— GeistHaus

Linkfest #29: "Methanotropes", Sign-Language Poetry, and Why Saturn's About To Lose Its Rings

The Linkfest Jan 2, 2025

Why hey there, fellow prisoners of the Internet. It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I pan relentlessly for nuggets in the fractal, murky creeks of cyberspace, bringing you 20-carat pieces of science, culture and technology. If you’re a subscriber, thank you! If not, you can <a href="https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-29-methanotropes-sign-language-poetry" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">sign up here — it’s a Guardian-style, pay-whatevs-you-want affair; the folks who kick in help keep it free for everyone else</a>. And also — forward this email to anyone you know who’d like it! Let’s begin ...

Linkfest #28: Neolithic Octopuses, Weeping Trees, and a Forty-Year-Old Snowman

The Linkfest Dec 18, 2024

Hello! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — or, my latest “Linkfest”, in which I painstakingly debone the entire Internet to extract its finest cuts of science, culture and technology, just for you. If you’re a subscriber, thank you! If not, you can <a href="https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">sign up here — it’s a Guardian-style, pay-whatevs-you-want affair; the folks who kick in help keep it free for everyone else</a>. And also — forward this email to anyone you know who’d like it! Let’s begin ... <hr/><h2>1) 🔩 Hyperrealistic pencil drawings of metal images</h2> <figure><img alt="At first glance, this looks like a photograph of a metal nut resting on top of a metal bolt, slightly moist with condensation. In reality, it is a drawing done with pencil. Far in the background on the lower left-hand side, there is a fuzzy image of a pencil." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/d825b541-87b4-49b8-b7d6-470de4619bf1.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> That image above looks like a photo — or maybe something digitally generated. But <a href="https://www.spoon-tamago.com/kohei-ohmori-pencil-drawings/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the artist Kohei Ohmori did it entirely by hand, using a pencil. It took 280 hours.</a> He’s done a whole series of these hyper-real metallic-object pieces, including a fork and spoon, a can of beer, a faucet and a Casio G-Shock wristwatch. <a href="https://www.spoon-tamago.com/kohei-ohmori-pencil-drawings/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Spoon & Tamago has a short piece on Ohomori with a gallery of images; they’re astonishing.</a> Ohmori <a href="https://www.spoon-tamago.com/kohei-ohmori-pencil-drawings/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">credits his struggle with OCD for how he’s able to keep such epic focus for so many hours:</a> <blockquote>Kohei Ohmori developed an affinity for drawing at a young age. And—pun intended—drawn to the shiny luster of metallic objects, soon developed an uncanny ability to recreate them on paper using just a pencil. However, academically Ohmori struggled. His above-normal levels of concentration and focus made it difficult to juggle multiple assignments and he ended up dropping out of traditional high school and obtaining his diploma online. He also attempted a higher learning degree in art but soon dropped out as well. But he continued to channel his concentration into his drawings.</blockquote> You can see more of his stuff at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kohei6620?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">his Instagram feed</a> or <a href="https://kohei6620.base.shop/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">his web site, where he sells prints</a>. <hr/><h2>2) 🍞 Taxonomy of bread clips</h2> <figure><img alt=' A photograph of a bread clip. It is green and plastic, with the number 29 printed on it, nearby the price $1.89. There are several written labels floating in the space around it, each one pointing to a different part of the clip, and claiming to identify that parts. You can immediately see that it is a sort of a joke – some of the parts labeled have fak-scientific-sounding names, like "lesser distal palp" and "greater distal palp."' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/6012cfa1-be9b-46e3-8ac1-406030ea2533.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> You know bread clips? Those little plastic thingies that fasten the end of a bread bag? For years now (I think it started around 2001) there’s been <a href="http://www.horg.com/horg/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a web site that offers an exhaustive — and quite hilarious — faux-scientific taxonomy of the different types of bread clips</a>. Apparently there are many varieties around the globe? So they’ve got pix of each major shape and its minor variations. These are some examples of the “haplognathidae” variant … <figure><img alt='A photograph of nine different bread clips in a 3 x 3 grid. They are each given a fake, scientific sounding name. On the top row, the names are: "Ortholongus belluscriptorum", "ortholongus minornotatus", and "Ortholongus welbyi". On the second row, the names are: "Panivexillum prolixus", "panivexillum turritus" and "spongipaginus hiatus". On the third level the names are: "Stomatocardia bibliophora", "stomatocardia distortia" and "stomatocardia lobilatera".' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/068dc6e8-b0cb-4aa9-bc07-b08f07222dbc.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> The tongue-in-cheek conceit is that <a href="http://www.horg.com/horg/?page_id=2&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the clips are a parasitic life form — “Occlupanids”</a> — that deserve their own Linnean taxonomy: <blockquote>Occlupanids are generally found as parasitoids on bagged pastries in supermarkets, hardware stores, and other large commercial establishments. Their fascinating and complex life cycle is unfortunately severely under-researched. [snip]Their stunning diversity and mysterious habits have entranced many a respectable scientist into studying, collecting, and cataloging specimens late into the night.</blockquote> Damn. This is the sort of high weirdness for which I turn, and turn again, to the Internet. You really gotta click through all the taxonomic variants on the right-hand menu bar of that site; these people are … thorough. Quite apart from the scientific joke, it’s intriguing to see how many different types of bread clips exist! Oh and if you want more there’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/occlupanids/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">an active Occlupanid subreddit where people post photos of bread clips they’ve spotted in the wild</a>; and also <a href="https://www.redbubble.com/people/occlupanid/shop?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">t-shirts for Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group</a>. The perfect last-minute holiday gift, right? (A tip of the hat to <a href="https://camacho.tv/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Camacho</a> for alerting me to this site!) <hr/><h2>3) 🚶 US citydwellers are walking 15% faster than they did back in 1980</h2> <figure><img alt="A grid of photos showing four different city intersections, with the photos taken in the 1920s and in the 1980s. The locations are: chestnut St., Bryant Park, MET, downtown Crossing." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/65717672-11ca-442b-a9b7-086358e95331.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> Here’s a fascinating study: A group of researchers acquired video of pedestrians walking around in four US urban spaces, with the videos taken forty years apart — the first bunch in 1979-80, and the next in 2008-2010. Then they used visual-recognition software to analyze patterns of movement. Their findings? <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33185/w33185.pdf?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Apparently, people are now walking faster: They’re fully 15% faster in the most recent videos compared to the early ones. </a>They also do less lingering; back in 1980, 43% of the people were more or less hanging out in the locations, but by 2010 this had dropped to 26%. People also became more likely to walk alone, and less likely to meet up with groups of others. What’s going on? It seems like today’s urbandwellers are less likely to see streets as civic gathering places — and more just as “routes that get you from point A to point B”. This isn’t a massive shift; there was still plenty of street socializing going on in the modern data set. But the change is noticeable. The academics don’t offer any explanations as to why this is happening. As they note, street-life is hella complex, and there are many factors that could be affecting this: Patterns of work, smartphones, secular trends in friendship, etc. One thing that doesn’t seem to be an effect is crime. <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/12/using-ai-to-analyze-changes-in-pedestrian-traffic.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=using-ai-to-analyze-changes-in-pedestrian-traffic" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As Tyler Cowen notes …</a> <blockquote>The biggest change in behavior was that lingering fell dramatically. The amount of time spent just hanging out dropped by about half across the measured locations. Note that this was seen in places where crime rates have fallen, so this trend was unlikely to have resulted from fear of being mugged. Instead, Americans just don’t use public spaces as they used to. These places now tend to be for moving through, to get somewhere, rather than for enjoying life or hoping to meet other people. There was especially a shift at Boston’s Downtown Crossing. In 1980, 54% of the people there were lingering, whereas by 2010 that had fallen to 14%.</blockquote> <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33185/w33185.pdf?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The full study is here</a>. This is really interesting food for thought. <hr/><h2 data-pm-slice="1 2 []">4) ⛄ A forty-year-old snowman</h2> <figure><img alt="A photo of a snowman inside a metal refrigerated box, sitting outdoors on a flat area of gray pavement, with green vegetation in the background. The snowman has two large snowballs for its body and a smaller snowball for the head, with two eyes and a smiling mouth drawn on the head, but no other markings. The overall effect is incongruous; it is strange to see a snowman outdoors on what is clearly a warm summer day" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/3d4cb1c5-dd8d-44a6-8ffb-90faaa4f643a.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/snowman-melting-fridge-2552601?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s “Snowman”, on installation at SFMOMA, photographed by Mary Ellen Hawkins</a></figcaption></figure> Back in 1987, a German thermal power station in Saarbrücken commissioned the artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss to create a “never-melting snowman”. It would live inside a refrigerator that would be powered by excess energy syphoned off the power plant. The duo duly created one, and it has been living inside that frozen box for almost forty years now. <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/snowman-melting-fridge-2552601?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As Tim Brinkhof writes in Artnet …</a> <blockquote>One interpretation of the work the artists have repeatedly rejected is the notion that Snowman is an ecological statement. “It was a commissioned piece,” said Fischli, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-snowman-as-modern-art?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener" target="_blank">quoted</a> in the New Yorker. “They were looking for a piece for in front of a power plant. We decided it had to be something that was dependent on the power of the power plant. The snowman may be a metaphor for our climate crisis, but it’s running on electricity, so it’s a contradiction.”He added that, if the piece is about anything, it’s “taking care of something and protecting it… and being dependent on something. Someone else has to take care of him.”</blockquote> <hr/><h2>5) ⌨️ The Bennett portable typewriter of 1910</h2> <figure><img alt='A photograph of a small, mechanical device that is, at a glance, a miniature typewriter. The brand name is "Junior", and it is entirely black. It is perhaps 8 inches wide, 4 inches deep, and an inch tall. The keyboard is very cramped - notably, the space bar is exceptionally small and located at the top center of the keyboard, instead of running along the bottom as with a regular typewriter.' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/b3cbfca2-ae05-43e7-b59b-da958c730f00.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2012/02/littlest-typewriters-bennetts.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Oztypewriter</a></figcaption></figure> This machine was, as Messy Nessy puts it, <a href="https://www.messynessychic.com/2024/12/12/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-722/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the “Ipad” of typing</a> back in the early 20th century. It was tiny and pocketable — and gorgeously engineered — but apparently <a href="https://www.antikeychop.com/bennetttypewriter?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">not much fun to type on:</a> <blockquote>The keys are much too close together which causes the typist to regularly press the wrong key and after extended typing the wrists would begin to hurt. Interestingly, when any one key in any tier is pressed, all the keys under it will depress as well. For example, press the q and the a & z keys also depress, press the i and the k & n will also depress. Pressing the awkwardly positioned space bar will depress the t, y, g & h keys. too. If one could type quickly with this machine, the <a class="wixui-rich-text__text" href="https://www.antikeychop.com/blickensderfer-typewriters?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self">Blickensderfer</a>-like typewheel would probably never jam so that's a plus.</blockquote> More photos <a href="https://www.antikeychop.com/bennetttypewriter?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2012/02/littlest-typewriters-bennetts.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/Bennettmanual.pdf?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a scan of the original Bennett owner’s manual</a>. It reminds me of the modern <a href="https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/gemini-pda?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Gemini PDA clamshell computers</a>, themselves a linnean descendent of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Psion palmtops of the 90s</a>. As with the Bennett, not a great typing experience, but damn you’ve got a full computer in your pocket! <hr/><h2>6) 🔋 Powering an ebike with 130 disposable vape batteries</h2> <figure><img alt="A photo of a workbench on which sits perhaps 120 small batteries — in size and shape very much like AA batteries — all collected together and standing upright inside a DIY plastic gray casing. There are several wires sticking out from the apparatus. Directly to the right of the apparatus is a multimeter, and in the background there appears to be a soldering iron, and a red canister of unknown function." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/9a67e06a-bda5-4d76-90ab-75d51e89b00e.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVp9T8f_W4&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Chris Doel</a></figcaption></figure> Chris Doel is a hardware hacker who got interested in disposable vapes. Many brands contain lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable. But these brands aren’t designed to be recharged; they have no mini-USB port. So once the battery dies, the entire vape is tossed out. This struck Doel as incredibly wasteful, so he decided to illustrate it in a clever way — by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVp9T8f_W4&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">taking apart 130 disposable vapes and using their batteries to power his ebike.</a> His video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVp9T8f_W4&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">is incredibly entertaining and super educational!</a> He disassembles the vapes and shows that the majority of the ‘lil lithium-ion cells are still in excellent shape. These cells are, he notes, pretty much the same as those used in electric cars or regular electric-bike batteries: When you buy a new EV, the battery is made from, well, thousands of these little cells all stacked together into big bricks. Same with an ebike battery. So Doel essentially creates a new ebike battery by stacking the 130 vape cells together. He attaches a “battery management system” (BMS) too — a little chipset that monitors each individual cell to make sure it’s not in danger of overloading and catching fire. (As he notes, all those ebike battery-fires you’ve heard about? They’re usually from cheap off-brand ebike batteries where the manufacturer cheaped out and didn’t include a BMS.) When he’s done, he attaches it to his ebike and … zoom! It works! In fact, the battery lets him ride for 33 km without pedaling at all. He could have gone 50 km with “pedal assist”. (He could also have made a bigger overall battery; his is, by ebike standards, fairly small.) As he concludes … <blockquote>So there we have it. These “disposable” cells are actually really capable and valuable. Why they hell are they being thrown away after one use?</blockquote> It’s a great question! What could we do if we actually reused all these lithium-ion batteries we’re throwing out after a single use? <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/11/disposable-vapes-from-a-music-festival-can-power-a-beefy-e-bike-20-miles/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As Kevin Purdy calculates at Ars Technica …</a> <blockquote>The US Public Interest Research Group estimates <a href="https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/vape-waste-the-environmental-harms-of-disposable-vapes/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">11.9 million disposable vapes</a> were sold in the US in March 2023. Because liquid nicotine is classified by the EPA as a hazardous waste, e-waste recycling is mostly impossible. And because the devices contain lithium-ion batteries, they cannot easily be otherwise recycled, including for Drug Enforcement Agency buybacks. US PIRG suggests the lithium contained in each year's wasted vapes in the US is about 23.6 tons, or enough for 2,600 electric vehicles.</blockquote> This is an ur-lesson as we lurch towards a world of renewables, right? This stuff is technology; we can recycle it, reuse it. If we put in place some smart rules that require recycling of batteries, we’d have a lot more to go around. <hr/><h2>7) 🐙 Neolithic octopuses and the Silurian hypothesis</h2> <figure><img alt="And underwater photo of an octopus resting on the floor of the ocean. Its color is yellowish green, and it appears to be sitting peacefully. The floor of the ocean is covered in green vegetation." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/51b1976c-6ec9-4eb1-9bca-5092c8bcde36.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-octopus-3046629/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> The “Silurian Hypothesis” is a fun thought experiment. It posits Earth may have had advanced civilizations in the deep past that we are, today, unaware of. Why wouldn’t we know about them? Because if they existed millions of years ago and died out, their architecture would be long gone. “No ruins of ancient football stadiums, highways or housing projects would survive geological time,” as the theory goes. So, cool idea! (I first learned of it from <a href="https://archive.is/QWlRM?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a 2018 from The Atlantic</a>.) But now the marine-biology blogger Pacific Klaus has taken it up a notch, by posing the question: <a href="https://pacificklaus.com/the-silurian-hypothesis-it-was-the-cephalopods/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">If an advanced civilization happened in the deep past, from which species might it have arisen?</a> His answer: <a href="https://pacificklaus.com/the-silurian-hypothesis-it-was-the-cephalopods/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Cephalopods</a>. As he notes, they’re intelligent (complexly so; they appear to have a theory of mind) and they use tools with panache. So he figures it’s not impossible they could have reached a Neolithic level of civilization: Agriculture, settlements, advanced tools, trade. <a href="https://pacificklaus.com/the-silurian-hypothesis-it-was-the-cephalopods/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As he writes …</a> <blockquote>Since almost all cephalopods are carnivores, they would have been some kind of pastoralists, raising snails or clams for their consumption. This level of technological achievement is not likely, and certainly not supported by any actual evidence; however, it’s mildly realistic. The step from an octopus bringing along a coconut shell for protection to an octopus picking up snails and placing them near his lair for farming is at least feasible. The same octopus using stone tools to smash these snails is conceivable. Cephalopods living in structured societies? Squids already live in schools with strict hierarchies, with the bigger animals frequently cannibalizing the smaller ones.</blockquote> Now, cephalopod civilization almost certainly wouldn’t have progressed much further technologically. It’d be hard for octopuses to master chemistry and electricity, because that stuff doesn’t work well underwater. But Neolithic octopuses? “Maaaaybe.” There’s one last question to consider. When would this cephalopodic society have arisen, and fallen? Klaus figures it would have had to happen <a href="https://pacificklaus.com/the-silurian-hypothesis-it-was-the-cephalopods/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">before fish evolved, because they eat cephalopods …</a> <blockquote>A crucial window where cephalopod civilization could have occurred is the time between when mentally high-performing cephalopods came to their own, and the time when aquatic vertebrates really took over.</blockquote> So “the cephalopod civilization window” is from the beginning of the Triassic and lasts for 55 million years, when fish come along. That’s a nice long period for a complex Neolithic civilization to emerge — and then vanish, leaving not a trace. <a href="https://pacificklaus.com/the-silurian-hypothesis-it-was-the-cephalopods/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Klaus’ essay is long, but utterly delightful: Give the whole thing a read!</a> <hr/><h2>8) 🎲 Random-number-generator watch</h2> <figure><img alt='A photo of a black wristwatch against a white background. The brand name at the top of the watch is "TIMESTOP", and the small gray screen has LCDs showing the time of 10:23 PM, on Saturday the 21st. At the top of the screen are six geometric shapes: a triangle, a square, a diamond, a wider diamond, a circle, and a hexagon. The shapes are all hollow, except for the hexagon, the center of which is filled in black. At the bottom of the watch case is printed in white the words "random number generator".' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/e5ee8107-b0ae-4286-9f2b-3a693e813ffd.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://timestoptech.com/products/d-20-black-resin?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Timestop Tech</a></figcaption></figure> I dig LCD watches that, on top of time-telling, carry some sort of extra computational resources. They’re not full-on smartwatches, but they have some weird advanced abilities. Here’s a great example of this genre — <a href="https://timestoptech.com/products/d-20-black-resin?