Good afternoon lovely email friends. If you’re observing a Dry Veganuary, on top of everything else, you have my utmost respect. If not, well, there’s always next year. You can’t build castles in swamps, and all that.
📸 Britain from the Air - 1945-2009: A unique collection of aerial photographs capturing changes to Britain’s cities and landscapes from the 1940s to 2009 has been made freely available to everyone on Cambridge University Library’s digital library. I should warn you; this is a serious rabbithole. Glorious.
🦏 The Last Two Northern White Rhinos On Earth: In March 2018, when the last male northern white rhinoceros died, there remained only two: his daughter and granddaughter. The species had been hunted into oblivion. What will we lose when Najin and Fatu die?
🇯🇵 Radio Ghibli: Three shows covering 30 years of Studio Ghibli soundtracks, mixed by Sega Bodega. See also: the collection of stills from Studio Ghibli movies has grown to a considerable size; your next Zoom background is in here somewhere. Here’s mine.
👩🎓 The joys of being an absolute beginner – for life: A strong long read from the Guardian. The phrase ‘adult beginner’ can sound patronising. It implies you are learning something you should have mastered as a child. But learning is not just for the young.
🔊 myNoise offers an extraordinary variety of background noises, soundscapes and atmospheres to help you take control of your focus. Some of the best programmers I’ve met tend to work while listening to a single song on repeat all day; not necessarily one they like. That’d tip me over the edge, but a good constant sonic landscape can be hugely beneficial.
🧘♀️ Was the Buddha an awakened prince or a humble itinerant? When we strip away the myths, such as his princely youth in a palace, a surprising picture of this enigmatic sage emerges.
🔥 Welcome to the Dark Ages: After leaving the music industry and burning one million pounds the KLF (or whatever you want to call them) have turned down offers to participate in a documentary. More recently they undertook to construct a monument from bricks made of people’s remains. While they’d agreed to participate in this film of the project, they then changed their minds on the second day of shooting. Nevertheless the filmmakers continued, and this is the result.
