In close up

Brian Eno introduces The Book of Inspirations with enthusiasm, saying that we
all need to think laterally to make our lives less wasteful, more positive and
fruitful. This is a mixed bag of ideas from the frankly loopy (UN to supply free
virus software) to the intriguing. Teaching children in kindergarten how to save
energy could have incalculable results, and capping city buildings with gardens
to cut global warming sounds fun. But subtitling pop songs on TV to increase
literacy is out of touch—lots of music videos are festooned with captions,
and the tide of literacy isn’t rising appreciably.…