An assortment of things to read as you sip your coffee, my dears.
History and Archaeology
The coolest news yesterday was this: Spain cracks King Ferdinand’s 500-year-old secret code. The BBC was good enough to inclue a photo of the script in that article. There’s another photo in King Ferdinand code has been cracked at lintelligencer.com.
Could you invent a code that would withstand the codebreaking efforts of a national intelligence agency?
On to news from Canada’s north, via the CBC: Lucky find gives archeologists glimpse into early hunting technology in Yukon.
Fun music
From phys.org: Ice instruments ring out coolest music in Norway. I would love to do this, but ice instruments here would melt way too quickly.
Books and reading
Do you read aloud? In our household, it’s a daily practice. And look, we’re not the only ones! Here’s Annie Hartnett’s article Comfort Food: The Importance of Reading Aloud as Adults.
If you haven’t already discovered the writing of Ursula K. Le Guin, this would be a fine time to do that. From Kathleen Adelaide at Mirabile Dictu: The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin.
And by Kelly Lynn Thomas at The Millions: The Utopias of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Science, environment, health
From the most excellent Diet Doctor: The current health crisis and Canada’s Food Guide. This is so vexing. When I listened to the official dietary advice, things did not go so well for me. No wonder.
The BBC shares the mystery of why some people become sudden geniuses.
Ahmed Alkhateeb’s article at Nautilus: We Should Not Accept Scientific Results That Have Not Been Repeated.
Severely annoying educational nonsense
From Hans de Zwart: Turnitin User Agreement: I disagree. Yeah, this is one reason why I don’t feel like taking any more university courses. Plagarism-checkers require students to agree to absurd terms. I won’t agree, either.
Solving problems
From Juan Cole: Why the 1st Floating Wind Farm, off Scotland, Might Save the World.
The NYT brightened my day with this: Fed Up With Drug Companies, Hospitals Decide to Start Their Own. Heh. Good for them.
From the Atlantic: How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs. Iceland always seems to be doing innovative and smart things.
In BC, the opiod crisis is prompting some to re-think our response to drug addiction. From the Georgia Straight: No break in fentanyl deaths prompts B.C. to speed up efforts to get clean drugs to long-term addicts.
Saving a boat? Oh yes, let’s! From Hakai Magazine: The race that saved the Fogo Island Punt.
Social media
It seems that more and more people are becoming aware of the problems with commercially-run social media platforms. The NYT tells us that early Facebook and Google employees have formed a coalition to fight what they built..
Looking for a social network that doesn’t screw you over? Check out the Mirabilis.ca pages on Mastodon and Diaspora.
Previous exaltation of links
The exaltation of links I put together last year explains why exaltation of links is the term I chose for these kind of posts.
