Why We Keep Playing the Lottery – Nautilus
“It may seem easy to understand why we keep playing. As one trademarked lottery slogan goes, “Hey, you never know.” Somebody has to win. But to really understand why hundreds of millions of people play a game they will never win, a game with serious social consequences, you have to suspend logic and consider it through an alternate set of rules—rules written by neuroscientists, social psychologists, and economists.”
The West Coast Oyster War – Harper’s
“For Pollan, Waters, and other progressives, the farm epitomizes an agricultural future in which small, conservation-minded producers build sustainable local food economies.Environmentalism is central to this philosophy, but in an interview with the New York Times, Bay Area restaurateur Patricia Unterman characterized the environmentalists’ mindset as “doctrinaire and unnuanced.” The farm she described as “a rare and beautiful use of land and water” is viewed by the Sierra Club as an unholy industrialization of a beloved national park.”
The Death of My Father – Aeon
“The only rule about grief is that there are no rules. Reactions to death cannot be neatly divided between the normal or abnormal, appropriate and inappropriate, right and wrong. We muddle through death as we muddle through life, each scrambling in the dark for a way through.”
The Rise of the Shuttlecock – The Stranger
“Badminton defenders also like to point to statistical comparisons with tennis. The fastest recorded tennis shot during tournament play, for example, was a 162-miles-per-hour serve by Australian Sam Groth. The fastest tournament shot in badminton was a smash by Chinese player Fu Haifeng at 206 miles per hour. The current world record for fastest-ever badminton shot is held by Malay player Tan Boon Heong, who sent a shuttlecock through the air at 262 miles per hour during speed trials for a new racket design—100 miles per hour faster than Groth’s record-breaking tennis serve.”
The Serial Killer Has Second Thoughts: The Confession of Thomas Quick – GQ
“For a time it was a role he seemed to revel in, but then in 2001, after his eighth murder conviction, Bergwall announced that he was no longer going to cooperate with prosecutors and he was no longer going to speak with the media. He reclaimed the name Sture Bergwall and went silent. As his reputation swirled, the man at its center kept his own counsel. But recently he has decided to start talking again, and he has agreed to see me.”
Where’s the Male Pill? – Aeon
“In a society that increasingly recognises that men and women should share responsibilities and opportunities equitably, the lack of adequate reproductive control methods for men is striking — and puzzling — especially since many newer methods for male contraception have been developed during the past decades yet none has become available for general use.”
Do Yourself a Favour: Solo Travel At Least Once – The Guardian
“I’ve traveled alone to dozens of places, and come to the conclusion that solo exploration is one of the best ways to learn and challenge oneself. It’s a great way to re-center, to escape from the details of daily life that can distract us from our own big picture and to come back with a new sense of self-sufficiency and purpose.”
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Photo courtesy of John Le.
