An Undulating Thrill

Douglas Small | Aeon | 4th October 2024

Cultural history of cocaine. In the 1880s, it was fashionable as pain relief and as a stimulant. It was so popular that the cost per ounce briefly exceeded that of gold. Its anaesthetic properties had knock on effects: tattoo artists flourished, now that the pain of being inked could be easily numbed. By the 1920s, though, it had become "a frightening and corrupting source of addiction" (3,300 words)

What’s In A Gateway?

Kerri Culhane & Yin Kong | Urban Omnibus | 2nd October 2024

Chinatown neighbourhoods are often marked by a gateway built in a traditional Chinese architectural style. Along with other signifiers like culturally relevant businesses and bilingual street signage, these edifices help make clear an otherwise ill-defined boundary. Manhattan’s Chinatown is about to get such a structure. Should it look like a traditional paifang, or something new? (3,200 words)

The Survival Skills Of Helena Valero

Tove K | Wood From Eden | 30th September 2024

Valero is "one of the most important anthropologists of the 20C". Of indigenous and European ancestry, she was kidnapped at the age of 11 in 1937. For the next 19 years she survived among sometimes violent uncontacted tribal groups in the Amazonas. She emerged in 1956 with her four sons and told her story to an Italian anthropologist. A decade later, she returned to live in the forest (6,000 words)

Phasing Out Coal Power

Molly Lempriere & Simon Evans | CarbonBrief | 27th September 2024

The UK opened the world's first coal power station in 1882, and in 2024 has become the first major economy to cease burning coal to generate electricity. During this time, the country's coal plants emitted more CO₂ than most countries have ever produced from all sources. The next challenge? Getting rid of gas, which makes up 22 per cent of the UK's current power generation (6,000 words)

The Naming Of America

Jonathan Cohen | The American Voice | 1988

Why is America called "America"? Not necessarily because of its "discovery" by Amerigo Vespucci. "To hear the African in the Mayan iq' amaq'el; to hear the Scandinavian Ommerike, as well as Amteric, and the Algonquin Em-erika; to hear Saint Emeric of Hungary; to hear Armorica, the ancient Gaulish name meaning place by the sea; and to hear the English official, Amerik..." (5,600 words)

The River Rukarara

Scholastique Mukasonga | Paris Review | 2nd October 2024 | U

Rwandan author's memoir of her home river, a magical waterway whose protections followed her into exile. "We, the older ones, who were born near the river were inoculated against all sorts of ailments, most evil spells, and all the poisons with which the envious would season our food; we might even avoid some of the inevitable misfortunes that weaved the fabric of every life" (5,000 words)

The Influence Of Furniture On Love

John Maynard Keynes & Adam Tooze | Chartbook | 29th September 2024

Delightful find from the archives. Keynes dispenses wisdom on love and interior spaces. “In what sort of rooms does one fall in love? Take this room. Could any human hope to fall in love here? There is nothing very aphrodisiac, is there? Chintz within walls of pale green. This room is cool and reasonable. Consider some of the rooms in Trinity, dark and secret. It is in them that I should choose to fall in love” (2,700 words)

Math From Three To Seven

John Psmith | Mr. And Mrs. Psmith’s Bookshelf | 30th September 2024

Book review. Why do Russians excel at maths? One reason could be the prevalence of “mathematical circles” from the days of the Russian Empire: informal groups of teenagers and adults who spend time jamming mathematics. Their interest is not in exercises with answers à la standardised tests, but in solving problems — where there are “no guardrails, no hints or answers at the back of the book” (4,300 words)

What’s A Brain?

Claire L. Evans | Wild Information | 30th September 2024

Cognition is not limited to vertebrates with language, reasoning, or self-awareness. It happens all along the evolutionary ladder. The emerging field of minimal cognition studies decision-making and memory in cellular forms like amoeba, bacteria, yeast, and slime moulds. Instead of asking top-down questions about “consciousness”, minimal cognition tackles the enigma of the brain from the bottom up (1,400 words)

In Defense Of Megalomania

Kat Rosenfield | Free Press | 28th September 2024

On Francis Coppola’s new film Megalopolis and his insistence on owning the rights to his projects. He sold a portion of his Sonoma vineyard for an estimated $500 million to finance the film, which has since been universally panned by critics. “We should applaud, not condemn, his ambition. Unruly though Megalopolis may be, it’s the movie Coppola wanted to make.” Without great risks, there can be no great art (1,700 words)

The Other British Invasion

Ben Yagoda | Guardian | 26th September 2024

American English is generally assumed to dominate the Anglosphere — a fact often lamented by critics elsewhere — but the process works in reverse too. "Britishisms" started making inroads into the US vernacular in the 1990s. For example: some Americans say "cheeky" to denote impudence, "gutted" to mean "disappointed" and "early days" to mean that a process is just beginning (3,600 words)

