Curiosity Pill #20
On desire, an ode to the Indian Ocean, apple varieties, economic perspectives, how to read the news
The Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior
Bertrand Russell’s Nobel acceptance speech, one of the best publicly given speeches in recorded history talks about the definitive engine we have, desire. The good sir divided desire in these four flavours: acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power “Man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he has had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most part, are not like this.”
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/21/bertrand-russell-nobel-prize-acceptance-speech/
Exploring the Indian Ocean as a Rich Archive of History—Above and Below the Water Line
The Indian Ocean, the vast, easy to navigate channel of trade routes through history it may be called the cradle of globalization. An article diving into the studies made about the depths and surfaces of the Indian Ocean, its history and the fictions it enabled.”Seafloor features determine weather patterns, fish concentrations and tsunami dynamics. Initial explorations by mining companies revealed mineral-rich deposits on submarine volcanic vents, while new species are continually being discovered.”
Meet the Man on a Quest to Document Every Apple in North America
Dan Bussey, wrote the most comprehensive work on apple diversity, a beautiful best of 3500 pages contained in six volumes, that took around 30 years to compile and it boasts information on 16,000 apple varieties, with names, origins, brief descriptions, and, on occasion, accompanying illustrations. “ The book has been heralded as “a publishing marvel in the field of horticulture,” and flipping through the green, cloth-bound volumes, laden with exquisite watercolors and charming anecdotes about apples named Cox’s Orange Pippin and Pitmaston Pineapple, feels like a jaunt through the orchard of Time.”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-apples
The TikTokization of Work
A great piece on the current economic situation of workers and the prospects of the near future. “As the economist Richard Baldwin points out, globalization is driven by arbitrage. Broadly speaking, if something can be done more cheaply elsewhere, it will ultimately be done there. Many employees can move to a place that allows them to compete better (by lowering their cost of living), but many will stay in place due to considerations that have nothing to do with the job itself: family ties, the cost of moving, language barriers, visa and immigration restrictions.”
https://dror.substack.com/p/the-tiktokization-of-work
How to Read the News Like a Scientist
The rational approach to news reading. Remember to follow these six easy steps in order to read like a Scientist: Cultivate your skepticism; Find out Who Is Making the Claim; Watch out for the Halo Effect; Look at the Evidence; Beware of the Tendency to Cherry-Pick Information, Recognize the Difference Between Correlation and Causation.““We all have gut feelings and biases that sometimes cloud our judgment,” says Frans. But scientific thinking offers us tools for “evaluating information in a rational way.””
https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-read-the-news-like-a-scientist/
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Video Pill
Cairn Review - Tactical Druid Rugby Chess
Go Review - A video 4,000 years in the making
Why We Like Combos (and Other Deck-Building Stories)
Podcast Pill
How Miss Shilling's Orifice Helped Win The War, Podcast:Damn Interesting
How a female engineer defied all norms to save England in the Second World War.
https://player.fm/series/damn-interesting/ep-055-how-miss-shillings-orifice-helped-win-the-war
Viking Battle Tactics w/ Kim Hjardar, Podcast:The History of Vikings
What were the battle tactics of the savage vikings?
https://player.fm/series/series-2407531/viking-battle-tactics-w-kim-hjardar
Design Pill
Street carnival in Frankfurt (1929) where the Roofers Guild dressed as Modernist houses to protest against the flat roofs putting them out of business
Poetic Pill
Archaic Fragment By Louise Glück
“I was trying to love matter.
I taped a sign over the mirror:
You cannot hate matter and love form.
It was a beautiful day, though cold.
This was, for me, an extravagantly emotional gesture.
.......your poem:
tried, but could not.
I taped a sign over the first sign:
Cry, weep, thrash yourself, rend your garments—
List of things to love:
dirt, food, shells, human hair.
....... said
tasteless excess. Then I
rent the signs.
AIAIAIAI cried
the naked mirror.“
Underground Pill
Giggs Ft. Shola Ama - Blow Em Away
“Man on fire, lookin' like I'm Den-zel
And mad attire, compliments the scent smell
Mad on fire, and on a 1-to-10 scale, my swags up higher, 11-out-of-10 still
I told ‘em I'm excellent like Ted and his friend Bill”
Dictionary Pill
scion = 1.a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting;2.a descendant of a notable family
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