Books and Links
**An Immense World by Ed Yong**
This is a really interesting book, about all the different kinds of senses in the animal kingdom, and how and why different sense adaptations work, from really basic eyes to the fact insects just keep evolving new ears to echolocation. It covers some pretty complex topics, but Yong keeps it understandable and accessible. Read it to learn about lions being unable to see a zebra's stripes, to what star nosed moles' star is for, to the way pain is weird!
I thoroughly enjoyed it and can highly recommend it.
...it did have the unfortunate side effect of making me really aware of the fact that I could feel the book with my finger tips, and the way my eyes had to interpret light to read it. ...and also the fact it's kind of weird that I managed to locate a drill rig purely by hearing it.
** Chernobyl 01:23:40 by Andrew Leatherbarrow**
Half this book is about how the Chernobyl disaster happened, the aftermath of it, and comparing to other nuclear disasters before and after it. The other half is about the author's photography trip to the Pripyat exclusion zone.
I liked this, but I have to caveat this with the fact I don't know how accurate this is? Leatherbarrow evidently has exhaustively researched it, but he's not an academic as such. I do overall trust what he's said, but like. Choose your own trust thresholds. He's quite the engaging author, and I did enjoy his description of the experience of being in the exclusion zone. (He is also Amusingly Reddit, and I don't meant this in a mean way, just-- he keeps going talking about "oh, this is the swimming pool made famous by Call of Duty" and "oh, you know urban explorers are," and I don't know how urban explorers are, but please continue Mr Leatherbarrow.)
Also, stuff about safety culture in the USSR was horrifying and haunting, but I'm... glad to know it?
**Links**
On some lighter notes:
- [how the ownership of Pokemon ismore complicated than God like a heretical Christian trinity.](https://youtu.be/jfSKAvbAUUk?si=c3W7txEu9ODPyBPd) (I love Moon Channel's video essays, even when they go a bit bonkers like this one.)
- [a funny skit about dreams](https://youtube.com/shorts/g9919n4dF7M?si=7WOqt629XhBjtGWa)
This is a really interesting book, about all the different kinds of senses in the animal kingdom, and how and why different sense adaptations work, from really basic eyes to the fact insects just keep evolving new ears to echolocation. It covers some pretty complex topics, but Yong keeps it understandable and accessible. Read it to learn about lions being unable to see a zebra's stripes, to what star nosed moles' star is for, to the way pain is weird!
I thoroughly enjoyed it and can highly recommend it.
...it did have the unfortunate side effect of making me really aware of the fact that I could feel the book with my finger tips, and the way my eyes had to interpret light to read it. ...and also the fact it's kind of weird that I managed to locate a drill rig purely by hearing it.
** Chernobyl 01:23:40 by Andrew Leatherbarrow**
Half this book is about how the Chernobyl disaster happened, the aftermath of it, and comparing to other nuclear disasters before and after it. The other half is about the author's photography trip to the Pripyat exclusion zone.
I liked this, but I have to caveat this with the fact I don't know how accurate this is? Leatherbarrow evidently has exhaustively researched it, but he's not an academic as such. I do overall trust what he's said, but like. Choose your own trust thresholds. He's quite the engaging author, and I did enjoy his description of the experience of being in the exclusion zone. (He is also Amusingly Reddit, and I don't meant this in a mean way, just-- he keeps going talking about "oh, this is the swimming pool made famous by Call of Duty" and "oh, you know urban explorers are," and I don't know how urban explorers are, but please continue Mr Leatherbarrow.)
Also, stuff about safety culture in the USSR was horrifying and haunting, but I'm... glad to know it?
**Links**
On some lighter notes:
- [how the ownership of Pokemon is
- [a funny skit about dreams](https://youtube.com/shorts/g9919n4dF7M?si=7WOqt629XhBjtGWa)