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 a dozen articles, lose five pounds.
First, our weekly photo quiz. Here are three photos:
The architecture in the first photo may give a clue. The middle photo is a random bit of hosuing on the outskirts of this country’s capital city, and the third photo is the Foreign Ministry on Republic Square in the center of this country’s capital.
Give it a guess, and the answer is at the end of this post.
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Now, a few suggestions for your weekend reading:
The remote, roadless crossing on the border between Colombia and Panama consists of more than sixty miles of dense rain forest, steep mountains, and vast swamps. Crossing the Darién Gap
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Something unique about last weekend’s upheaval in Russia: for a while there, your opinion was just as likely right as all manner of ‘experts.’ Nobody had any idea. Which was fun. What did the press learn from the big Russian mutiny?
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By Christmas, five months after the murder, sergeant Hensley could see he was getting nowhere, which more than a few people in town told him was just plain stupid. Because everyone in Stephenville knew who did it. Everyone in Stephenville Thought They Knew Who Killed Susan Woods
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In November of 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald left port in Wisconsin for a routine shipment run. Neither she nor her 29 crewmen made it to their destination. The Day the Lake Took the Edmund Fitzgerald
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In the 1980s, there was no better place than Bulgaria for virus lovers. The socialist country – plagued by hyperinflation, crumbling infrastructure, food and petrol rationing, daily blackouts and packs of wild dogs in its streets – had become one of the hottest hi-tech zones on the planet. Legions of young Bulgarian programmers were tinkering on their pirated IBM PC clones, pumping out computer viruses that managed to travel to the gleaming and prosperous west. On the trail of the Dark Avenger: the most dangerous virus writer in the world
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”American presidents of both parties applauded Putin’s rise. George W. Bush called him “a new style of leader, a reformer … who is going to make a huge difference in making the world more peaceful.” Barack Obama lauded his “extraordinary work … on behalf of the Russian people.” One German chancellor even went to work for one of Russia’s biggest state-controlled companies.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza says The West deserves much of the blame for Putin’s rise to unchecked power.
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“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself — and there isn’t one.” Eastern philosophy says there is no “self.” Science agrees
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Here’s the complete interview I mentioned last weekend with former aide Winston Lord about how they hid Henry Kissinger for two days of secret talks in Beijing, by acting like he had a stomach bug and was convalescing in a Pakistani hill station. Spy stuff, involving subterfuge, fake briefing notes and a body double. Kissinger and Lord in China: A How-To Guide for Secret Negotiations
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Driven by the realization that nature is full of interspecies communication, interdisciplinary research teams — computer scientists, biologists, linguists — are now attempting to use AI and digital bioacoustics to develop tools for translation.
“(I)n one experiment with tobacco plants, the algorithm was able to detect whether the plants were dehydrated, healthy or wounded simply by listening. These high ultrasonic frequencies are well above human hearing range but audible to insects.
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After Gautama Buddha died (around 500 years BCE) he was cremated and his ashes divided up and distributed to stupas across northern India. But some relics purportedly survived, including a surprising number of teeth. Buddha’s teeth
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Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it would expand its Hub Delivery pilot program, which contracts with local businesses like florists and dry cleaners to deliver shipments of Amazon packages using the businesses’ staff and cars, to 23 states and some of the nation’s biggest cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. To make it work, the company is trying to recruit 2,500 small businesses to the program—“no delivery experience required,” the Hub Delivery website tells prospective applicants. As part of this Amazon side hustle, businesses will turn their existing employees into package couriers, delivering up to 50 parcels a day. Surprise! You Work for Amazon
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The answer to this week’s photo quiz? It’s Armenia. This is the iconic Khor Virap Monastery, on the Ararat plain not far outside the capital, Yerevan, the site of ancient royal buildings dating to as far back at 180 BCE. The trick here is, that’s Mt. Ararat behind it, which is in Turkey.
There are a few more photos in the Armenia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
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Tomorrow we’ll look back at Vladimir Putin’s uncomfortable week, and see what else happened while everybody’s attention was on Russia. Happy reading. See you then.
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I finally got one of the quiz questions, correct! I’ve never been to Armenia, but it’s really high on my list of places I would like to see. It’s quite a shot you took in that first picture. Really enjoying your newsletter. XOXO.