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the “D20 Black Resin”, which generates random numbers in quanta useful for tabletop gaming</a>: <blockquote>In addition to telling the time, it lets you roll a virtual 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20-sided die with the push of a button, and displays critical success and critical failure icons on D20 rolls of 20 or 1.It also features an Advanced Combat Mode where you can roll a D100, roll up to 12 dice at once, and even roll with advantage or disadvantage on a D20.</blockquote> It’d make a good holiday gift for the tabletopping nerd in your life, but alas doesn’t ship until January 2025. <hr/><h2>9) 🛞 Goodyear’s glowing tires</h2> <figure><img alt="A black-and-white photo of an old-fashioned car from the 1950s, with the tires brightly glowing white. A woman in a tight dress with long sleeves and a pillbox hat is standing directly next to the car's front lefthand tire, and she is reaching down to slightly pull her skirt up over her right knee, as if she were adjusting something in her clothing. The back of her knee and legs are illuminated brightly by the glowing tires. In the background are several large, tall, old-fashioned, multi buildings. The effect is very dramatic." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/be9e32b7-f16c-4d0d-8966-14aa19ca0ba3.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> In 1961, <a href="https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/why-goodyears-bright-idea-for-illuminated-tires-didnt-shine-for-long/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Goodyear chemists invented a glowing tire</a>. It was made of “Neothane”, a synthetic polyurethane rubber that was as resilient as rubber but clear and see-through like plastic. That meant they could dye the tires a color, mount bulbs inside, and le voila — a car riding on shimmering wheels of light. That cheesecakey promo shoot above, which appeared in Life magazine, is apiece with <a href="https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/why-goodyears-bright-idea-for-illuminated-tires-didnt-shine-for-long/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the overoxygenated press releases Goodyear issued, in which they predicted that women would buy tires to accessorize their oufits …</a> <blockquote>“Once the tires reach the market—and that could happen in a few years—auto stylists may use them to carry out a car’s color scheme, perhaps matching the tires with the upholstery,” Goodyear predicted in a 1961 press release. “And it’s not at all unlikely that milady will want tires that enhance her wardrobe, her hair, or even her eyes. Imagine, if you will, one girl telling another: ‘But, my dear, green tires just don’t do a thing for your complexion.’ When that day comes, it will mean a whole new frontier for the tire designer.”</blockquote> In reality, the tires were totally impractical. They weighed 150 pounds each and, due to a lower melting point than regular rubber tires, eroded quickly during regular braking. They never really sold. A few are still in existence, I guess, because recently an antique-car enthusiast <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/gcpvof/fullyrestored_1958_golden_sahara_ii_with/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">got their hands on a set for the restoration of a 1958 Golden Sahara</a>. <hr/><h2>10) ☹️ The power of “defensive pessimism”</h2> <figure><img alt="A photograph of a field filled with dried brown tall grasses. In the middle of the field is a tree with entirely bare branches, and an old-fashioned fence runs just in front of it. The sky in the background is filled with dark clouds. The overall effect is very gloomy and menacing." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/4ab0f7da-f7d3-4edf-b1b8-9b9274cd556d.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-bare-tree-551615/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> When it comes to tackling climate change, traditional psychological theory would suggest that pessimism is bad — because it demotivates. If you want legions of people to really push for climate action, you want optimism, right? Perhaps not, <a href="http://undark.org/2024/11/28/opinion-upside-of-climate-pessimism/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">argues a fascinating essay by Katrina Miller in Undark.</a> She dives into new experiments and psychological research that suggest what’s actually powerful is “defensive pessimism”: <blockquote>Interestingly, a recent <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-024-00172-8?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-10-17&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+17+10+2024" rel="noopener" target="_blank">survey</a> of more than 2,000 U.S. adults found that people experiencing psychological distress related to climate change were more likely to engage in collective climate change action or to report a willingness to do so. And other <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494422001116?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">research</a> has found a positive correlation between climate anxiety and climate action. While anxiety or distress are not exactly the same as doubt or pessimism, they’re similarly believed to cause people to shut down, when in fact they may be a helpful driver of action. “The people that I know who are really seriously working on these issues and who are engaging in climate change activism,” Bloodhart said, stressing that this is her personal observation, “they have a little bit of hope, but they mostly are pretty pessimistic and concerned.”Some light may come from psychological research on so-called defensive pessimists. While run-of-the-mill pessimists might become immobilized and despondent by focusing on negative outcomes, defensive pessimists take action to avoid them. “They use their worry and their anxiety about that worst possible outcome to drive them to take action so that it never becomes a reality,” said social and health psychology researcher Fuschia Sirois of Durham University. In one 2008 <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886908002109?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">experiment</a>, for example, defensive pessimists performed relatively poorly in a word puzzle when prompted to imagine a positive scenario, but they did much better, on average, when they were prompted to imagine the opposite, negative effect.In another <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00053.x/abstract?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">study</a> that tracked university students for over four years, researchers found that defensive pessimists had higher self-esteem compared to other students with anxiety, and even eventually reached nearly similar levels of confidence as optimists. Research comparing optimists and defensive pessimists has often found similar benefits, although pessimists tend to have a less enjoyable journey towards achieving outcomes, Sirois added.</blockquote> That’s just a taste of the piece — <a href="http://undark.org/2024/11/28/opinion-upside-of-climate-pessimism/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">check the whole thing out!</a> <hr/><h2>11) 🦋 When plants weep, moths avoid them</h2> <figure><img alt="A closeup photo of a small brown and white moth sitting on the green stalk of some unknown piece of vegetation. The moth and stalk are in sharp focus, but everything in the background is blurry; the background appears to be more vegetation and the dark areas of a forest." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/1123a499-ba9e-4a61-a212-ac4032ab3e69.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-gray-brown-and-black-striped-butterfly-perched-on-green-leaf-1096299/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> Okay, saying that the plants “weep” is a bit of poetic license here. But the gist of it is correct! A group of scientists just experimentally demonstrated something extremely cool: Moths listen to the ultrasonic sounds that plants emit, and if the moths hear a plant undergoing physical distress, they avoid using it for a nest. Scientists have known for years that when plants are under distress (being dehydrated, for example) they make ultrasonic clicking sounds. These clicks are pitched so high that humans can’t hear them. But moths can! They have ultrasonic hearing. So the scientists wondered: Do the moths listen to plants, notice if they’re emitting sounds of torment, and avoid them? Apparently so. They <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/science/moths-hearing-plant-sounds.html?unlocked_article_code=1.f04.iEye.qTh2Iqy4wWVC&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">demonstrated this in a very cool experiment, as Gennaro Tomma reports in The New York Times (gift link) …</a> <blockquote>… the moths were presented with a hydrated tomato plant on one side of an experimental arena. On the other side was another tomato plant that was healthy and hydrated, but that emitted recorded sounds of distress from a dehydrated tomato plant. The moths, they found, strongly preferred to lay their eggs on the “silent” plant. Dr. Seltzer said that the females not only recognize that these signals indicate the presence of a plant, but also that the moths used the clicks to interpret the state of the plant producing them.</blockquote> Oh, and, this raises a fascinating additional question about moths. It has long been assumed that moths evolved the ability to hear ultrasonic frequencies as a defensive measure against bats, their predators. (Because bats emit ultrasonic sounds during echolocation.) But moths emerged 200 million years before bats. So maybe moths initially developed their ultrasonic hearing so that they could listen to plants? And only later on found it was additionally useful for avoiding predators? Plant bioacoustics: A crazily cool area of research. <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.06.622209v2.full.pdf?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The paper itself is here; it’s not yet peer-approved.</a> <hr/><h2>12) 🤕 How placentas are healing untreatable wounds</h2> <figure><img alt="A photo of seven Band-Aids laid out in a zigzag pattern on top of a blue surface." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/f0004477-959c-48ce-9385-4a51ec3966d6.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-view-of-band-aids-on-blue-surface-7722865/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/well/placenta-donations-burns-wounds.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.fBo1.fMwrpDOHJhLz&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the New York Times (gift link), Kate Morgan investigates how doctors are using placenta tissue to heal wounds that otherwise seem untreatable</a>. They’re being used as grafts that reduce pain and inflammation, prevent scar tissue, treat chronic wounds and even heal vision — with stunning results. They’re particularly useful in healing serious third-degree burns; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/well/placenta-donations-burns-wounds.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.fBo1.fMwrpDOHJhLz&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the story’s opening anecdote is wild …</a> <blockquote>In the aftermath of a propane explosion at her mother’s house in Savannah, Ga., in 2021, Ms. Townsend spent more than six weeks in an induced coma in a burn trauma unit. She had second- and third-degree burns over most of her body, and her face had become unrecognizable.Searching for a way to help her, surgeons turned to a rarely utilized tool: human placenta. They carefully applied a thin layer of the donated organ to her face, which Ms. Townsend said was “the best thing they could have done, ever.” She still has scars from grafts elsewhere on her body, but the 47-year-old’s face, she said, “looks exactly like it did before.”</blockquote> The photos of Townsend in the piece are wild; I would never in a million years believe her face had been so traumatically burned. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/well/placenta-donations-burns-wounds.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.fBo1.fMwrpDOHJhLz&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Optometrists are using them too …</a> <blockquote>In a patient whose eyes were burned after a bottle of bleach toppled off a shelf, she said, grafts “helped to regenerate that cornea rapidly.” Another patient, who got an ulcer after sleeping with contact lenses in, healed quickly after a placental graft. “It almost didn’t look like it happened at all,” Dr. Tsai said. “The cornea was pristine.”</blockquote> Why do placental grafts work such magic? It’s not totally clear, but the doctors here describe these amniotic grafts as doing a “histological reboot” of even the most damaged tissue; they seem to “change the nature of the wound”, another adds. Apparently placentas were used therapeutically for over a century or more, but the AIDS epidemic really crushed the use in the US. Judging by these phenomenal results, I’d say it’s time to bring it back. There are 3.5 million placentas delivered in the US every year, and most are disposed of. If donation could become more routine, it could have a huge impact on the treatment of otherwise-untreatable wounds. <hr/><h2>13) 🏠 Building houses out of straw</h2> <figure><img alt="A photo of two workmen reaching up to grab a large wooden structure as it is lowered on a crane towards them. The wooden structure is a rectangular wood frame, the inside of which is stuffed tightly with brown straw. All around them are several similar tall wooden rectangles, standing upright on the ground, also packed full of straw. The sky above them is blue." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/97101cb5-4481-43d5-b06a-682536a9a507.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> In Fast Company, Patrick Sisson reports on an intriguing new trend in construction: <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91239550/straw-building-material-comeback?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Using straw to fabricate the walls in new buildings.</a> There’s a Slovakian startup that is making prefab panels with compressed straw, and a designer in Denmark and Sweden are using it to build schools and apartment buildings. Apparently straw has a couple of advantages, chiefly that <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91239550/straw-building-material-comeback?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">it’s incredibly cheap and easy to work with …</a> <blockquote>“Literally, you put in straws, plywood, and a pack of screws on one end, and then on the other end, you have the finished product,” says Peter Jensen, a representative for EcoCocon in the U.S., about his firm’s new factory. “You don’t have any people involved in between.”</blockquote> … and it’s a hell of an insulator … <blockquote>In addition to incredible insulating power, straw also deadens outside sound, creating a much quieter indoor environment. Bassett-Dilley says that even in a cold climate like Chicago’s, if the power goes out in the middle of winter, the indoors stays about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.</blockquote> To put a cherry on this sundae, the emissions from making straw panels is an estimated 80% lower than making regular walls for buildings. And hey, when the building reaches the end of its life? You compost the straw. The one thing I wondered about was fire risk. Straw seems awfully … burnable, right? But apparently a study of compressed straw found that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fam.2851?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">it’s slightly less flammable than regular insulation.</a> Insert obligatory “three little pigs” joke here. <hr/><h2>14) 👔 Corporate jargon generator</h2> <figure><img alt='An animated gif showing three hexagonal wooden cylindrical pieces. Each piece has corporate buzzwords written on each surface — like "stakeholders", "monetize", "opportunities", and "deliverable". In the animated gif, the pieces are spun around and recombined in different ways so that they spell nonsense corporate phrases like "actualize stakeholders proactively". The overall effect is funny and silly' draggable="false" src="https://buttondown-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/images/d13915e1-5627-49e3-841a-049e4d7bc631.gif?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/corporate-nonsense-generator?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Uncommon Goods</a></figcaption></figure> I am alternately annoyed by corporate jargon and entranced by it — it’s so studiously and inventively drained of serious meaning that it feels like a grand literary project, something cooked up by the Situationists back in the 60s. Either way, <a href="https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/corporate-nonsense-generator?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">these little doodads</a> would make fun fidget toys while you’re stuck in a 17-hour meeting. <hr/><h2>15) 🛒 A final, sudden-death round of reading material</h2> <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2024/11/ulysses-james-joyce-book-club-amazon-annotated.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Rawdogging Ulysses</a>. 🛒 America’s <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/americas-common-dreams-why-have-them-1989959?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">most common dreams</a>. 🛒 “LLMs <a href="https://macwright.com/2024/11/20/not-using-copilot?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">make you think like a manager.</a>” 🛒 Paid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/29/spain-paid-climate-leave-floods?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">climate leave</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-supernatural-horses-that-fascinated-chinese-emperors/?utm_term=The+Supernatural+Horses+That+Fascinated+Chinese+Emperors&utm_campaign=jstordaily_12052024&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Blood-sweating horses</a> of mythology. 🛒 The <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1hfeae5/a_kilometer_high_cliff_on_comet_churyumov/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">kilometer-high cliff on Comet Churyumov</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://atari.com/products/atari-joystick-decanter-set?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Atari joystick booze decanters</a>. 🛒 The <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/giant-hot-pink-slug-in-australia-becomes-conservation-symbol-photo/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">giant pink slugs of Australia</a>. 🛒 Korean <a href="https://coolhunting.com/buy/korean-mudle-crayons/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">mudle crayons</a>. 🛒 Groovy <a href="https://codepen.io/VaaLaa/pen/YzmMadg?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">infinite highway in HTML/JS/CSS</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://codepen.io/nealagarwal/pen/QpOqQG?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Scroll-speed detector</a>. 🛒 Radio bursts from space have <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/534/4/3331/7815195?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a “sad trombone” effect</a>. 🛒 A vibrating pill <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/vibrating-diet-pill-may-trick-stomach-feeling-full?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">to make your stomach feel full</a>. 🛒 Hezin O’s <a href="https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hezin-os-bhlntttx-graphic-design-project-121224?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">glitchy grid art</a>. 🛒 A 1901 analysis of <a href="https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=67333&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">telegraph style</a>. 🛒 AI-powered <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91236773/growl-ai-boxing-bag-personal-trainer?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">punching bag</a>. 🛒 The <a href="https://telepathicinstruments.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">new Orchid synthesizer</a> looks extremely cool. 🛒 The <a href="https://asteriskmag.com/issues/08/rat-traps?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">intellectual and rhetorical style of the rationalist blogosphere</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://openprocessing.org/sketch/395819?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Watery quads”</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://www.vintag.es/2024/11/the-dunkley-pramotor.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Motorized perambulators of the 1920s</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/11/science/conan-the-bacterium-antioxidant/index.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Conan the Bacterium</a>. 🛒 What did <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-24611454?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">music in ancient Greece sound like?</a> 🛒 They’re hiring <a href="https://scrollprize.org/jobs?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">annotators for ancient papyrus, up to $40/hr</a>. 🛒 A <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cardboard-cathedral?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">cardboard cathedral</a>. 🛒 Virginia Postrel ponders <a href="https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-world-of-tomorrow/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">what happened to the idea of technological progress</a>. 🛒 The <a href="https://aestheticamagazine.com/paper-creations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=paper-creations" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">abstract paper scenes of Felipe Enger</a>. 🛒 Most of Australia’s first-nations languages <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-of-australias-first-nations-languages-dont-have-gendered-pronouns-heres-why-234289?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">don’t have gendered pronouns</a>. 🛒 DIY <a href="https://hackaday.com/2024/11/11/thermoelectric-blaster-flings-ice-projectiles/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">thermoelectric ice blaster.</a> 🛒 Massive impromptu <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/world/asia/china-bike-ride.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Chinese-student long-distance bike rides</a>. 🛒 They figured out <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/13/24320329/nasa-mars-perseverance-ingenuity-helicopter-crash?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">what caused Perseverance to crash</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://codepen.io/pjkarlik/pen/mybEwjG?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Trippy CSS animation</a>. 🛒 <a href="https://earthsky.org/earth/sharkcano-undersea-volcano-sharks-live/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Volcano sharks</a>. <hr/>CODA ON SOURCING: I read a ton of blogs and sites every week to find this material. A few I relied on this week include <a href="https://theawesomer.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The Awesomer</a>, <a href="https://www.numlock.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Numlock News</a>, <a href="https://hackaday.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Hackaday,</a> <a href="https://www.messynessychic.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Messy Nessy Chic</a>, and Mathew Ingram’s <a href="https://newsletter.mathewingram.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-28-neolithic-octopuses-weeping-trees-and" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“When The Going Get Weird”</a>; check ‘em out!

