Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, 1875

Happy Earth Day!!!

"Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. 

"This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antaeus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. 

"Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.

–Nikola Tesla

"Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency," February 1892.

Chapters from my life.

Inspirational quotes

New York Subway Station

Photo: Dieter Krehbiel

Classic Books List

“Why read the classics? A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” These are a few recommendations, books everyone should read. Don’t let yourself be convinced they are good: read and decide for yourself!

(no particular order intended)

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Hard Times - Charles Dickens

The Karamazov Brothers - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

The Waves - Virginia Woolf

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Richard II - William Shakespeare

Little Women - Louisa Alcott

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Emma - Jane Austen

Anna Karenina - Liev Tolstói

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton 

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Lord of The Flies - William Golding

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

Persuasion - Jane Austen

War and Peace - Liev Tolstói

Macbeth - William Shakespeare

The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - Edgar Allan Poe

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka 

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

King Lear - William Shakespeare

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

Jean Barois - Roger Martin du Gard

Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Bill Withers (1938-2020)

"The three-time Grammy winner released just eight albums before walking away from the spotlight in 1985, but he left an incredible mark on the music community and the world at large. Songs like “Lean On Me,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Use Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Lovely Day” are embedded in the culture and have been covered countless times."

ig: herdrafts I’ve been reading so many ebooks during the lockdown that I’m almost get accustomed to them, despite I miss the feeling of printing papers under my fingertips. I often read in English because it appeal to me better but often I struggle when it comes to approach a book; regardless of genre, choosing what language you want to read, it has a great influence on the reading itself and perhaps on the outcome of the review. Translation sometimes can be better than the original version, maybe when you can’t enjoy the author’s writing you can read the same novel ‘touched’ by the translator work, but you can’t really understand the meaning of the prose or the difference of styles between an author to another, if you are interested in this aspect as well. In short, this was my ranting because often I can’t decide in what language to read.

NASA and SpaceX provide joint, live coverage from launch to arrival at the space station.

Claude Debussy - Suite Bergamasque in F Minor, L 32: III. Clair de lune