Six Things, Volume 65

Migration | Barbra’s food | Noise | Sleep | Beachcombing | Colours

Thing 1 – Migration

We’re right in the heart of bird migration season (still no swifts here – soon, soon…), so here’s a really good piece by Scott Weidensaul shedding light on the huge strides made in migration science.

Weidensaul’s book, A World on the Wing, is also highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.

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Thing 2 – Barbra’s food

Although there is a copy in the house, I haven’t yet read My Name Is Barbra. I gather, though, that one subject she mentions with frequency and enthusiasm is food. Here is a most excellent rundown of all the food in the book – a ‘digested read’, if you like.

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Thing 3 – Noise

MyNoise is a ‘vast library of immersive and customizable soundscapes that can enhance focus, relaxation, and sleep’. Among many other things, it’s an opportunity to create and play around with your own Shepard tones – the phenomenon used to such great and unsettling effect by Hans Zimmer in Dunkirk.

But if that’s too stressful for you (and who could blame you?), you might prefer something like Osmosis – a perfect aid to breathing/relaxation exercises. Other possibilities include a purring cat, a waterfall, a Japanese garden and Senegal town.

(The original link came from Mike Sowden’s most recent post for paying subscribers. Always worth your time.)

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Thing 4 – Sleep

And while we’re on themes of peace and relaxation, and especially sleep, here’s a reminder of what a wonderful writer Jenny Diski was. She died eight years ago today.

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Thing 5 – Beachcombing

Now here’s a thing – or, rather, many many things. John Anderson has been beachcombing for 46 years, and in his retirement has curated (a rare genuine use of that word in its proper museum) a beachcombing museum. On the one hand you can see this as a comment on the simple enormous amount of stuff that gets made and thrown away. But you can also see that, as he puts it, ‘mankind’s trash is one man’s treasure’. Every object has a story.

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Thing 6 – Colours

Ever wanted to name a colour? Here you go.

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Bonus thing

If you participated in the Flipbook experiment featured in Volume 63, you’ll be delighted to learn that the results are in. They include the results of a secret experiment they carried out alongside the main exercise. It was intended to test the prevalence of Online Disinhibition Effect, some examples of which you’ll see in this sample of results from people who were asked to draw a circle.

There’s also a discussion of the results and what was learned from the exercise.