We Don't Have A Hundred Biases

Jason Collins | Works In Progress | 22nd July 2022

Behavioural economics assumes a logically consistent model of human behaviour, then seeks to explain why actual human behaviour "deviates" from this model. It blames an ever-longer list of systemic "biases" in our decision-making methods. This cannot be right. Where did we leave our Occam's Razor? "There are not 200 human biases. There are 200 deviations from the wrong model" (4,600 words)

Our Friend The Atom

Becky Alexis-Martin | Real Life | 11th August 2022

Our ideas of the atom still default to the stylised model proposed a century ago by Ernest Rutherford. Electrons follow planetary orbits around a central nucleus, making each atom a solar system in miniature. We now know that atoms are not really like that at all, but the model is too good to give up. It is charmingly retro, familiar, even reassuring. It gives us an illusion of understanding (2,590 words)

The Lost Tribe Of Alexander The Great

Paul Raffaele | The Critic | 9th August 2022

Visiting with the Kalash, an Afghan tribe descended from a Greek general said to have been called Shakalash, who came to South Asia with Alexander the Great in 330BC, then stayed put when Alexander moved on. Persecuted in Afghanistan for worshipping Zeus, the Kalash have found refuge across the border in Pakistan, where they can live much as their ancestors did 2,000 years ago (4,100 words)

Deaf Or Blind: Beethoven And Handel

Randall Collins | Sociological Eye | 3rd July 2022

Beethoven was deaf by 31 and continued composing for the next twenty-five years. Handel went blind at 68 and composed nothing more in his remaining six years of life. Might seeing be more important for a composer than hearing? "Complex music is the coordination of instruments and players: a social skill, a social invention. When composers go blind, they mostly stop composing"  (1,500 words)

How Much For An Elephant?

Andrew Chapman | Histories | 5th August 2022

Tales of Charles Jamrach, a 19C dealer in wild animals in London's East End, as remembered by his local vicar, Reverend Harry Jones. "You pay £200 for a royal tiger, and £300 for an elephant. You may possibly buy a lion for £70. I suppose that there is no other place in the world where a domesticated parson could ring his bell and send his servant round the corner to buy a lion" (1,200 words)

Impresario Of Revolution

Catherine Merridale | Engelsberg Ideas | 5th August 2022

Intriguing sketch of Alexander Helpland, a Minsk-born bit-player in the Russian Revolution but perhaps a crucial one. Helpland charmed Trotsky, made a small fortune publishing Gorki in Germany, made a larger fortune dealing arms in World War One, then persuaded the German foreign ministry to bankroll his scheme to overturn the Tsars by exporting Lenin to Russia in a sealed train (2,100 words)

Browser Bites explores a new idea each day, in under a minute. Join Uri Bram (Publisher of The Browser), Sebastian Park (@SebPark), and guests as they blitz through an idea in less time than it takes to brush your teeth.

Browser Bites

Browser Bites explores a new idea each day, in under a minute. Join Uri Bram (Publisher of The Browser), Sebastian Park (@SebPark), and guests as they blitz through an idea in less time than it takes to brush your teeth.

Inflationary Vice

Theodore Dalrymple | Law And Liberty | 8th August 2022

Persuasive if not conclusive argument for the corrosive social and psychological effects of inflation. "Inflation destroys the very idea of enough, because no one can have any confidence that a monetary income that at present is adequate will not be whittled down to very little in a matter of a few years. Not everyone desires to be rich, but most people desire not to be poor, especially in old age" (1,170 words)

The Lifespan Of Metals

John Timmer | Ars Technica | 20th May 2022

Good news for recyclers. Most metals are obsolete after a relatively brief working life. The average fragment of gold is discarded after 200 years; the average fragment of gallium or selenium is discarded after less than a year. Iron has a useful life of some 150 years. "If you exclude iron, only about 4 percent of the rest of the ferrous metals would still be in circulation in a century" (1,310 words)

Unleash The Mississippi

Boyce Upholt | Hakai | 12th July 2022

The Mississippi — the massive river which drains "32 US states and two Canadian provinces, from Alberta to New York to New Mexico" — has for centuries been restricted to suit commercial interests. Now, its ecologically vital delta is facing unprecedented land loss. One proposed solution is artificially to free the stream's course — which could have unintended consequences of its own (5,628 words)

No Great Stagnation At Guinness

Will O'Brien | The Fitzwilliam | 4th August 2022

Admiring profile of Guinness, older than the Irish State and almost as central to Irish culture. Founded in 1759, Guinness has survived famine, mass emigration, a civil war and two World Wars. It has grown as a global brand thanks to constant technical improvements in its flagship stout, and to advertising which used to claim, until science said otherwise, that "Guinness Is Good For You" (3,100 words)

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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.‌

Performance Of The Week

Lotus Feet

John McLaughlin (guitar), Jean-Luc Ponty (violin) and Zakir Hussain (tabla) perform McLaughlin's composition Lotus Feet at the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert in the Hagia Irene, Istanbul, on 30th April 2013.

