Historians have an increasingly strong incentive to tell dramatic stories which gain attention and make ‘impact’. But anyone in the business of reporting on reality… Read More »Ian Leslie on story as intellectual anaesthetic
See also: Not long ago; or, Little by little (8): Singapore market, early 1970sNot long ago; or, Little by little (1): Raymond Briggs on 1940s… Read More »Catch-up Logic: Sam Bowman on Britain as a Developing Economy
Paul makes a thing Here’s Paul McCartney turning a few things into Get Back. Notice how George Harrison goes from yawning and fiddling with something… Read More »“It’s quite something.”
A list of some things that have been appropriated by some cultures from others Writing. Roman letters. Arabic numerals. The number zero. The horse (by… Read More »Inappropriate
I’ve been listening through the early Beatles albums, admiring – as ever – the complete mastery of classic rock and roll that they demonstrate over… Read More »Hinterland (2): The Beatles Live at the BBC
With apologies for the hastily taken snap, and the fluff. There are two cup holders, both wide enough for a large mug or bottle and… Read More »Design matters (20): Ford Focus cup holder(s)
See also:On making stuff: that Steve Jobs quoteDouglas Crockford on making a standard (JSON) (2): minimal solutions and decision making“Do the things we plan actually… Read More »John Collison: Things don’t just happen; or, The Museum of Passion Projects
I had a great time chatting with David Elikwu for his podcast (and newsletter(s), and website) theknowledge.io. He was a great host who had done… Read More »DriverlessCrocodile on theknowledge with David Elikwu
Extrasomatic: outside of the body About 10 millennia ago… the first patches of deliberately cultivated plants as a small share of the Earth’s total photosynthesis… Read More »Technology (25): Vaclav Smil on prime movers and extrasomatic energy
Hattip: Brink Lindsey Let us, for the sake of argument, suppose that a hundred years hence we are all of us, on the average, eight… Read More »Technology (24): Keynes on The Permanent Problem; or, The Dread of Abundance