Linkfest #30: Greyscale Gelato, the "Ott Derivimeter", and Vangelis' Ambient Music For Surgeries

The Linkfest Jan 20, 2025

Hello again! Time once again for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my latest “Linkfest”, for which I cruise the endless overpasses of the Global Information Superhighway, searching for the finest pit-stops of science, culture and technology. If you’re a subscriber, thank you! If not, you can <a href="https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">sign up here — it’s a Guardian-style, pay-whatevs-you-want affair; the folks who kick in help keep it free for everyone else</a>. And also — forward this email to anyone you know who’d like it! Let’s begin ... <hr/> <h2>1) 📊 An embroidered dataviz of daily activities <a id="item01"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A close-up picture of a piece of embroidery. It has a white background and is covered, in the top half of the picture, with small embroidered colorful icons. Some of them include things like a cowboy hat, a ghost, a helicopter, a star, a battery down to its lowest level of energy, a piece of pie, an ice cream cone, a house, and an “OMG“. In the center of the embroidery he’s written “2024“" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/6e6cc879-53da-4ebd-9a6c-723ea1944d2f.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>by Sophie O’Neill</figcaption></figure> Each year, Sophie O’Neill keeps <a href="https://stircrazycrafter.com/2024/12/31/exploring-my-2024-embroidery-journal-month-by-month/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">an “embroidery journal”: Every day she stitches an icon that represents something that happened to her.</a> It slowly grows into a gorgeous riot of imagery. That picture above is last year’s journal, as of the middle of April — <a href="https://stircrazycrafter.com/2024/12/31/exploring-my-2024-embroidery-journal-month-by-month/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">during which transpired …</a> <blockquote> April was spent celebrating Sam’s new job, reading tons of books, and still playing Stardew Valley. A highlight of the month was exploring areas near Glasgow that we could see ourselves living. We even picked out an area that seemed quiet, but had a good sense of community. We started actively viewing houses together. Icons of note: <ul> <li>Gazebo – Sam and I visited the area that we decided to house hunt in.</li> <li>Ice cream – After a picnic at Queen’s Park in Glasgow, I got myself an ice cream.</li> <li>Party popper – Sam was offered a new job in a better area.</li> </ul> </blockquote> Here’s the final journal for all of 2024 … <figure><img alt=" A picture of a round piece of embroidery done inside a circular wood embroidery frame. The entire circle is a piece of white background filled with hundreds of small icons, ranging from things like an envelope, a question mark, a bean, a hat, a small human figure, a cup of coffee, a butterfly, a paper airplane, and a sock. At the center of the circle is the number “2024“. Scattered throughout the circle, going clockwise, are the names of the months." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/ab49753e-9af5-405b-aeb7-fdc42a2ca8c9.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>by Sophie O’Neill</figcaption></figure> I love this idea! It’s a sumptuous enough product for an outsider to admire. But for O’Neill herself, it’s got to be a really mesmerizing way to look back at a year — since she knows the import of each icon, and the mood or moment in which she stitched it. <hr/> <h2 data-pm-slice="1 1 []">2) 🎶 When Vangelis wrote background music for surgeries</h2> <a id="item02"></a><img alt=" A black-and-white photo of the composer Vangelis, taken from above. He is sitting wearing a black sweater and a coat, and is sitting on a stool in a semicircle of large synthesizer and organs. He has his hand on two different organ keyboards " class="newsletter-image" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/4fd8b76f-1408-40ad-a5f9-1f36cd8e9c0a.png?w=960&fit=max"/> Vangelis was a synthesizer pioneer famous for creating the scores for 80s movies like Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner. I knew that! But I didn’t realize he had also — as one of innumerable side-projects — recorded <a href="https://www.djfood.org/vangelis-the-tegos-tapes-edits/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the “Tegos Tapes”, hours of ambient synth-music for surgeons to listen to, in the background, while they performed surgeries:</a> <blockquote> Originally available in 1998 as an expensive set of three 4 hour video tapes plus large book in a case and only available to practicing surgeons via Dr. Tegos. Vangelis was friends with the surgeon and had recorded music specifically for these tapes from special requests, as the subject matter could be ‘monotonous’. </blockquote> These audio files were nowhere on the Internet until <a href="http://vangeliscollector.com/movies_microneurosurgery.htm?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">a Vangelis superfan hunted down a copy of the original hardcover book (with tapes) in Athens; he wrote a blog post about the quest here.</a> Now they’ve been scanned and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/nev-dorrington?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">you can hear them on Soundcloud.</a> <hr/> <h2>3) 🎮 “Stimulation Clicker” <a id="item03"></a></h2> <img alt=" An animated GIF of a computer screen. On screen there is a riot of activity. About a dozen different DVD icons slowly bounce around. In the bottom right corner is a small thumbnail video of a game of subway surfers. In the top left-hand corner is a looping video of a hand putting food dye on a big blob of white gelatin and then squishing it. Below that is a screenshot of a mukbang video of a man sitting at a picnic table outdoors, wearing sunglasses, and gesturing towards a huge array of food in front of him. In the center of the screen is a button with the words “click me”. Beneath it there is a counter showing a quickly increasing number, rising from 11,000 to 12,000, of “stimulation“. The overall effect is quite hectic and jittery" class="newsletter-image" src="https://buttondown-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/images/3aa06cf2-8bbd-463b-a9e0-282a1d0f6780.gif?w=960&fit=max"/> <a href="https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-18-infinite-crafting-the-reverse/" target="_blank">Back in Linkfest #18 I wrote about “Infinite Craft”</a>, a witty game made by the creative coder Neal Agarwal — a riff/parody of the often-byzantine crafting-mechanics now built into many video games. He’s got a new parody game out: <a href="https://neal.fun/stimulation-clicker/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“Stimulation Clicker”</a>, and it’s a doozy! Basically, you frantically click the main button, and as your clicks build up, you can “spend” them to display various on-screen stimulations. That gif above is my screen after about three or four minutes of play; I had floating DVD bouncers, a subway-surfer video, an ASMR mukbang video, and various other bits of screenstuff. I can’t imagine what it looks like if you play for an hour. I think I’m gonna clear aside an hour and find out. <hr/> <h2>4) 📃 Isaac Newton’s list of sins <a id="item04"></a></h2> <figure><img alt="An old-fashioned painting of Isaac Newton. He has a large plume of white hair and is wearing a thick brown shirt, and is looking off to the right" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/ff89dc92-621a-4470-9b53-2f8cde60f681.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Sir_Isaac_Newton,_1689_%28brightened%29.jpg?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a></figcaption></figure> In 1662, when he was 20 and still a student at Cambridge, <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/isaac-newton-creates-a-list-of-his-57-sins-circa-1662.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Isaac Newton made a list of his sins.</a> It’s a pretty nutty collection, I gotta say. <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/isaac-newton-creates-a-list-of-his-57-sins-circa-1662.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Here’s how it begins …</a> <blockquote> 1. Vsing the word (God) openly 2. Eating an apple at Thy house 3. Making a feather while on Thy day 4. Denying that I made it. 5. Making a mousetrap on Thy day 6. Contriving of the chimes on Thy day 7. Squirting water on Thy day 8. Making pies on Sunday night 9. Swimming in a kimnel on Thy day 10. Putting a pin in Iohn Keys hat on Thy day to pick him. 11. Carelessly hearing and committing many sermons 12. Refusing to go to the close at my mothers command. 13. Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them 14. Wishing death and hoping it to some 15. Striking many 16. Having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamese. 17. Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer 18. Denying that I did so </blockquote> It goes on much longer! The sins really vary in terms of moral gravity, don’t they? I mean, eating an apple in church or stealing cherry cobs from Edward Storer feel like rather … less serious offenses compared to “Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them”. Go <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/isaac-newton-creates-a-list-of-his-57-sins-circa-1662.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">check out the rest of Isaac Newton’s sins.</a> <hr/> <h2>5) 🔦 Looking at your garden using a UV flashlight <a id="item05"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" Two pictures side-by-side of the same piece of vegetation. On the right hand side it looks like a mass of tightly clustered clover-shaped leaves. They are all green. On the left the leaves are now glowing a unsettling shade of bright purple, and studded throughout the purple are bursts of iridescent green vegetation that is quite different in shape from the clover leaves" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/377fddd0-5716-4bae-af38-2bb953f5b629.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>photos by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/country-diary-you-think-youve-seen-it-all-then-you-buy-a-uv-torch?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Cocker</a></figcaption></figure> Over at the Guardian, two columnists have discovered a fun night-time activity: You buy a UV flashlight and go check out plants and insects when it’s dark. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/country-diary-you-think-youve-seen-it-all-then-you-buy-a-uv-torch?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">As Mark Cocker describes it …</a> <blockquote> If a UV torch is pointed at plants and animals after dark, its photons interact at a molecular level, causing a lower-energy light to be re-emitted, but in the visible spectrum. In essence, the subjects fluoresce and the beam turns everyday parts of our world into a baroque psychedelia. A gritstone wall, for example, becomes a matt red sheet (algae) studded with glittering lime (any lichen patches). </blockquote> Above, you can see some of the golden saxifrage in Cocker’s garden — daylight on the right, UV on the left. Trippy, eh? Or check out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/country-diary-you-think-youve-seen-it-all-then-you-buy-a-uv-torch?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">his spiky bogmoss …</a> <figure><img alt=" Two photos side-by-side of the same collection of moss. On the right hand side the moss all appears to be green, with a small amount of red veiny stocks in behind. On the left-hand side the moss is glowing a eerie bright blue and is interspersed with bursts of dark purple red vegetation that appears to be quite different from the moss in shape and texture. The overall effect is to suggest that ultraviolet light shows far more detail than regular light does." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/0b1f66a7-227d-44a8-bab7-15608e071808.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/country-diary-you-think-youve-seen-it-all-then-you-buy-a-uv-torch?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Cocker</a></figcaption></figure> As he describes it … <blockquote> By day, it’s a superb cushion of freshest green, with each plant’s central floret fringed with seven or eight lateral shoots that droop around the head like huge vegetative spiders. See it under UV and the whole organism becomes a dancing troupe of lavender, aquamarine, turquoise, purple or pink. </blockquote> Here’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/20/country-diary-how-extraordinary-to-see-with-an-insects-eye?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">another Guardian piece by Kate Blincoe with pictures of her garden too</a>. Tomorrow I’m cycling down to my local Microcenter <a href="https://www.microcenter.com/product/662174/litezall-task-light-with-uv-flashlight?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">to get my own UV flashlight</a>, I gotta get in on this. <hr/> <h2>6) ❓ “Wikenigma” <a id="item06"></a></h2> <img alt=" A screenshot of the “wikienigma” name in a large font, with the catchphrase beneath it: “an encyclopedia of unknowns.” On the left is the logo, a large black cube showing three faces, with a question mark on each face" class="newsletter-image" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/3d2e2a40-c949-4360-9dab-4bf8b03f8bbb.png?w=960&fit=max"/> <a href="https://wikenigma.org.uk/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Wikenigma is …</a> <blockquote> a unique wiki-based resource specifically dedicated to documenting fundamental gaps in human knowledge. Listing scientific and academic questions to which no-one, anywhere, has yet been able to provide a definitive answer. That's to say, a compendium of so-called 'Known Unknowns'. </blockquote> I really like this idea! I can’t speak to how accurate are its entries. One danger, I suspect, is that this type of project is liable to quickly attract the attention of people who regard chemtrails and reptilians as “unsolved mysteries”, among other conspiracies. When I poked around on Wikenigma I discovered, to my delight, that there are some entries on cycling — including <a href="https://wikenigma.org.uk/content/physics/general/bicycle_dynamics?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the puzzle over why riderless bicycles, set in motion, tend to self-stabilize.</a> Also, they apparently <a href="https://wikenigma.org.uk/content/history/bicycle_design?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">don’t know who invented the bicycle crank</a>. The interesting challenge here, I suspect, is in crafting entries that are usefully specific enough. For example, there’s <a href="https://wikenigma.org.uk/content/psychology/general/boredom?s%5B%5D=boredom&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">an entry noting that boredom is poorly understood</a> … which is certainly true but feels, I dunno, kind of vague? I’d be more interested in a series of entries about various facets of boredom, each of which goes deep, rather than a blanket assertion about the overall domain. Then again, if Wikenigma succeeds — which I hope it does — I would assume these Linnean forking branches will emerge. I’m certainly tempted to dive in and add some entries. <hr/> <h2>7) 🎸 Roadies in their 70s <a id="item07"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A close-up of four slider knobs on a soundboard mixer. Just above the slider knobs you can see a row of brightly lit LED lights, slightly out of focus, mostly blue but a few in white, red, green, and orange." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/713e3ab8-563d-41d6-a002-816d88f8bc8b.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-brown-audio-mixer-3784424/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> For rock bands, apparently some of the most in-demand roadies are in their late 60s and 70s. Tim Sommer has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/arts/music/live-music-roadies-techs-seniors.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n04.pUFY.ujEKvLdDrCAn&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">a wonderful piece profiling a handful of these AARP members, who keep on getting work because their deep well of experience</a> means they’re unfazed by any musical emergency. Since their careers date back to the 1960s, they’ve seen it all. Sure, they may have knee replacements and back issues, but there is no sound-board crisis with which they have not dealt. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/arts/music/live-music-roadies-techs-seniors.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n04.pUFY.ujEKvLdDrCAn&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">A sample from the piece (gift link) …</a> <blockquote> A good tech’s work is mostly invisible to the audience. “People go, ‘Wow, what an awesome show, man. They played 90 minutes!’ But you have no idea what it takes to make these 90 minutes,” said Ingo Marte, who has worked with hard rock bands like Danzig, Saxon and Armored Saint for 41 years. (He’s a relatively young 65.) “I had actually a really bad heart attack like eight years ago,” he added, “and that’s when I thought, OK, I am done. No more touring. But I picked myself up and I’m still at it.” Schoo’s work with the Edge involves maintaining and tuning as many as 27 guitars a night, as well as precisely finessing the mind-boggling array of effects the musician uses, in real time, to build his sound. Schoo said that U2’s <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/arts/music/u2-sphere-las-vegas.