Random general reads from July:
- A “scientific” take on the basic shapes of stories1 (no kidding)
- Behind every romantic myth is a bunch of B.S., which, this author claims, is the case with _Bushido_2
- My music pick of the month: a track3 from Bladerunner
- An article showcases4 how well-intentioned political reforms in the past led to the chaotic present conditions
- Yanis Varoufakis shares5 his opinion on things to come
- Photo pick of the month: X-ray images6 of train stations!
- More typograph (last month: Alien, this month: _Bladerunner_[^typography])
- Amazing and poignant pictures7 showcasing lost Soviet technology, in a London exhibition. Sample caption:
"Secret cities that cannot be found on maps, forgotten scientific triumphs, abandoned buildings of almost inhuman complexity. The perfect technocratic future that never came." (from a memorial on a deserted nuclear station)
- Some kid posted8 on Reddit about building an amateur fusion reactor, which is awesome, except for this depressing acknowledgement:
Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades
- Blast from the past: an article9 from 1996 (yes!) about memes and memetic engineering (so yeah, memes aren’t new, kids :P)
- Yes, helicopter parenting should be, uh, avoided, but this author10 sympathises and blames gentrification instead.
- Finally, file this in the “surprising biological news” section: apparently11 crows try to investigate the deaths of their fallen kin, and even hold funerals (!) for them.
- Arxiv, ”The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes” ↩
- Tofugu, ”Bushido: Way of total bullshit” ↩
- Youtube, ”Vangelis: Memories of Green” ↩
- Atlantic Magazine, ”How American politics went insane” ↩
- Youtube, ”Yanis Varoufakis: Europe’s crisis and America’s economic future” ↩
- Wired, ”Lose Yourself in Tomoyuki Tanaka’s X-Ray Illustrations of Tokyo Train Stations” ↩
- BBC, ”In pictures: Relics of the Soviet era” ↩
- Reddit, ”Ask me anything: I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom” ↩
- Wired, ”Memetic Engineering” ↩
- Next City, ”Are You a Helicopter Parent? Blame Gentrification.” ↩
- National Geographic, ”Do Crows Hold Funerals for Their Dead?” ↩