The Library of Alexandria contained 40,000 scrolls; The Browser newsletter contains just five excellent recommendations every day. 40,000 is too many scrolls; subscribe to The Browser.

An Odd Card Trick

Michael Wendl | Chalkdust | 22nd November 2021

An introduction to "self-working" card tricks — tricks which exploit mathematical logic without any need for sleight of hand. The basic trick described here is the "magic separation", a simple but pleasingly counterintuitive way of shuffling and sorting 20 cards. You need a bit of maths to see how it works, but just knowing that it works seems like a skill exploitable for fun and profit (2,300 words)

?: Burning the Books, by Richard Ovenden

via Five Books | Best History Books 2021

From the tablets in the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BCE to the digital deluge of today. Warnings for the present abound, not least in the disappearance of the great Library of Alexandria, which was not a tale of "barbaric ignorance triumphing over civilised truth" but rather "a cautionary tale of the danger of creeping decline through underfunding, low prioritisation and general disregard" (238 pages)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Want oodles of podcast recommendations delivered to your inbox each week? Podcast the Newsletter is your love letter to podcasts and the people who make them. Lauren Passell writes her reviews from the heart and shares interviews with people in the podcasting space.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

Don't burn books; read Browsers:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

If you can't afford a Browser subscription, please do email us at support@thebrowser.com and we'll sort things out. If you can afford a subscription, we'd be endlessly grateful for the support: become a subscriber

Infiltrating Amazon

Mostafa Henaway | Breach | 11th November 2021

Insider's account of working the night shift at an Amazon delivery station. Full of intriguing detail. Every evening when the author arrived for work, he strapped on the robotic tools that would supervise his every move. "We’d log into our device, and from that moment on no longer be in control of our actions." Gradually he realises that even managers are just there in service of the machines (3,962 words)

?: Lars Doucet On Tourette's And Narcolepsy

Uri Bram | The Browser | 24th November 2021

Coprolalia doesn't "magically make you say the F-word specifically," but rather "whatever I’m thinking right now in the least charitable and most offensive way" – which can be worse. "Bad experiences (forcible exorcism, being detained by police)" are a peril, "but they’ve been thankfully rare." The cons outweigh the pros, but "an incredibly brazen but disarming personality" has its benefits (4,270 words)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Did you know that the NIH awards 7 times more funding to scientists >65, than to those 35 and younger? New Science is a 501c3 nonprofit building new, well-functioning institutions of basic science. Learn more about our plans, positions & the 2022 fellowship for young scientists.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

A happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it, and a happy Wednesday to all who celebrate that.

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

If you're travelling to Mars you'll need something to read along the way: The Browser is the best-loved subscription for commutes long and short.

Bengal Lancer

Barnaby Rogerson | Eland | 20th November 2021

Francis Yeats-Brown, a British officer in India who loved yoga, wrote one of the most popular books of the 1930s. Bengal Lancer became a film starting Gary Cooper and made its author a literary star. But he was a complicated character: his idea of a good time was walking the streets of London with Gandhi at dawn but in the 1940s he was ostracised for his support of Italian fascism (2,223 words)

Maggie Lieu On Going To Mars

James Dillard | The Browser | 21st November 2021

China will land a live human on Mars by 2035 says Maggie Lieu, in conversation with Browser Bets about the future of space, robotics, and the universe (6,125 words)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Do you know your whodunnits from your howdunnits? Your locked rooms from your impossible crimes? Go deep on all aspects of the classic murder mystery with Shedunnit, the podcast from Browser editor Caroline Crampton. Listen to Shedunnit now at shedunnitshow.com or in your podcast app of choice.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

Always be interesting with The Browser, the world's most admired curation newsletter:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

All nice things are good for you, like the Moomins and The Browser Newsletter. For less than $1 per week you can get nice things in your inbox every single day.