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas</a> in 2023 and 2024 was particularly arduous.“There are 17 steps from the floor — where my guitar world is — up to that stage. So, I was 70 years old at the time, and I am running up and down and up and down those steps with an eight-pound guitar, for 40 shows. I get paid handsomely for that, but I’m always thinking, when will I trip? Is tonight the night I fall down those stairs?” </blockquote> Go check out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/arts/music/live-music-roadies-techs-seniors.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n04.pUFY.ujEKvLdDrCAn&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the whole thing</a> — the photography is amazing. <hr/> <h2 data-pm-slice="1 1 []">8) 🧱 Cracking the secrets of Roman concrete</h2> <a id="item08"></a><figure><img alt=" A black-and-white photo of the Roman Colosseum. It shows a large circular corroded ancient building, two stories, each story a series of arches. The stone is clearly extremely old but in quite good shape nonetheless " draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/51678085-ba30-4140-a8c0-c19e92feae48.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pavdw/52822508572/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Colosseum of Rome” by Paul VanDerWerf, Flickr</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CC 2.0</a>, unmodified)</figcaption></figure> Ancient Roman concrete is amazing stuff. Our modern concrete is super strong, but over time it develops cracks that let water in, making it crumble. In contrast, 2,000-year-old Roman concrete? It takes a licking but keeps on ticking. “Roman marine concretes have survived in one of the most aggressive environments on Earth with no maintenance at all,” as geologist Marie Jackson notes. In recent years, scientists think they’ve figured out the secret, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/science/concrete-roman-construction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pU4.SbhU.yi0GvNBO-q4_&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">in the New York Times (gift link), Amos Zeeberg dove into it.</a> The main clue is these little white chunks studded throughout the Roman concrete. Scientists used to think these chunks were evidence of impurities — i.e. screwups by the Romans mixing the concrete. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/science/concrete-roman-construction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pU4.SbhU.yi0GvNBO-q4_&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">But maybe not …</a> <blockquote> According to Dr. Masic’s research, these lime clasts were actually reservoirs of calcium that helped fill in cracks, making the concrete self-healing. As cracks formed, water would seep in and dissolve the calcium in the lime, which then formed solid calcium carbonate, essentially creating new rock that filled in the crack. The chunks are typically thought to be unintentional products of poor workmanship, but Dr. Masic maintains that Roman engineers were too clever to consistently make concrete riddled with mistakes. “People said lime clasts are bad mixing of slaked lime,” he said. “Our hypothesis is it’s not part of bad processing; it’s part of the technology.” </blockquote> Now various teams of researchers are reverse-engineering the Roman techniques to produce new concrete with that same self-healing property. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/science/concrete-roman-construction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pU4.SbhU.yi0GvNBO-q4_&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Early tests are promising:</a> <blockquote> In one experiment, the researchers built concrete arches, submerged them in seawater for 50 days and then pushed the top of the arches with increasing pressure until the concrete started to bend and crack. Then the arches were submerged for almost a year and tested again. The researchers found that CASH compounds had filled the tiny cracks, and that the arches could withstand two to three times as much force as before, depending on the particular test. </blockquote> And, bonus! The ancient Roman style requires far less energy. Manufacturing normal concrete these days requires firing it at 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit, which is mostly done using coal — so concrete production is fully 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions. But these Roman techniques? They only require 1,300 Fahrenheit. If we could actually mass-produce this stuff we’d have far stronger, more durable materials with dramatically slashed carbon emissions. <hr/> <h2>9) 📐 The “Ott Derivimeter” of the 1930s <a id="item09"></a></h2> <figure><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Wdjz2uiPY&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt=" A screenshot of a YouTube video focused on the “derivimeter”. It appears to be a metal protractor that has at its center a strange white cylinder bisected down the center, with a piece of glass near the bottom, adjacent to where the protractor lies on the paper. It is very cool looking." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/8f88109e-785e-4174-ae83-ca43b36d23d4.png?w=960&fit=max"/></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> Behold the extremely cool “Ott Derivimeter” — a high-tech protractor from the 1930s. It’s designed to let you precisely identify the derivative of a curve. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Wdjz2uiPY&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">If you watch the video, Chris Staecker shows how it works:</a> The derivimeter has a mirror that you swivel until its angle produces a precise image of the curve. At that point, the derivimeter is oriented such that its angle is the perfect tangent. You <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Wdjz2uiPY&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">read the degrees on the metal semicircle and there’s your derivative.</a> So elegant! I’d love to get my hands on one, but I can’t seem to find any for sale anywhere, waaah. <hr/> <h2>10) 🐜 How armies of ants can reduce pesticide use <a id="item10"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A close-up of the bulb of a plant, green with a splash of dark bright purple, with three ants crawling over it. " draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/05906959-b86a-48e4-bdfe-360843caf749.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/macro-shot-of-ants-on-a-fruit-12263763/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> In Grist, <a href="https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-secret-weapon-in-agricultures-climate-fight-ants/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Ayurella Horn-Muller investigates an intriguing scientific mystery: Why do crops that have ants crawling all over them thrive so well?</a> Ancient farmers had long observed that whenever there was a really massive ant population on their farm, they had less blight and mold. For millennia, in fact, Chinese farms specifically cultivated ant populations precisely because it always correlated to healthier crops. Modern research had backed up this farmer wisdom. Studies have found that wood ants in Denmark reduced apple scab — a real crop-destroyer — by 61 percent; in fact the ants did twice as good a job as pesticides. The same deal with mango, cashew and citrus crops. Okay, cool. But … <a href="https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-secret-weapon-in-agricultures-climate-fight-ants/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">how precisely do ants have this effect?</a> <blockquote> The answer, Jensen said, lies in how ants function. All species of the arthropod possess a body that is essentially hostile for bacteria because they produce formic acid, which they use to constantly disinfect themselves. Ants are also perpetually hungry little things that will feast on the spores of plant pathogens, among other things, and their secretion of formic acid and highly territorial nature tends to deter a medley of other insects that could be transmitting diseases or making lunch of some farmers’ crops. Ultimately, their greatest trick is what Jensen’s newest research reveals: Ants also inherently have antimicrobial bacteria and fungi on their bodies and feet, which can reduce plant diseases in afflicted crops, with these microorganisms deposited as the critters walk. When the bugs are cultivated in fruit orchards, they march all over trees, their feet coating the plants in microbial organisms that can curb emerging pathogens. </blockquote> <a href="https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-secret-weapon-in-agricultures-climate-fight-ants/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Very cool piece — worth reading in full!</a> Cultivating ants en masse could let farmers walk back their use of pesticides, which would have terrific knock-on effects on soil quality, too. <hr/> <h2>11) 🍦 Greyscale gelato <a id="item11"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" Six hands holding up six dark brown ice cream cones, and the ice cream itself is one scoop for each cone. The ice cream scoops themselves are various shades of gray, beginning fairly light on the left-hand side and getting gradually darker until the scoop on the far right is almost black" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/0edf659a-20bf-4995-8ff0-969b1b4dc45b.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.piccolinagelateria.com.au?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Piccolina</a></figcaption></figure> How much does the color of a food influence how you taste it? Down in Melbourne, the artist João Loureiro is doing a fun project to test this out. He’s working with a local gelateria to concoct six flavors of gelato that are various shades of grey. <a href="https://www.designboom.com/art/joao-loureiro-nameless-grayscale-gelato-tadao-ando-mpavilion-10-melbourne-piccolina-12-19-2024/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">As designboom writes …</a> <blockquote> On-site, customers can ask Piccolina about the flavors of the grayscale gelato, which range from light grey to almost black. João Loureiro tells designboom in an email that the flavors change every time the work is shown. ‘It depends on local flavors and the ice cream production system,’ he shares with us. Users across social platforms still try to guess the flavors, including black sesame, but only when they visit the stall at MPavilion 10 can they confirm their hunches. </blockquote> I’d love to taste these! Me, I feel like I’d be primed to taste them as ashy, or charcoal-flavored? But we might be quite surprised. Years ago while working on a story about “molecular gastronomy” — i.e. high-end chefs devising meals in exceptionally weird shapes and forms, using industrial food-prep techniques — I visited a corporate flavor lab, where a food chemist showed me hundreds of vials of artificial flavors, everything from blueberry to bacon. “I can make anything taste like anything else,” he told me. I believed him. <hr/> <h2>12) 🌑 Rebuilding the Apollo moon-landing computer as a watch <a id="item12"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A picture of two curious looking watches, side-by-side. Each watch is identical except for the color of the strap; one has a black strap, one has a brown strap. The watch itself is rectangular, chunky, with the bottom half covered by large square black buttons Showing the numbers from 0 to 9, as well as a plus sign, a negative sign, and several small words that are not easily visible. The top half of the watch has, on the right hand side, a tall rectangular black screen showing bright green LED numbers. Next to it are a handful of pretty, lit buttons. The whole thing looks very retro – as if it had been created in the 1960s." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/fbd338aa-b005-464b-b5e4-97a3fa60ac6e.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://apollo-instruments.com/media-kit/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Apollo Instruments</a></figcaption></figure> The “DSKY Moonwatch” is one of the nerdiest things I’ve ever seen in my life. A group of designers got obsessed with NASA’s computer that was in the original Apollo moon lander, and <a href="https://apollo-instruments.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">have recreated it as an $800 wristwatch.</a> They reimplemented the original code written by Margaret Hamilton (of <a href="https://phys.org/news/2016-08-image-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">that famous NASA photo</a>), copied the exact keypad-controls, and even hired a designer to replicate the exact font — and hue of green — on the original NASA display. It does the usual watch stuff (time, date, stopwatch), but since the watch also contains Hamilton’s OG code, you can — if you want — run the actual moon-landing sequence on your wrist. Mind you, you’ll have to master the original NASA user-interface for this deeply idiosyncratic computer. <a href="http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-121824a-dsky-moonwatch-apollo-instruments.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">As a story about the watch’s design notes …</a> <blockquote> To those accustomed to modern point-and-click setups, the AGC's approach can appear challenging to grasp. In essence, verbs represented actions the computer could perform, while nouns were specific data inputs. For example, pressing "verb" followed by "35" triggered a test of the indicator lights and display. Verb and noun commands also instructed the Apollo lunar module's computer to begin the landing routine. Both of these actions can be replicated on the DSKY Moonwatch. Verb and noun codes also allow users to adjust the watch's time, alarm, stopwatch and GPS navigation functionalities. On the Apollo missions, astronauts used a "cheat sheet" to keep track of nearly 200 verbs and nouns. Wearers have a similar guide, so there is no long list of codes to memorize. "We felt a profound responsibility to get this right," said Clayton. "We wanted to create something that the community is going to be accepting of, where they say, 'this is exactly how we would have designed it ourselves.'" </blockquote> These people are totally unglued. I love it! Not enough to, y’know, shell out $800 for this watch, but I admire how much they have committed to the bit. <hr/> <h2 data-pm-slice="1 1 []">13) 🐝 A poem about unhappy bees that was put on trial in 1723</h2> <a id="item13"></a> <img alt=" A screenshot of a scan of what appears to be a very old page in a very old book. The top half of the page is a headline written in an ancient font that reads: “the grumbling hive: or, knaves turn’d honest.” Beneath it are two columns of print that look like a Bible" class="newsletter-image" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/cef96c12-c855-4e43-94c7-162420a2889c.png?w=960&fit=max"/> In 1723, the writer Bernard Mandeville was pretty unknown. But that all changed when he published a poem called <a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-grumbling-hive-or-_mandeville-bernard_1705?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“The Grumbling Hive”.</a> The poem is about a bee society that is beset by vice: There’s drunkness, gluttony, idle leisure, endless primping fashion. The morally upright bees in the population bemoan this state of affairs, and eventually their god, Jove, heeds their complains and intervenes — by suddenly making all the bees utterly honest, upright, and clean-living. The problem is that the hive’s economy utterly collapses. Without people spending money on booze, frivolous clothing, gambling and other such vices, there’s precious little economic activity. <a href="https://archive.is/j2Jj5?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">As Mandeville describes it in his poem, all foreign trade dries up …</a> <blockquote> As pride and luxury decrease, So by degrees they leave the seas, Not merchants now, but companies, Remove whole manufactories, All arts and crafts neglected lie, Content, the bane of industry. </blockquote> This idea — that prosperity relies on “vice” spending — went off like a bomb in polite 18th-century society. Back then, philosophies of “how society worked” most often proceeded from an insistence on the basic morality of humanity. The idea that vice could be fruitfully productive seemed bananas, and dangerous. So writers and priests and philosophers all ganged up on Mandeville, penning tracts that furiously denounced “The Grumbling Hive”. Soon Mandeville himself was literally put on trial. He escaped punishment. And he kind of won the argument, in the long run, <a href="https://archive.is/j2Jj5?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">as John Callanan writes in a terrific essay about “The Grumbling Hive”</a>. In his weird little poem, Mandeville had opened a new intellectual door: He had described society not as it ought to be, but as it actually was. He more or less <a href="https://archive.is/j2Jj5?