April 3, 2024
Discovering Australia's remarkable rodents
Happy World Rat Day! 🐀
Australia’s native rodent species are incredibly diverse - from the Rakali, an otter-like rodent with webbed feet, to tiny desert-dwelling Hopping Mice that weigh no more than a golf ball.
Discovering Australia's remarkable rodents [more inside]
The Passing of Bette and Boo
Living abroad, a former WA lawmaker finds his liberal utopia
Former Rep. Jim McDermott is the rare lawmaker who has been able to live out all the policies he worked for during his decades in Washington.
He just had to move to another country to do it.
From a quaint French village about 90 minutes outside of Bordeaux, the longtime liberal lawmaker enjoys free health care and a safe community where he doesn’t need to lock his doors at night. He loves that kids in the neighborhood don’t worry about gun violence and that women have access to reproductive care, specifically abortion. He reads the news every day but says he doesn’t miss America all that much. (archive) [more inside]
The 2024 Chess Candidates Tournaments
April 4th at 2:30 Eastern time is the start of the FIDE Candidates (Open) and Women's Candidates Tournaments in Toronto Canada. You can follow the games live on Chess.com and Lichess (open, women's). The month long events will determine which players will get to challenge current World Champion Ding Liren, and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun.
Last year players around the world competed in a series of events to qualify for an invitation to a Candidates tournament. The winners will get a chance to play in a World Championship match (open or women's). There are two events. The Women's Candidates and the Open. Chess holds women only events as a means to encourage more women to participate in the game. Chess does not hold men's only events; although in many cases only male players have qualified in recent years. [more inside]
Malmö or Bust (a Eurovision 2024 Preview)
The 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Malmö, Sweden this year after Loreen secured a second victory with her song Tattoo, last year in Liverpool. Sweden has won the Contest seven times, tied with Ireland for the most victories ever by a single country. Thirty-seven countries are competing in this 68th edition of Eurovision. This year, it consists of two semifinals on May 7th and 9th, with the Grand Final on May 11th. Get ready for an introduction of all the submissions from the Class of 2024! [more inside]
Rude Britannia
What Have Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule Done to Britain? by Sam Knight in The New Yorker [more inside]
Hippos no longer berserk
The children's counting book, Hippos Go Berserk!, over 45 years after its original publication, now has a sequel, Hippos Remain Calm. In an interview with Slate, author Sandra Boynton reveals hitherto unknown details of hippo psychology and muses on the literary merits of board books.
Once Upon a Time, the World of Picture Books Came to Life
Hatstorian
The Hat Historian provides short histories of various hats in English (et en français,) from the Top Hat (le Haut-de-Forme) to the Bowler (le chapeau melon,) from the Tricorn (le Tricorne) to the Picklehaube (le Casque à pointe,) from the Custodian Helmet (le Casque de Bobby) to the Hard Hat (le Casque de Chantier,) and, of course, the Beret (le béret.)
Falcon that crashed Taylor Swift concert set-up released
Falcon that crashed Taylor Swift concert set-up released back at Stadium Australia. A peregrine falcon that came to ground during the set-up for Taylor Swift's concert has recovered in the care of wildlife professionals and has been released back into his habitat at Stadium Australia.
"Europe is still divided by an Iron Curtain: the Wage Curtain"
Invisible - Workers from Eastern Europe Eastern Europeans migrating west in the hope of better salaries are often exploited and underpaid. Czech journalist Sasa Uhlová goes undercover to find out what conditions are like for these invisible workers in Germany, France and Great Britain. (Documentary, available with English subtitles until 17th of April)
The End of the Road: John Barth dies at 93
John Barth, author of books like Sot-Weed Factor, Lost in the Funhouse, Letters and Tidewater Tales, has died in a Florida hospice facility. He was 93. [more inside]
The Great AirBnB Crackdown*
Last year, a massive blaze consumed several illegal Airbnb units in Montreal and killed seven people. The tragedy shone a harsh light on the Wild West of Airbnb in Canadian cities—and the battle to regulate it has just begun. (slMacLean's) [more inside]
Liberation from fear is possible through the cognition of reality
"Epicurus, who taught philosophy in Athens in a large backyard garden purchased around 306 BC, like other philosophers at the end of the Classical era and the beginning of Hellenistic times, gave priority to ethical thought in his teaching, treating physics and logic as auxiliary disciplines to facilitate understanding of the human behaviour, attitudes and aspirations he postulated.According to him, the aim of all human actions was to strive for ataraxia (ἀταραξία), that is, a state of inner peace, indifferent to pain and suffering, and to strive for freedom from fear, especially the fear of death and wrath of the gods." Krystyna Bartol on Epicurus. [more inside]
+1 HI BOOP BEEP
It's easy, just call and leave a message after the beep. Do not wait. CALL NOW!!! (Please note that messages may take a short while to appear. Thank you for your patience!) This is a compelling narrative only if you ignore every available fact
The long and short of it is that Swisher is not a good journalist—or, framed more generously, that she thrived in an industry with remarkably low standards for which we are still paying the price. from The Miseducation of Kara Swisher, a review of Burn Book by Edward Ongweso Jr. [The Baffler; ungated] [more inside]
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