SCALES #49: (catuerreotype?)
Hello!
It’s been busy in these parts—and, you know, just a little eventful in the world—but this newsletter has awoken from its slumber. There have just been so many things since last time that I’ve wanted to put in the newsletter, so this is going to be a whirlwind tour of highlights. You know what I’m talking about: podcasts, other email newsletters, strange or striking scientific papers.
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So I’ve Been Listening…
…to the third season of Serial. I passed on the first two, but I was attracted to the seeming mundanity of this one’s premise: a look at the workings of the Justice Center in Cleveland, and how an outside observer’s perception of what “the criminal justice system working” should look like (represented by the viewpoints of tag-teaming hosts Sarah Koenig and Emmanuel Dzotsi) differs from the day-to-day reality of those enmeshed in the system. (Spoiler: Plea deals reign supreme.) And I like how the large-scale form searches for understanding by navigating through a web of characters, like a Victorian novel, rather than distilling things down to a single through-narrative. The unofficial response newsletter SerialLand, by Cleveland attorney Rebecca Maurer, provides an invaluable Cleveland-rooted gloss on each episode.
…to Igor Levit’s solo classical piano album, Life. Grandiose emotional statements, majestic fugues, Fred Rzewski, and a little Bill Evans. The first solo classical piano album I’ve wanted to crank up the volume on for a long time.
…the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum heist podcast, Last Seen. A co-production of WBUR and the Globe, the vibe can sometimes be a little squarely reportorial, but I can’t resist the subject matter. Fine arts and Boston mob accents.
…a recent episode of Gastropod on the role of time in cooking. One of my favorite episodes ever. Describing the chemistry involved in describing one man’s attempt to artificially speed up whisky aging is so well done, and had some surprising parallels to atmospheric chemistry: the role of light in aging, for one, and the possible importance of slow esterification.
…noname’s “Part of Me” (feat. Phoelix and Benjamin Earl Turner), the first song I’ve ever heard to drop an Edmonia Lewis reference.
…the Pretzel Podcast, charmingly hosted by two unpretentious Wisconsin public radio hosts. Pretzel reviews, pretzel news, and, in one recent episode, an interview with a German pretzel-making expert about the difference between Swabian and Bavarian pretzels. (Size of belly and fat content is key.) What more could you possibly want?
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Additionally—
“Richard put an 18th century chicken in some trousers.” A Museum of English Rural Life Twitter thread. (h/t Laura Olin)
“Form is, of course, where all books keep their secrets.”
"SING aims to train indigenous scientists in genomics so that they can introduce that field’s tools to their communities as well as bring a sorely needed Indigenous perspective to research.”
Robin Sloan machine learning author shop talk.
“Behaviour you really can’t understand. Sequences that don’t complete. Ideas that don’t ring true.”
Naked mole rat coprophagy. (Warning: kind of gross, in a natural-world-not-really-caring-about-humans'-disgust-response kind of way.)
“Few truths about paint are more basic than this: it tends to go on wet, whether on canvas, furniture or buildings, and then it dries.” The start of an incredibly lucid Roberta Smith opening graf.
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Just discovered (via chomp chomp) that Gudak has a faux disposable camera rival, Huji. Bypassing the 3-day, roll-at-a-time film development delay does kind of feel like cheating, though.
Thanks for reading! You can always forward to a friend/reply and say hi/subscribe.
—Adam