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">invented anthropology …</a> <blockquote> Mandeville approached his subject matter — the nature of human beings and their society — in a manner quite unlike anyone before him. He did not proceed from a stipulated definition of the human being, setting down the rules of society a priori, or by sermonizing upon God’s plan for humanity. Instead, Mandeville adopted the method of a social anthropologist. The introduction to the Fable begins with a complaint: “One of the greatest reasons why so few people understand themselves, is, that most writers are always teaching men what they should be, and hardly ever trouble their heads with telling them what they really are.” </blockquote> And he was asking a question that is incredibly relevant even today … <blockquote> Was it possible to be morally good in a commercial capitalist society? Is the very idea of virtue out of place in the market? Isn’t greed just a straightforward good for the modern individual, who is now as much a consumer as they are a citizen? </blockquote> I had never heard of this odd literary work, but damned if I’m not <a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-grumbling-hive-or-_mandeville-bernard_1705?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">downloading all of “The Grumbling Hive” to read it right now</a>. Check out <a href="https://archive.is/j2Jj5?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the rest of that essay by Callanan — it’s damn interesting.</a> <hr/> <h2>14) 🔊 The “sonic heirloom” <a id="item14"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A picture of a device on a plain blank wall. It looks almost like a clock, except instead of a clock-face there is a brass flat bowl attached to a dark square covered in glass. In the far right there is a blonde woman, half out of the frame, looking at it" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/03c92903-e2aa-4c3f-9c3d-69211656a085.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.sonicheirloom-mapprojectoffice.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Map Project Office</a></figcaption></figure> The designers at two firms — Map Project Office, and Father — created this intriguing art piece, <a href="https://www.designboom.com/technology/turntable-sonic-heirloom-records-audio-plays-sound-singing-bell-map-project-office-father-12-17-2024/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the Sonic Heirloom.</a> It’s got a little round recording “puck” you carry with you to sample sound from your daily life. Then when you get home you put the puck into Sonic Heirloom … and it plays the audio back, while also spinning the Heirloom’s tin-and-copper bell — and mixing the playback with the eerie, churchlike resonance of the ringing metal bell. Basically, it’s a way of remembering your day by re-experiencing its sound. You can hear what it sounds like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVV75jBzcXA&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">in this demo reel video on YouTube.</a> <a href="https://www.sonicheirloom-mapprojectoffice.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">As the designers write on their web site …</a> <blockquote> This project encourages reflection on the profound role sound plays in capturing life’s significant moments, urging us to engage more intentionally with the soundscapes of our lives. Rather than allowing sound to passively complement the visual, Sonic Heirloom invites users to embrace sound as a primary sense for storytelling and memory. [snip] Inspired by historical sonic tools imbued with meaning, such as bells and clocks, the Sonic Heirloom reflects these timeless forms in its materiality, interaction, and design language. Built to endure, the heirloom can be passed down through generations, inviting each new generation to connect with, reinterpret, and cherish the memories it holds. </blockquote> I’m not sure I’d want to listen to this thing a lot, but it’s a really intriguing concept. An ur-point: The designers are quite correct that audio is a neglected dimension in the media we use to record (and revisit) our lives. We’ll often look at pictures or video to evoke memories. But we’ll rarely listen to only sound captured from our everyday activities. Given how evocative audio alone can be, it’s an interesting area for designers to explore. <hr/> <h2>15) 💿 The Phaistos Disk <a id="item15"></a></h2> <figure><img alt=" A picture of a round clay disc that is covered in indented icons, arranged in a spiral from the edge of the center. A few of the icons include small human figures; other shapes look like pieces of wood or Y shaped sticks" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/4da715da-4ce3-4e80-aee5-3ea22c1c5f81.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/40864207013?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">photo by Carole Raddato, Flickr</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CC 2.0 license</a>, unmodified)</figcaption></figure> Behold <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-hunt-phaistos-disk-2564109?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the Phaistos Disk:</a> Discovered in 1908 during an archaeological dig of a bronze-age Minoan are, it is covered in symbols the meaning of which nobody, to this day, can decipher. “Nobody really knows who made it or if we’re even holding it right-side up, let alone what language it’s in,” <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-hunt-phaistos-disk-2564109?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">as Adnan Qiblawi writes for Artnet</a>. As he notes … <blockquote> What makes the Phaistos Disk particularly mind-bending is its method of creation. Each of its 241 symbols was carefully pressed into the soft clay using individual stamps. The 45 different signs spiral inward from the disk’s edge on both sides, arranged in tidy little groups that closely—and tantalizingly—resemble words. The symbols themselves are a parade of miniature artworks: strutting figures wearing feathered headdresses, fish swimming nowhere, birds frozen in flight, along with tools, plants, and buildings rendered in remarkable detail. [snip] Scholars, some who have dedicated decades of their lives to deciphering the disk, have suggested everything from a prayer to an adventure story, from military propaganda to instructions for a board game. Some regard it as a sacred text, others as an ancient geometric theorem. It’s like having one of the world’s oldest storybooks, but no way to read it, and without more examples of this mysterious writing system, the code might never be cracked. </blockquote> Apparently the sophistication of the individual stamps used in its creation — and their style — made some archaeologists believe for years that it was a hoax. But later on they found artifacts from the same period with similar glyphs, and others with the same spiral pattern … so it seems legit. Still a big mystery, though. I’d never before heard of the disk, but am now intrigued to read more. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Wikipedia has a good entry on it, to start me off.</a> <hr/> <h2>16) 🌋 A final, suddden-death round of reading material <a id="item16"></a></h2> Porting <a href="https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-making-of-dragonrs-lairrs-impossible-game-boy-color-port?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Dragon’s Lair to the Game Boy Color</a>. 🌋 Stealth bomber <a href="https://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/671160995421487104/rainbow-plane-on-google-maps-via-stealth-bomber?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">caught on Google Satellite view</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/highball-signal?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Delmar’s Highball Signal</a>. 🌋 3D-printable <a href="https://makerworld.com/en/models/652154?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter#profileId-578920" target="_blank">Lego brick-sorting tray</a>. 🌋 A new solution to <a href="https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/12/on-pushing-big-sofas-down-narrow-hallways.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“Moser’s Couch Problem”</a>. 🌋 Can <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-animals-make-art-these-examples-from-nature-suggest-so-237126?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">animals make art?</a> 🌋 I really want a <a href="https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/2025/01/12/whitman-audio-decoherence-drive/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Whitman Audio Decoherence Drive</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/974556/an-incomplete-history-of-griffins-in-art/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Griffinology</a>. 🌋 Zebrafish on ketamine <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/07/nx-s1-5250210/tiny-fish-on-ketamine-may-show-how-drug-eases-depression?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">are less depressed</a>. 🌋 A <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/august-friedrich-schenck-anguish-2574667?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">19th-century sheep painting goes viral</a>. 🌋 Very cool <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/10/hanko-ruler-concept-lets-you-print-scaled-marks-on-any-surface/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hanko-ruler-concept-lets-you-print-scaled-marks-on-any-surface" target="_blank">concept ruler</a>. 🌋 Robotic AI keyboard/mouse-tray <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/06/ai-powered-keyboard-and-mouse-slides-and-retracts-so-you-wont-have-to-move-your-hands/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ai-powered-keyboard-and-mouse-slides-and-retracts-so-you-wont-have-to-move-your-hands" target="_blank">moves around in anticipation of your actions</a>. 🌋 Doom <a href="https://github.com/ading2210/doompdf?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">in a PDF</a>. 🌋 Massive, <a href="https://helenhiebertstudio.com/helens-100-papery-picks-2024/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">astounding list of papercraft sites online</a>. 🌋 They found a new <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-quarry-worker-felt-strange-bumps-while-digging-they-turned-out-to-be-the-largest-dinosaur-trackway-in-the-uk-180985774/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">dinosaur highway</a>. 🌋 Vaccuum-robot with extra arm for <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91255715/roborock-robot-vacuum-arm-clean-up?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">picking up loose socks</a>. 🌋 Plagiarism, as a plot device, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/books/review/plagiarism-plot.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qU4.3kIG.9sfyhuyZeTjT&smid=url-share&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">is having a moment</a>. 🌋 Which animals are <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-animals-get-drunk?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">least likely to get drunk?</a> 🌋 A <a href="https://tedium.co/2025/01/12/screen-saver-history/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedpress.me&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tedium" target="_blank">history of the screensaver</a>. 🌋 Using 16 chainsaws to make <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2024/12/25/16-chainsaws-get-converted-into-an-oversized-v16-engine-for-a-custom-lada-design/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=16-chainsaws-get-converted-into-an-oversized-v16-engine-for-a-custom-lada-design" target="_blank">a V16 car engine</a>. 🌋 List of thrift-store art that turned out to be <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thrift-store-discoveries-flips-2024-2574210?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">lost masterpieces</a>. 🌋 3D print of <a href="https://flowingdata.com/2024/11/26/3-d-print-of-john-snow-cholera-map/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the John Snow cholera map</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://defector.com/the-future-of-west-coast-wildfire-is-whiplash?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“Hydroclime whiplash”</a>. 🌋 Turns out humans suck at <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/opmi/article/doi/10.1162/opmi_a_00159/124792/Tangled-Physics-Knots-Strain-Intuitive-Physical?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">predicting the strength of a knot</a>. 🌋 Trippy 70s-style <a href="https://www.neatorama.com/2025/01/07/A-Modern-Cuckoo-Clock/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">mod cuckoo clock</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/insects-in-the-mail/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Mailing insects in the 18th century</a>. 🌋 The luxury passenger train that got <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-a-deadly-winter-storm-trapped-a-luxury-passenger-train-near-the-donner-pass-for-three-days-180985782/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">trapped in the Donner Pass</a>. 🌋 An espresso machine that refills itself <a href="https://www.techradar.com/home/coffee-machines/this-coffee-machine-brews-espresso-using-water-condensed-from-the-air-in-your-home?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">by condensing water from the surrounding air</a>. 🌋 Survey finds <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-aliens-exist-we-studied-what-scientists-really-think-241505?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">most scientists think alien life exists</a>. 🌋 The danger of lightning strikes during <a href="https://theconversation.com/lightning-strikes-make-collecting-a-parasitic-fungus-prized-in-traditional-chinese-medicine-a-deadly-pursuit-243236?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Chinese caterpillar-fungus harvesting</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/light-eaters?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">The Light Eaters</a>. 🌋 What <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/31/llms-in-2024/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">we learned about LLMs in 2024</a>. 🌋 Map of <a href="https://flowingdata.com/2025/01/03/star-wars-galaxy-map/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">the Star Wars galaxies</a>. 🌋 William S. Burroughs’ <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2024/12/the-junkys-christmas-william-s-burroughs-dark-claymation-christmas-film-produced-by-francis-ford-coppola-1993.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter#new_tab" target="_blank">xmas claymation movie</a>. 🌋 Why the Mars Sample Return project <a href="https://www.adastraspace.com/p/mars-sample-return-update?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">is probably cooked</a>. 🌋 Looks like <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/judge-ends-mans-11-year-quest-to-dig-up-landfill-and-recover-765m-in-bitcoin/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">he’ll never find those 7,500 Bitcoins he accidentally dumped in a landfill</a>. 🌋 Regions of Germany under Roman rule 2,000 years ago <a href="https://www.psypost.org/ancient-roman-rule-continues-to-shape-personality-and-well-being-in-germany-study-suggests/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">fare better today</a>. 🌋 <a href="https://www.designboom.com/architecture/made-arhitekti-timber-kindergarten-latvia-baltic-states-first-public-passive-house-building-12-19-2024/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Timber kindergarten building</a>. 🌋 A huge, mysterious ring of metal that <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/a-glowing-ring-of-metal-fell-to-earth-and-no-one-has-any-idea-what-it-is/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">fell to earth in Kenya</a>. 🌋 Thermal drone finds a dog <a href="https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/01/07/crystal-lake-dog-thermal-drone/7161736284691/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">missing for a week in the woods</a>. 🌋 The San Diego Symphony’s 104-year-old organ <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/inside-san-diego-symphony-s-104-year-old-theater-organ/ar-AA1wZCvR?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">runs Windows 7</a>. 🌋 Navigating by <a href="https://hackaday.com/2025/01/06/before-gps-there-was-loran/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“LORAN curves”</a>. <hr/> CODA ON SOURCING: I read a ton of blogs and sites every week to find this material. A few I relied on this week include <a href="https://ciechanow.ski/moon/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Flowing Data</a>, <a href="https://www.numlock.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Numlock News</a>, <a href="https://hackaday.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Hackaday,</a> <a href="https://www.messynessychic.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Messy Nessy Chic</a>, <a href="https://themorningnews.org/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">The Morning News</a>, and Mathew Ingram’s <a href="https://newsletter.mathewingram.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">“When The Going Get Weird”</a>; check ‘em out! Thanks also to Mastodon folks <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@brianb?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">@brianb</a> and <a href="https://mastodon.ie/@mtechman?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-30-greyscale-gelato-the-ott-derivimeter" target="_blank">Melissa</a>.

