via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
New Zealand circa 1909
“Class A locomotive, NZR No. 419, at the Petone Railway Workshops”
A.P. Godber Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library
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Why MDMA Makes You Feel Good (and Then Really Bad)
via Big Think by Robert Montenegro
About a year ago, MDMA (a.k.a. Molly) was the flavour of the week among the “think of the children!” crowd after impure strains of the drug caused a string of hospitalisations and deaths across the eastern United States. In theory, Molly is supposed to be straight MDMA without any additives (unlike ecstasy, which is often laced with caffeine or some sort of amphetamine). In reality, sometimes naive users end up ingesting more chemicals than they bargained for.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Inevitability of evolution
On the origins of evolutionary innovation. “Natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest”… more
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40 Classic Books & Why You Should Read Them
via Abe Books by Richard Davies
Well, what makes a classic book? My eight-year-old asked this very question after spending several days with her nose buried in Charlotte’s Web. “Errr… I think it’s a very good book liked by lots people that stands the test of time,” I replied. “If people are still reading the book 50 years after it was published then it’s probably on its way to being a classic.”
Continue reading and discover whether you agree with Mr Davies! I do except for the Dickens, but then he does not include Jane Austen!
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Our Understanding of Giraffes Does Not Measure Up
by Natalie Angier in the New York Times via 3 Quarks Daily
For the tallest animals on earth, giraffes can be awfully easy to overlook. Their ochered flagstone fur and arboreal proportions blend in seamlessly with the acacia trees on which they tirelessly forage, and they’re as quiet as trees, too: no whinnies, growls, trumpets or howls. “Giraffes are basically mute,” said Kerryn Carter, a zoologist at the University of Queensland in Australia. “A snort is the only sound I’ve heard.”
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
War on clichés
The cliché hitman. Orin Hargraves stalks the inane, shopworn expressions that litter the English language… more
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30 Most Beautiful Bookshops Around The World
via lifehack
With the ease of acquiring e-books in one click, the brick and mortar bookstores seem to be sadly reducing in popularity. However, book lovers argue that a traditional temple of books can be an eclectic atmosphere that propels discovery, fantasy, entertainment, solitude and social networking. These spectacular bookstores encourage readers to put aside technology and enjoy the pleasures of the printed word on page.
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Train Your Brain to Be More Sympathetic
via Big Think by Orion Jones
By meditating on having compassion for someone in your life, a new study suggests that you can become a more sympathetic person in as little as two weeks. Conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, the study gave participants seven hours of practice during 30-minute sessions that spanned two weeks.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Essays of Irving Howe
American Orwell. Irving Howe was a tender polemicist, a socialist with conservative cultural tastes and a deep commitment to heterodoxy… more
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How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math
via 3 Quarks Daily: Barbara Oakley in Nautilus
I was a wayward kid who grew up on the literary side of life, treating math and science as if they were pustules from the plague. So it’s a little strange how I’ve ended up now – someone who dances daily with triple integrals, Fourier transforms, and that crown jewel of mathematics, Euler’s equation. It’s hard to believe I’ve flipped from a virtually congenital math-phobe to a professor of engineering.
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