Elsewhere from the Browser team: publisher Uri Bram writes about land ownership in Wired.

The Coronation, Explained

Constance Grady | Vox | 3rd May 2023

A symbolic block of sandstone, two 17C sceptres, an infamous colonial diamond, a performance by Katy Perry — the upcoming coronation of Charles III and its associated festivities unites all of these disparate elements and more. This account of the details involved eschews obsequiousness for the facts, bizarre as they are. Whether you will be waving a flag or not, this is a rare spectacle (3,298 words)

Mystified by cryptic crosswords? We at The Browser are here to help. Pick up the ultimate guide, by Dan Feyer and Uri Bram, and let us guide you through the meaning of those clues - so you can get on with puzzling.

Racing Against Death

Brett Popplewell | Walrus | 1st May 2023

Profile of an 82-year-old ultramarathon runner. "At any given time, he looked the part both of a battle-hardened warrior and a sage, old mystic. Especially when he slowed his pace, approaching a fellow runner who was keeled over in pain. He would appear to them like some half-naked septuagenarian messiah, his figure distorted through their sweat-blurred vision" (3,317 words)

Should Japan Defend Taiwan?

Kiyoshi Sugawa | Responsible Statecraft | 2nd May 2023

There are no good options for Japan in a US-China war over Taiwan. As an active ally of America, Japan would suffer heavy civilian casualties and long-term economic harm. Neutrality increases the chance of a Chinese takeover in Taiwan and leaves Japan alone to face an aggressive China. The choice between the two paths would likely be made by the manner in which the war begins (1,565 words)

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from The Browser six ago:

How Much Mormonism Has Changed

Mette Ivie Harrison | By Common Consent | 27th April 2017

Reflections of a forty-something Mormon. “Even as a teen, I remember the assumption that we would be practicing polygamy again as soon as it was legal. The change from this to the 'one man/one woman marriage' doctrine has been a surprise... We still give blessings of healing, but I have the sense that almost everyone goes to the doctor first and gets a blessing after” (1,300 words)

My Lifetime Reading Plan

Ted Gioia | Honest Broker | 29th April 2023

Tips for self-education. Be prepared to spend a lot of time reading. Read out loud to yourself. Read one or two long and challenging books a year, even if you don't want to. Some writers — like Proust — need to be read slowly; a few pages a day will add up. When young, read classics, and then when old read whatever is new. Keep lists. Design your plan to please yourself and nobody else (3,155 words)

Prepared to spend a lot of time reading? Dedicate it to the best. To keep you abreast of the finest new thought, the full Browser recommends five outstanding articles, a video and a podcast daily.

'Sir, You Do Realise I Am 911?'

Jaime Lowe | Los Angeles Review Of Books | 1st May 2023

Who helps the helpers? Dealing with California's worsening wildfires is taking a toll on firefighters. The professionals are already being pushed to their limits. For the state prisoners who are "on the front lines of the climate crisis" for just a few dollars a day, the work is "nearly impossible". They are not considered real firefighters, and so have no access to compensation or assistance (2,341 words)

Monetizing The Metaverse

Nat Rubio-Licht | Patent Drop | 27th April 2023

The US Patent Office is where the future gets distributed first, so Patent Drop is always unreasonably interesting. In this edition: Facebook's plan to turn VR into an infinite ad-tracker; Nvidia's plan to make chatbots chattier; Oracle's plan for AIs that format data for AIs; Google's plan to smash its own glasses; and Amazon's plan for an Alexa that calms you down when it thinks you are angry (1,850 words)

Want more? For the cost of one cup of coffee a month you can get the Browser's five article recommendations every weekday (plus audio and video) and our Sunday Supplement with puzzles, crosswords, book reviews, art and more.

When Policy Goes Medieval

Tim Harford | 27th April 2023

In medieval times an accused criminal might face trial by ordeal — they might be forced to pick up a red-hot iron bar, for example, the severity of their burns being the measure of their guilt. We don't do that any more, but we do test applicants for state benefits with lesser ordeals such as arbitrary delays, endless form-filling, and social stigma. Might it not be more productive just to help them? (940 words)

Octopus Time

David Borkenhagen | Aeon | 20th April 2023

We believe that octopuses are smart in ways that we cannot quite quantify; Arrival has shown us octopus-like creatures with a different dimension of time rooted in a different language. This essay builds on those premises, relating human ideas of time to human language and habits, and wondering what octopus behaviour can tell us about how an octopus experiences past and future (3,700 words)

The Dao Of Phones

Alan Levinovitz | Hedgehog Review | 20th April 2023

You may feel bad about the amount of time you spend on your phone. But if you see your phone as an adversary you will feel even worse about your inability to resist it. Try approaching your phone reverentially, as a sacred object with power over your life, an object that you are reluctant to disturb on merely trivial matters. Here, borrowed from Chinese philosophy, are strategies for doing so (1,600 words)

Give Dead Animals The Gift Of Flight

Thom Waite | Dazed | 26th April 2023

Scientists are turning dead birds into drones in order to study their flight. An artist who has been making his own taxidermy drones for a decade — including "the Orvillecopter", an airborne version of his pet cat — weighs in on the likely challenges. His most difficult creation to date? "I reckon the badger submarine. It’s hard to make things float weightlessly in water" (1,257 words)

Yakread merges all your content—newsletters, bookmarks, tweets, and more—into a single intelligently curated feed. It's great for keeping up with all your subscriptions without feeling overwhelmed. Give it a try.

