Curiosity Pill #31
On futuristic thought, tattoos, emails, actions and the calendar
Feels good to be back after a month long hiatus, hope you’ll enjoy the second year in this newsletter’s ‘life‘!
The Library of Possible Futures
Pop futurism is a speculative non-fiction book genre that, basically, tries to predict the way the future will turn out. 2020 has been a year generous to the genre, in a time of deep uncertainty, humans dare to hope. A great article pondering on pop futurism and the book that spawned the genre, “Future Shock” by Alfred Toffler.”Though their contents have varied over time, refracted through the concerns of each era, the appeal of pop-futurist books remains the same: We all want to know what’s coming next. They tap the ancient power of the future to fascinate and frighten, in a way that both soothes and feeds our contemporary anxieties. Like all good pop-science or self-help texts, they vow to separate signal from noise and give us a bit of comforting control (however illusory) in a chaotic world. They offer clues about where the future is heading, no matter how muddled the present looks.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/future-shock-pop-futurism-pandemic/617867/
Getting Ink: The Entire History of Tattooing
The stained history of tattooing, from Otzi the iceman, 5000 years ago, to the Brooklyn based exon that invented the tattoo pen in 1891, to present day tattoos that can be made for medical use.”Based on his carbon-dated age—which puts him at between 5,100 and 5,400 years old—Ötzi is close to 3,000 years older than the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. And yet, the positions of the needles align with common acupuncture points. According to June 2019 research published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, the markings took “considerable effort … and, irrespective of the efficacy of the treatment, provided care for the Iceman.””
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a34702331/entire-history-of-tattoos/
Henri Laborit and the inhibition of action
An article that I found while researching about my favorite film for the past several months Mon oncle d’Amerique by Alain Resnais about the lack of actual freedom that we might feel during modern times and the angst it creates. ”A major role of the brain is to organize behaviors, ie, action. There is inhibition of action when behaviors become impossible, and this is deleterious to health. This happens when an instinctive behavior (such as fight or flight) is impossible, when acting is useless, when a danger cannot be predicted, or when no previous response pattern exists to direct action. “
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984888/
In the 1970s, Email Was Special
The email was invented before the internet and in the early 70s, emails could be sent between short distances. “The first host-to-host connection of the ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet, occurred on October 29, 1969 between a computer at UCLA and a computer at Stanford Research Institute. And not even three years later, in 1972, proper email that was able to traverse the internet was invented by Ray Tomlinson, a government contractor at BBN. Tomlinson is the one who came up with the idea to use the @ symbol in email. Others at BBN, MIT, and ARPA, built on top of the work that Tomlinson did to improve electronic mail.”
https://gizmodo.com/in-the-1970s-email-was-special-1846227232
The trouble with months
On a more practical calendar, the 13 months, 28 days, International Fixed Calendar and how months are useless.”Long before the Christian era the Egyptians had a better set of months than we have. Then came along Julius Caesar and robbed February of a day and named one of the longer months after himself. Then came along Augustus Caesar and he took to himself the month that followed Julius’s, but because he wanted a month that was just as big as Julius’s he added a day to it. To do this he stole another day from February. Then he changed around some other days and left the set of calendar months in a jumble. And ever since then we have been putting up with this arbitrary arrangement as if it were as fixed as the tides and the circuit of the earth around the sun.”
https://austinkleon.com/2021/02/05/the-trouble-with-months/
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Video Pill
The Rise and Fall of Playstation's Advertising
The Curious Case of Forrest and Benjamin
Cash Cow Tour de France - From Marketing Stunt to Mega Event
Fake Liminal Spaces
The Most Viral Tweet of All Time
Podcast Pill
The Abernathy Boys, Podcast:Futility Closet
In 1909, Oklahoma brothers Bud and Temple Abernathy rode alone to New Mexico and back, though they were just 9 and 5 years old. In the years that followed they would become famous for cross-country trips totaling 10,000 miles. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll trace the journeys of the Abernathy brothers across a rapidly evolving nation.
https://player.fm/series/series-2398334/ep-330-the-abernathy-boys
Humankind’s Hopeful History, Podcast:Factually!
Is humanity innately good or bad? Historian and author Rutger Bregman joins Adam to discuss his decidedly optimistic answer to this question. They discuss research showing that people are more likely to help each other during national disasters, the true story behind
Design Pill
Dutch winter landscape by Rick Bekker
Poetic Pill
Letter to a Rainbow by Emry Trantham
“Red to violet and each heart-sung
shade between, I beg you—
consider my position.
Remember how far from you
I am, sitting soaked in the puddles
of this well. Examine the way
your translucence changes the tone
of the world from each side—how
one winks through the rose of you
as another becomes your blue.
Oh, rainbow. I can no longer bear
to wear your greens, your indigo.
Having painted this entire truth,
forgive me, but I must revoke
my permission for you to speak
on my behalf. To arc as I arc, to fill a sky
with my possibilities. I know I cannot alter
your pattern. I know I cannot bend
your course. I admit, my revocation
is nominal at best, but sweet colors,
I beg you: consider my position.“
Underground Pill
Shizz Mcnaughty - Crisis
“It's like the world's out of crisis
But it's been like this since no blacks, no dogs, no Irish
You couldn't feel my pain if you look me dead in my iris
And we've all got dreams
See me aim higher than the sky is“
Dictionary Pill
itinerant = traveling from place to place especially : covering a circuit
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