Interview someone who has experienced war

To know or not to know, would you want your genome mapped?

“There’s an unplugging that all of us have in common, the very first unplugging any of us experience: when our umbilical cord is cut. Awesome fact: a baby doesn’t start to breathe until the cord is severed, because it doesn’t have to. As long it’s still attached to the mother, the baby doesn’t need to breathe on its own. When the cord is cut, the baby draws its first breath. I’ve witnessed this moment twice, at the birth of my two children. It’s an amazing metaphor that’s not really a metaphor: In order to be truly free, in order to breathe, we have to cut the cord. When I enter Shabbat (my 25 hours of unplugging), I literally feel myself breathe differently, easier, deeper. It really is a rebirth.” (Josh Feigelson)

This Sunday in Venice is a veritable luddite celebration (perfect for our undoing purposes). Billed as Unplug & Reconnect, this is an interactive street-fair-style tribute to the typewriter. Use them, buy them, sell them, discuss them – use ones once used by famous people (John Lennon, Ray Bradbury, etc.), and pay homage to an American icon on a sunny day.

Learn how to make the most fleeting of all your castles that much hipper, stronger, and generally more awesome. This Saturday at Ocean Beach, as part of the Architecture in the City Festival, is the free sand castle building 101 event in preparation for the big Leap Sandcastle Contest this October. Experts and novices will be there showing off, learning, and admiring.

This ain’t your iPhone’s Words With Friends. This is real, tangible, old-fashioned Scrabble with real people at a real bookstore – one of Brooklyn’s finest, in fact – down on the waterfront. Freebird Books hosts this tournament-style competition (novice and advanced categories) celebrating the release of a new book about the iconic game, and including prizes for the winners and an al fresco screening of a new documentary about Scrabble. Nerdy? Perhaps. Would we miss it? Not a chance.