Top Of The Week: Curate, Cool, Fraud, Fountain, Bacteria
A Theory Of Invention
Daniel Frank | Not Not Talmud | 12th July 2026 | U
The time difference between New Zealand and San Francisco is 21 hours, but seeing it as just 3 hours plus a one-day change is useful for people co-working from these places. Anyone can do this: take a thing that already exists and present it in a new light, in a way that makes it more useful to others. We should all think of ourselves as inventors — of new framings, connections and curations that add value (1,800 words)
How French Theory Lost Its Cool
Geoff Shullenberger | Compact | 21st July 2026 | U
Review of a semi-autobiographical book which argues that reports of the demise of French theory — as embodied by Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, et al — has been greatly exaggerated. Theory is no longer oppositional or countercultural but part of the status quo, the mainstream. Barthes posited the creation of texts without authors, and now huge corporations sell AI models on the basis that they can do just that (2,100 words)
Rain Robbers
Chris Bennett | AgWeb | 9th June 2026 | U
True crime story of four Colorado cowboys who faked a drought to receive millions of dollars in drought insurance. How? The insurance program was based on rain amounts and not crop performance. They devised an elaborate scheme to manipulate the rainfall gauges in their area to show lower measurements. “They permanently changed the country’s quality-controlled data and climatological record” (4,200 words)
How To Write By Hand
Neal Stephenson | Graphomane | 21st July 2026 | U
For 25 years, Stephenson has written his novels on paper with a fountain pen. The stacked manuscript of his 1,000-page Baroque Cycle trilogy stood 42 inches high. The benefits are huge, he argues, as the brain navigates the physical act of writing alongside the more intangible work of creation. A good fountain pen will outlive you. Your hands will get inky. Don't be prissy about it; it washes off (2,500 words)
How To Survive Boiling Water
Jane A. Cook | Taxa | 19th July 2026 | U
Scientist and self-described procrastinating PhD student goes on a journey of discovery to investigate whether the claims of a "probiotic" tea bag can possibly be true. Surely any "good bacteria" will have been destroyed by steeping it in boiling water before drinking? "Learning how bacteria grow and adapt does not diminish the sense of wonder I feel when I observe them – it only enhances it" (4,200 words)
Podcast: Beginnings, Plural | Made In China. Start of a four-part series about transracial adoption, narrated by a writer who was born in China and raised in the UK (29m 19s)
Podcast: Ogham | Irish History. About Ogham, Ireland’s oldest known writing system dating back over 1500 years (36m 31s)
Video: O Viridissima Virga | YouTube | The Marian Consort | 4m 47s
Haunting performance of a song by Hildegard of Bingen, 12C abbess and polymath.
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