Weekend Reading

  • Hanami Is Japan’s Annual Obsession with Cherry Blossoms
    There are a lot of places to be curious about, so we started a Curiosity Travel Instagram. Where will your curiosity take you? Follow us! The blooming of Japan’s cherry blossoms is not only a delightful welcoming of springtime — it’s a national obsession.
    Bucket list!

  • To Hug, or Not to Hug?
    There’s a thing that happens on blind internet dates. I’ve never liked it.
    This kind of thing is alien to me. Surely you ask before touching someone!

  • The Art of Not Working at Work
    At first, the ability to check email, read ESPN, or browse Zappos while on the job may feel like a luxury. But in time, many crave more meaningful—and more demanding—responsibilities.
    For those of us in more traditional offices, ring any bells?

  • Charles Dickens imagined a Westworld-like robot park filled with “violent delights”
    WESTWORLD IS BACK!!

  • Instant payouts offer lifeline to Scotland’s rough sleepers
    Outreach workers in Scottish cities can make instant payouts of up to £200 for anything from haircuts to hotel rooms as part of a radical approach to entrenched rough sleeping.
    Here’s hoping this makes a difference.

  • Wine, Eros and Madness
    Unlike ice cream, orange juice, and most other things that taste good, wine is peculiar in that it is an object of devotion.
    I THINK you’ll find that SOME OF US are perfectly happy with our devotion to ice cream too!!

  • The Criminal Tribes of Madras Presidency
    In Dishonoured by History: ‘Criminal Tribes’ and British Colonial Policy, Meena Radhakrishna presents rare scholarship on some of the worst excesses of the British Empire.
    Horrific. A terrible history but we shouldn’t deny it, just learn from it (question: have we?? UKIP anyone?)

  • Watch the Trailer for a Stunning New 70-Millimeter Print of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001
    Sure, you’ve probably seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. But have you experienced 2001: A Space Odyssey? That particular verb no doubt implies different conditions to different people.
    Ohhh my days, when will this be in a cinema?!

  • How Janelle Monáe Found Her Voice
    On a hot December afternoon, the sky hazy from wildfires that raged just beyond the Los Angeles city limits, a handful of people gathered outside a nondescript Super 8 motel off Sunset Boulevard.
    One of the last gigs I saw at the Arches in Glasgow, she was little known then but already a megastar. If you’ve seen her live you’ll know what I mean.

  • It’s OK to Say if You Went Back in Time and Killed Baby Hitler
    Admit it. You went back in time and killed Baby Hitler. Official reason?
    Take a trope, rip it up. Lessons learned?

  • How Berlin became the capital of cool
    Why come to Berlin? Silly question. In the past decade, as London has become ruinously expensive and divided over Brexit, the German capital has claimed the crown of Europe’s coolest city.
    Definitely a place I need to go back to, I enjoyed it but so much left to explore (and preferably not on my own over a dreary October weekend)

  • We asked five experts: is walking enough exercise?
    We humans need to exercise in order to stay healthy. Exercise protects against disease and early death, and keeps us mobile and able to perform daily tasks. Walking is an easy, free and enjoyable form of exercise.
    TLDR; Yes.

  • Raccoon Crushed To Death By Garbage Truck Hits Jackpot With Reincarnation
    I won’t spoil this one. You don’t even need to read it. Just click through for the LOLs.

  • If you ever wonder why abused women don’t leave, look at this picture
    Never has this saying been more painfully true than when you’re confronted with the shocking image taken by a police officer on a domestic abuse call-out in London, shared on Twitter by Inspector Rowlands of the Metropolitan Police.
    Look at the picture.

  • I Listen to 35 Hours of Podcasts Every Week. Is That … Bad?
    A few weeks ago, I caught the bus, and before I even sat down, I started rummaging in my backpack for my earbuds. After tipping the bag’s contents out on my lap in an increasingly frantic state, I realized: I must have left them behind.
    Well, if No Such Thing As A Fish and 99% Invisible aren’t on your playlist, then, yes!

  • The World’s Shortest IQ Test is Only Three Questions
    A bat and a ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
    2.5 out of 3 – I knew the first answer wasn’t the ‘obvious’ answer just couldn’t be arsed doing the rest of the work. Story of my life right there! (Hey, I passed, what else matters?)

  • I Wore A Fleece Vest To Work To See If I Felt Like A Tech Bro
    As a heterosexual woman over 30, I have been haunted by this photo of Jeff Bezos looking surprisingly swole since it appeared during the Sun Valley Conference last summer. I don’t want to get into it, and neither do you, but let’s all agree that his vest and aviators are definitely a LOOK.
    Clothes aren’t just fashion. Clothes are power.

  • Rooting for Elon
    Over the past year, in pursuit of his ambitious goals to transform U.S. auto and energy markets, Elon Musk has met critics from all directions: customers, stockholders, and workers.
    Read this after I published my previous post, honest.

  • Women Intellectuals and the Art of the Withering Quip
    “If one is a woman writer there are certain things one must do,” the British writer and journalist Rebecca West wrote to a friend in 1952. “First, not be too good; second, die young, what an edge Katherine Mansfield has on all of us; third, commit suicide like Virginia Woolf.
    Read it for the insight or read it for the amazing writing that is quoted.

  • Meteorologist
    This is NO WAY relates to some people I know. Nope. Not a bit. Honest…

  • Rebirth of Militant Feminism
    Of all the opposition movements to have erupted since 2008, the rebirth of a militant feminism is perhaps the most surprising—not least because feminism as such had never gone away; women’s empowerment has long been a mantra of the global establishment.
    Long read but worth it to fully understand where this sits in the waves of feminism. Equality soon please.

  • The Epidemic of Isolation Among Young Men
    In 2017, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy identified the most common threat to public health that he had seen: not heart disease, diabetes, or cancer—but loneliness.
    Not directly, but THIS is why I’m a feminist, this is why I want equality. It’s also why I can struggle to make new male (identifying) friends.

  • Ice breaker question
    Ice-breaker question I came up with a few years ago that I call the “off-diagonal” question: Tell me about something you love doing that you’re terrible at. And tell me about something you really do not like doing that you’re great at. That is from Mike Kim on Twitter.
    Noted and stored for later use.

  • A Paean to PB&P
    Why a peanut butter and pickle sandwich is the totally not-gross snack you need in your mouth right now.
    My spidey sense is telling me this MAY fall into the ‘marmite’ discussion camp… but I’m trying it!

  • London Marathon 2018 – Hot, Hot, Hot
    So, London Marathon. You were hot and pretty bloody emotional. This post is going to be more on the race, I will do a seperate one on the expo, my weekend in London and all the surprises (friends turning up) along the way. Sunday morning, 6am, I was wide awake.
    I knew a couple of people who ran the London Marathon this year. I’ve followed Fi’s training via blog and Instagram. I am in absolute awe and, yes, there were a few tears on my end when I read this.

  • Me, doing my own head in
    Thinking. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure if you asked anyone to explain what it actually was, they’d have a fairly hard time doing so (even Wikipedia doesn’t know – I checked).
    Some simple definitions which really resonated. If you only read one of these links today, start with this one.

  • The pie chart: Why data visualization’s greatest villain will never die
    The point of charts is to communicate data effectively. Or, at least, that is point according to data-visualization experts. The truth about why people like and use charts is more complicated than that. For the regular person, it’s more about art than science.
    People prefer art (emotion) to science (non-emotion). Shocking.