10 stories and links I found educative, interesting and just plain weird

The world's ugliest buildings, according to... via Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

[Telegraph via The Awl. Photo: Steve Cadman, CC BY 3.0]
The Daily Telegraph has determined the world’s ugliest buildings. Some of them are hideous indeed, but the collection is perhaps more interesting as an illustration of what the fancier echelons of British conservative like to be told about architecture.
Hazel’s comment:
I agree that some of the buildings are, in my opinion, unattractive to look at but surely not this one.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The Black-Scholes equation was the financial sector’s Midas formula: It turned everything into gold. Until it didn’t, sending markets into a tailspin... more
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Words and deeds via Eurozine articles by Flemming Rose
The cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten argues that the erroneous presumption that anti-Semitic propaganda was directly responsible for the Holocaust resulted in a post-war consensus on banning hate speech that ended up its own worst enemy.
Read the full article here.
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The importance of context when shattering dreams via The National Archives blog by Tim Callister
In 1999 a daring young man with brilliant blue eyes stood atop the Uncompaghre Plateau in Western Colorado. Jaw held tight to stop his quivering bottom lip, he looked up to the azure sky and fought back the tears.
Continue reading →
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
String theory is dazzling but unverified. There’s zero proof that it’s true. Yet, like fringe cranks, string theorists labour away, unencumbered by reality... more
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U.S. Child Miners, 1900s via Retronaut by Chris

Images by Lewis Hine
Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection at the Library of Congress
You can see the rest of the pictures here.
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Lost Colours via Stephen’s Lighthouse (from Stephen Abram via BoingBoing)


10 Colors That Faded Away (You'll need this to read the text!)
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The warrior hypothesis. Men commit 90 percent of murders. The brutality is biological, in part. But power, not gender, determines belligerence... more
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Trompe l'oeil graffiti vanishes Egyptian military barrier By Cory Doctorow via BoingBoing

Noordijk sez, “Egyptian graffiti artists make this military street barrier ‘disappear’.”
Sheikh Rihan mural
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The Dangers of Our “Inconvenient Mind” via Big Think by David Ropeik
Here’s some bad news for those of you who like to think you can think rationally about risk. You can’t. You know all those thoughtfully considered views you have about nuclear power or genetically modified food or climate change? They are really no more than a jumble of facts, and how you feel about those facts.
Read More
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