Rust Never Sleeps

Stewart Brand | Works In Progress | 21st September 2023

All metals corrode eventually, save for gold and platinum. Rust is nature asserting itself — metallurgy in reverse. Refined metals shed electrons until they have turned themselves back into more chemically stable metal oxides. Keeping rust at bay is an "endless drudgery of oiling, greasing, brushing, scraping, cleansing, swabbing, painting, repainting, re-repainting, and finally discarding" (3,800 words)

The Case For Prophetic Office

James Bernard Murphy | 1584 | 12th September 2023

Why prophets deserve a place among the checks and balances of a well-ordered political system: They are ombudsmen of a sort. "Prophets cannot rule us or create good institutions; they can only denounce abuses of power by politicians and priests. Prophetic politics is the politics of the veto. Prophets do not tell religious and political leaders what to do but only what cannot be done" (1,425 words)

Ancient Goat Teeth And Animal Care

Melina Seabrook | Sapiens | 12th September 2023

Analysis of animal bones from between 3,000 and 7,500 years ago provides interesting lessons about human-animal relations. A pattern of older goats with "devastatingly poor teeth" suggests animals tethered cruelly yet cherished for their milk. "The goats I studied might have garnered affection from their owners. And ironically, the goats likely suffered from that special treatment" (1,350 words)

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Against The Death Penalty

Ralph Leonard | Areo | 19th September 2023

Well-articulated summary of the arguments around capital punishment, with the writer concluding that there is no practical reason for a state to conduct judicial killings. "The coercive elements of state power can and must still be reined in, in the interests of civil society. We need to be protected from the state just as much — perhaps even more — than we need to be protected by the state" (2,040 words)

Aldous Huxley's Deep Reflection

J. Allan Hobson | MIT Press Reader | 19th September 2023

Huxley was fascinated by altered states of consciousness. He was "a painstaking self-observer" and keen on experimentation. He worked with a medical hypnosis expert in 1950 to do some trials around his trance-like "deep reflection" state. At will, Huxley could make himself utterly insensible to his surroundings, vanishing into the "timeless, spaceless void" in which he wrote his fiction (1,750 words)

Creating A Fake Indian Cricket League

Sean Williams | Sports Illustrated | 15th September 2023

A man in a small Indian village — at the behest of "shadowy but well-financed men" in Moscow — set up a fake cricket league. He rented a field, bought cameras and fake IPL uniforms, and hired cricketers to play in matches that were completely fixed for the purposes of online gambling. This scam was just the ground floor of a multi-level swindle that operated on a global scale (4,810 words)

I’m Completely Blind

Jeffry Ricker | Psyche | 18th September 2023

College professor, who recently lost his sight completely, explains how he acclimatised to life as a blind person. The hardest thing to adjust to was the disruption to his social world. The negativity from the sighted people in his life, even close friends, was difficult to accept. "Strangers often seemed anxious around me. Even people I had known for years sometimes avoided me" (2,000 words)

A Literary History Of Apple's Fake Texts

Max Read | Read Max | 16th September 2023

Since 2011, Apple's demonstrations of their latest devices have included uncanny fictional text messages and emails, concocted to show off the interface. The tone conveys a stilted, improbable cheeriness. These fake people in "Dimension Apple" are always demanding that others "send photos!", planning surprise parties and taking trips together. There is no irony, anywhere (1,700 words)

Making Architecture Easy

Samuel Hughes | Works In Progress | 7th September 2023

A useful way to think about architectural styles. A building can be "easy" or "challenging". An easy building is one that everybody can enjoy. A challenging building is one that only connoisseurs may appreciate. In literature, music, and the fine arts, new works are expected to be challenging. But architecture is different. If a building imposes itself on the public view, it has a duty to be easy (5,076 words)

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Eating Fossils

Jan Zalasiewicz | Palaeontological Association | 1st November 2017

Behold the winner of this year's Ig Nobel prize for Chemistry and Geology (the prize for Nutrition having gone to a paper about electrified chopsticks, Augmented Gustation Using Electricity). In the days before modern chemistry, geologists would taste rocks for hints of their composition, and lick them to reveal textures and colours. "One could literally develop a taste for stratigraphy" (2,660 words)

For The Love Of A Good Doll

Shanti Escalante-De Mattei | Document Journal | 28th August 2023

Beyond Barbie lies a world of doll makers who imbue their human replicas with a darker, more complex meaning. Tastes vary by country: "Russians like super skinny girls — whimsical, but skinny... Americans like chubby children, with big eyes. In France, they like the monster-esque, mermaids or little dragons with little horns. In Japan, Korea, it’s very anime, with those ruched dresses" (2,930 words)

Blame Air Conditioning

Nick Niedzwiadek | Politico | 12th September 2023

It is possible that the origin of US government shutdowns lies in the introduction of air conditioning to Capitol in 1929. Legislators could now sit through DC's humid summers, so sessions got longer and longer. After protests, an August recess was enforced. Then the federal budget deadline was moved to autumn. Now, there are only a few days to pass spending bills before the cutoff (1,900 words)

