Did Neanderthals Make Art?

Bruce Hardy | Sapiens | 11th August 2022

The answer to this question is yes, but this is a recent shift in consensus, which says more about researchers' biases than Neanderthal creativity, it is argued. "The stereotype of the artless Neanderthal and the artful modern human was rooted in prejudices of the time... Even today, some art produced by non-Western peoples is described as 'folk art' or 'primitive art' rather than just art" (2,231 words)

from The Browser seven years ago:

Mrs. Bundy

Dana Middleton Silberstein | Morning News | 3rd September 2015

On the day of serial killer Ted Bundy's execution, a local TV host tracks down his mother at home and interviews her alongside the mother of one of his victims. An emotional profile of two women simultaneously close and distant. "It has to be terrible for her," says the victim's mother; "our suffering is over, our answers are all there — and I think hers are probably just beginning" (5,260 words)

Word Watch

Maria Heim | Princeton University Press | 12th September 2022

However fugitive the emotion, Sanskrit has a word for it — including a word for the feeling that there ought to be a word for a feeling that you cannot yet quite pin down. The word is anannatannassamitindriya, the “I-will-come-to-know-what-is-unknown faculty”. Surprised? Sanskrit has your back there too. Camatkara is the "smacking sound as the lips come together in surprise" (1,290 words)

Europe's Energy Catastrophe

Benjamin Hart | Intelligencer | 13th September 2022

Interview with energy analyst. Interesting throughout. "We believe that Putin would not have moved into Ukraine had natural gas not already been a crisis. The price of natural gas skyrocketed in December in Europe. He did the calculation and realised: They don’t have enough molecules. They’re surely going to come to the table and give me what I want in Ukraine. He was incorrect" (3,070 words)

Browser classified:

There’s a reason over 4 million people start their day with Morning Brew - the free daily email covering the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. It’s free & only takes 5 minutes to read so that you can get all of the most relevant updates and move on with your day.

On Sundays, Browser readers receive a special edition with puzzles, poems, books, charts, music and more - plus selections from our decade-plus archive of the finest writing on the internet. Here's a taste of this week's edition - our archive picks.

From The Browser Six Years Ago

Cow Dung Capitalism
Lhendup Bhutia | Open | 16th September 2016 | U
The market for cow products is booming in India; not meat and milk, but dung and urine. A litre of cow urine can fetch three times the price of a litre of milk. Cow dung goes into face packs, shampoos, soap, incense; urine into cough syrups, body oils, energy drinks, floor disinfectants. “A unique marriage is unfolding here, between ancient belief systems and the market forces of capitalism” (3,100 words)

From The Browser Ten Years Ago

A New Text About Jesus — And His Wife
Ariel Sabar | Smithsonian | 18 September 2012 | U
At the time, this was bruited as the biggest event in biblical studies since the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Harvard professor announced the discovery of a scrap of papyrus, apparently from the third century AD, which referred to Jesus and to his "wife", perhaps Mary Magdalene. Four years later, the story was retracted, the papyrus was declared a forgery, and the presumed forger was uncontactable (6,300 words)

Browsings — What We Are Up To:

Uri has published an essay about Misquoting Winnie The Pooh on Dirt
Caroline talks to Lucy Worsley about Agatha Christie on Shedunnit
Robert is speaking this weekend at the Summit Of Minds in Chamonix

Build A Home That Lasts A Thousand Years

Wrath Of Gnon | 12th September 2022

After a brief salute to Roger Scruton and his ideas of beauty, this is a thoroughly practical reflection on building for the long-term. Use straw, adobe, bricks, clay, wood, stone — and try to find stuff nearby, as your descendants will need more to repair and rebuild. Use building techniques that are simple and obvious. Sloping roofs beats flat roofs. Build on high ground. Build something useful (1,160 words)

What Happened To Our Economic Paradise?

Brad DeLong | Time | 8th September 2022

The wealth created by the industrial revolution, railroads, and steampower, started rippling outwards to the general public in Europe and America around 1870, sparking hopes that a utopian age was approaching. New technologies would increase pleasure and leisure. Rising living standards would float everyone's boat. What went wrong? Neoliberalism got in the way, says DeLong (3,200 words)

Browser classified:

Staying informed about the world doesn’t have to be boring. International Intrigue is a global affairs newsletter created by former diplomats to help you enjoy understanding your world. Get the most important news and analysis in a 5min briefing, sign up here.

In The Floppy Disk Business

Niek Hilkmann & Thomas Walskaar | Eye On Design | 12th September 2022

Interview with one of the last people dealing in floppy disks. His wife persuaded him to buy "floppydisks۔com" in 1990 and he has never looked back. His business used to be mostly duplicating CDs and DVDs, but is now "90% selling blank floppy disks". He carries "all the flavours" of floppy disk and his recycling service is now so popular that he sometime receives 1,000 disks a day in the post (3,443 words)

Coming Into Focus

Carla Ciccone | Harper's Bazaar | 5th September 2022

The rate of ADHD diagnosis among adult women is rising sharply. There is little research yet into why, but it seems likely that indicators have historically been explained as mere feminine character traits. "It’s likely been there all along, masquerading as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, 'she’s difficult', 'she’s an airhead', 'she’s unlucky', 'she’s lazy', and other labels" (3,343 words)

