Honey, I shrunk the planet
Plus: Ancient life in lakes under Antarctic ice. (#572)
This is David, your semi-professional internet-shrinker so that it neatly fits into your inbox. You're reading the Weekly Filet, the newsletter for curious minds who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». As every Friday, I'm here to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. Ready?
1. A Question of Margin
«We’re shrinking the board on which we play the sublime game of being human.» Bill McKibben provides a useful lens through which to understand the climate crisis. There have always been places on this planet where humans couldn’t live – places that are too hot, too cold, too hostile for us delicate animals to live. By not confronting the climate crisis at the scale and speed required, we allow more and more places to become such uninhabitable places.
Bill McKibben
2. What's Hidden Under Antarctica?
A fascinating «Huge, if true» episode from Antarctica, on the hidden lakes under the thousands of meters of ice. Yes, lakes. These lakes have been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years, which begs the question: Is there life? And what happens if we start looking for it?
3. Huh. Apparently we can just end smoking.
In a decade or two, we might well look back and wondering why this didn't happen earlier, everywhere. Smoking contributes to nearly 10 percent of deaths worldwide – so the UK is banning it. Starting next year, anyone born after January 1, 2009 won't be able to buy tobacco, ever. When I first heard of this, I was surprised that such a drastic measure had mainstream political support. And I wondered: Will this really work? The data we have says: yes, it might indeed.
Amanda Shendruk
4. Actually, Democracy Dies in H.R.
A historical perspective on the role Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plays in Trump's autocratic playbook – just like similar «second career ladders» for low performers did for other autocrats. (Gift link so you can read it without a subscription.)
5. Key, in sight
An ode to keyboard customisation, which also doubles as a guide to getting started with this wonderful madness yourself.
Marcin Wichary
Previously featured: Wichary's amazing 25-minute presentation on pixel fonts.
Dataguessr of the week
Update your knowledge of the world. One quiz at a time. This week:
What else?
Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.
- Cuteness alert: the world's smallest cat.
- Obvious, but somehow it never occurred to me: Chile isn't just long and thin, it's also curved like a banana.
- This artist brings paper to life, with nothing but a pencil.
- 812 double pendulums, beauty in chaos.
- Speaking of chaos, the creator of Sim City apparently has a wonderful hobby: «I'm uncollecting. I buy collections on ebay, and I disperse them out to people again. I have to be like an entropic force to collectors, otherwise all of this stuff will get sorted.»
Books for curious minds
Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.
Unsurprisingly, the guy who played a key role in bringing iPod and iPhone to the world has insightful things to share about building products, teams and companies. As always with this type of book, hindsight and survivorship bias included. Buy it here.
A gem from the archive
David Bauer
The Weekly Filet archive offers more than 2900 hand-picked links since 2011, like this one. You can search by interests, explore collections or shuffle for a gem.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!
— David