Chart Of The Week

A Century Of Unions

As this chart shows, the Soviet Union (1922-1991) has been overtaken in both size and longevity by the European Union, founded in 1952 as the European Coal And Steel Community. Before the start of its fragmentation in 1989 the Soviet Union comprised 15 republics and 286 million people. In 2021 the post-Brexit European Union comprised 27 member states and 448 million people.

The Browser Sunday edition is a smorgasbord of delights. If you enjoyed this taster, subscribe for puzzles, crosswords, art, charts, articles and more each Sunday - plus five articles daily, in your inbox:

Prison Money Diaries

Beth Schwarzapfel | Marshall Project | 4th August 2022

American prisoners explain what they earn and spend behind bars. It varies a lot from prison to prison, but the average hourly wage for prison work is just 52 cents. Or you can find ways to "live off the land", which is to say, live by your wits: "We’re not supposed to be gambling, or bartering canteen items. But as long as nobody is getting stabbed over unpaid debts, they’ll turn a blind eye" (5,090 words)

Explicit Content

Suzannah Lipscomb | History Today | 4th August 2022

A guide to cursing in Shakespearean England. Words relating to what we might now call bodily functions were scarcely considered rude at all. Words relating to sex were considered naughty rather than obscene. Anything invoking God counted as stronger stuff. The worst insults were those against character and reputation. Shouting "knave", "thief", "harlot" or "cuckold" was asking for a fight (760 words)

On Water Matters

Grant Wyeth | The Interpreter | 1st August 2022

The best way to get to know a place is "to travel through it by the most inconvenient means". Around the Baltic Sea, that means taking a ferry instead of a flight. This ship has bars, slot machines, "a piano man is belting out soft pop classics" and a terrible magician. Safe passage has only been possible since the end of the Cold War; Russia's invasion of Ukraine now makes it uncertain (915 words)

What If Letterforms Had More Serifs?

Angela Riechers | Eye On Design | 3rd August 2022

Discussion of a new font that blends letterform and decoration. The designer started from the premise that "there are not enough serifs in our typefaces", a question that the writer observes is like asking "why can’t people have an extra set of arms at waist level?". Serifs exist to guide the eye from letter to letter, but here they adorn all vertices, giving the impression of rapid motion (1,086 words)

Unleash The Mississippi

Boyce Upholt | Hakai | 12th July 2022

The Mississippi — a massive river that drains "32 US states and two Canadian provinces, from Alberta to New York to New Mexico" — has for centuries been restricted to suit commercial interests. Now, its ecologically vital delta is facing unprecedented land loss and the proposed solution is artificially to free the stream's course, which could have its own negative consequences (5,628 words)

Our Technology Sickness

Micah Goodman | Sources | 30th May 2022

Thoughts on technology addiction from a scholar of Judaism. "Our lives are being transformed by three grand bargains. The intellectual bargain: we have more knowledge but less capacity to concentrate and focus. The social bargain: we are much more available but much less attentive. And most importantly, the emotional bargain: we are much more connected, but much less empathetic" (4,218 words)

Rev Richard Coles And Richard Dawkins

Sam Wollaston | Guardian | 31st July 2022

Discussion between two people destined to disagree: Dawkins, atheist scientist, and Coles, Church of England vicar. They cover the gospels, HIV, music, Darwin, and much more. What emerges is a conflict between feelings and facts, but there is still the possibility of accord. As Dawkins says: "You’re the kind of vicar who is much harder to argue with because that’s a reasonable point" (1,254 words)

Dialling The Moon

Peter Hitchens | The Lamp | 14th July 2022

Memoir of a life spent worrying about the telephone. Saddest of all is this anecdote, about helping a stranger check if his handset is functioning. "I was not sure afterwards whether this increased or lessened his misery, but the encounter made me think less of myself and has done ever since. Had I condemned others in my life to wait by telephones that did not ring?" (1,693 words)