On Fridays I suggest worthwhile weekend reading that’s guaranteed to improve your posture, your online dating prospects, and make you an all around better person. Read these ten articles and probably, you’ll lose five pounds.
But first, the week’s photo challenge. It’s a national landmark in this country’s capital. See if you can guess where this is:
The answer is at the bottom.
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Now, a dozen suggestions for this weekend’s worthwhile reading:
Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison this week on charges of treason. The Center for European Policy Analysis has a biography of the Kara-Murza family. “Vladimir Kara-Murza tells the truths Russia’s rulers can’t bear to hear. As did his father, as did his grandfather.” A Duty to Dissent
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More than meets the eye. Trees shelter feathered Pavarottis, scuttling beetles, opportunistic fungi and fierce owls. A day in the life of an oak tree
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Russia is now in a far worse negotiating position than in 2014. Finding itself at the mercy of a monopsonist buyer, there is very little it can actually do. What Russia’s First Gas Pipeline to China Reveals About a Planned Second One
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Tomas Pueyo’s Uncharted Territories has a fun map feature this week. You may have seen some of them but probably not all. Here’s a fun fact I learned there: Brazil’s northernmost point is closer to Canada than to its southernmost point. Maps Distort How We See the World
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Why Poverty Persists in America: Maybe it’s “the unrelenting exploitation of the poor in the labor, housing and financial markets.”
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With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is now marvellously vivid. Children of the Ice Age
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Okay, the capital of Sudan is Khartoum, Darfur is in Sudan, the bottom part of Sudan became South Sudan. Sudan is on the Nile. But politics? Here’s an explainer: 2 Generals Took Over a Country. Will They Deliver Democracy or War?
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“I want to tell you about the wretched suffering that you have seen and read about, but if you will permit me, I’d also like to tell you that Ukraine is an almost fully functioning nation that defies one’s expectations for the conditions of life during wartime.” Dave Eggers’s Sketches from Ukraine
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“It’s astonishing,” says Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University. This galaxy (JADES-GS-z13-0), he evocatively notes, is only slightly younger from our perspective than the total time sharks have existed on Earth—some 300 million years. “You go from nothing to these fully formed galaxies in the blink of an eye.” The Webb telescope’s Newfound Galaxies Are the Oldest Ever Seen
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The Guardian runs a series about what makes people happy. “It’s taken me 80 years to figure out it’s not a tranquil, sunlit realm.” Helen Garner on happiness
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Here’s a fascinating sixteen minute Cold War video. It says “The RMP video that was shown to "first time travellers" along the Berlin Corridor......from Helmstedt to West Berlin.” The Road to Berlin
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This week’s photo quiz answer is, Brunei. It’s the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, completed in 1958, in Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei’s capital. There are a few more photos in the Brunei Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
Tomorrow we’ll take a look back at the week and see if we can figure out what just happened. Please consider a subscription, and ask someone you know to join you. Subscriptions start at the entirely reasonable rate of free and come with 50% off the pre-shipping price on every order from Earthphotos.com. Thanks for reading CS&W. See you tomorrow.