Some stuff to read while you're waiting in the bushes on the golf course 
Happy invoicing!
- Why Does Yellowstone National Park Turn Us All into Maniacs? - Drew Magary acts like an idiot: ”Petting bison, cooking food in geysers. Ride along with our writer on a wild trip to our nation’s most iconic national park at the height of tourist season to see all the bad behavior.”
- The Big Baltic Bomb Cleanup - ”The ocean became a dumping ground for weapons after Allied forces defeated the Nazis. Now a team of robots and divers are making the Baltic Sea safer.” Maybe they can sort out that ship in the Thames estuary once they're done
- The Rise of the Science Sleuths - How scientific chicanery is uncovered: ”Some are into exposing statistical skullduggery; others are into spotting manipulated images. Some are academics sticking to their field; others more general-interest vigilantes. But all of them are entrenched in an ongoing battle at the heart of science, in which the pressure to publish and the drive for fame and profit have thrown countless images and statistics into question, sometimes cracking pillars of research in the process.”
- Conflict avoidance: how airlines steer clear of danger - Why planes don’t fly over places: ”If you are a regular Flightradar24 aircraft tracker, then you might have noticed various regions of the world which fewer aircraft traverse. Aside from ‘empty’ regions with limited airport options and connections, the main reason an area is not overflown is down to conflict zones and the risk to air travel which they pose.”
- The Mysterious Death of the Namesake of the Douglas Fir - HT to DoctorStrangelove for this tale of the death of a famous botanist: ”Was David Douglas trampled by a wild bull, or lured into a trap?”
- From Roald Dahl to George Bernard Shaw: Sheds of famous authors - The honourable tradition of writing in sheds: ”On his small garden shack Dahl said, ‘You become a different person…you go into a completely different world. Everything else in your life disappears and you look at your bit of paper and get completely lost in what you’re doing.’”
- The surprising role of deep thinking in conspiracy theories - ”People who endorse and spread outlandish theories aren’t gullible, they’re drawn to the intoxicating lure of discovery.” If the hypothesis that conspiracy theories draw in those who crave the experience of gaining insight is correct, then maybe we need modern versions of things like Kit Williams’ Masquerade to keep them safely distracted by something harmless.
- At Supper with Leonardo - ”Leonardo’s Last Supper is the most famous dinner party of all time. Yet for all its fame and familiarity, scant notice is ever taken of the food that is set before Christ and His disciples.” John Varriano works out the menu Leonardo arranged.
- The Pentium as a Navajo weaving - Ken Shirriff on something a bit different from his usual line of research: ”Hurrying through the National Gallery of Art five minutes before closing, I passed a Navajo weaving with a complex abstract pattern. Suddenly, I realized the pattern was strangely familiar, so I stopped and looked closely. The design turned out to be an image of Intel's Pentium chip, the start of the long-lived Pentium family.”
- The Wonder Of Soviet Bus Stops - ”Christopher Herwig spotted these expressive bus stops as he explored remote parts of the former Soviet Union.” This remarkable example is from Rostovanovskoye, Russia which appears to be so small and remote a town that Google Maps seemed unsure if I was seriously trying to find it
Happy invoicing!
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