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 not a great look when you’re in the news, as this country is this week, for ignoring refugees in peril near your border. This is the country’s capital. See if you can guess where this is:
The answer is at the bottom.
Now, on to some worthwhile reads:
Not enough people appreciate Albania. It’s just so … unique. This ought to help: Unraveling Albania: A Journey through the Country's Past and Present
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How does the science of the perfect second work? Answer: there is no perfect second. In Search of Lost Time.
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Bordering Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea, the Kaliningrad region has no land links to the rest of the Russian Federation. Prior to World War II, it wasn’t part of Russia at all. It’s closer to Gdansk than Moscow. Kaliningrad: An imperial gem and a thorn in everyone’s side
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Everything is the same. Everywhere. It’s the Age of Average.
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Here is a long look at how Russia’s spies misread Ukraine and misled the Kremlin as war loomed.
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The jet stream wasn’t given its name until 1939. Before that people knew something was happening up there. They just didn’t know what. Searching for the River of Wind.
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Rhythm plays an important role in how we perceive — and connect with — the world. The Extraordinary Ways Rhythm Shapes Our Lives.
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What the author learned when he ventured into the belly of bureaucracy in postwar Damascus to apply for a replacement identity card, from New Lines Magazine, which does really interesting work. An Expensive Bribe for a Syrian ID.
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It’s more complicated than you think. And probably than it needs to be. How Military Operations Get Their Code Names.
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“Because we do not notice them, transgressions of physics reveal that our visual brain uses a simpler, reduced physics to understand the world.” Here is an engrossing, illustrated study of The Art of the Shadow: How Painters Have Gotten It Wrong for Centuries.
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This week’s photo quiz answer is, this is the Mosta Dome near Valetta, capital of Malta. There are a few more photos in the Malta Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
Tomorrow we’ll take an abbreviated look back at the week and see if we can figure out what just happened. Please ask someone you know to join you, and consider a subscription. Subscriptions start at the entirely reasonable rate of free. Thanks for reading CS&W. See you tomorrow.
Malta! We pulled into Malta too, although we anchored out and went on shore on the launches. Been a while, and I didn't pay much attention to mosques, anyway.
Syria? That city must be on the Mediterranean. My aircraft carrier, in 1972 pulled in to Mersin, Türkiye. Nice trick, since the USS Roosevelt was a full size aircraft carrier. We pulled right up to the dock.