Mower, Cacti, Michelin, Feelings, Music

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Lone Star Mower Racing Association

Dina Gachman | Texas Monthly | 22nd September 2021

Lawn mower racing is an eccentric offshoot of Texas's popular motor racing scene, but those who "full-throttle it to 35 or 40 miles per hour around dirt tracks" on their souped up garden maintenance vehicles take it extremely seriously. Many of the racers get into it initially because unlike at other motoring competitions, "no one picks fights at lawn mower events" (1,875 words)

The Cactus That Came Back From The Dead

Amir Aziz | Walrus | 27th September 2021

In the wild, many cacti are highly endangered. But it's difficult to talk of extinction when the same plants can be found in garden centres and on office window ledges around the world. Is the genome's survival enough, or should the hyperlocal conditions that originally fostered it also be preserved? "A cactus in a pot could be considered as 'alive' as a butterfly pinned inside a glass case" (1,760 words)

Confessions Of A Michelin Inspector

Anonymous | Luxeat | 28th February 2021

Insider's account of the process for awarding restaurants the coveted Michelin stars. To train as inspector, one must pass an oral and written exam plus interviews with the guide's editors. Most of the restaurants inspectors eat at are "pretty mediocre" and they must eat ten meals for review a week. The pay is low but the expense account is large. Keeping weight off is a challenge (2,851 words)

Podcast: A Taxonomy Of Emotion | Why Do I Feel?. Introduction to a series about feelings that surveys current thinking about what an emotion is. A philosopher and a neuroscientist give different but overlapping views (20m 09s)

Video: Pentatonic Scale | World Science Festival | YouTube | 3m 03s.

Singer Bobby McFerrin uses physical movement to demonstrate how easily a crowd of amateurs can grasp a simple pentatonic melody.

Interview: Pamela Hobart Talkes To Baiqu Gonkar

Pamela Hobart is a philosopher turned philosophical life coach and mother of three. This week she discusses how to deal with an existential sandwich, why small innovations are valuable, and the deathbed fallacy. (30m 23s, or read the transcript here)

Afterthought:
"Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive"
— Josephine Hart

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