N.74 / Dowsing, Healing & ExcelCoin
Newsletter friends — Welcome to Issue 74!
In this installment, we’ve got a classic hits of second-hand news and an assortment of links for the best parts of the internet that I've discovered this week.
Nothing new published this week (I know, it's been a while), but I have been working in the background to start unearthing some fresh ideas and articles in the coming weeks.
If you’re vibin’ this, send it to a friend, say something controversial in the comments, or like, tweet about it.
Alright, on to the newsletter! - Sam
WATCH
90-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine confronts her past by visiting the German concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora where her brother was killed. As a young girl, she fought Hitler’s Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. For 74 years, she has refused to step foot in Germany, but that changes when a young history student named Lucie enters her life. Prepared to re-open old wounds and revisit the terrors of that time, Marin-Catherine offers important lessons for us all.
As Colette shows, when you delve into the individual stories, the truth of people’s grief & experiences gets complicated. These stories are important to hear and to tell so we remember the real, human, feeling truth of how individual lives were damaged and wasted by the actions of the large and powerful.
LOOK
Only 24 people have journeyed far enough to see the whole Earth against the black of space. The images they brought back changed our world.
Here is a selection of the most beautiful photographs of Earth — iconic images and unknown gems — digitally restored to their full glory.
LISTEN
A song about healing, performed by Nicola Benedetti, Andrew Staples and the Aurora Orchestra, in honour of their friend Clemency Burton-Hill who is recovering from a severe brain haemorrhage.
Aurora Orchestra
Elon Musk Got Bored of Bitcoin
Matt Levine | Bloomberg | 14th May 2021
Appreciate this take from the ever reliable Matt Levine at Bloomberg on an alternative to Bitcoin.
I have a coin that uses <1% of Bitcoin’s energy per transaction! It is called ExcelCoin. Instead of relying on proof-of-work, burning tons of energy to mine coins to reward people for keeping track of the ledger of transactions, as Bitcoin does, ExcelCoin relies on me keeping track of the list of transactions in Microsoft Excel.
Matt Levine
The Inexplicable World Of Dowsing
Dan Schwartz | Outside | 3rd May 2021
Is the ancient practice of dowsing for water a science, a kind of magic, or a charlatan's trick? This writer investigates, and ends up dowsing successfully himself.
"The rods begin to close... They close like strong hands have grabbed them and are twisting them in. They close like rain must fall and wind must blow, like it’s their natural course, like they always have and always will"'
Dan Schwartz
The shape of yew: topiary at the cutting edge
Clare Coulson | Financial Times | 7th May 2021
There's something very soothing about an expertly clipped hedge.
Clare Coulson
PONDER
"Truth springs from argument amongst friends"
— David Hume
Thanks for your time, energy and presence in making it all the way to the bottom.
Till next time, be well.
Sammy
P.S All typos in this email are on purpose actually.
I was not paid for any culture in this email.
Links to things are for your consideration only.
This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Sammy Haywood, and include a link
to sammyhaywood.com
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
I acknowledge that the culture showcased here owes the roots of its theory and practice to traditional and Indigenous knowledges, from all over the world. We all stand on the shoulders of many ancestors – as we learn, and re-learn, these skills and concepts. We pay our deepest respects and give our heartfelt thanks to these knowledge-keepers, both past and present.
