Category: Random

Random

Shires, counties, counts and sheriffs – @InkyFool

Now you know…

Once upon an Old English time there were shires: Hampshire, Wiltshire, Nottinghamshire etc. The Anglo-Saxons lived in these and kept the Hobbit population under control. 

Each shire was ruled for the king by a shire-official, or shire-reeve, or scir-gerefa, or sheriff. 

The Inky Fool explains all about shires, sheriffs, counties, counts, marches and marquises, here.

His book on rhetoric, The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth, is one of my favourite references for words, speech and writing.

Photo by Andy Newton on Unsplash

Random

On foreign language translation…

“The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture’s patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language’s rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people’s gestures and movements.”

— Ken Liu, Translator’s Postface to The Three Body Problem (via as-if-falling)

I love this. It goes straight to the heart of language and highlights why so much translation is so poor.

Hat-tip to Je t’aime / N’arrete pas.

Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash

Random

A 373-year-old bond still paying interest

Yale holds a 1648 bond that still pays annual interest. It was issued by a Dutch water board to finance improvements to a local dike system and is still valid. Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library must make the trip to the Houten in the Netherlands every few years to claim the interest.

That’s a remarkable, long-term investment.

But, will it buy you a table at Milliways?

All you have to do is deposit one penny in a savings account in your own era, and when you arrive at the End of Time the operation of compound interest means that the fabulous cost of your meal has been paid for.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams

Read the full story (about the bond), here.

Hat tip to Benedict Evans’ newsletter.

Photo by Emiel Molenaar on Unsplash

Random

A one-hour stop for every two hours’ driving. Why the electric car’s not arrived, yet.

Considering a change of car led me to dig deeper on electrics. Here’s where I arrived.

The rush to roll out electric car charging points is missing the bigger point.

Range anxiety is, rightly, identified as one of the main barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles. But, concern about distance isn’t as simple as how far you can travel on a given charge. It’s not purely about distance, but about time, too.

Continue reading “A one-hour stop for every two hours’ driving. Why the electric car’s not arrived, yet.” →
Random

Absolutely! @MatthewSyed on obesity drugs and personal resolve

Is the anti-obesity drug a breakthrough or a breakdown?

Matthew Syed in yesterday’s Sunday Times…

But after the flicker of delight, I felt a worm of disquiet. For I can’t help thinking that many obese people could lose weight by eating less and exercising more. They don’t have a medical condition; they lack resolve. I don’t mean those with serious thyroid or other conditions — I am talking about people who can’t manage to do what they know, deep inside, is in their best interests.

For what does it do to a person to subcontract a matter of volition to a pharmacological intervention, thus bypassing the will? What does it do to our sense of agency, perhaps our sense of self? These consequences may not show up in the side-effects listed in a clinical trial — but they are serious, nonetheless.

There’s also an interesting parallel from the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Read the full article, here.

Photo by Michael Payne on Unsplash

Random

The classics and “challenging language” – in praise of friction – @AndrewGregory

Classic works of literature by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and other great writers can boost your brain and relieve depression, chronic pain and dementia.

Andrew Gregory, The Sunday Times, The Pick-me-up Papers: Dickens better for mental health than self-help books

Here’s a thought-provoking piece from last week’s Sunday Times. Mental health is improved by reading classic works of literature because…

Unusual phrases and unfamiliar words in great works of literature command the undivided attention of readers, provoking moments of self-reflection and helping shift brains into a higher gear.

And, the approach seems to be having a positive impact in clinical scenarios…

There is no evidence bibliotherapy, or reading therapy, can cure mental health disorders, but medics have reported dramatic results in those with poor mental health. Dr Helen Willows, a GP, said she had seen reading “transform the lives of the people that we see day after day at our surgery — those that are stuck, perhaps with low mood or who are socially isolated.”

Dr David Fearnley, executive medical director of the Betsi Cadwaladr University health board and one of the longest- serving medical directors in the NHS, goes further. Reading aloud with others in particular, he says, is “the most significant development in mental healthcare in the past 10 years”.

It’s interesting that, in all areas of life, we pursue ease and a reduction in friction, whether that’s making writing simpler, our background music less intrusive or our daily lives less exercised. But, like resistance work in the gym, or fibre in food, it’s the push-back, the friction that has greatest effect.

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash