Wednesday 17 August 2011

10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
It is a philosophical education to keep chickens, live with them, and treat them with courtesy. All chickens are not born equal, but they deserve equal respect...more

Mitozoos via elearningeuropa.info
It's a game, an instructional game, I'm not sure that I quite understand what to do but it looks like fun.

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The politics of yuck. Sewage on a hot day is simply gross. Disgust, however, is actually quite complex. In fact, it’s dangerous...more

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Much of what medical research treats as fact is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. Why is bad science used to justify treatments?...more

via Britannica Blog by Debra Mancoff and Michal Raz-Russo
Attitude and Altitude: A Short History of Shoes
What’s not to like about this?
Starts by discussing why people wear shoes, looks at shoes as a fashion item, for those who could afford it, through history (the pictures, starting with one from 1345, are stunning) and there's a link to two videos (first one is better with sound off - I think the tracking has slipped) showing elaborate modern designs.

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Craving solitude: It’s been deemed suspect – or worse, evidence of a psychological ailment. But being alone makes us better social animals...more

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Happiness is not a right, it's a duty: We owe it to ourselves. But the burden of obligatory well-being has transformed the pursuit into a source of unhappiness...more

Scroll Britannia: the UK's First Road Map via Strange Maps
This extraordinary map, dating from 1675, details The Road From LONDON to the LANDS END Comencing at the Standard in Cornhill and Extending to Senan in Cornwall. It was made by IOHN OGILBY Esq[ui]r[e] his Ma[jes]ties Cosmographer and covers 308 miles and 3 furlongs (almost 500 km).
This comes from a website dedicated to maps – old ones, new ones, strange ones …

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
For hawkish humanitarians, Libya is a necessary intervention. Doing nothing while others suffer is not an option. Or maybe it is, suggests Tolstoy...more

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The ancient world was hardly full of starry-eyed universalists. But even then, categorizing and hating people en masse was a choice, not a necessity...more


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