The feudal order seems to be fundamentally incompatible with literacy. The historian Orlando Figes has noted that the English, French and Russian revolutions all occurred in societies in which literacy was approaching fifty per cent.

🔗jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-daw…

The world of print is orderly, logical and rational. In books, knowledge is classified, comprehended, connected and put in its place. Books make arguments, propose theses, develop ideas. “To engage with the written word”, the media theorist Neil Postman wrote, “means to follow a line of thought, which requires considerable powers of classifying, inference-making and reasoning.”

🔗jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-daw…

The human population has already grown too large and demanding for Earth to sustainably support at current consumption levels, a new study warns.

🔗www.sciencealert.com/earths-po…

The exits you’ve carved so carefully have become cages, keeping you from the growth you envisioned. Every time you choose distraction over presence, you’re training yourself to believe that this moment — this exact, unrepeatable configuration of breath and heartbeat and possibility — isn’t worth your full attention. You’re teaching yourself that you can’t be trusted with your own experience.

🔗prickly.oxhe.art/avoidance…

Jack Edwards, the “internet’s resident librarian,” shares his book reviews and bookish thoughts on his Substack, Constant Reader. This week, he’s clapping back at bookish snobs. “Perhaps it’s more helpful to think of collecting books like collecting wine: you pick up novels you know you will enjoy at some time in the future. That time might be right now, or it might be next year. Like a bottle of Sancerre, you’ll bring it down off the shelf at the perfect moment, when you’ll enjoy it most. That’s okay, even encouraged, because the pursuit of literature is a deeply personal endeavour: it’s about reading things you want to read, when you want to read them."

🔗wiseup.readwise.io/wiseup-vo…

“Nature connectedness is now accepted as a key root cause of the environmental crisis,” Richardson told Guardian journalist Patrick Barkham. “It’s vitally important for our own mental health as well. It unites people and nature’s wellbeing. There’s a need for transformational change if we’re going to change society’s relationship with nature."

🔗www.sciencealert.com/the-words…

Back in 2016, deep inside a Canadian mine, geologists stumbled upon something extraordinary. At nearly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) below the surface, they found water that had been sealed away for up to 2.64 billion years, the oldest known water on Earth.

🔗www.iflscience.com/a-geologi…

Explorers have discovered the world’s deepest shipwreck, lying 6,895 meters (22,621 feet) beneath the Philippine Sea.

🔗www.iflscience.com/the-world…

That’s right – in the town of St Paul in Northern Alberta lies the world’s first ever UFO landing pad. The idea came about as part of Canada’s centennial celebrations, and once approved by the government, saw the construction of a large platform sat atop six 75-centimeter (30-inch)-tall concrete pylons. The platform is circular, of course, because all UFOs are flying saucer-shaped, right?

🔗www.iflscience.com/canada-is…

The disgustingly educated are not “know-it-alls.” They’re “want-to-know-it-alls.” They collect questions like souvenirs and chase answers like lovers. Google should be tired of you.

🔗theebookclubx.substack.com/p/how-to-…