Breaking Through Depression

David Robson | Guardian | 10th September 2023

Recent research suggests that there is no clear evidence for the theory that depression is caused by a "chemical imbalance" in the brain. The two books reviewed here offer alternative explanations. It could be "a stress response that has run awry" that leads to "total-body illness" felt in the mind. Another expert proposes that the source is in a malfunctioning immune system (1,330 words)

The Best Ukrainian Literature

Chenxin Jiang | Five Books | 5th September 2023

Ukrainian academic offers a wide-ranging reading list for those curious about her country's literature. It encompasses the work of late 19C writer Lesya Ukrainka, who is "at the very top of the national canon" for writing in Ukrainian while the language was banned by Russia, as well as a memoir from 2020 by a journalist about his time in a concentration camp in occupied Donetsk (3,100 words)

Atoms And Emptiness

Mario Barbatti | Aeon | 24th August 2023

The textbook model of an atom consists mostly of empty space within which tiny electrons orbit a central nucleus. But even conceptually, this model is wildly wrong. There is no empty space within an atom, nor any clearly defined particles. Nuclei and electrons are like "majestic, stable, structured, closed-packed clouds". An atom is better visualised as a localised patch of swirling fog (3,300 words)

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Apocalypse-Proof

Zach Mortice | Places Journal | 12th September 2023

Cultural history of the windowless tower-block at 33 Thomas Street in Manhattan, built for AT&T in 1974 as a “skyscraper inhabited by machines”, and now a hub of the NSA. It may well be the "densest inhabitable object in New York City”. Long a lodestar for conspiracy theorists, the tower is blast-proof, riot-proof, fallout-proof, and stocked with enough food and fuel to see off an apocalypse (7,600 words)

Conserving A Burmese Offering Vessel

Maxim Chesnokov | British Museum | 13th September 2023

Diary of a restoration. This ornate 19C hsun-ok, made from bamboo, lacquer, and coloured glass was extremely dusty and damaged in places. Obviously it can't just be wiped down and refinished like a less precious object would be. But with painstaking effort over six weeks and the use of unlikely tools like vulcanised rubber, putty, resin and a hypodermic needle, it shines again (1,340 words)

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Direct Solar Power

Kris De Decker | Low-Tech Magazine | 25th August 2023

The batteries used to store renewable energy are a problem. They are expensive, carbon intensive to make, and need replacing regularly. Can we do without them and use solar energy directly without storage? Trials suggest that the answer is yes, albeit with some lifestyle alteration. Chargeable devices, using appliances only during the day and better insulation make it possible (4,380 words)

The Pirate Preservationists

Jesse Walker | Reason | 10th September 2023

As streaming platforms downsize their offerings, works are disappearing, perhaps forever. Albums, films and shows that were never released on DVD or CD exist at the whim of cost-conscious executives. Amazon can even alter or delete books from your Kindle without your consent. Those who pirate media are now "accidental preservationists", keeping our collective cultural archive alive (3,920 words)

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The Lost Lifting Stones Of Ireland

Alyssa Ages | GQ | 28th August 2023

In pre-19C Ireland, lifting very heavy stones was a kind of spiritual practice. Rocks were hefted "in tests of manhood, hoisted at funerals to honour the dead, carried at weddings in celebration of the couple, and used to determine whether a man was strong enough to earn work as a farmhand". The custom died, but the stones remain in churchyards and fields, waiting to be lifted again (2,080 words)

Life After A Total Glossectomy

Jake Seliger | The Story's Story | 9th September 2023

Terminal cancer patient's unvarnished yet elegantly-written account of having his tongue and lower teeth surgically removed to halt the progress of a cancer. There is now a flap made from quadricep muscle installed in his mouth. He has relearned how to walk, swallow, taste and speak. Most fascinatingly, his internal monologue went silent after the surgery and did not return for 12 days (4,770 words)

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Having Nun Of It

Molly Olmstead | Slate | 5th September 2023

Tale of mutiny in a Texas convent. Ten cloistered nuns are suing a bishop over a supposed confession their prioress made while she was on seizure medication to a consensual sexual encounter with a priest. The bishop's investigation turned ugly. Allegations involving sex, drugs and excommunication were made. Amid the row, the nuns defied Pope Francis and began celebrating Mass in Latin (3,020 words)

Credit-Card Debt Collection

Patrick McKenzie | Bits About Money | 11th August 2023

It isn't your bank that's chasing you. The median US credit-card default of around $750 is too small to hold any big bank's attention for long. The bad debt gets rolled into a spreadsheet of bad debts, which gets sold at five cents on the dollar to a debt-collector, who bombards penniless people with empty threats in the hope of striking lucky. A miserable business. But do you have a better way? (5,500 words)

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A Well-Travelled Man

Simon Calder | Independent | 4th September 2010

Interview with veteran travel journlist and national treasure Alan Whicker. Every sentence a gem. "Papa Doc was never vile to me." "I am pleased to say I have hardly ever been shot." When his death was incorrectly announced in the press while he was serving as a war correspondent in career, he sent the following telegraph of correction: "Unkilled. Uninjured. Onpressing" (2,060 words)