The Twisted Life Of Clippy

Benjamin Cassidy | Seattle Met | 23rd August 2022

Clippy, the cartoon paperclip Microsoft used as an early user help interface, was branded by Time as "one of the 50 worst inventions ever". But critics forget that in the 1990s, reassurance was welcome to the majority who had never used a computer before. Clippy returned to Microsoft 365 last year thanks to a social media campaign, a throwback to "a more benign digital age" (3,054 words)

The Lost Library Of John Milton

Hannah Yip | Centre For Material Texts | 13th September 2022

Report from a scholar who spent eight weeks tracking down John Milton's surviving books. His commonplace book provided an invaluable list of suspects to cross-examine. His distinctive style of writing in books — with ink not pencil, rarely underlining, and using asterisks to mark key passages — makes his notes relatively easy to identify. Still: "In the end, I found very little" (3,481 words)

Browser classified:

Use Pendo's product analytics to uncover powerful insights into how people use your web and mobile apps. It's easy to learn and use, with no specialized skills required, so any product team can make data-driven decisions to improve their users' experience and drive engagement.

On Barbara Ehrenreich

Gabriel Winant | n+1 | 9th September 2022

Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on 1st September, was an expert at showing how power operates on an intimate level. Her readers were never spared her sharp pen. "Ehrenreich’s specialty was to reveal her readers to themselves by showing them the other... She invites this, beckoning you to follow her into her subject, and then suddenly wheels around on you — and you are caught out" (5,351 words)

Punishment, Puppies, And Science

Ula Chrobak | Undark | 12th September 2022

The dog training industry is like "the wild, wild West". There is very little oversight or regulation. Attempts to fix this have exposed a schism between those who believe punishment is the most effective training tool and those who prefer rewards. Designing a study to test this in a controlled and balanced way is very difficult, so ideology still reigns in canine education (2,290 words)

Browser classified:

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 Discovery Of The X-Ray

Ira Rutkow | Delancey Place | 7th September 2022

Extract from a history of surgery. The discovery of the X-Ray in 1895 utterly transformed what so-called "scalpel wielders" could achieve. "Not only did the accessibility of X-rays change the definition of what consti­tuted a successful surgical intervention, but also the physical presence of an X-ray apparatus lent an air of modernity and scientific progress that impressed patients" (690 words)

King Charles III

Robert Booth | Guardian | 19th November 2014

Prince Charles is eccentric, impassioned, impatient, indiscreet — which, while manageable faults in a prince, are difficult ones in a king. "Preparations are being made for a very different monarchy to that of Queen Elizabeth, who has secured acceptance of the constitutional monarchy in part through her strict silence on political affairs. The death of the Queen is a day many dread" (5,200 words)

Browser classified:

Stay informed and entertained with Morning Brew - the free daily email that covers latest news across business, finance, and tech in a way you'll actually want to read. The best part? It’s free and only takes 5 minutes to read so there's really no reason to try it out.

What Will Self-Reliance Mean For China?

Andrew Batson | 9th September 2022

Xi Jinping is talking up a new economic model of "self-reliance" for China, using slogans from the Maoist era. What sense do such signals make, when China has been one of the principal engines and principal beneficiaries of globalisation? What Xi probably has in mind is not to choke off China's foreign trade, but to direct trade more forcefully in the service of China's foreign policy (998 words)

What You Need To Build A Greek Temple

Edmund Stewart | Antigone | 9th September 2022

In brief: Quite a lot. An architect, obviously, though architects were relatively cheap in ancient Greece; ships to bring in the marble; a hundred slaves for heavy lifting; a dozen carpenters; six craftsmen per column to dress the facade; sculptors and painters for the ornamentation; a door-maker; and do be sure to order your floor-tiles well ahead of time, they may take two years to arrive (1,800 words)

When Sweden Switched To Driving On The Right

Adam Raphael | Guardian | 7th September 2022

At 5am on 4th September 1967, after "four years of preparations and 40 years of argument", Swedes ceased to drive on the left side of the road and started driving on the right side like the rest of continental Europe. "Typical of the meticulous attention to detail was that even the elk-hunting season had been brought forward by a week, so that hunters would not add to the traffic problem" (875 words)

The Case Of The Legless Duchess

Michael Prodger | The Critic | 1st September 2022

This story has it all: The world's most expensive painting; the model for Holmes's Professor Moriarty; J.P. Morgan (twice); a ransomed prisoner; a "gambler and sometime art dealer named Patrick Francis Sheedy"; a casino in Constantinople; a Murillo stolen from a monastery in Mexico; a chief of police who kept his composure while a tiger ate his arm; and the 11th Duke of Devonshire (980 words)

I Went to Trash School

Clio Chang | Curbed | 29th August 2022

Account of two days spent training with sanitation workers in New York. Interesting throughout. Nobody ever finishes a cup of coffee — those who collect the garbage always know what the "flavour of the month" is. Compacted rubbish spews out "juice". As a union job, this work is "a clear path to a middle-class life" but it is also one of the most dangerous occupations in the US (2,103 words)

The Discovery Of The X-Ray

Ira Rutkow | Delancey Place | 7th September 2022

Extract from a history of surgery. The discovery of the X-Ray in 1895 utterly transformed what so-called "scalpel wielders" could achieve. "Not only did the accessibility of X-rays change the definition of what consti­tuted a successful surgical intervention, but also the physical presence of an X-ray apparatus lent an air of modernity and scientific progress that impressed patients" (690 words)