If you’re a fan of classic rock, I have a video for you. In this beautiful black and white footage recorded in Denmark in 1969, Led Zeppelin performs a haunting arrangement of Babe I’m Gonna Leave You from their first album.

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Today’s One Great Thing is a neat puzzle that falls into one of my favorite categories: on first hearing this your reaction will likely be “that’s impossible”. But, of course, there is a solution. You just have to think about it in the right way.

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Free the Hostages

As a loud and proud Jewish critic of Israel’s apartheid regime, I’m sometimes asked this question: why don’t you spend more energy calling for the release of the hostages? In this brief article, I’ll share my answer to that question.

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One of the best things about living in London is the pervasive and efficient train network, affectionately known as the Tube. You can get just about anywhere in this sprawling metropolis by train and it’s my favorite way to travel around the city.

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I’ve been teaching a class at the University of Surrey in South London. During a recent lab session, a friendly student named Satish Ranganathan Mohan approached me with a question and I noticed the most exquisite hand-written diagram and calligraphy I’ve ever seen.

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Whether you’re a long time fan of Jeopardy! or not, you have to appreciate Harvey Silikovitz, who, despite having Parkinson’s Disease, won the notoriously challenging quiz show last Monday after a 24 year journey.

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I recently had a conversation with someone close to me about religion. They were asserting that the Tibetan belief in a reincarnated soul is not a form of religious indoctrination. I disagreed but the point of this article is not the substance of that discussion but rather my reaction to the conversation.

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You know that feeling when you have something important to do and you just can’t seem to get off the starting block? It’s not necessarily an unpleasant task, and once you get working on it, it’ll be fine. It’s just that the energy required to make the transition from idle to active can feel overwhelming at times. In this article I’m sharing the best solution I’ve found to this problem.

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Make Time to Read

I recently noticed that I’ve been reading fewer books lately. I think it’s because I’ve been spending a disproportionate share of my time reading blogs, news sites, a certain social media feed, and other less substantial content. Then I read Blake Butler’s Maximizing Time for Reading, which put everything into focus for me.

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I have a treat for you today. NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts regularly hosts a diverse array of amazing artists performing in an intimate setting, literally behind a tiny desk, to an impromptu gathering of staffers (for the concerts alone, I’d give anything to work there).

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