The Putin Show

This is David, your diligent curator, and you're reading the Weekly Filet for another carefully curated set of the best things to read, watch and listen to. It's great to have you.

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1. The Putin Show

A day in the media reality of an ordinary Russian citizen. The Economist lets you see the war in Ukraine as state-controlled media in Russia portray it. Key quote: «Where propaganda once sought mostly to breed passivity, cast doubt on reality and discourage political participation, it increasingly seeks to mobilise popular support for Mr Putin’s war.»

The Putin Show

How the war in Ukraine appears to Russians

The Economist

2. My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal

This podcast episode weaves multiple highly interesting stories together: How Sri Lanka ended up with a corrupt war criminal as President and why US immigration forms somewhat curiously ask you to tick a box whether you've ever committed genocide.

My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal - Reveal

There may be 1,700 suspected war criminals and human rights abusers in the U.S. Who are they, and what is the government doing about it?

RevealMore by Ike Sriskandarajah

3. ​​ So, Have You Heard About Monkeypocks?

For the time being, it is probably a good idea to read exactly one article about this new viral outbreak and make it this one by Ed Yong.

So, Have You Heard About Monkeypox?

A new viral outbreak is testing whether the world has learned anything from COVID.

The AtlanticEd Yong

4. Can You Even Call Deadly Heat ‘Extreme’ Anymore?

For a few weeks now, I've been looking for something that puts the extreme heat wave in India and Pakistan into context. This one by David Wallace-Wells (author of «The Inhabitable Earth») is your must read on the issue. His point: We need to grapple with the fact that heat waves like this one are no longer all that extreme, but part of the new normal we created for ourselves. At the same time, he warns against falling for «shifting baseline syndrome», accepting ever deadlier heat as normal.

Opinion | Can You Even Call Deadly Heat ‘Extreme’ Anymore?

In India, weeks of 100-degree heat have become just another everyday climate anomaly.

NYTimesBy

5. Mechanical Watch

Mechanical watches are little wonders of technology. Do you know how exactly they work? This fantastic interactive explainer takes you into the inner workings of a watch, one step at a time.  

Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski

Interactive article explaining how a mechanical watch works.

Bartosz Ciechanowski

What else?

• When not even war can curb your creativity: Kyiv's Department of Tourism has launched a Virtual Museum of War Memory.
• 1992 ad for Microsoft Excel.
• Watch the best music videos before they reach one million views: Here Before A Million. One million? How about zero? Before inflation hit, there was Forgotify.
• Learned a new word: apartners — «committed romantic partners living apart».
• Number of trees on the planet: ~3 trillion.

Thanks for your time, I hope you found something to spend even more of your time with. Have a nice weekend. See you next Friday!

— David