Kickoff For August 1, 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:
Crime
How I Infiltrated One of L.A.’s Most Vicious Motorcycle Gangs—and Lived to Talk About It, wherein a retired federal agent recounts his time, deep undercover, with a dangerous California biker gang and how his work helped slow the growth of that gang down.
Inside the Tow Truck Mafia: How Organized Crime Took Over Canada’s Towing Industry, wherein we learn how towing damaged and broken down vehicles in Ontario, Canada became a cutthroat business run by organized crime.
‘This Wasn’t His First Time’, wherein we learn how lawyer Matthew Meller became the prime suspect in a bizarre series of home invasions and what drove him to allegedly committing those crimes.
History
Derinkuyu: Mysterious underground city in Turkey found in man’s basement, wherein we learn how what started as a simple home renovation project uncovered a large, ancient underground living space.
A Surprise Cave Finding Has Once Again Upended Our Story of Humans Leaving Africa, wherein we learn about a recent archaeological find which shows that modern humans may have been in western Europe earlier than originally thought.
Life in early cities: on neighbourhoods and energised crowding, wherein we learn how the growth of neighbourhoods in early cities had a variety of impacts on those cities.
Ideas
Little White Lies, wherein John-Paul Heil explores the idea that deception was vital for leaders to maintain society, but any deception must be for the greater good and not only for the benefit of those leaders.
How I Started to See Trees as Smart, wherein Matthew Hutson dives into the latest thinking into intelligence in entire living systems, and how altering our states of mind can help us perceive that intelligence.
How to think about free will, wherein Julian Baggini explores the ideas of choice and inevitability, and whether or not there’s such a thing as free will.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.