Curiosity Pill #24
On growing up in the soviet union, Infinite libraries, the link between geology and the US election, manure and cheap wine
Growing Up in the Soviet Union’s Hero City
The memories of a Belarusian poet of Minsk during the soviet era, written so well, I can feel the taste of the concrete blocks and smell the neighbours cooking borsch.”Is there anything more beautiful than night in a Soviet microregion? Thousands of windows light up transforming concrete panel blocks into the hanging laundry of light, mothers lean over the stoves, the night sky reflects the glow of electricity. I would like to walk through it as through a carpet market moving the hanging carpets of apartment buildings with my hand. The air smells with mothers: their perfume, their hair spray. In their purses: lipstick, a loaf of bread, and a used public bus ticket. There is always a girl swinging on a creaking swing and cutting the air with her feet like a butcher’s knife. Who is she? Isn’t she mad from that creaking? Does her swinging wind the clocks in every apartment?”
https://lithub.com/growing-up-in-the-soviet-unions-hero-city/
A Fraternity of Dreamers
A deep dive into the theoretical experiment of absorbing all of the world's written knowledge during a lifetime. Was it possible to reach such a feat during the times of the Library of Alexandria? How impossible is it in today's world?“When we reach the sheer scale of how much human beings have expressed, have written, we enter the realm of metaphors that call for comparisons to grains of sand on the beach or stars in our galaxy. We depart the realm of literary criticism and enter that of cosmology. No wonder we require curated reading lists.”
“ I understood that an education is knowing what you don’t know, understanding that there are things you will never know, and worshiping at the altar of your own sublime ignorance. ”
https://themillions.com/2020/10/a-fraternity-of-dreamers.html
The link between Geology and US election
One of the greatest twitter thread I ever read.A 100 million years ago, the oceans are way hotter than today, a lot of plankton is living near the shore when they die they accumulate on the ocean floor and as time goes by they turn into chalk; as the water level lowers this chalk becomes part of the land, that land is alkaline, full of organic components and black, this region will be later called the ‘Black Belt’. A region in the southern states of the US where agricultural production was aided by black slaves, where since the 1970s the descendants of those slaves have built a Democrat voting block in the Red south. ”The death of plankton led to the life of cotton, which led to the bondage of enslaved people who harvested it, which led to the freedom of the voters who descended from them. Death leads to Life leads to Bondage leads to Freedom.”
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1323333293467525126.html
The History of Poop Is Really the History of Technology
Did you know that the strong smell of animal excrement comes from the plenitude of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur molecules and this is sent as a signal to its values in nourishing other living things. Also, did you know that concentrated animal feeding operations(CAFO) feed their animals with formula that contains more ammonia than they would have had in their plant based natural diet, and that makes their excrements more smelly. ”Animal excrement is generally disgusting to us. But this is apparently a reaction that we learn, not an automatic biological reflex. Young children aren’t repelled by excrement, and many mammals practice coprophagy, or excrement eating, some of our primate relatives included.”
https://www.wired.com/story/history-poop-is-really-history-technology/
The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine
Most wine is not produced in a natural way, but scientific advances have made cheap wine nearly as good as the expensive one, at least in the USA. “...common manipulations include adding acidity with tartaric acid to compensate for the less acidic grapes grown in warmer climates, or adding sugar to compensate for the more acidic grapes grown in cooler climates. Tannins, a substance found in grape skins, can be added to make a wine taste "drier" (less sweet) and polysaccharides can even be used to give the wine a "thicker mouthfeel," meaning the taste will linger more on the tongue.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-behind-your-cheap-wine-180962783/
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Video Pill
Top 50 Comics of the 2010s : 35-31
Robert Bresson's Cinematography in Haneke's 'Der siebente Kontinent' - A Film Essay
Michael Haneke - Cinematic Truths and Realities Lies
Podcast Pill
Can Placebos Work—Even When Patients Know They’re Fake?, Podcast:Wired Science Spoken Edition
Researchers showed that a saline spray “treatment” reduced people’s emotional distress, even though the study subjects knew the spray wouldn’t do anything.
Stuff that Changed the World: Instant Coffee
Simon Tierney joins Sean Moncrieff to explore the history of instant coffee
https://player.fm/series/stuff-that-changed-the-world/stuff-that-changed-the-world-instant-coffee
Design Pill
Dreams by Sophie Franz
Poetic Pill
Anahata by Lenelle Moïse
“aside from faith,
as far as you know,
you will never have another heart.
better to grow the one you were born with.
fill it with blood & love. risk.
let the strange world sneak inside.
accept all of life in your chest.
death is the end of percussion.
breathe deeply, the music
will function. listen close.
freedom thaws in your ribcage.
dance with vehemence
to feel its fast-pumping.
tempt two lips to greet your throat
& take note: your racing pulse
will laugh & kiss back. god is strong
in the clock of your desire.
every tick, my friend, divine
confirmation: you are alive. beat. yes!
you are alive“
Underground Pill
Elixir by Wiki, Jesse James Solomon and Obongjayar
“Tryna fly out and turn in the winter
Smoked salmon and vino
Watch my reflection grow old in the river like Simba
I had cloud backup because my notes are coming like scripture
Tryna paint the perfect picture, the picture was never perfect
Switched up the mixture, still yak in my elixir
Pack inside my Rizla, man, I ain't rapping like Twister
I spit that, inner city the wind and the way it whisper“
Dictionary Pill
queasiness = the feeling of wanting to vomit; a feeling of being worried, unhappy, or uncertain about something
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