In places like Baltimore, for example, the gap between inner-city and suburban residents can add up to a staggering 20 years. Read more ⬇️

Some researchers argue that genetics, lifestyle, and the microbiome together can explain why people live extraordinarily long lives. Others caution that it’s not simple: the genetics of longevity remain difficult to predict, & life expectancy is influenced by social factors (education & income)

Manel Esteller in The New York Times! A fascinating feature on the research he leads from Barcelona into the mysteries of longevity. The piece even includes an interview with him. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/h...

🟨🟥🟦 Piet Mondrian's playful postcard to his brother Carel:

Walter Benjamin’s notebooks

I wrote about intriguing underground spaces in the city. The well-known, the forgotten, the known unknowns with tourist potential and the unknown unknowns that could cost us a fortune. The new Brussels Times Magazine, in shops now.

Little Lulu, 1935 “No girls allowed”

I’ll highlight the irony: people rightly complain about the current government, yet overlook when their own adopt its populist speech and macho attitudes. The MIT AI Bio Frontiers Forum lists no women, despite top female leaders in the field. 2025, and still this:

Lately I’ve been reflecting on how we think, the aesthetics of thought. Read Proust, then his notes, and complexity unfolds. Today, not thinking feels like the norm: oversimplifying, idealizing, or demonizing politics. These reductions reject critical thought, the aesthetics of not thinking.

Idealizing the past as “perfect” is selective memory, not all was good (hola, 2014 migrant kids in cages). Present authoritarianism deserves sharp criticism but nuance matters. Oversimplifying fuels division and weakens critical thinking. Recognize and reject polarized language; it fuels populism.

The tragedy of nepotism is that it overshadows any success. Doubt always lingers, was it earned through merit, or through advantages not open to others? At best, decency calls for extreme discretion. Don’t ask for applause!

From lab to life! turning epigenomic insights into rapid, accurate leukemia diagnoses for patients of all ages. Bravo! #TheresHope

Shaná Tová! For those celebrating! Anyada buena.

We made it! summer’s finally behind us! Woohoo!!!

Born to be wild, pero cero ruido, el volumen bajito y al que no le guste, que se ponga audífonos.

James Joyce’s notes for Ulysses and Finnegans Wake

Notes by Vladimir Nabokov while reading Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

How do we dialogue with a text? Through notes, underlining, questions? Each mark keeps our creativity alive. Glenn Gould’s annotations on Bach show us that thinking itself is an art worth praising.

Tomorrow we open our 10th exhibition: cutting branches for a temporary shelter by GILBERT LENS. Open every Friday and Saturday from 2pm till 6pm, until October 11

We made it to Friday, but at what cost?!

On the edge of autumn

It’s 2025, and I might be the last soul still delighting in giblets.

With tomorrow off in Mexico, I have a late meeting this afternoon, very surprising in CDMX, normal up north. Always fun to flow with both beats.

😮 Just spotted a Pan de Muerto tiramisu... innovation is coming, and practice sessions are about to begin. I might not even hold out until Independence Day to get started.

I love architecture, though I rarely speak of it. Of the many architects I admire, Renzo Piano fascinates me, his work blends technical innovation with human sensitivity. There’s a building I revisit so often it feels like a pilgrimage. Today he turns 88, what a privilege it is to grow older!

Chile en nogada, traditional style: (What a day!! Just love it)

Powerful new article in NYT Magazine on cancer research disruptions. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

Watching scientists post their trips like influencers, every lounge, meal, sunset, never the science. Funded by others, while pediatric cancer research freezes. I’m tired. Of ego, noise, tastelessness, nouveau riche on both sides. This isn’t a government crisis, it’s a societal one. Face it!

Experimenting with deconstructed chiles en nogada. Here’s the dessert: Castilla walnut ice cream.

Few things rival the joy of a morning coffee on a cloudy Sunday.

We made it to Friday, but at what cost?

More and more, I feel stuck in no man's land. The extremes scream without nuance, without depth. I’m not sure if I’m alone or just among the silent. But seeing the gray, the “yes, but not always,” leaves me here, in between, lost in a polarized world.

Listen, listen, wake up! A delicate soundscape that feels like the mind’s slow awakening, a gentle nudge to question, to doubt, and to cherish the freedom of true thought. Listen closely. Wake gently. Think freely. Philip Glass – Truman Sleeps (Extended Version). www.youtube.com/watch?v=FySi...

Coming later this month: our Bernini's Architectural Drawings, edited by Tod Marder. It's really two books in one: a translation (mine) and historiographic edition of Brauer & Wittkower's 1931 study, and a modern treatment of Bernini's architectural drawings. www.hirmerverlag.de/de/titel-32-...

Today, 44 years ago, Picasso’s Guernica arrived in Madrid, “on a regular flight,” as El País wrote. A monumental gesture from a nation stepping into freedom after Franco.

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

What does a mother sing when her child is lost to war? Górecki’s Symphony No. 3: II. Lento e Largo Tranquillissimo unfolds like a slow prayer, aching, suspended in time. Each phrase breathes sorrow & grace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2D...

9 September 1937 | Dutch Jewish boy, Marcus Benjamins, was born in Groningen. He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork in 1942 and murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection. --- The fate of Jews deported from the occupied Netherlands to Auschwitz: lekcja.auschwitz.org/32_en/

🍍Want to know more about the Leuven botanical garden? @cultuurgesch.bsky.social just published a nice blogpost on its long history!

The third # Stolpersteine in #Jersey is for Jack Soyer, who had a very unusual trajectory. He was sent for forced labour in Paris (digging unexploded bombs), escaped, joined the resistance, and was shot by the Germans the day before liberation.

Disminuye ligeramente un libro: The Notebook of Illusions La villa más transparente El carreró del Diamant

Just announced: Rosalind Krauss is the 2025 Balzan Prizewinner for History of Contemporary Art. www.balzan.org/en/storia-de...

Amy Sherald withdrew her show from the National Portrait Gallery over censorship concerns. This November, Baltimore hosts it, an exhibition that demands reflection and tests our stance on the freedom to think.

Philippe Goddin renowned literary critic and foremost expert on Hergé, author of numerous works on The Adventures of Tintin and creator of the monumental seven-volume Hergé – Chronologie d’une œuvre, has passed away. www.actuabd.com/+Mort-de-l-h...

#Lezen is een #superkracht! 📚 Tijdens de Week van de #Geletterdheid 2025 zetten we in #Brussel met o.a. Ligo Brusselleer, Luisterpunt en Huis van het Nederlands de strijd tegen #laaggeletterdheid centraal. Ontdek tools en steun voor professionals. www.vgc.be/ondersteunin...

8 September 1915 | Italian Jewish woman, Milena Modigliani, was born in Livorno. She was deported to #Auschwitz from Milan on 30 January 1944 with her son Paolo. They were both murdered in a gas chamber after the arrival selection.

To mark 10 years of Max Richter’s Sleep, 850 people lay in beds at Alexandra Palace, eight hours of music, from 10pm to 6am. A meditation in stillness. The night [every night] became memory, a pause, something close to grace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y76K...

Witches' Flight (Spanish: Vuelo de Brujas, also known as Witches in Flight or Witches in the Air) Francisco Goya 1798

A peaceful Friday afternoon as seen from my office’s window at the @orb-sb.bsky.social in Brussels. Solar observations are still done regularly, as opposed to night sky observations which are impossible due to the high levels of light pollution in the city. 🔭🧪