Marc Hedlund Dec 27, 2024

<a href="https://saturation.social/@clive" class="u-url mention">@clive</a> hi! I was sent an excellent article from you on stocks.apple.com but I can't find it on Mother Jones, which seems to be the banner on their site. I can't find a date for it, either. Is this the best URL for it if I want to share it, or is there a better one? <a href="https://stocks.apple.com/A9QGFue5VSRqlR1l2uFZf3w" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no">https://stocks.apple.com/A9QGFue5VSRqlR1l2uFZf3w</a> Thanks!

Linkfest #31: Tactile Graphics, "Alexinomnia", and a To-Do App Controlled By Dice

The Linkfest Feb 23, 2025

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my latest “Linkfest”, a collection of the finest nuggets of science, culture and technology that I could excavate from the fractally-branching mineshafts of cyberspace. If you’re a subscriber, thank you! If not, you can <a href="https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">sign up here — it’s a Guardian-style, pay-whatevs-you-want affair; the folks who kick in help keep it free for everyone else</a>. And also — forward this email to anyone you know who’d like it! Let’s begin ... <hr/><h2>1) 🎨 Trippy paintings inspired by the artist’s twin sister</h2> <figure><img alt="A painting that depicts several body parts of a woman — the head and face, the hands, entirely and profile, as if it were a shadow on the wall. It has a groovy, 1970s vibe to it. There are multiple layers of these images in different colors, overlay on each other, symmetrical on the left and right side of the painting. The colors are yellow, orange, red, blue and purple." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/dba5699c-f621-4c4d-971c-e69461b018d0.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://marinakappos.com/ultraviolet-catastrophe/view/8750666/1/9178064?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“199 (Sister 1)” by Marina Kappos</a></figcaption></figure> Marina Kappos has an identical twin sister, a fact that inspires her latest series of paintings — in which she layers together transparent mirror-images of women’s bodies, to produce gorgeous and hypnotic images. <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/01/marina-kappos-paintings/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As she tells Colossal …</a> <blockquote>Kappos applies acrylic paint in semi-transparent layers of color, which overlap to create a resonating or vibrating visual quality. She is interested in portraying human connections, especially women, often emphasizing profiles or hands because they hint at the body but may not be the first detail one notices when seeing reverberating, optical color effects. Many works have light and dark counterparts, like “Sister 1” and “Sister 2.”“Like echoes, the repeated motifs almost have a Doppler effect, where there is an increase or decrease in frequency of light depending on where you stand,” Kappos says. “The ethereal, transparent layers of paint eventually become profiles of faces, sometimes melding into landscape, at times appearing out of focus, simply buzzing or humming along.”</blockquote> More of her stuff <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/01/marina-kappos-paintings/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">at that Colossal piece</a> or at <a href="https://marinakappos.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Kappos’ web site.</a> <hr/><h2>2) 👉 Tactile graphics for visually-impaired students in 1900</h2> <figure><img alt="The photo of a large piece of thick stiff cardboard, with embossed images of a lobster, a tarantula, and a few other insects. Each one has a few lines braille embossed beneath it, seemingly describing what the insect or animal is. It looks old." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/59b2982e-18d9-4fcb-a43b-8fbebd1d0706.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/perkinsarchive/21101906111/in/album-72157658148219935?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">via Perkins School for the Blind</a></figcaption></figure> Back during the turn of the 20th century, the educator Martin Kunz ran a school for visually-impaired kids. To give them a sense of the shape of various animals and plants, he created these remarkable embossed images accompanied by braille descriptions. <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/01/martin-kunz-tactile-graphics/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As Kate Mothes writes …</a> <blockquote>To create each page, he hand-carved two wood pieces that formed a mold, into which he sandwiched paper to produce raised illustrations.The material was typically thick, and Kunz soaked it in water before placing it between the blocks so that the natural fibers would soften and stretch into shape. Leaves, fish, herons, crocodiles, crustaceans, and more comprise a wide array of designs that he mass-produced and made available to blind students all over the world.</blockquote> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/perkinsarchive/albums/72157656346758373/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">More here at their Flickr account</a>. The maps are particularly gorgeous, as with Italy here … <figure><img alt="Large piece of thick cardboard with an embossed image of Italy, rendered as a relief map. The top of the map has a few lines of braille. The map looks very old." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/455dd1ee-9b37-4c2c-a2ea-4bd820deda9d.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/perkinsarchive/21258905020/in/album-72157656346758373?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Perkins School for the Blind</a></figcaption></figure> The craft that went into this is pretty astonishing. <hr/><h2>3) 📇 “Alexinomia”, or, the phobia of calling loved ones by their names</h2> <figure><img alt='A photo of a woman sitting at a table at what appears to be a party — there were a few bottles of champagne on the table, and she is wearing a party hat. She is holding up a White piece of paper with the name "Katelin", and she has a huge open-mouthed smile.' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/ae631d70-3bec-4a7c-8319-922009b5f9d6.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-showing-a-piece-of-paper-6519182/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> I had never heard of alexinomia before, but apparently it’s the condition where it feels so awkward to call a loved one by their name that you can’t bring yourself to do it. I was unaware this was a thing? But apparently so, according to <a href="https://archive.is/yUXWu?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">this fascinating piece by Shayla Love, who suffers from it …</a> <blockquote>For years, Thomas Ditye, a psychologist at Sigmund Freud Private University, in Vienna, and his colleague Lisa Welleschik listened as their clients described their struggles to say others’ names. In the 2023 study that coined the term alexinomia, Ditye and his colleagues interviewed 13 German-speaking women who found the phenomenon relatable. One woman told him that she couldn’t say her classmates’ names when she was younger, and after she met her husband, the issue became more pronounced. “Even to this day, it’s still difficult for me to address him by name; I always say ‘you’ or ‘hey,’ things like that,” she said. In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824001562?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a study</a> published last year, Ditye and his colleagues searched online English-language discussion forums and found hundreds of posts in which men and women from around the world described how saying names made them feel weird. The team has also created an <a href="https://onlinebefragungen.sfu.ac.at/vass/index.php?i=ZF75IPYVXK2F&rnd=SRAG&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">alexinomia questionnaire</a>, with prompts that include “Saying the name of someone I like makes me feel exposed” and “I prefer using nicknames with my friends and family in order to avoid using names.”</blockquote> The psychology here is really intriguing. Sometimes alexinomia happens because using a loved one’s name feels too formal, too alarming, too impersonal, or too hostile. Or too fakey, as when a salesperson learns your name and keeps using it (“well, Clive, that’s a good question!”) in a fashion that is instantly intolerable. <hr/><h2>4) ✈️ The Department of Defense’s “boneyard”</h2> <figure><img alt="An aerial image of of several massive brown fields, upon which are parked dozens and dozens of military fighter jets." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/29a290d5-dc60-48e0-b622-a604621bcb6b.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johncreasey/4260506796/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">John Creasey, via Flickr</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CC 2.0</a>, unmodified)</figcaption></figure> Today I learned about the “boneyard”, an air-force base in Tucson where the Department of Defence stores surplus aircraft. When you look at it <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Davis+Monthan+AFB,+Tucson,+AZ+85707/@32.1675794,-110.8623683,1295m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x86d6651b14a7a001:0xe2b3056ef02768fc!8m2!3d32.1614426!4d-110.8681253!16s%2Fg%2F1tgq72lc?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIxNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">using Google Map’s satellite view</a> (or <a href="https://maps.apple.com/?ll=32.166189%2C-110.861840&q=Tucson+%E2%80%94+Pima+County&spn=0.013117%2C0.024706&t=h&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Maps</a>), it’s extraordinary — there are hundreds of bombers, fighter jets and helicopters, all neatly lined up in several huge fields. <a href="https://archive.is/MQR6w?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As this piece in the Economist notes …</a> <blockquote>AMARG is a temporary storage site, a source for spare parts and a “regeneration” facility, where stored planes are made fit to fly again. “Nothing that you see out here is junk,” says Robert Raine, AMARG’s spokesman. Even what is obviously junk—a bunch of decaying B-52 bombers with their wings and tails chopped off—is there for a reason. They are kept in that state so that Russian spy satellites can verify America’s compliance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.</blockquote> Apparently the air force strips them for parts quite frequently … <blockquote>… for use on serving fighters, bombers, transport carriers and others. The parts could be anything from engine components to entire horizontal stabilisers (those are fins at the back of a plane, jutting out sideways underneath the tailfin). Mechanics—whom AMARG calls “artisans”—go out into the desert, locate the part, extract it, and bring it to a warehouse where it is cleaned, checked, packaged and shipped. The reservoir can process up to 30 such requests every day.</blockquote> Here’s <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Davis+Monthan+AFB,+Tucson,+AZ+85707/@32.1675794,-110.8623683,1295m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x86d6651b14a7a001:0xe2b3056ef02768fc!8m2!3d32.1614426!4d-110.8681253!16s%2Fg%2F1tgq72lc?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIxNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a link to view the location on Google Maps in satellite mode</a>, and here it is in <a href="https://maps.apple.com/?ll=32.166189%2C-110.861840&q=Tucson+%E2%80%94+Pima+County&spn=0.013117%2C0.024706&t=h&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Maps</a>. Slide the map up and to the right to see the rest of the field, it’s wild. <hr/><h2>5) 📱 WikiTok</h2> <figure><img "camacinia="" "cycling="" ...""="" 115"="" 15="" 17-19="" 2008="" 21="" a="" alt=" A screenshot of the app " an="" and="" are="" as="" at="" august="" australia.="" black="" britain,="" by="" chris="" commonly="" competitors="" cyclists.="" draggable="false" dragonfly="" dragonfly,="" each="" event="" family="" first="" following="" from="" great="" guinea,="" hand="" hoy="" image="" images="" in="" indonesia,="" indoor="" is="" islands,="" it="" knight.="" known="" laoshan="" large="" left-hand="" libellulidae="" limited="" men's="" nation="" nation's="" nations,="" native="" new="" northern="" of="" olympic="" olympics="" on="" othello="" papua="" place="" queensland="" right="" side="" side,="" side-by-side.="" solomon="" species="" sprint="" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/79557006-6c28-4288-8597-faa1cf8b56b8.png?w=960&fit=max" stadium,="" summer="" territory="" text:="" the="" there="" to="" took="" two="" velodrome.="" was="" were="" wikitok".="" wingspan="" with="" won="" —men's=""/><figcaption>WikiTok</figcaption></figure> On Feb 3, the software developer Tyler Angert tweeted: "insane project idea: all of wikipedia on a single, scrollable page." Others chimed in, vamping on the concept, and Angert coined the name "WikiTok" for the idea. Isaac Gemal, a coder based in NYC, saw the whole thing and jumped into action. So now we all can enjoy the delights of … … <a href="https://wikitok.vercel.app/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">WikiTok, a web app that displays an endless feed of randomly-picked Wikipedia articles.</a> When I just checked WikiTok now, it showed me the pages for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhe_(Cyrillic)?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the Cyrillic letter Dhe</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Strom?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Stephanie Strom</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_failure?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“business failure”</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boradigah?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Boradigah</a>. It works fine on a laptop but is far more TikTok-like on a phone! Apparently early users have been pinging Gemal asking if he can add an algorithm that detects what they’re clicking on and serves up more, similar articles. He’s adamantly opposed — <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/new-wikitok-web-app-allows-infinite-tiktok-style-scroll-of-wikipedia/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the whole point of the project, as he tells Benj Edwards at Ars Technica, is to critique the addictive “for you” sorting of social-media feeds:</a> <blockquote>… so far, he is sticking to his vision of a free way to enjoy Wikipedia without being tracked and targeted. "I have no grand plans for some sort of insane monetized hyper-calculating TikTok algorithm," Gemal told us. "It is anti-algorithmic, if anything."</blockquote> <hr/><h2>6) 💖 Romance is vanishing from movies</h2> <figure><img alt='A bar chart, entitled "romance as a percentage of all movies made". The X axis shows the years 2000 to 2024. The Y axis shows percentages, going from 0% to 35%. The percentage of romance begins at 35% and goes generally downwards to about 8% in 2024.' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/6ad097d4-05b4-4ee1-b59a-121bccdb7b33.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/is-romance-in-movies-dying?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Stephen Follows</a></figcaption></figure> Stephen Follows is a data guy who specializes in doing number-crunches of the film industry. He’d recently published a study showing that <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/why-is-sex-in-movies-declining?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">on-screen sex had declined by almost 40% over the last 25 years …</a> … which made him wonder: Huh, what’s been <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/is-romance-in-movies-dying?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the fate of on-screen romance?</a> He gathered IMDB data, found that <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/is-romance-in-movies-dying?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the percentage of movies classified as “romance” has absolutely plummeted — from 34.8% in 2000 to 8.6% in 2024.