Kickoff For September 19. 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:
Science
Armchair science, wherein Dean Falk delves into thought experiments, outlines how they can help scientists understand the physical world, and looks at why such experiments can be flawed.
Einstein was right. Flying clocks around the world in opposite directions proved it, wherein Ethan Siegel details an experiment conducted in the late 1950s that tested, and confirmed, Einstein’s conjectures around time dilation.
Rise Of The Plant Destroyer, wherein Joe Zadeh looks at the history of plant pathogens, how they spread, and why they can be a major threat to humans.
Online Life
Optimize this headline for Google*, wherein Alexander Fanta explores how periodical publishing has changes and looks at why and how Google became the dominant online meta-publisher in the digital age.
The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?, wherein Paul Ford argues that nearly every problem we face on the internet has its root in the HTML code that lets us input information in to web pages.
Seeding the Cloud, wherein Dwayne Monroe looks at the rise of so-called cloud computing, and how it’s widespread adoption and growth has led to the accumulation of a new form of techno-political power.
Arts and Literature
Why Don’t Economists Write More Fiction?, wherein James Broughel ponders whether practitioners of the so-called dismal science could, in fact, write engaging stories, ones which hold a mirror up to our age.
Can science fiction map a positive future?, wherein Tasha Robinson ponders whether SF can show us brighter, more optimistic options for where humanity is heading rather than focusing on darker, more apocalyptic fare.
The Norwegian library with unreadable books, wherein we learn about the Future Library, an art project that collects manuscripts that won’t be read for another 100 years.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.