Hey there lovely email friends. Recently I’ve had many lovely replies and I’m grateful for all of them. What a nice bunch you are. So if your prefrontal cortex aches wearily from the relentless pseudo-political tinnitus of social media, perhaps it’s a good time to close down that infinite scroll, hit the compose button and drop a note to someone you’ve not had proper contact with for too long. Meanwhile, here’s some interesting things for you.
💉 You only live once: Epidemiologists analyse health risks in all the James Bond films. Like many, my first proper venture out after a a long period of being housebound was to see the latest Bond film which, I now realise, is merely substituting one unreality for another. This article overlaps the two. The biggest risk might be to Bond’s sexual partners: 27.1% of them died shortly after sex.
🥳 Other People Don’t Think You’re a Mess: Hey you. Yes, you. Individuals often overestimate how harshly others judge them. But self-compassion can help build a more balanced, healthy perspective.
🚀 This NASA spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter’s mysterious asteroid swarms: the Lucy spacecraft, named for an early human ancestor whose skeleton provided insights into our species’ muddled origins, has begun the first leg of its 12-year journey to help us better understand our solar system’s ancient origins.
💩 Betting Against Bitcoin: As part of a regular thread calling out cryptobullshit, here’s a tremendous piece from software engineer Paul Butler, who holds what amounts to a bet against bitcoin: options and shorts on public market bitcoin-related companies.
🌐 There are six main narratives of globalisation, all flawed: No wonder we cannot agree on how globalisation works and whether it’s a good thing. This article argues we are at a critical juncture, and some narratives assume particular relevance because they offer new ways for actors to understand what the problem is and what should be done about it.
🐾 9 Ways to ‘Rewild Your Attention’: In this era of algorithmic feeds, how to inject more weirdness and randomness into the stuff you read and see.
🎼 The Girl From Ipanema is a far weirder song than you thought: cast aside any thoughts of elevator music; there’s nothing ’easy’ listening about this bossa nova masterpiece, [Thanks, CW!]
☃️ Every Christmas Advert In 2021, Ranked: From John Lewis To Sports Direct: It’s not been a good year for retailers, just like all the other years. But this year is a particularly poor year for retailers’ Christmas campaigns, and here’s how Glamour Magazine ranks them.