, and it is not set up in the most obvious manner, as most people believe. A prank you can do on yourself, as explained by the legendary Stephen Fry on the BBC’s QI television program. You could do it standing up, but it’s definitely simpler to do it sitting. It’s also a good idea to avoid being behind the wheel of a vehicle.
He has a new podcast out called Great Leap Years – The Stories Behind Inventions, which you can listen to here. He is particularly interested in innovations that are linked to communication and information technologies. It all begins with the formation of language at the very beginning of time. When it comes to listening to Stephen Fry, here’s an example of the tense linguistic dance you may expect to experience:
It is possible that you are aware of my lifelong fascination in technology, but you should be aware that I am not a scientist, nor a techie, nor an engineer of hardware or software by training or skill. For one thing, scientific ideas take a long time for me to grasp because they are almost always founded in mathematical abstractions, and I have had an attitude toward numbers that is similar to my attitude toward tigers: they are, without a doubt, beautiful beyond words, magnificent, strange, fascinating, and powerful. They, on the other hand, fill me with amazement, dread, a profound feeling of inadequacy, and the premonition that if I don’t get away, I’m going to puke.
What could be better than waking up on a Monday morning and seeing that a video of two of your favourite philosophers talking for an hour has been uploaded to YouTube? The fact that both Stevens are first names. QI, the British game show, is still one of my favourite shows to watch on television. They have completely re-imagined the concept of instructional entertainment. In this programme, the term Quite Fascinating is an abbreviation for the primary rule that you receive points “for being interesting.”
Every year after one year of Magic & Martini, I get beautiful clips like this one. Some fascinating background information about Martinis in general, and how James Bond likes them in particular, may be found here:
The British actors Stephen Fry and Steven Pinker are two of the most brilliant public presenters and authors I’ve ever encountered in my life. Their conversation is centered on Steven Pinker’s latest book, Enlightenment Now. During their conversation, you can see it resting on the table between them. It’s quite a big book, and I’m just about a third of the way through it right now.
So far, everything has been fantastic. The gist of the book is simply that the world is not really going to hell in a handbasket as the title suggests. Things are improving… dramatically improving… startlingly quickly… and for some reason, no one seems to care. And, perhaps most significantly, we can figure out why it’s occurring and attempt to do more of it in the future.