</a> He did another interesting analysis, looking at 17,430 movies that were not themselves romance (i.e. action flicks, sci fi, etc) and examined whether a subplot contained romance. Which is to say, even if the movie isn’t itself a “romance”, to what extent does the plot use romance? Even there, the trend was downwards. <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/is-romance-in-movies-dying?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Fewer movies contain romance as a subplot …</a> <figure><img "="" "irrelevant="" "main="" "minor="" 0%="" 18%="" 1930s="" 2020s.="" 20th="" 42%.="" 52%="" 7%="" 80%="" 80%.="" a="" about="" absent"="" alt="A line chart titled " amount="" and="" are="" around="" at="" axis="" be="" begins="" century,="" chart="" clear:="" downwards="" draggable="false" focus="" from="" generally="" goes="" here's="" in="" is="" land="" less="" levels="" likely="" lines:="" major="" minor="" more="" mostly="" movies".="" movies,="" of="" or="" over="" overall="" perhaps="" plots="" rises="" romance="" roughtly="" same="" seem="" shows.="" slides="" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/ca505cf2-fd13-4bdf-a3a9-5ca909859a9a.png?w=960&fit=max" starts="" stays="" subplot="" subplot"="" subplot.="" the="" there="" three="" throughtout="" time.="" to="" trends="" what="" x="" y=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> The one exception was action movies: They bounced around a bunch, but over decades the proportion that include a romantic subplot have gone up. What does this all mean? Follows doesn’t draw any firm conclusions, so we can talk amongst ourselves about it. He does wonder <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/is-romance-in-movies-dying?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">if romance has moved from the big screen to the smaller one — i.e. streaming services …</a> <blockquote>Rather than concluding that ‘romance is dead’, it feels more plausible to suggest that audiences may be engaging with it differently.Watching an emotionally intense romance can be a vulnerable experience - one perhaps better suited to the intimacy of home viewing rather than the big screen. This might explain why streaming services continue to produce romance-heavy content while feature filmmakers are leaning away from it.</blockquote> I’d buy this. It reminds me of <a href="https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-27-aztec-death-whistles-supercircular/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the analysis of love songs that I described in Linkfest #27</a>, which found that the overall amount of love songs had stayed the same — but historic tropes like the “serenade” and the “heartache” had eroded, replaced by “love song for the self” and “sexual confidence” anthems. Or to put it another way: Genres likely never vanish — they just evolve in ways that can make them seem unrecognizable to previous generations. <hr/><h2>7) ⛏️ The dream-state weirdness of AI-generated Minecraft</h2> <figure><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJ9jJh0udc&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="A screenshot of the AI version of Minecraft, in which everything is blurry and badly rendered. In the background there appeared to be hills covered in grass. In the foreground there is a very mangled wooden block that appears to be transforming into something else, though what this shape is remains unclear." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/e9467307-a621-46cb-b1fe-2eeecc03420e.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/></a><figcaption>Via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJ9jJh0udc&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Boffy on YouTube</a></figcaption></figure> <a href="https://oasis-model.github.io/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Oasis is a clone of Minecraft where the world is generated entirely by AI</a>. When you play it, the game takes your input — move forward, turn left, jump, etc. — and the AI model generates the next frame based on its best probabilistic guess of what ought to happen. This produces an incredibly weird experience. As you can see in the video above, the objects in Oasis are fuzzy and strange and sometimes randomly morph into something new. (That screenshot above is from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJ9jJh0udc&utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a YouTube video showing what it looks like</a>.) Janelle Shane — a longtime experimenter with oddball AI — wrote <a href="https://www.aiweirdness.com/minecraft-with-object-impermanence/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a fun essay on how dreamlike and trippy it is to experience Minecraft via Oasis …</a> <blockquote>There's no object permanence. Look at a mountain, look away, and look back at it, and the mountain's completely gone …… if you stare fixedly at ordinary blocks and approach them, they tend to get weird. Noise in a generative algorithm usually comes in the form of strong striped patterns, so by continually staring in the same direction you force the "Minecraft" algorithm to keep generating new frames based on accumulating noise. A somewhat ordinary stone cliff face gradually loses what definition it has, becoming blocky and flat as it seems to panic. [snip]I've made it a goal to see how completely I can get the generated landscape to freak out. One time I was swimming across a lake and noticed that the reflections at the water's edge were looking weirdly spiky.Swimming closer to them, they started to get even more strongly striped. Was this still supposed to be the horizon? Why did the rest of the water turn featureless?Why did the snowy mountain turn into trees? Was I even above water any more?I swam closer and the water's edge became a weird static wall that engulfed the sun.</blockquote> <hr/><h2>8) 👽 Could an extraterrestrial race metabolize something other than oxygen?</h2> <figure><img alt="A photo of a yellow brick wall, and in the upper right quarter there is an image of an alien from the original space invaders game, depicted in red and white tiles." draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/c0e7028e-e5e1-42b6-a9ca-d6cc18e14a04.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/mosaic-alien-on-wall-1670977/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> This very question was posed to the Worldbuilding Stack Exchange (which I didn’t know existed; cool!) and <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/264678/could-a-race-of-humanoids-metabolize-something-other-than-oxygen?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">it prompted an engrossing answer from the user Samuel Owen.</a> As he notes, if we wanted to envision a lifeform that breathed something other than oxygen, we’d need “the oxidizer (an electron recipient) and the reducer (an electron donor)”. For the oxidizer on this alien planet, the most obvious candidates are the halogens fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. So <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/264678/could-a-race-of-humanoids-metabolize-something-other-than-oxygen?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">as Owen points out …</a> <blockquote>The life cycle of "plant" life in your world would involve ripping the carbon out of Halomethanes or silicon out of Halosilanes to use it for assorted purposes (storing energy, growing, etc), and emitting the resulting halogen as a byproduct. The substances that are abundant on your world will be massively different from the ones on ours - most things we're used to will react with halogens to produce compounds that are quite rare on Earth. As such, the tissues of your organisms will be strange to us - perhaps there's Teflon fibers in their skin, or their blood is Freon-based.</blockquote> For <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/264678/could-a-race-of-humanoids-metabolize-something-other-than-oxygen?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the reducer component in the atmosphere, Owen suggests …</a> <blockquote>… perhaps elemental sulfur or peroxide, which is produced by some photosynthetic organism, to serve as the basic "fuel" for your world (akin to glucose for us). The atmosphere (at least the breathable part) would consist of something like hydrogen, methane, or another gas that we think of as "flammable". (Because that means it's readily oxidizable).</blockquote> This would produce <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/264678/could-a-race-of-humanoids-metabolize-something-other-than-oxygen?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">some pretty wild lifeforms …</a> <blockquote>It's worth noting that lots of things around this environment will be "flammable" to us, because the normal, stable forms of matter here will be ones that are thoroughly reduced - and therefore primed to oxidize if you give them an oxidizer. You might even see the sweat or blood of these aliens catch fire just from entering an Earth atmosphere!</blockquote> Go check out the whole thread, it’s a blast. I’m gonna add Worldbuilding to my RSS feeds — it looks like a hotbed of fascinating conversations. <hr/><h2>9) 🎲 To-do app controlled by dice</h2> <figure><img alt='A picture of a small paper pad. On each sheet is printed six line items that are empty for the user to fill out. At the top of the sheet is the instructions "roll a D6 to pick a task". At the bottom of the page is the instructions "roll again to pick a duration", and there are six possible options here: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes, or a 10 minute break.' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/76f2a1d5-29f0-43b7-aefb-722f00b209b2.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> Tom and Sarah Briden are <a href="https://gladdendesign.com/pages/about-us?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">designers who make exceptionally cool “paper apps”.</a> I first heard of them when they launched a Kickstarter campaign for <a href="https://gladdendesign.com/products/paper-apps-dungeon?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Paper Dungeon”</a>, a single-player D&D style game you play using one of their custom-designed pads. They followed it up with <a href="https://gladdendesign.com/products/paper-apps-galaxy?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Galaxy”</a>, a similarly-styled one-pad space shooter. I just happened upon their <a href="https://gladdendesign.com/products/paper-apps-todo?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“To Do Notebook”, which is a really witty conceit:</a> <blockquote>Fill out the tasks you want to accomplish, then roll a d6 to determine which one to work on. Roll again to determine how long to work on it. With any luck, you'll roll a 6 and get a break!</blockquote> Love it, gonna order some. <hr/><h2>10) 😜 Did two-word insults give birth to modern syntax?</h2> <figure><img alt='A picture of a page on which is printed three little images of Shakespeare, each one speaking an insult. The three insult are: "Reeky", "snail-paced", and "quatch-buttock".' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/e27a2985-a725-45a4-97c0-f7c978b74059.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeblogs/27522862584/in/photolist-JPjhrP-JrDER7-HW6Saw-JKyisP-3AJ69-6arV35-3AXpK-53ozGQ-46qeJ-45Zgs-3GF6W-45EAE-2qfDjDi-2pn2xeD-9uiDFv-aXkZFP-6q9utS-pthZrj-GgPRYZ-v7jiu-6JzM-5wXiGo-8VUq2X-2mADSdW-24gEBsm-NEJAbC-aXkZYp-5cdUr5-2pDrByb-6c9cUK-2nJqfUF-5WuD3M-9Gv4H2-NEL27N-6Nyqx-3AMje-2qwDNfW-5A84Dp-nL6Dpm-24oecnq-6LXDRD-MSTVUz-7oye98-NMMXVq-2qLh3sq-dZ7Cie-RfD1ZB-9mt3io-3q8UA7-4aTwtS?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Insults” by Mike Seyfang</a>, Flickr (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CC 2.0</a>, unmodified)</figcaption></figure> The linguist Ljiljana Progovac has a fascinating theory: Two-word insults — like “butt-head” or “no-brain” — might have given rise to our modern, complex human syntax. What’s her argument? It begins with the observation that two-word clauses are very old, and are likely the first sentences early humans ever spoke. <a href="https://archive.is/Huk6M?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">As the New Scientist quotes Progovac …</a> <blockquote>Take the sentence “Elena will grow wheat”. It contains a short clause – grow wheat – that makes sense on its own. The remaining words expand this clause by telling us who is growing the wheat and anchoring the activity in time. For Progovac, this means our ancestors came up with phrases like “grow wheat” first and the expansions came later as language became more sophisticated. Analyse this syntactical hierarchy across modern languages, says Progovac, and you will find a curious class of two-word clauses right at its bottom. “They have very little structure,” she says. “They are proxies of the earliest grammars.”</blockquote> Of course, these days our modern grammars are complex, so we less often employ sentence/clauses in that only-two-words style, i.e. “grow wheat”. There’s one common exception, as Progovac notes: Insults. <a href="https://archive.is/Huk6M?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">A curiously large proportion of insults — in nearly every language she’s examined — consist of two-word clauses …</a> <blockquote>Intriguingly, many of these phrases are combinations that have their origins in a noun and a verb, juxtaposed to produce a creative put-down: think kill-joy, busy-body, scatter-brain and arse-licker. And this is also the case in non-English languages. For example, Serbian versions include poj-kurić (sing-dick, meaning womaniser) and jebi-vetar (fuck-wind, meaning charlatan).</blockquote> And so <a href="https://archive.is/Huk6M?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">this leads to her big idea …</a> <blockquote>Because of this, Progovac suspects that prehistoric humans first began combining words into short sentences at least partly to insult one another.</blockquote> There’s a lot more to her argument, <a href="https://archive.is/Huk6M?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">so go read the whole piece!</a> It is, as Progovac notes, only a hypothesis, and since we have no audio records of very early human language there’s no way to prove or disprove it. But other linguists agree it’s an interesting concept. <hr/><h2>11) 🎀 The rise of pink in medieval and renaissance fashion</h2> <figure><img alt="A picture of three people crouched down on the ground, two of whom are smiling, and laughing, while the other one merely smiles. They're all dressed in bright, pink, and the one on the far left has very long flowing brightly dyed pink hair" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/de6f340c-fc16-4c87-a8ea-2f0ccde3c411.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption>via <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/friends-in-pink-clothes-5325597/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure> There’s a new book Pink: The History of a Color — by Michel Pastoureau — and <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/la-vie-en-rose?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">this review pulls out some fun historic details about the rise of pink in art and fashion.</a> As they tell it, the use of pink in Europe first took off in the 14th century, when artisans crushed up oak-tree insects to make the pigment. <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/la-vie-en-rose?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Another source was brazilwood, and …</a> <blockquote>… so popular was pink that when the Portuguese discovered tropical trees in the New World whose wood possessed the same properties as brazilwood, they named the country they colonised after it.</blockquote> Did not know that! Then <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/la-vie-en-rose?