by Carl Kruse On Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 7 pm (PDT), Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, the CEO of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, will give a free, non-technical lecture entitled: “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible” in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos, … [Read more…]
Hi All, The Harvard Club of Berlin invites readers of the Carl Kruse Blog to a leadership dinner with Prof Lothar Wieler in Berlin at 6:30pm on April 22. Full details as sent by the Harvard Club are below. Cheers!Carl Kruse Dear members and friends of the Carl Kruse Blog and the Harvard Community in … [Read more…]
by Alexandra Indra Kruse for the Carl Kruse Blog The first time you hear about a website like rentahuman.ai, your brain does the normal human thing: it files it under “joke.” The premise is almost too perfect: AI agents, which can write poetry, negotiate contracts, and generate a photo realistic hamster wearing a tuxedo, still … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for this Carl Kruse Blog Perhaps nothing more than a remark shared over a lunch established the hypothetical framework for thinking of life extraterrestrial. Enrico Fermi, who was fond of his playful questions (“how many atoms of Caesar’s last breath do you inhale with each lungful of air?”), said, between mouthfuls of … [Read more…]
by Alexandra Indra Kruse for this Carl Kruse BlogThe winter solstice is the year’s most dramatic plot twist: the day the sun seems to lose its nerve, hanging low and stingy with light—and then, almost imperceptibly at first, begins its comeback. Long before anyone had weather apps or electric streetlights, this was big news. It … [Read more…]
Hello All, The Princeton Alumni Association of Germany warmly invites readers of the Carl Kruse Blog to a live conversation with Sash Bischoff, author of the acclaimed novel Sweet Fury, on December 9 at 17:30 Berlin time. About the BookLila Crayne is America’s sweetheart—radiant, beloved, and preparing to star in a feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. As … [Read more…]
by Carl Kruse Friend of the Carl Kruse blog, artist Yury Kharchenko invites us to the opening of the exhibit “Bad/Good Jews,” to take place November 13 at 7pm at Bunker West, Hohenzollerndamm 120, 14199 Berlin. The exhibit runs through November 27, 2025. The exhibition “Bad / Good Jews” brings together five outstanding Jewish artists: … [Read more…]
Hello Friends! The Harvard Club of Berlin invites readers of the Carl Kruse Blog to an evening discussion with renown author Jamaica Kincaid on November 5 at 6:30pm at Restaurant Luther & Wegner, Charlottenstr. 56 10117 Berlin. The invite is below. Cheers! Carl Kruse P.S. Stammtisch, Tuesday, Nov 4 at Fredericks in Potsdammer Platz. Dear members and … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for the Carl Kruse Blog Black wood, all black, so black it’s blue, like a raven or a crow in winter sun. Up, up, past the steep gables, up to the dragonhead, sharp and dark and up she points, up through the snow, the tempest, the long, long blackness, then the long, … [Read more…]
by Asia Leonardi for this Carl Kruse Blog «Don’t call us gnomes. We don’t want to be called that anymore. Once it was the perfect wordto designate a wide variety of creatures, but today it has too many meanings […] If you want togive me a name, I am like them, an elf. Or rather, … [Read more…]
By Alexandra Indrah Kruse The Urban Paradise Guild (UPG) is a pioneering South Florida nonprofit founded in 2008, with the mission to restore native habitats in urban Miami‑Dade County and to promote sustainable, resilient living for both people and wildlife. The UPG is one of this blog’s favorite non-profit groups in Florida and we have … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for the Carl Kruse Blog The cherry tree blooms in early spring. There are three on a street close to me and I noticed the buds coming out just the other day. I cannot now remember this prelude as they quickly blossomed into a rich fullness. It was a surprise but so … [Read more…]
A Tribute to Rosalind Franklin by Fraser Hibbitt for this Carl Kruse Blog Every year we here at the Carl Kruse Blog take time to celebrate that moment in April 25, 1953 when Watson and Crick published their findings on the structure of DNA, and of the benefits to humanity that such knowledge has wrought. … [Read more…]
by Carl Kruse The Harvard club of Berlin invites members of the Carl Kruse Blog to its upcoming “Current Affairs Dinner” to take place March 12, 2025. The topic of discussion is “Does Europe Need Its Own Nuclear Bomb?” Recent weeks have shaken Europe’s confidence in the transatlantic alliance. Longstanding assumptions about the U.S. as … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for the Carl Kruse Nonprofits Blog He spied an object as he walked along alone in a field, somewhere in Missouri. Perhaps in the town of Hurley where he attended High School. At his school, he played drums as he had done for most of his life. Very early on in his … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for the Carl Kruse Blog The worst of Winter is January. There are more people running, less people drinking, and it seems desperate. A runner is hopping on the spot, waiting for the traffic light to go red; now, they are off again huffing the steam of a new year. It is … [Read more…]
by Christine Tomasa for the Carl Kruse Blog The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” stands as a monumental safeguard for global agricultural biodiversity. Situated on the remote island of Spitsbergen in Norway, approximately 1,300 kilometers beyond the Arctic Circle, this facility serves as a repository for the world’s crop … [Read more…]
by Hazel Anna Rogers for the Carl Kruse Blog The Francis Bacon exhibition in London’s National Gallery comes at a fine time. The world is dying all around and we are beginning to see the skeletal trees beneath the absorbingly great colours of the leaves. Existentialism has been noted for bringing the discussion of death, … [Read more…]
by Fraser Hibbitt for the Carl Kruse Blog On Autumn ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round that thatch-eves run’ John Keats’ opening lines of ‘To Autumn’ picture a busy god culminating the over-brimmed ‘clammy cells’ … [Read more…]
by Asia Leonardi for the Carl Kruse Blog She was a thinker, a philosopher, a writer, the first woman to become a psychoanalyst: but more than anything, Lou Von Salomé was a free woman, independent and careless of people’s thoughts. Her magnetism enchanted illustrious figures of the time: from Paul Rée to Friedrich Nietzsche, from … [Read more…]