Senses working overtime #384

1 Burning Man

One of my daughters and her partner attended this event a week or so ago. That extraordinary image is of traffic leaving for home.

2 The most important forces shaping our world

This is one terrific piece of writing - I was fully engaged! Morgan Housel writes that apart from World War 2,

The three big ones that stick out are demographics, inequality, and access to information.

3 Knowing is no enough, we must apply

4 Kaizen or 'good change' (the principle of gradual change)

5 Curiosity

Overtime: How our favourite songs can save us

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Senses working overtime #383

1 The Queen is dead. Long live the King.

Along with everyone else, this week's senses were dominated by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. So this week's collection of jewels is devoted to her.  

First up - a great display that features her 70 years as a visual icon

2 The first monarch we thought we knew.

3 The short unhappy life of Elizabeth Windsor

4 How she was taught to rule

5 How her sense of duty prevailed in an age of individualism (and what happens next?)

Overtime: Her Majesty - The Beatles

Senses working overtime #382

1 The Arthurian legend - was King Arthur a real person?

Near the remains of Richard of Cornwall’s 13th-century castle are two grottoes. The one on the left is known as Merlin’s Cave. Jooney Woodward

I want to see this when we go to the west country at Christmas time!

2 Linda Evangelista

3 Thirty-one small items that could make your life a tiny bit better

4 You've probably seen yourself in your memories

5 Why plastic doesn't dry in your dishwasher

Overtime: 

Senses working overtime #381

1 Fifty years of The Dallas Cheerleaders

2 The Boss and Born In The USA

3 You are astonishing!

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

 

4 The Hawaiian 

5 The unlikely rise of Slim Pickins Outfitters

Overtime: The unusual origin stories of 9 household items

For instance - Vaseline: Chemist Robert Chesebrough had a successful job making oils used for illumination, but when petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania, Chesebrough decided to seek out riches in the nascent industry.

He noticed that oil rig workers would use a byproduct of the drilling process known as “rod wax” to address cuts and burns sustained during their work. Some might have said, “Wow, this oil rig stuff is really dangerous.” But Chesebrough said, “Give me some of that weird black goop and stand back.”

Senses working overtime #380

1 Lagom

The Swedish philosophy of 'just enough'. I checked with our staff member who is Swedish and she confirms this as a thing.

2 Steve Martin can't retire

3 Habit stacking

 

4 The new science of metabolism

Losing weight is tough but keeping it off is tougher. Here's why.

5 Why we laugh

Overtime: 

Stop drinking, keep reading, look after your hearing: a neurologist’s tips for fighting memory loss and Alzheimer’s

Senses working overtime #379

1 How to estimate distance using only your thumb.

2 A history of rock music in 500 songs

I've been slow to embrace podcasts but this one, by Andrew Hickey, is cool. The link is to episode 132 on The Four Tops (I followed Seth Godin's advice and started with a song I knew - in this case I Can't Help Myself).

3 Why do Canadians say 'Eh'

4 Bruce Willis' silent decline

5  The story behind ‘Star Trek’ actress Nichelle Nichols’ iconic interracial kiss

Overtime: 

The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.

– Albert Camus

Senses working overtime #378

1 The James Webb telescope

'One of JWST’s much-touted abilities is the power to look back in time to the early universe and see some of the first galaxies and stars. Already, the telescope — which launched on Christmas Day 2021 and now sits 1.5 million kilometers from Earth — has spotted the most distant, earliest galaxy known'.

Mind. Blown.

2 How the brain links gestures, perceptions and meanings.

Photo by Elena Rabkina on Unsplash

3 How to wake up smiling!

4 The euphoria of stumbling upon weird Spotify cover songs

5 The neuroscience behind bad decisions

Overtime: 

“When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad.”

Miles Davis