Stars and Adventures

Become a subscriber to get our daily newsletter with five recommendations and no ads.


Pushed Around By Stars

Raghuveer Parthasarathy | The Eighteenth Elephant | 29th November 2021

Building upon the astronomical work of early 20C French mathematician Émile Borel, this piece explores the idea that the answer to the question "Does X affect Y?" is always yes, and is thus useless. Better questions for scientists to be asking include "how much?" and "do I care about the magnitude of the effect?". Borel is verbose and vague, but this writer is neither (2,321 words)


Learning Sixteenth-Century Business Jargon

Edmond Smith | Lapham's Quarterly | 29th November 2021

Communication failure could spell disaster for the merchant adventurer in the 16C, wiping out an entire voyage's profit. Linguistic skill was highly prized, as was knowledge of local customs and etiquette. Handwriting mattered too: in 1636, a factor omitted the "r" from the phrase "2 or 3 apes", meaning that over 200 primates were shipped to London instead of the desired two or three (1,971 words)


BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:

Read a no-nonsense roundup of the most impactful global environmental stories and studies of the week. Plus jobs, events, resources, happy headlines and our bullshit radar.

Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser


Get five recommendations for outstanding pieces of writing every single day, plus a podcast and a video and a quote. Join today:

Join the Browser

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform