Quick Bites: GBS Slams Shakespeare, a Global Market Perspective, DNA Contamination?, Debatable Movie Adaptations, and a Quiz on Legal Terms

George Bernard Shaw 

1. Shaw on Shakespeare: “Dig Him Up and Throw Stones at Him.” I have always had the rather conventional view that William Shakespeare was the greatest playwright in the English language. And not by a little. So, I was shocked to come across the following critique of a performance of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline from an 1896 issue of the Saturday Review. The reviewer is none other than the great George Bernard Shaw. As someone who prides himself on being the harshest, most bombastic, most bloviating critic among The Mules, (my book club), I take my hat off to Shaw here. I think he’s wrong on every charge. But the rant itself – one must admit – is sublime. Click here.

2. America’s Share of the World’s Equity Markets. I knew the US stock market was the world’s biggest, but I didn’t realize it was that big. I was also intrigued to see that emerging market countries account for nearly 10% of the breakdown. That sounds like opportunity. Click here. (Source: the Visual Capitalist website, via JS)

3. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about… You can ignore the first two minutes of this clip. Around minute three, this molecular scientist gets into his concern. His team’s discovery that the Pfizer mRNA vaccine is contaminated with plasmid DNA. I don’t know what that means – but he seems to think it’s concerning because the DNA contamination doesn’t go away over time. Click here.

4. Six movie adaptations that drastically changed their novels’ endings.Which changes do you agree with? Which made the original story worse? Click here.

5. Click here to take a basic test on legal terms. I thought I might ace it, but I got only 24 out of 29 correct, for a total of only 83%. Oh, well…