Serious February
Serious Music
Liam Shaw | LRB Blog | 31st January 2025
Concert pianists are in a bind: should they risk severe muscular spasms with practice or let their skills atrophy? Perhaps try a robotic exoskeleton, a fingerless glove that can open and close the wearer's fingers individually up to four times a second. Expert pianists who practised with the exoskeleton reported an increase in playing speed – an ability which surprisingly transferred to the untrained hand as well (1,000 words)
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Why Does February (Usually) Have 28 Days?
Timothy Taylor | Conversable Economist | 1st February 2025
The ancient Roman calendar only had 304 days. To sync it with the lunar calendar, king Numa Pompilius added January and February, and subtracted a day from the 30-day months. Why? The Romans considered even numbers unlucky. To get to the required 355 days, at least one month would have to have an even number of days. Numa chose February, the Roman month for honouring the dead (1,800 words)
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