Who, you might ask, is Norman Borlaug? Norman Borlaug is responsible for saving millions of lives. He was a leader, if not the leader, in his field. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He has worked in some of the poorest countries, all over the world. And in all probability you have no idea who he is.

Norman Borlaug is an agricultural scientist. He has been responsible for many agricultural innovations, leading to increased crop yields in harsh climactic conditions. Put simply, Norman Borlaug has fed the world. We, the human race, would be unable to feed the world population without the plant varieties (in particular improved rice and wheat yields) that Norman Borlaug created.

Don’t get me wrong, I do care enough to try to make them interesting and coherent, but I do not lavish upon these posts the care and attention I do on more formal writing (the stuff for which people pay). I do not craft them is, I suppose, the point at which I am trying, in my oh so circuitous way, to arrive.

The ever lovely Stephen Fry has posted a short post on the process of writing. In it he answers the question that both I, and it seems he, have asked many times. How do other authors write? The finished product seems so polished. Does it come easy to other authors? Is it hard for me because I am a dullard? Stephen reveals that he too finds it hard, as have many writers of note.

Seems there may be hope for me yet.

Bill Gates recently bought the rights to a series of lectures by legendary Caltech physicist Richard Feynman. The former Microsoft head’s purchase shows that the cultural and scientific legacy of Feynman remains strong even 21 years after his death.

The lectures, given in 1964 as part of Cornell University’s Messenger Lecture Series, were filmed by the BBC, who had retained the rights since. Gates purchased the lectures for an undisclosed amount.

via Atheist Media Blog: Gates Buys Feynman’s “Messenger” Lectures to Become Freely Available for Public.

Bill Gates just went up a notch in my esteem. He’s a Feynman fan! Okay, enough babble, here’s the link to the YouTube playlist for Feyman’s Messenger lectures.

PlayList

Enjoy.

Freeman Dyson once described Richard Feynman as ‘half-genius, half-buffoon’. He later revised this opinion to ‘all-genius, all-buffoon’. I cannot think of a better epitaph.