Cemental stimulation
- Recent archaeological discoveries in Turkey suggest that humans made cement as long ago as 10,000 BC. That's before we learned to make bread, or had moved out of caves.
- Cement is one of the key ingredients of concrete, which is so prevalent that, alongside bricks and rusting metal, it comprises a new man-made layer on the surface of Earth. Geologists call this 'the archaeosphere'.
- It's thought that concrete is so hardy, and so widespread, that it will outlive us as a species and be the last visible sign of humanity.
- Concrete is also quite handy at hiding aspects of humanity. Money, babies, cats and 'witch bottles' (containers of urine, fingernail clippings and hair, thought to ward off the evils) have all been found in walls over the years.
- 'Cement shoes', meanwhile - thought to be an apocryphal means of mob murder - have in 2016 been proven to actually exist. The same can no longer be said for the man who sported them.
- For more concrete goodness check out Hardbound's How Concrete Became a Thing, this episode of the Surprisingly Awesome podcast and the 99% Invisible episode 'Making Up Ground'.
Otherings
- I recently read The Dark Net, which was approximately as insightful and disturbing as you would expect.
- I went to see Louis Theroux's My Scientology Movie, which was entertaining but won't shed much new light on the church for anyone who has read/watched Going Clear.
- Every week I read something good on Atlas Obscura. This week it was a thing about surreal British clone towns taking over the Turkish coast.
- I love that there is a garment called 'Podcast Co-Host Top'.
- Considering the age of the Instagram eyebrow.
- It's been unseasonably dry recently, so here's a rain noise generator.
- The latest initiative to address world poverty is to test giving basic income to 26,000 Kenyans.
- Tangerine Dream did a version of the Stranger Things theme tune.
- Open-mouthed wonderment in 80s tech adverts...
