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Hiya from Fort William, about two and a half hours north of Glasgow, where the weather is very... Scottish. The scenery is still impressive despite being half covered in cloud.
For those who have joined us recently: I’m on a rare overseas break for a few weeks, so my intros will be short, but the rest of the newsletter is packed with goodies as usual.
Next week’s newsletter will be coming to you from somewhere in Belgium. Tot dan/À bientôt/Bis dann – Kai
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Like Paper, Only BetterSPONSOR
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Because making a list should be easy
Paper lists are simple to make, but lack flexibility when things change. So we made TeuxDeux, the no-stress productivity tool that rolls with whatever the day may bring. Clear your mind, plan your week, and collect anything you’d like to remember. Try free for 7 days.
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Apps & Sites
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focusedOS helps you get into a ‘deep work’ state by filtering out distractions. Dim or hide background windows on macOS, add some ambient sounds, block specific apps or websites, and even disable apps on your iPhone during focus time.
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Curated movie/TV show recommendations
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A massive and growing collection of movie and TV show recommendations curated by humans, not algorithms. Everything on this website will have at least a 70% user score (7/10 on IMDb for example), combined with a 70% critic approval score (on Rotten Tomatoes). “Every streaming service, every genre, every mood. Our team of experts meticulously pick the best for you, with new recommendations coming in all the time.”
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Spacedrive is a free, open source app (macOS and Windows) that consolidates all your files from different storage locations (including Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud but also external drives) into a single database that makes everything easier to find and organise.
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Bring kids’ drawings to life
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Impress your kids by animating their character drawings with this little AI tool. Simply upload the drawing, tweak the end points, then choose from a range of motion effects.
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Worthy Five: Orlagh Feeney
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Five recommendations by researcher and reformed plant murderer Orlagh Feeney
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A concept worth understanding:
Bobby Fingers’ compellingly weird and entertaining build of a Jeff Bezos rowboat. He’s a one-man band of master craftsman, special effects makeup artist, sculptor, videographer, ASMR voiceover artist, surrealist, comic and musician. You’ll wonder how you came to watch it, but you won’t regret it.
A question worth asking:
‘Who wrote (and paid for) the news story I’m reading?’ As a scientist, I’m hardwired to assess the source of every bit of information I use. Who wrote it? Are they experts in the field? Did they declare conflicts of interest or private funding? Is the publication reputable? Does the data stack up for the claims they just made. Weirdly, I don’t apply that rigour to the news I consume before reacting to it. I’m trying to be better at that.
A book worth reading:
I’m currently working my way through On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe. I do not accept the ‘it’s complicated’ narrative that relies on wilful ignorance. As someone who grew up in Ireland during the peace process, I’ve seen ‘it’s complicated’ used as a mechanism for shutting down discourse. If it’s complicated, uncomplicate it for yourself.
A recipe worth trying:
A wonderful neighbour got me onto Tom Sarafian’s hummus recipe and it has ruined shop-bought hummus forever. Deceptively easy and vegan, topped with Sami Tamimi’s muhammara recipe from Falastin. Hummus freezes brilliantly too so it’s the ultimate weapon for those ‘share a plate’ get-togethers where you’ve completely forgotten to make something.
A phrase worth knowing:
Is trom an t-ualach an t-aineolas. An old Irish proverb meaning ‘ignorance is a heavy burden’. It’s the antithesis of ‘ignorance is bliss’ which I have never understood. Ignorance, whether wilful, feigned or indoctrinated, is a very heavy thing indeed.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Orlagh Feeney in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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Planetary thinking for an age of crises
The worsening climate crisis is in large part a failure of our system of governance. Authors Jonathan S. Blake and Nils Gilman provide an urgently needed vision that enables us to manage planetary issues and their local consequences. “Deadly viruses, climate-changing carbon molecules, and harmful pollutants cross the globe unimpeded by national borders. While the consequences of these flows range across scales, from the planetary to the local, the authority and resources to manage them are concentrated mainly at one level: the nation-state. This profound mismatch between the scale of planetary challenges and the institutions tasked with governing them is leading to cascading systemic failures.”
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Adventures in the margin of error
Why are we so bad at admitting when we’re wrong? Author Kathryn Schulz argues that being wrong is part of the natural human condition – and that accepting fallibility might be the key to building a more just world. “Guiding the reader through the history and psychology of error, from Socrates to Alan Greenspan, Being Wrong will change the way you perceive screw-ups, both of the mammoth and daily variety, forever.”
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Overheard on Mastodon
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Based on your listening history you might also enjoy therapy.
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Food for Thought
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Fashion writer Nicole Lipman delves into the fast-fashion phenomenon epitomised by SHEIN. In a long but rewarding read she tries to unpack the captivating allure of ultra-affordable fashion and the profound consequences of our consumption habits. “SHEIN might be singled out as the worst fast-fashion retailer because the United States fears and envies China and has a particular interest in denigrating its successes, and it might be singled out because it is, in fact, the worst: the greatest polluter, the most flagrant IP thief, the largest violator of human rights, and – arguably worst of all – the most profitable. SHEIN has shown the world that unsustainability pays.”
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Over the coming years and decades, as climate change accelerates, more and more coastal communities will need to retreat from rising seas and intensifying storms. This article examines some of the difficult challenges of ‘managed retreat’ and how communities can build climate resilience by planned relocation, as it is already done in some parts of the world. “Climate change is not a battle to win or lose but a dynamic set of environmental conditions that we now must deal with. Planned retreat can be both a process for relocating the most vulnerable out of harm’s way and of leveraging publicly acquired land for a greater urban resilience – one directed toward adaptive infrastructure and societal need.”
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A good supplement to the SHEIN piece above, this is a fun little ‘documentary’ by Patagonia about making better quality clothes. Yes, it’s essentially a long commercial for their products, but the generous use of sarcasm makes it an entertaining watch that still manages to convey an important message: buy less, buy better.
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Australian artist Chris Riley paints large Palm Springs-inspired pieces that link back to his home country by, for example, including native Australian animals, like the Cockatoo.
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Oporto-based photographer João Cabral gives us a glimpse of the Portuguese city through beautiful black and white photography.
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The chubby Sandhouse is an organic, friendly display typeface that “explores the extremes between minimal letterform contact, high contrast and counterforms”.
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Notable Numbers
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A study found that women whose engagement rings cost more than $20,000 were 3.5 times more likely to get divorced compared to those with less expensive rings. Similarly, couples who spent less than $1,000 on their weddings were less likely to get divorced compared to those who spent more.
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Although discourse around Millennial struggles to get a place of their own has buzzed through the media and around family dinner tables for years, in the US the age group hit a significant housing milestone in 2022 when, for the first time in history, the majority (52%) owned their homes.
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A new study examines data from 1,600 regions of the earth for the last forty years, and concludes that by 2050 climate change will be causing economic damage worth $38 trillion every single year. In more relatable terms, planetary warming will result in an income reduction of 19% globally by mid-century, compared to a global economy without climate change.
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Classifieds
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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