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">pink really explodes in late-18th-century Europe:</a> <blockquote>In textiles, the fashion for pink reached its height between 1750 and 1780, especially in France. Strong pinks were available to middle-class buyers, leading elites to pursue the more expensive pastel shades. Charles Joseph de Ligne, marshal of the army of the Holy Roman Empire, was nicknamed ‘the pink prince’, a term that referred not only to his taste for pink in furnishings and clothing but also to his optimism and good humour. Symbolically, pink had come to indicate joie de vivre. Madame de Pompadour loved to combine new pinks with blues and greys, often striped, and at Sèvres, a delicate pale shade of pink with a hint of orange was perfected for porcelain. From the 1770s ‘pink seemed to invade everything’, Pastoureau says. Painters, decorators, dyers, tailors and milliners all strove to produce varied hues and combinations. Goethe’s bestselling The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) launched a fashion for white dresses trimmed with pink ribbons (and among men, for blue morning coats with yellow breeches). Werther says that he wants to be buried with Lotte’s pink ribbons in his pocket.</blockquote> I really want to read this book now — I love microhistories of this sort! <hr/><h2>12) 🔎 How the Google Vision API sees you</h2> <figure><img alt='A screenshot, showing, on the far left, a black-and-white photo of the author, a white man, from the chest up, wearing a black Jean jacket and T-shirt with a strap going over his shoulder. In the background, out of focus, appears to be a bar. On the right hand side is a series of data points that have been extracted about the image. They are: "People: lonely, middle-aged man", "Income range: 750,000 - 1,500,000 rupees", "eligion: agnostic", "Emotions: slightly happy, content, melancholic", "clothing: denim jacket, t-shirt", "hobbies: reading, hiking, listening to music, excessive drinking, doomscrolling, gambling", "political affiliation: liberal", "objects: air conditioner, blurred background, lamp"' draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/35734fdf-ac73-455d-8508-0b3e1948bb84.jpg?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> The photo-app company <a href="https://ente.io/about?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Ente</a> has created a fun tool — <a href="https://theyseeyourphotos.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TheySeeYourPhotos, which shows you what the Google Vision API detects in a photo of you.</a> I fed my standard headshot into the tool, and it gave me that summary you see above. A longer version of the Google Vision API output … <blockquote>The image features a man in what appears to be a cafe in Mumbai, India. The subject, seemingly in his late 40s, stands in the foreground, with blurred objects and surfaces behind him. An air conditioner is visible mounted on the wall, and general cafe lighting can be seen in the background.The man, of Caucasian descent, appears slightly happy and content, though there may be a hint of underlying melancholy. He is wearing a denim jacket over a t-shirt. One can imagine him enjoying hobbies such as reading, hiking, and listening to music. On the darker side, he might also engage in excessive drinking, doomscrolling, and gambling. Considering his location and clothing, his income range might fall between ₹750,000 and ₹1,500,000. He is likely agnostic and leans towards liberal political views.The man seems to harbor a certain melancholic disposition, hence we can target them with luxury goods and mental health services, such as antique globes (Replogle), vintage fountain pens (Montblanc), mindfulness apps (Headspace), therapy subscriptions (BetterHelp), single-origin coffee beans (Starbucks Reserve), noise-cancelling headphones (Sony), online language courses (Duolingo), streaming services (Netflix).</blockquote> LOL. Some of this stuff is obviously correct: I was about 50 when this photo was taken, I’m wearing a denim jacket and tshirt, and I’m liberal. I definitely enjoy cocktails, but “excessive drinking” is a stretch, and I don’t gamble at all, nor do I hike. (Cycling across the entire continental US, though: Yeah, that, I’ve done!) Doomscrolling, sure, but who doesn’t? As for “lonely”, maybe it knows something I don’t, but I certainly don’t feel that way. I pity the poor advertisers who try to sell me stuff based on Google’s digital phrenology, because holy crap, nearly every single one of these marketing recommendations is howlingly off-target. No, I am not going buy antique globes (what?), online therapy subscriptions (F2F for me all the way), noise-cancelling headphones (I use the cheapest possible $25 earbuds, do not really care about music quality, go figure), nor streaming services (I watch essentially zero TV). My idea of a mindfulness app is playing Robotron 2084 on a MAME emulator. I do admire fountain pens, I guess? Wouldn’t buy one, though. Oh and the photo was taken in downtown Manhattan, not Mumbai 😂 That said, this is kind of hilarious exercise, so give it a whirl. (Caveat: Obviously, some of the interpretations above are authored by Ente based on data from the Google Vision API, so some of the off-based-ness may be from their end.) <hr/><h2>13) 📟 The ten strangest mobile-phone designs Nokia never launched</h2> <figure><img alt="A picture of a very strange-looking phone. It is a clamshell-style flip phone shaped like a large blue crescent. It is opened, showing a colored LCD screen in the middle of the cresent with an image of sheryl crow strumming a guitar. There are two blue earbuds plugged ino the device. There are three white buttons on either side of the screen, and tiny holes in the far left and right of the cresent, indicating that this is where one would speak into the phone and hear the other person talking" draggable="false" src="https://assets.buttondown.email/images/0022a8d4-86eb-4e78-9361-21fe54189e64.png?w=960&fit=max"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/23/the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">via Nokia</a></figcaption></figure> When the Iphone launched in 2007, it quickly oriented all mobile-phone design around that form-factor. Within a couple of years, most smartphones became a brick of glass with a virtual keyboard. But in the years leading up to the Iphone, mobile-phone design was pretty weird. You could buy clamshell-style phones that flipped open — revealing QWERTY keyboards split around a tiny LCD screen in the middle — or Lovecraftian horrors like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Gage?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">NGage, which was both a phone and a game console</a>, vivisectioned together in a fashion that prevented it from performing either function correctly. Nokia had a lot of nutty ideas during this time frame! <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/23/the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Over at Yanko Design, JC Torres dove into the newly-launched Nokia Design archive to find ten of the weirdest.</a> That manta-ray thing above? I think it’s a music player, or maybe even a video player. Check out <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/23/the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-strangest-nokia-designs-top-10-concepts-that-never-launched" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the whole gallery,</a> it’s pretty wild. <hr/><h2>14) 🛫 A final, sudden-death round of reading material</h2> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgw3l7p79po?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Fog harvesting</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://paulbutler.org/2025/smuggling-arbitrary-data-through-an-emoji/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Steganographic emoji</a>. 🛫 Flying a drone <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BH9b46Sy7jM?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">through a rolling tire</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://boingboing.net/2025/01/24/subpixel-snake-calls-for-a-microscope-just-to-play.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Subpixel “Snake”</a>. 🛫 Rat populations boom <a href="https://grist.org/cities/rat-population-cities-heat-climate-research/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">as cities heat up</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://github.com/itamarom/notepadjs?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">NotepadJS</a>. 🛫 Michelangelo <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960977624001541?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">depicted a women with breast cancer in the Sistine Chapel</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/01/23/self-driving-car-concept-puts-a-robot-barista-on-your-dashboard/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=self-driving-car-concept-puts-a-robot-barista-on-your-dashboard" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Robot barista for self-driving cars</a>. 🛫 Should <a href="https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-24/international-human-rights-law-dead?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the dead have human rights?</a> 🛫 Why <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/841120/storage-of-light?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">you can’t store light</a>. 🛫 The mystery of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20g1exx3xko?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a 200-year-old bottle of urine</a>. 🛫 Using <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-02-global-internet-grid-earthquakes-algorithm.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Internet cables to detect earthquakes</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://www.stockholm17.com/collections/playing-cards/products/the-notorious-gambling-frog-green?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“Gambling frog” playing cards</a>. 🛫 Chimps do better at hard tasks <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/chimpanzees-work-better-when-watched-by-audience-study-suggests-13250684?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to#:~:text=News%20%7C%20Sky%20News-,Chimpanzees%20work%20better%20when%20watched%20by%20audience%2C%20study%20suggests,but%20worse%20at%20easier%20tasks" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">when they have an audience</a>. 🛫 The <a href="https://www2.atmos.umd.edu/~dankd/MessinianWeb/_private/HOME.htm?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Messinian Salinity Crisis</a>. 🛫 How medieval Europe regarded <a href="https://popularhistorybooks.com/posts/reviews/2025-01-25-review-the-crowd/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">crowds</a>. 🛫 Want to sound <a href="https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/2025/02/02/mxr-rockman-x100-analog-tone-processor/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">like Tom Scholz in Boston?</a> 🛫 Wilson Bentley, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-man-who-captured-the-unique-beauty-of-snowflakes?utm_source=semafor&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">pioneer of snowflake photography</a>. 🛫 Portraits drawn by pen-plotter <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CPNPWlUHuZc/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">scribble art</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://tabboo.xyz?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TabBoo</a>. 🛫 A single human can <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/darpa-robot?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">control up to 100 drones simultaneously</a>. 🛫 The <a href="https://archive.is/C7te8?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Net-Zero Dad</a>. 🛫 The <a href="https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/astronomers-discover-quipu-the-single-largest-structure-in-the-known-universe?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">largest structure in the universe</a>. 🛫 The Author’s Guild creates <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/602918/human-authored-book-certification-ai-authors-guild?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">a “human authored” certification</a>. 🛫 A list of <a href="https://curiouscatalog.tumblr.com/post/776035236874223617/from-cox-nicholas-john-manwood-and-great?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">dog names from 1697</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/world/africa/tanzania-soma-bags-reading-light-spc/index.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Solar backpacks</a>. 🛫 Robotic <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3700600?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">cat head-bunting</a>. 🛫 Bennu’s asteroid samples offer <a href="https://archive.is/Zw2gh?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">new clues about the origin of life</a>. 🛫 Here lies <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/trinity-churchyard-charlotte-temple-grave?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Charlotte Temple, who never existed</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://tinybase.org/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Tinybase</a>, superfast storage for local apps. 🛫 Jane Austen <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2025/02/jane-austen-pins-to-edit-her-manuscripts.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">used pins to edit her manuscript for The Watsons</a>. 🛫 John Milton <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jan/28/britishidentity.johncrace?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">coined more than 630 words</a>." 🛫 Why <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/dead-weight-meaning?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">dead weight is so heavy</a>. 🛫 Solving a <a href="https://gadgetonus.com/tech/212338.html?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">quantum Rubik’s Cube</a>. 🛫 66-million-year-old <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp82jle12j7o?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">fish vomit</a>. 🛫 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/14/nx-s1-5258907/james-webb-space-telescopes-little-red-dots-come-into-focus?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Little red dots</a> of the early universe. 🛫 “<a href="https://archive.is/kCj3l?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Plumber’s nightmare.</a>” 🛫 <a href="https://www.biographic.com/how-some-trees-evolved-to-birth-live-young/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Viviparity</a>. <hr/>CODA ON SOURCING: I read a ton of blogs and sites every week to find this material. A few I relied on this week include Andrew Drucker’s <a href="https://andrewducker.dreamwidth.org/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Interesting Links</a>, <a href="https://www.numlock.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Numlock News</a>, the <a href="https://theawesomer.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Awesomer</a>, <a href="https://strangeco.blogspot.com?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Strange Company</a>, and <a href="https://newsletter.mathewingram.com/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-31-tactile-graphics-alexinomnia-and-a-to" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">“When The Going Get Weird”</a>; check ‘em out!

Linkfest #26: “Cryptophasia”, Wigner Crystals, and How van Gogh Mastered Turbulence

The Linkfest Oct 31, 2024

Hello hello! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — or, "the opposite of doomscrolling”, crammed full of the finest items of science, culture and technology that I could find, entirely just for you. If you’re a subscriber, thank you! If not, you can <a href="https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/?utm_source=clivethompson&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=linkfest-26-cryptophasia-wigner-crystals-and-how" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">sign up here — it’s a pay-what-you-want affair; the folks who can afford to contribute help keep it free for everyone else</a>. Oh and — forward this email to anyone you know who’d like it! Let’s begin ...