Sixteen Failed Attempts

Jude Doyle | 27th August 2024

Each attempt is a different eulogy for the writer's father, who was addicted to drugs and had early onset dementia. Some are angry, others forgiving. Contact was cut off when Doyle was 16. Lying, manipulation and threats of murder were commonplace in their relationship. "He was a broken slot machine, a rigged carnival game, Russian roulette with all six chambers loaded" (7,900 words)

A Month Lost In The North Cascades

Julia Tellman | Cascadia Daily News | 19th September 2024 | U

A man set off for a one-day hike with his dog and was found alive thirty days later "dangerously emaciated and unable to move but still alive". He had made an impulse decision to go "on a mission of discovery to reach Canada", sending his dog home alone and forging on alone into the woods. His survival, without shoes or food, is described as "improbable, amazing and heroic" (1,700 words)

Bad Service Is A Sign Of A Better World

Michael Makowsky | Economist Writing Every Day | 23rd September 2024 | U

If the quality of restaurant service has gone down, that is a good sign about the state of the world. Slower water refills or ordering via QR code are annoying, but we now prioritise more important things — like food quality — and don't want to pay a premium for a 1950s-style dining experience. "The world is getter better because people’s time and energy are more valuable for it" (640 words)

The Nazi Of Oak Park

Michael Soffer | Chicago Magazine | 3rd September 2024 | U

Profile of Reinhold Kulle, an SS officer who became a high school janitor in Chicago, “one of the most common landing spots for former Nazis” after WWII. So many arrived there that investigators would joke that Nazi-hunting organisations could have simply moved to Chicago. Kulle hid his past from the immigration authorities, and passed himself off as an upstanding member of the Oak Park community (8,000 words)

Good Judgement With Numbers

Richard Chappell | Good Thoughts | 23rd September 2024 | U

Ethicists tend to have an “All or Nothing” view of quantitative tools in practical decision-making. Either they religiously follow the numbers, or they dismiss “soulless number-crunching” as irrelevant. Both approaches are bad. People “should instead use good judgement informed by quantitative considerations”, and admit that sometimes, it is difficult to know which moral action to prioritise (2,300 words)

Are We Too Impatient To Be Intelligent?

Rory Sutherland | Behavioral Scientist | 17th September 2024 | U

Manifesto for reframing time. Our systems are optimised for “faster is better”, with poor results. Rail-ticketing algorithms do not show people the longer, cheaper, more scenic option because it is slower. Emails are instant; the burden of noticing a time-sensitive communication is on the recipient, who is reduced to checking their inbox every 10 or 15 minutes. “We’ve allowed the urgent to drown out the important” (3,800 words)

Video: Demon Core | YouTube | Kyle Hill | 14m 15s

Grim story of scientists who died of radiation poisoning from experiments to induce criticality in a plutonium core at Los Alamos. Richard Feynman reportedly described these experiments as “tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon”.

Courtesan, Diplomat, Kingmaker

Sonia Purnell | LitHub | 20th September 2024

Pamela Harriman was "arguably the most famous diplomat in the world and the most powerful courtesan in history". Born to English aristocrats, she was introduced to Adolf Hitler by Unity Mitford, divorced the son of Winston Churchill, and befriended both JFK and the Gorbachevs. She "played a part in ending the Cold War" and served as Clinton's ambassador to France (1,600 words)

Right-Hegel Meets Left-Hegel

David P. Goldman | Tablet | 19th September 2024

On the origins of Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis. It originated as a Marxist conceit from Alexandre Kojève, a Russian-born French philosopher and apologist for Stalin. Together with Leo Strauss, Kojève taught Fukuyama their "shared misreading" of Hegel. These ideas then went mainstream, informing even the political justification for the 2000s-era "war on terror" (2,800 words)

Was Ozempic Right For Me?

Em Win | Autostraddle | 6th August 2024

Reflections on a course of GLP-1 injections. Seen as "a cheat code for losing weight", the writer battled her prejudices and took the treatment. It worked: "I felt like I could actually live the life I wanted to live." Then the drug and the doctor who administered it were removed from her insurance plan. "Ozempic (technically Mounjaro) was right for me, but I begrudgingly was not right for it" (2,900 words)

Meetings And Partings

Rusty Foster | Today On Trail | 18th September 2024

Moving dispatch from the Appalachian Trail, as a father and son who had planned to hike the 2,200 miles together realise that they are going to part ways. Their speeds are not compatible: the elder needs a slower pace and time to write, while the teenager would never take a rest day if given the choice. "It’s the furthest thing from a betrayal — this is the best possible outcome for a parent" (2,200 words)