Hello my darlings, I hope you’ve had a beautiful brat summer. Here’s some things I’ve read in the last couple of months:
For a short time, Vietnam had a Coconut Religion. Its leader has been referred to as His Coconutship (incredible), and at its peak he had a following of around 4,000 (including the son of John Steinbeck? even more incredible.)
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary is a mythical plant thought to grow sheep as their fruit. They, in fact, turned out to be cotton plants, at the time unknown to northern Europeans.
There’s a whole page dedicated to the Jewish-American patronage of Chinese restaurants in New York City — driven by a few factors like proximity of immigrant communities, the relative absence of dairy products, concern over German and Italian antisemitic regimes in the 30s, and the fact they’re some of the only restaurants open on Christmas.
Traditional delicacy: the British Rail sandwich (and its French equivalent « sandwich SNCF »).
Less edible: cosmic latte is the name of “the average color of the galaxies of the universe as perceived from the Earth”, a beige-ish white (that was first thought to be teal due to an error in calculation).
Many Brits are familiar with the names puffin, pelican and zebra crossing, but did you know there used to be panda crossings (short-lived) and tiger crossings?
“See also: lollipop lady”
The Mushroom Colour Atlas explores the spectrum of colors made from dyeing with fungi.
Scientists spent a few years getting kestrels to fly in a wind tunnel and observed how they stay so still while hovering.
If you’re prone to losing items in your house, here’s a hack: set up holding pens in every room.
A website with a full list of the hidden categories on Netflix, to see more than what’s recommended to you without having to search for a specific title.
During African decolonisation, radical writers turned to puzzles and competitions to engage their audiences.
In this house we love lawsuits that reveal insider info and numbers. Thanks to the now-blocked Penguin-S&S merger, we now have an incredibly detailed view into how the publishing industry works! It confirms that the vast majority of books sell ridiculously few copies, are almost always subsidised by other big writers and reprints, and that editors are basically gamblers.
A materials designer has developed a crystal that turns everything into analogue 8-bit art and it looks incredible.
Liked this analysis of Keir Starmer’s lack of credibility to the working class.
Mary H. K. Choi got lots of answers when she was diagnosed with autism in her 40s.
Satellites run the modern world and GPS is under attack. Unfortunately it seems like they might be quite vulnerable.
Research from Google (one of the largest companies in the world building generative AI) says that generative AI could “distort collective understanding of socio-political reality or scientific consensus,” and in many cases is already doing that. Very cool, love that for us.
I highly recommend this piece from Ed Zitron, on the AI bubble popping: Burst Damage.
Some good reads on US politics:
A very prescient analysis of how exactly is Kamala Harris going to be treated differently than Trump because of her gender and race, and what observers can do about it.
Three theories about why journalists once again fail to take Trump at his word when it comes to his authoritarian plans and election tactics.
A very clear breakdown of how the "Working Class Republican" scam works.
The Vibeocracy is a fantastic piece on the Kamala/Brat branding, vibe shift, and what it means for political perception among us youth.
There’s a growing community of people speedrunning jigsaw puzzles in tournaments.
oTranscribe is a free web, open-source app to transcribe the audio from interviews.
Fun toy: engine sounds generator.
ClearerThinking ran a full scientific study to assess whether professional astrologers were any better than chance at understanding people’s character and lives based on their astrological charts. (Saving you a click: they are not.)
This follows from their earlier study that only looked at sun signs and also politely concluded that astrology is a piece of crock.
I am half-surprised that we still need these studies in 2024 but as it points out, 25% of Americans believe that astrology is indeed real and it’s growing. (My personal vibe is that younger people are eschewing organised religion, but somehow still need to hold onto spiritual beliefs to avoid having to process the complexity and semi-randomness of how we all come to be the way we are. Or, as the NYT argued, it could also be because “everyone born from November 1983 to November 1995 has Pluto in Scorpio, which draws them to occult practices and magical thinking.”)
A writer tried navigating his way across a new country as millions have done pre-Google Maps, by asking strangers to hand-draw maps and directions.
Fascinating timelapse footage of a drone going all the way up Mount Everest for the first time.
What is Simple? Someone finally condensed the definition of good product design in 10 bullet points. I instantly printed and framed this.
LOVED this breakdown of the design principles used in the Family app. It doesn’t just look very pretty, but also explains why every decision was made and how animation is used as a means of communication. Super inspiring.
See also: how to do great animations.
Why do all rebrands look the same these days?
A good summary of common A/B testing mistakes.
I’m 13 years behind but I only just found out about Tinkercad, a free app for hobbyist 3D design, electronics, and coding.
How to build anything extremely quickly (tl;dr: outline first and stop being afraid of the first drafts).
“The Door Problem” in game design (also applies to so many other disciplines).
Shoot the moon right between the eyes,
Victor