Curiosity Pill #21
On bread, the gulag, spiderwebs, resurrected cities and games that simulate jobs
I have found this edition’s Design and Poetic Pill thanks to the wonderful documentaries I watched at the Astra Online Film Festival, which can be enjoyed at the link bellow until 25 Octomber
https://tv.festhome.com/festivaltv/astra-film-festival
10 Types of European Breads With Fascinating Stories
Mmm, in my native Europe there is nothing like the smell of baked dough in the morning before work, or a pretzel between classes, or a focaccia as a rushed dinner. The origins of these baked goods are fascinating, for example the Scottish Bannock: “Historically these loaves were heavy and unleavened, made of barley or oatmeal, and cooked over a stone griddle in a fire. They were also used in rituals to celebrate the changing of the seasons and may have even played a part in the deciding of potential victims’ fates during human sacrifices during the late Iron Age.”
https://www.afar.com/magazine/10-european-breads-with-fascinating-stories
Doing Time in the Dark Underbelly of Soviet Russia
An excellent extract from Journey Into the Land of the Zeks and Back by Julius Margolin, one of the first memoirs from the gulags(soviet labor camps) with the occasion of the first English translation of the book.” I did not observe Russia from the window of the Metropol Hotel or from the window of a restaurant car on a train. I saw it through the barred window of a prison car, from inside the barbed wire of camps, and I covered hundreds of kilometers on foot when the cursing guards goaded the crowd of prisoners in stages through the forests and the impoverished kolkhozes (Soviet collective farms) of the north; I crossed the Urals twice—in a cattle car and on the third bunk of a rough train car, where the presence of foreign correspondents is not permitted; I lived in the Siberian backwoods, like everyone else went to work, and carried in my pocket the document of which Mayakovsky was so proud: a Soviet passport good for five years.”
https://lithub.com/doing-time-in-the-dark-underbelly-of-soviet-russia/
The Thoughts of a Spiderweb
A great thought piece on the idea that some animals, maybe even us can extend our minds to external sources, like spiders extend it to their web, octopuses extend it to their limbs and female crickets to their back legs. “Millions of years ago, a few spiders abandoned the kind of round webs that the word “spiderweb” calls to mind and started to focus on a new strategy. Before, they would wait for prey to become ensnared in their webs and then walk out to retrieve it. Then they began building horizontal nets to use as a fishing platform. Now their modern descendants, the cobweb spiders, dangle sticky threads below, wait until insects walk by and get snagged, and reel their unlucky victims in.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-thoughts-of-a-spiderweb-20170523/
The Cities That Have Risen From Ruins
Six cities that have risen from the ashes, and have surpassed the economic situation that they had before the disaster that struck them: Chicago after the 1871 fire; San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake; Tokyo after the 1923 earthquake;Warsaw after the 1944 bombings; Dresden after the 1945 bombings.”Each tragedy has its silver lining, however faint that may be. When a city is destroyed beyond recognition, the need to rebuild presents an opportunity—a blank slate—for the community to redraw the physical landscape, to make it stronger and grander than it was before.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-18/six-cities-that-have-rebuilt-after-devastation
Why Do People Play Jobs?
I have never liked the mundane aspects of gaming: the endless fetch-quests in role playing games, the farming, fishing, truck driving simulators, but a lot of people find solace and tranquility in these kind of games especially during the pandemic life sims have been very succesful, a great companion the the first Video Pill bellow.”These games remove the worst of the uncertainty, helplessness, ambiguity, and consequences for failure that come with those real world jobs and turn them into game systems that are interesting and fun to interact with. They give players clear goals, unambiguous feedback, winnable challenges, and predictable rewards. All things that most jobs sadly don’t consistently provide.”
https://www.psychologyofgames.com/2017/08/why-do-people-play-jobs/
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Video Pill
The Extraordinary Ordinary - Exploring Life Simulators
The Complete Grendel Cycle
The Cinematography That Changed Cinema
Podcast Pill
The Ottoman Empire’s Influence on the Present Day, Podcast:The Book Review
Alan Mikhail talks about “God’s Shadow,” and Benjamin Lorr discusses “The Secret Life of Groceries.”
https://player.fm/series/the-book-review-1785564/the-ottoman-empires-influence-on-the-present-day
Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES) with Kristen Wickert, Podcast:Ologies
How to look for big beautiful moths, what footwear is best for hitting the trail, which bugs to kill and which to cheer on, how to deal with mosquitos in your yard and ticks in your pants and why the woods feel like home. By the end, you’ll be lacing up your whatevers, walking softly and looking closely.
Design Pill
Drawing by Zahar Kudin
Poetic Pill
Bocet senin/ Serene moan by Eugen Cioclea
This week I will feature a poem originally written in my native Romanian, but you can also find its amateur translation(by me) below the original version
“În fiecare zi
murim câte puțin.
Abia se ține frunza să nu cadă.
Ne trece tinerețea ca un vin
băut printre prieteni
în livadă.
În fiecare zi uitam cîte ceva
sau amăgim prezentul cu-amintirea.
Mi-e dor, ni-i dor, dar parcă-am refuza,
din lașitate ocolim iubirea.
În fiecare zi rămâne câte-un loc
gol printre noi și nu-l mai umple nimeni.
Pasărea Phoenix a căzut în cioc
ori, salamandra, a trecut
prin mine.
În fiecare zi
același hârb murdar
mai cere-un miel și-o faptă de prihană.
Sătui, dar, totuși, vai, ce gust amar
e-n gura mea deschisă
ca o rană.
Vai noua, vai, ce drum pavat cu gropi
lăsăm în urmă și ne sare-n față,
dar nu, o, nu, o nu suntem miopi.
Noaptea-i pe ducă. Bună
dimineața!”
“Every day
we die a little.
The leaf is barely kept from falling.
Our youth passes like a wine
drunk among friends
in the orchard.
Every day we forget something
or we deceive the present with remembrance.
I miss it, we miss it, but it's like we refuse,
out of cowardice we avoid love.
There is one place left every day
empty among us and no one fills it.
The Phoenix bird fell on its beak
or, salamander, has passed
through me.
Every day
the same dirty crock
ask for another lamb and an act of righteousness.
Tired, but still, alas, what a bitter taste
It's in my open mouth
like a wound.
Woe to us, alas, what a road paved with potholes
we leave behind and it jumps in front of us,
but no, oh, no, oh we're not short-sighted.
The night is on its way out . Good
morning!“
Underground Pill
Aesop Rock - Pizza Alley
“What ship, what shore?
I grew up writing riddles under bridges in New York
Now I travel like a highwayman who whispers to his horse
Sharing stories out of winter, trying to trigger something pure
From "Dying on the vine," to, "It's alive and indivisible"
To, "How'd I get this far without a bindle full of crystal skulls?"
Cozy local woven goods
Beaded shit for people you have never met or spoken to
But know they'll need to hold Peru
Throw a couple logs on the fire
There's a chimney in San Blas where you can hear Baby Dayliner
Bouncing softly off the navy blue
April showers, paper moon
Run the light and beat the drum
And smoke the dope and raid the tomb“
Dictionary Pill
waft = to (cause to) move gently through the air
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