Sent as a newsletter on February 15, 2024. Not on my list? Sign up here.
👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Image of the week, above:
☀️ Sun, tree, shadows. Snapped recently here in Hong Kong.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 🇸🇦 Longread of the week, by Bradley Hope in Vanity Fair: “Inside Johnny Depp’s Epic Bromance With Saudi Crown Prince MBS.”
2) 🥽 Also excellent: The great Jaron Lanier in the New Yorker on Apple’s Vision Pro headset and the future of virtual reality.
3) 📻 RIP Bob Edwards, longtime host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
4) 🐅 The London Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year images are out.
5) 🙇 “How to Study: a Brief Guide.”
6) 🚗 Remarkable video of a Waymo self-driving car in San Francisco that a crowd set on fire.
7) ✍️ Neal Stephenson has a new novel coming out in October, the first in a trilogy.
8) 📍NearbyWiki matches Wikipedia entries to locations on a map.
9) 🐗 Passage of the week: “Had any other animal been responsible, Austin would’ve considered it a random attack. But this was a pet he’d trusted more than any other: his lovable, five-year-old warthog, Waylon.”
10) 🐶 Dog-related, belated Valentine’s Day photo: “We snapped this photo at our doggy daycare today. 🥰”
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📖 What I’ve Been Reading
I recently read, and loved, Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s excellent 2019 novel, “Bangkok Wakes to Rain.” I shared a few thoughts on LinkedIn:
The story spans decades and centuries. Many characters are Thais from various social backgrounds. Others are foreigners.
They are all searching for love, meaning, permanence, connection with families and friends, self knowledge.
Pitchaya includes the Thai capital as a character as well: its riverine nature, its complex history, its religious currents, and its timelessness.
The multigenerational tale jumps forward and backward in time.
There’s even a smartly done sci-fi element.
Much of the story is anchored in one specific location in Bangkok, which I won’t elaborate on so you can discover it for yourself.
🦴 Dog-related video of the week:
How different breeds of dogs would dress if they were human.
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💡 Quote of the week:
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami
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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley