Kickoff For October 31, 2022
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.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
To catch a rare-book thief, wherein we descend into the world or antiquarian book theft and get a glimpse at why people steal old books, how they do it, and what libraries and collectors are trying to do to stop it.
The (Literally) Unbelievable Story of the Original Fake News Network, wherein we learn about the false and implausible radio broadcasts, engineered by the CIA, that wiped out democracy in Guatemala in the 1950s.
A Messiah Won’t Save Us, wherein Jonathan Blake examines why it’s wrong to assume that a person or scientific breakthrough that will relieve us of the problems facing the planet, and how that that thinking blocks us from solving those problems.
The lost nuclear bombs that no one can find, wherein we learn about three American weapons that vanished after mid-air mishaps, why they didn’t go off, and what’s been done to try to retrieve them over the years.
The productivity tax you pay for context switching, wherein we learn about the toll that distraction and constantly shifting between tasks takes on our work and our focus, and are introduced to some strategies to get around that.
The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver, wherein we get a look into the world of deep sea workers, who must live and work at depth for extended periods in perfectly-balanced yet precarious conditions.
Why Write?, wherein Elisa Gabbert explains the reasons several well-known fiction authors put pen to paper, and why she does.
Information Could Be the 5th State of Matter, Proving We Live in a Simulation, wherein we’re introduced to the work of a physicist who’s trying to prove that information has a physical presence, and to the potential consequences if that’s true.
Could Google’s Carbon Emissions Have Effectively Doubled Overnight?, wherein Bill McKibben examines a report that concludes technology (and other types of) companies with vast amounts of money in the bank are accelerating climate change by indirectly funding carbon-producing industries.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.