Kickoff For November 9, 2020
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Just to let you know, the Monday Kickoff will be taking next week off. A few reasons for that, and all of them good. More about that on November 23.
With that out of the way, let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Environment
We need ‘slow hope’ in a world of accelerating ecological change, wherein Christof Mauch argues that we need to shift gears downwards, and tell stories about that shift, to help stop our destruction of the environment.
Miami Will Be Underwater Soon. Its Drinking Water Could Go First, wherein we learn how climate change, rising seas, and unchecked limestone mining will smash the Florida city’s fresh water supply.
Denmark’s 300-year-old homes of the future, wherein Karen Gardiner shows how the residents of the Danish island of Læsø use eelgrass as thatching for the roofs of houses, why eelgrass is so effective for that purpose, and how people are adapting it to modern houses.
Arts and Literature
How I discovered secondhand books, wherein Alexander Larman shares his love of reading, especially used books, and looks at the age-old appeal of older and rare tomes.
I Am Here to Demonize Spotify, wherein Richard Beck discusses how the music streaming service, among other things, degrades the experience of listening to music.
The great 60s electro-pop plane crash: how pioneers Silver Apples fell out of the sky, wherein we learn about the unlikely rise of the electronic music pioneers, and what led to the band’s sudden demise.
History
Seeing Things, wherein Emily LaBarge takes us on a physical and historical tour of the City of London, and we discover how the place has changed over the centuries and since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Sicko Doctors: Suffering and Sadism in 19th-Century America, wherein we’re taken back to a time when physicians weren’t seen as healers, when the popular literary view of them was of someone who wasn’t above doing harm to those under their care.
The lost treasures of London’s River Thames, wherein we learn about the mudlarks who squelch around the shores of the river that cuts through London to find artefacts of the city’s past.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in 14 days for another set of links to start off your week.