Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s the penultimate Friday of the semester and it genuinely feels that way. The mild (and nearly balmy) weather this weekend should help get us thinking about springtime and summer research leave.

It is also an epic sports weekend. It features of the last gasp of the first round of the NBA playoffs. The F1 guys are in Miami. The Phillies host the Diamondbacks. And most importantly, there is a massive weekend of championship boxing with matches tonight in New York’s Time Square, tomorrow for Cinco de Mayo in Riyadh, and then Sunday night (!!) in Las Vegas. The cards feature folks like Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, and Naoya Inoue. It should be high level spectacle of nothing else.

In between festivities, enjoying the fine spring weather, and trying to bring the semester in for a gentle landing, I will continue the search for more quick hits and varia:

• Pasts Imperfect.

• Labor, land, and the global dynamics of economic inequality.

• Unprovenanced Antiquities.

• The Great Experiment.

• From the Blogs:

Another Installment of Neville Morley’s 12 Days of the Year.

Another epic varia on Noodlings.

What is a coin?

• Baldwin Farms.

• The Evolution of Synth Soundtracks.

• After Amazon.

• What I’m reading: Thomas J . Heffernan, ThePassionofPerpetuaandFelicity. Oxford 2012.

• What I’m listening to: George Cables, Cable Vision (1978).