In the first week of September 1942, 29-year-old Libertas Schultze-Boysen waited desperately for word of her husband Harro, an official in the Reich Aviation Ministry in Berlin. The couple had passionately espoused a cause that few Germans of the age dared even to discuss. With a small group of friends, Libertas and Harro organized a […]
Miscellaneous
11 – 15 February This week, Erik had a fascinating look at the people who think wind turbines are making them ill. Cameron explained why alligators never have to worry about shrinkage. Abstruse Goose neatly captured the infinite regress that tortures us science writers. I told you how gross bugs do Valentine’s day. And Richard […]
I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s day, but I love the ads. They are so utterly, transparently awful that they cross the line from crassly offensive into entertaining. Business Insider just did a brilliant roundup of the worst offenders of all time. They have a certain evolutionary-psychology simplicity to them — if you present […]
February 4 – 8 This week, Erika’s back! And she’s not happy about “informed consent“. Cameron considers the endangerment of the world’s apex predator, some of which are only as big as a chocolate bar! Cassie throws shade at the dodgy sleep aids of the 70s. Jessa tells us how architects are like psychoactive drug […]
January 28 – February 1 The most urgent question of the week falls to Richard: what’s going to become of all his books? Time for you to pitch in with some advice, dear readers. Christie wonders how Facebook will irony-proof their new search feature. Erik makes a fairly solid case for the idea that “tools […]
What can you say about a fifty-seven-year-old book that has outlived its usefulness? That it was beautiful. And brilliant. And taking up valuable space in my personal library. Our household has six 84-inch bookshelves lining two living room walls, and four more in the bedroom. All of the living room bookshelves and two of the […]
January 21 – 25 This week, Eric showed us why no one does death quite like Mexico; Abstruse Goose does the math to tell us where in the universe our televised electromagnetic leaks have gotten to; Cassie examined the complex relationships between scientific breakthroughs, miracle drugs, and the government programs that allow them to save […]
Phoenix is scorching in the summer, and Pat Elliott had been standing for hours. So she wasn’t alarmed one August day in 2009 to find her feet swollen. “It must be the weather,” Elliott thought. But they also ached. The pain was horrendous. So she called her doctor, and he told her to come in. […]
