Status:

Psychotherapy today (I used to just call it “therapy” but now I’m having regular occupational therapy it’s getting a bit confusing as to which therapy I’m referring to) which went well and left me feeling good, though it may have opened up some doors I wasn’t aware of as I was a bit off late-afternoon. Nothing too bad, I hope. Found my head spinning with opinions on important things which I can’t really do anything about, which is usually a sign that my brain is a bit sprained and needs to rest. So rest it shall.

Reading:

• How the heck do solar panels work? — How indeed does a thin sheet of silicon turn sunshine into electricity? I never really knew, until now. This is a nicely written explainer in simple language, with options to dive deeper into the science if you’re up for it. More of this kind of thing please!
• A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis — Whale falls are when a whale dies and its carcass rests on the bottom of the deep sea, bringing a disproportionate amount of nutrients to a small patch of ocean floor. “Five modern natural whale-fall communities and 476 fossil cetaceans” have been found in the Diamantina Fracture Zone between the Australian and Antarctic continents and scientists are very excited about this.
  • Not at all related in any way, the trailer for Whale Fall, which is not about whale falls but is about a man who is swallowed by a sperm whale and has an hour to get out. Missed opportunity there.
• Eleven Guardian readers on the weirdest things their dogs have ever eaten — This is as great as you might imagine. Maybe even greater. (And don’t worry, all dogs survived.)
• Garbage Day went to that cage fighting thing at the White House — “Is this the best we can do? Is this what we are?"
• The SpaceX IPO is a giant unworkable con orchestrated by an overt white supremacist huckster — Long, with much detail about Musk’s nonsense that all our pensions are now tied to, but has some gloriously furious writing. “Last week’s SpaceX IPO is a stunning act of financial fraud that […] cobbles together a bunch of money-losing ventures into a giant pump-and-dump scheme untethered to objective reality, all controlled by a proven bullshitter."
• Heading in the wrong direction — Someone I hadn’t heard of before critiqued some of the common objections to the UK’s social media ban proposal and they were a bit wrong, so Phil Gifford’s had a go, Phil being someone who, like me, has been around long enough to see this shit evolve. I’m particularly drawn to “Then maybe social media should not exist in its current form, for anyone?" What people are worried about is fundamentally different to the social media of 10 or 20 years ago, and that in turn was a radical shift from what existed before. There’s nothing sacred about the current offer from the tech oligarchs and anyone with long-term experience of these things could tell you that. Aw shit, I’m going to have to write something longer about this, aren’t I…

Watching:

• Practical Engineering: How to demolish a bridge ‌(17:55) — The look in Grady’s eyes when he mentions explosives is a little disconcerting.

Listening:

• Dream Time: Shoegaze Sounds — Featuring actual shoegaze, stuff that sounds like shoegaze and a guy who’s written a book about shoegaze talking about shoegaze. Rather good late night listening.
  • Big discovery from this show was A.R. Kane, a black shoegaze band I’d never heard of before (they peaked before I became aware of proper music) who are really really good. Reckon I’ll be working through their back catalogue tonight.

Music:

• Setting by Setting — My algo-channel on Apple Music has been pretty milquetoast of late with me skipping a lot of stuff I didn’t recognise, but this popped up yesterday and I really enjoyed it.