As if it isn't already, but still...
“MPs should think about whether they will be able to look their constituents in the eye when the place floods, or burns down – and Britain becomes a global laughing stock.”
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"Thiel is obsessed with the apocalypse. After the election, he told the New York Times’s Maureen Dowd that one of the reasons he had been drawn to Trump was the mogul’s manner of speaking in a way that was “apocalyptic and funny at the same time.” It’s not that Thiel wants the world to end to bring on the Second Coming: He’s not that kind of Christian. As an immortality-obsessed survivalist, Thiel is presumably terrified at the prospect of a nuclear war. But his fascination with dark, anti-modern thinkers like Schmitt and Strauss, with their apocalypse-tempting beliefs in vast social and political changes just around the corner, legitimizes a kind of politics that skids right past liberal safeguards."
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Interesting little bits and pieces...
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Incredible film, would really recommend it. You are probably not going to get a better chance to see authentic emotion and healing. It's available for streaming also!
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"Current theories propose that when we imagine something, we try to reactivate the same pattern of activity in our brain as when we saw the image before.
And the better we are able to do this, the stronger our visual imagery is. It might be that aphantasic individuals are not able to reactivate these traces enough to experience visual imagery, or that they use a completely different network when they try to complete tasks that involve visual imagery." Science Alert
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"Manhattan has two genetically distinguishable groups of rats: the uptown rats and the downtown rats, separated by the geographic barrier that is midtown. It’s not that midtown is rat-free—such a notion is inconceivable—but the commercial district lacks the household trash (aka food) and backyards (aka shelter) that rats like. Since rats tend to move only a few blocks in their lifetimes, the uptown rats and downtown rats don’t mix much." Atlantic
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Great long read on Portugese drug policy, focusing not only on decriminalisation (which is only one, and quite an imperfect, aspect of it) but also on changes in public health provision
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How's this for a headline...
"The moment when I feel the most sympathy for Margot is when, after she spends the entire story wondering about Robert—what he’s thinking, feeling, doing—she is left marvelling the most at herself, and at her own decision to have sex with him, “at this person who’d just done this bizarre, inexplicable thing.”"
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I'm reliably informed that this is extremely accurate...
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Great additional commentary about the short story 'Cat Person'
"Young women say yes to sex they don’t actually want to have all of the time. Why? Because we condition young women to feel guilty if they change their mind. After all, you’ve already made it back to his place, or you’re already on the bed, or you’ve already taken off your clothes, or you’ve already said yes. Do you really want to have an awkward conversation about why you want to stop? What if it hurts his feelings? What if it ruins the relationship? What if you seem like a bitch? ... The hard truth is that we teach young women and girls to not make a scene, even when there’s no one else in the room. Don’t be difficult, don’t be selfish, don’t be inconvenient, don’t be rude. Your discomfort is less important than his comfort. Your feelings are less valid, less valuable than his feelings." Elle Dawson
And an interview with the author...
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"By the turn of the twentieth century, only a handful of countries were still insisting on passports to enter or leave. It seemed possible that passports might soon disappear altogether." - Tim Harford, "Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy"
Yep, that's right. A century ago, the idea of restricting people's right to enter and leave a place on the basis of something so arbitrary as their *nationality* was rightly seen as oppressive and antiquated. Yet now it's accepted as completely normal and appropriate. Why don't we all have a think about that?
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Crikey
"The moment we made the decision, Cooper said, “She’s going to die. Dogs don’t live very long, so we’re going to see her die.” In her birth and in her coming to us, we were also mourning her death. Something about that felt right, knowing that everything you meet or love is going to die. I was in awe of my kids that they were able to hold both things in their heads at the same time. That’s who they are now. And it hasn’t stopped them from loving this little creature (her name is Puddles) scampering around our apartment. None of them wants to hold back. They’ve given their hearts to her, without hesitation or reservation." Vogue
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VR-induced out-of-body experience as treatment for death anxiety?!
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"baseball has also shaped Palau. It’s more than a national pastime here. It’s an organizing principle—or, more accurately, a re-organizing principle. Before the 20th century, Palau was a matriarchy. Women controlled most aspects of society, and men were limited to fishing, fighting, and handling village-to-village diplomacy. Then colonial rule brought centralized government—and baseball—to the archipelago. Ever since, these two male-dominated worlds have fed on each other, with Palau’s baseball leagues serving as a kind of farm system for government service. Scores of congressmen, senators, diplomats, and heads of state have passed through Palau’s dugouts on their way to political power." Deadspin
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Trlolololol
"The irony is that the UK could have had a blue passport while an EU member. EU member state Croatia currently has a blue passport, after all. In any case – the “iconic” blue passport was imposed from abroad back in 1920 – thanks to the the League of Nations. The EU never mandated burgundy passports: it simply produced a standard format that many member states chose to use for the sake of convenience. I imagine that the then UK government assumed that nobody cared that much about the colour of passports. It’s now clear that apparently trivial symbols of national identity are very meaningful for a lot of people." Guardian
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Now this is putting your money where your mouth is...
"After a piece of land has been cleared of mines, as part of the handover ceremony to the community, Apopo staff will run across it to prove to sceptical locals that it is safe."
