So glad I clicked on #1 this time and voila, the interview came through at normal speech speed and I was able to follow it easily. Glad because at the very end of the exchange, came the good news that Professor Blankinship's latest work will be starring Al Ma'arri, a blind Syrian thinker and poet with a perfect memory and whose verdict on existence was, until quite recently, unparalleled in intellectual history--"guilty beyond all shadow of doubt." Procreation to him was the most heinous of crimes. Jihadists cut off the head of an ancient statue of him in Aleppo not long back, I forget the year, and Algiers banned his Epistle of Forgiveness at a book fair it hosted--was it in 2007?--sure proofs that Islamic fanatics, probably with a nod from Riyadh, still regard him as a threat to their savage system of justice. The youngest Western religion unsurprisingly is the most ruthless.
So glad I clicked on #1 this time and voila, the interview came through at normal speech speed and I was able to follow it easily. Glad because at the very end of the exchange, came the good news that Professor Blankinship's latest work will be starring Al Ma'arri, a blind Syrian thinker and poet with a perfect memory and whose verdict on existence was, until quite recently, unparalleled in intellectual history--"guilty beyond all shadow of doubt." Procreation to him was the most heinous of crimes. Jihadists cut off the head of an ancient statue of him in Aleppo not long back, I forget the year, and Algiers banned his Epistle of Forgiveness at a book fair it hosted--was it in 2007?--sure proofs that Islamic fanatics, probably with a nod from Riyadh, still regard him as a threat to their savage system of justice. The youngest Western religion unsurprisingly is the most ruthless.
Anyway, this coming attraction was good news.