The Battle Of The Bonds

Mark Allison | Little White Lies | 26th April 2023

Forty years ago, Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery, and Octopussy, starring Roger Moore, were released within months of each other — the result of a complex tangle of copyright and plagiarism disputes. The Connery vehicle was an "unofficial" Bond, with no access to the famous opening sequence or theme music. Viewers didn't seem to mind; it made $159 million at the box office (1,373 words)

from The Browser ten years ago:

Cooked: A DIY Manifesto

Michael Pollan | Medium | 17th April 2013

Why we should take the trouble to cook at home. It keeps us alert, independent, informed; in touch with our food and the way it is produced. "In a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialisation — against the total rationalisation of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives" (1,565 words)

Podcast:

The 10,000 Steps Myth | Maintenance Phase

The surprising history of the default step goal found today in most health tracker apps. It comes to us not from science, but via the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the backlash to McDonald's after Super Size Me came out in 2004, and the human predilection for round numbers (49m 07s)

The Penumbra Of Mortality

Venkatesh Rao | Ribbonfarm | 20th April 2023

What a thoughtful, useful note; it reads like a letter from a friend who has things to say, but says them non-insistently, in observations rather than arguments. Having read this I shall read Greg Egan, and re-read J.G. Ballard, and see if I agree about their relative merits. I will understand better how Dickens achieved his dramatic effects, especially the combining of love with death for added pathos (1,860 words)

Ox

James Harbeck | Sesquiotica | 20th April 2023

If there is no ox in my oxtail soup, and no ox in Oxfam, and no ox in oxymoron ... well, you get the idea. Where have all the oxes gone, and should that be oxen, and, if so, when did anybody last say: Look! Oxen! But ox is a lovely word dating back to the Sanskrit uksa, so let's keep using it. Besides, there may yet be some ox in your oxtail soup if you cut the tail from an adult steer that pulled a plough (840 words)

The Origins Of Clothing

Ian Gilligan | Sapiens | 20th April 2023

We divide prehistory into Stone, Bronze and Iron ages because lots of things made of stone, bronze and iron survive from those times. We neglect the role of wood and cloth in prehistoric cultures because ancient things made of wood and cloth have mostly rotted away. When was clothing invented, for example? Judging from the tools which survive, perhaps a million or more years ago (2,600 words)

Open Questions

Gwern | 13th February 2023

Gwern has more curiosity and more knowledge about more things than anybody else on the Internet. Yet some things remain a mystery even to Gwern, and here is Gwern's scratch pad. Topics include: Why fur­ries? Why does microwaved tea taste bad? Why does red excite people? Why don't twins work together more often? Are people getting more beautiful? Who were the Metcalf snipers? (10,800 words)

The King Who Wasn't There

Thomas Collins | History Today | 18th April 2023

For centuries, medieval Europeans believed in the existence of a Christian monarch named Prester John — sometimes described as "a descendant of the Magi" — who ruled over a distant kingdom. It began with some 12C forged letters but soon became a powerful piece of propaganda turned to different uses, as states falsely claimed to have made contact with this imaginary figure (2,725 words)

You Have A New Memory

Merritt Tierce | Slate | 16th April 2023

Is the internet reading our minds? Perhaps not, but the uncanny replication of our ideas by targeted ads inspires doubt. "I don’t think we’ve evolved enough to handle being aware of as much as the internet makes it possible for us to be aware of, which is another circuit-breaker, as we have evolved enough to feel like it’s important to be aware of everything it’s possible to be aware of" (6,436 words)

Podcast: Unscrupulous Collection | Bad Seeds. Beginning of a promising new podcast series that answers the question "what if we made true crime, but about plants?". This first episode tells the story of the black market in stolen plants, using a 2020 raid in Italy that recovered 1,000 succulents stolen from the Atacama desert in Chile as the case study (31m 49s)

Video: The Rise & Fall Of The KeepCup | YouTube | Sustainably Vegan | 10m 57s

Thoughtful video essay about the triumph of marketing that is the KeepCup — a reusable, but not necessarily practical, glass travel mug that was first sold in Australia in 2009. It became the must-have symbol of the ethical consumer in the 2010s. "I was devoted to my KeepCup. It was the signal that I was single-handedly saving the planet."

Chronicle Of Revolutions Foretold

Branko Milanovic | Global Inequality | 13th April 2023

How increasing economic inequality leads almost inevitably to revolution. The trouble starts at the top. The greater the gains accruing to the very richest in any society, the greater the incentives for the rich, however rich they may already be, to compete for yet more riches. The result is in-fighting among the rich to capture public goods, and power over public goods, until the public revolts (1,540 words)

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How To Define Death

Al Roth et al | Market Design/JAMA | 13th April 2023

American law defines death as "irreversible cessation" of heart and lung functions or of all brain functions. But brain-dead patients can now be kept oxygenated on ventilators indefinitely if relatives so insist. Their bodies will continue to function. Redefining death as "irreversible loss of consciousness" would enable more organ transplants, saving more lives. But would public opinion stand for it? (750 words)