The London Underground Is Too Hot
Lewin Day | 4th December 2024 | U
And not so easily fixed. The tunnels, nestled deep in the clay beneath London, soak up excess thermal energy “like a giant underground radiator”. During a 2006 heatwave, they hit 47°C. Where does the heat come from? The trains’ brakes, drivetrains, and even the passengers. A £100,000 bounty was offered for solutions at one point. Over 3,500 proposals poured in, all unworkable or unaffordable (1,500 words)
Dawn In Damascus
Kareem Shaheen | Newlines | 8th December 2024 | U
Whatever is to follow in Syria, this outpouring of emotion in the wake of Assad’s fall deserves its day. “How do you distil the meaning of what happened in the last ten days, as Syria’s rebels staged the greatest insurgent comeback in history to end sixty years of Baathist rule? How do you distil the liberation of Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest cities? Damascus, it is from you that the morning flows” (1,300 words)
WhatsApp Ate The World
Issie Lapowsky | Rest Of World | 9th December 2024 | U
WhatsApp is now the world’s most widely used messaging app. Originally intended as an anti-Facebook, its founders “eschewed unessential features and swore off ads”. Since Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014, it has become a “sort of everything app”. In countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, WhatsApp is a place for shopping, making doctor’s appointments, booking train tickets, and more (4,500 words)
The Monkey Retirement Home
Lorrie Barrett | Chicago Magazine | 25th November 2024 | U
Sanctuary for primates who were formerly test subjects at university research facilities or pharmaceutical and cosmetic company labs. “Without other places to go, research primates would live out their entire lives in laboratory cages. They might never see the sky. They performed a valuable service, and now that their work is done, deserve to live out the remainder of their lives with dignity, in comfort” (2,200 words)
from The Browser six years ago:
Death In A Hotel Room
Mikita Brottman | Literary Hub | 20th November 2018 | U
Hotel rooms are a popular choice for suicide among men who do not want to risk interruption from families nor leave a mess at home. “For hotel managers, dealing with suicide has always been an occupational hazard, though the cleaning staff usually bears its immediate impact. Casino hotels have a higher than average suicide rate.” To deter jumpers, Las Vegas hotel rooms are built without balconies (1,900 words)
Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!
Do General Audiences Exist?
Ernie Smith | Tedium | 8th December 2024 | U
History of the American film industry’s “safe-for-everyone” G-rating. Introduced in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association, its early days produced some puzzling choices — 2001: A Space Odyssey got a G rating, apparently considered safe for eight-year-olds to watch. Once PG-13 and NC-17 were added to the roster, the G-rating devolved into meaning films specifically made for kids, not just safe for everyone (2,900 words)
from The Browser eleven years ago:
Why Do We Value Gold?
Justin Rowlatt | BBC | 7th December 2013 | U
Take the periodic table of the elements. Discard the gases, liquids, explosives and poisons, all of which would be impractical as currencies. Discard the metals with high melting points, the rare earths which are hard to distinguish from one another, the metals which rust and corrode, and you are left with two elements — gold and silver; and even silver tarnishes, making gold the optimal store of value (1,800 words)
Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!
Podcast: Contagious Realities | Festival Of Dangerous Ideas. We’re more aware of our brains than ever before, thanks to the increase in mental health and neurodivergence diagnoses, but are we at risk of over-pathologising ourselves? (1h 34s)
Video: Meeting Ernő Rubik | YouTube | Numberphile | 9m 21s
Conversation with the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube. “The cube reminds people that they have hands. The hands remember.”
Afterthought:
“Above all, learn to breathe correctly”
— Joseph Pilates