Notes From An Island

Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pieitilä | Granta | 4th October 2021 | U

Extract from a book by the Moomins creator and her partner about a stay in their cabin on an outcrop of rock in the Gulf of Finland. In this passage, they are waiting for the ice that surrounds them on all sides to crack up. "Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-west breeze, statuesque, glittering, as big as trolleys, cathedrals, primeval caverns, everything imaginable!" (854 words)

?: Free, by Lea Ypi

via Five Books | 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Highly personal account by a professor of political theory of growing up in Albania, the last Stalinist redoubt in Europe, and her mixed feelings as it turned to liberal democracy. “Now, with free and fair elections, everything was different. Nobody would care if we voted or not. Everyone lingered in bed, as if they were still deciding whether it was worth disrupting one’s sleep to go to the polls” (336 pages)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Hear what you’ve been missing with Hark. Hark editors curate amazing podcast moments into playlists around your interests. Explore topics from The Dancing Plague of 1619 to Utopian Communities or Crash Course on Fermentation and Celebrating Prince.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

One has to discover everything for oneself, but The Browser can help. Get the best recommendations for fascinating writing that you wouldn't discover elsewhere:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

The Browser delights in bringing you writing about topics you'd never imagined reading about; today we share a surprisingly lovely piece in praise of slime. Become a subscriber to keep feeding your curiosity every day.

Slime

Susanne Welich | Granta | 16th November 2021

In praise of slime, an "aqueous and viscously fluid hydrogel", which, like a cat, can behave as a solid under certain conditions. Without the "long reign" of primeval slime there would be no life now. "We are all creatures of slime, but some of us are more creative than others. Microbes were the only form of life for billions of years, with slime, as the éminence gluante, propping up their power" (2,500 words)

?: Andrew Hunter Murray On Dystopias

Sylvia Bishop | The Browser | 17th November 2021

The Browser's Sylvia Bishop talks to Andrew Hunter Murray about his book The Last Day, a dystopian world in which the earth’s orbit had been disrupted and the planet moves in lock-step with the sun. "Really it’s a story about human nature in a world which is starting to change dramatically, and where nations have retreated to look after only their own citizens rather than looking outwards" (1,866 words)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

We read hundreds of environmental news articles and studies so you can get a no-nonsense Weekly Roundup of the most impactful and interesting environmental stories from across the globe. Know what's going on, what's greenwash, what to act on, and what to smile about.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

Browsing is good for you. Join today:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

Alongside the five outstanding pieces of writing, the paid Browser newsletter comes with a brief recommendation for a podcast and video each day  – they're like a lovely nibble of desert after the perfect meal. Become a subscriber to get them every single day.

Talk With The Hand!

Richard Hughes Gibson | Hedgehog Review | 15th November 2021

Communicating effectively with part of the face obscured by a mask is a more physical undertaking. The best speakers throw "their hands up to signify exaltation and despair; they thrust their hands forward in supplication; they threw their hands down at their sides in grief and resignation; they cut their hands across the air in defiance." It's time to return to the ancient art of "chirology" (1,733 words)

Podcast: Dakou | Radiolab: Mixtape. Beginning of a series about the cultural history of the cassette. This episode looks at how discarded tapes helped to bring western music to communist China (51m 05s)

Video: The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits | YouTube | Not Just Bikes. On the "85th percentile" rule still used to set speed limits across North America, "which makes no sense at all once you think about it" (11m 08s)

BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Did you know that the NIH awards 7 times more funding to scientists >65, than to those 35 and younger? New Science is a 501c3 nonprofit building new, well-functioning institutions of basic science. Learn more about our plans, positions & the 2022 fellowship for young scientists.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser

Get the full daily Browser newsletter with five brilliant articles, a podcast, a video, no ads, and no fuss:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

You can get a free lifetime subscription to The Browser by getting a tattoo of our giraffe mascot, Cecily; honestly a better idea is to become a subscriber for less than $1 a week.

The Story Of My Tattoo

Patrick Freyne | Irish Times | 14th November 2021

Series of short interviews with people about why they got their tattoos. What emerges is a litany of trauma marked upon the body, as each subject describes the emotional turmoil that led to the ink on their skin. Common themes emerge — bereavement, abuse, estrangement — but the images chosen to represent those feelings are utterly individual. Surprisingly moving (3,257 words)

A Dog's Performance Review

Caroline O'Donoghue | Irish Examiner | 24th October 2021

Silly and delightful. The writer imagines the performance review that she and her partner would give their terrier, who they adopted in the hope that she would take care of their rodent problem. She did not. "I’m sorry to say you are now officially on employee probation. Your work will be under strict review, and if you fail again — well. Nothing will happen. You will continue living a wonderful life" (930 words)

If you can't afford a Browser subscription, please email support@thebrowser.com and we'll sort something out. If you can afford a Browser subscription, we greatly appreciate the support:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

Divorce Does Funny Things

Tabitha Lasley | Paris Review | 9th November 2021

Conversation with an Aberdeen oil-rig worker, in which the merits of various rigs are compared: “The Charlie has got the most people on it, and only a tiny wee gym. The Bravo is bad for arseholes”. The physical dangers and psychological hazards of rig-work are also discussed — "On the Delta a man filled his pockets with tools and jumped off the side” — giving rise to the otherwise orthogonal title (1,760 words)

?: Edgar Gerrard Hughes On Emotions

The Browser | Uri Bram | 14th November 2021

The author of The Book Of Emotions talks to The Browser's Uri Bram. "A lost emotion would be something like acedia. It's a feeling that fifth century monks in North Africa used to have. They'd be sitting in their cells, meditating and praying, but then a complete languor and listlessness would come over them all of a sudden. It's an afternoon slump with a very intense spiritual crisis attached" (3,114 words)

The Browser is a small independent company, just a handful of people and one very smart giraffe – your support makes all the difference:

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

Whether you commute by train or by bus or by stagecoach, always have something great to read on the way to work with our full daily newsletter.

A Guide To Your 1816 Stagecoach Journey

James Hobson | Georgian And Victorian Britain | 9th November 2021 | U

What to expect when travelling by public coach in early 19C Britain. A one way trip from London to Manchester could cost two guineas, four weeks' wages for a whole family of weavers. It's best to get a corner seat inside or risk being jostled for days by an unsavoury sailor. People of quality do not travel on top. All class distinctions are upended: the driver has absolute authority until you arrive (1,181 words)

The Gradual Extinction Of Softness

Chantha Nguon and Kim Green | Hippocampus | 8th November 2021 | U

Reflections on the complicated relationship between feminine softness and the strength required to overcome life's hardships, by a refugee who fled Cambodia as a girl to escape the Khmer Rouge. "The shoe-fuel lasted for a month. Every night, I lit a few shoes and cooked a small pot of rice over the fire. I felt nothing, not even hunger." Upon her return, a new mode of being is called for (3,958 words)

Treat your brain with our full Browser newsletter, the best companion to curious minds.

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

Always have interesting things to talk about at dinner – get five daily recommendations for the best writing in all the world.

The Origins Of Risk

Karla Mallette | Psyche | 2nd November 2021 | U

Tracking the beginnings of the word "risk" and the idea it embodies. The Arabic al-rizq, which refers to God’s provision for creation, came to mean good chance or fortune to Mediterranean sailors. In the 12C, Genoese merchants began using a practice called resicum to share out the profits and losses from risky voyages. By the 14C, Italian writings are peppered with instances of rischio (1,619 words)

?: Elizabeth Minkel On Fanfiction

Uri Bram | The Browser | 10th November 2021

"When we talk about novelists, we tend to play up the solo element—it's our romantic vision of what a "writer" is. But huge portions of art that gets written in the world," including much TV, "is in fact written communally." In modern fanfiction, authors "prompt each other into writing specific things, exchange works as gifts, and comment on works-in-progress in real time as the author is posting" (3,292 words)

In yesterday's Browser we had recommendations on historical accuracy in art, being ghosted by God, literary epiphanies and more – go on, you'll enjoy it....

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform

Many of our paid subscribers say the full Browser newsletter is one of their favourite daily habits. Whether you read yours over breakfast, lunch or dinner, join us to enjoy five daily recommendations for the finest writing.

Basketry Gone Wild

Kris De Decker | Low←Tech Magazine | 4th November 2021

To meet the challenges of rising sea levels, the world should look to the Dutch, who "built their country partly at the bottom of the sea". Fascine mattresses — vast hand woven platforms braided from flexible willow boughs or reeds — were in use there from at least the 17C and the modern equivalent is still "basically everywhere" in the country. It's the perfect sustainable sea defence (2,431 words)

?: Electrify, by Saul Griffith

via Five Books | Best Climate Books of 2021

An optimistic take on combating climate change: the technical solutions are already here, we just need to get on with it. Every home will need 100% adoption of electric vehicles, heat pumps and rooftop solar; the cost ($70,000 per home) will be prohibitive, so the US government should step in. “The free market needs an invisible foot to give it a swift kick in the ass now and then” (288 pages)

You coud get not just two but five recommendations for outstanding pieces of writing every day, enough to nourish even the most curious mind. Yesterday's edition included recommended reading on a pavement Picasso who paints on bubble gum, the sad decline of cemeteries, and the residents of the Mesopotamian marshes. Why not join us?

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform