The Monday Mix (09/01/2023)
Hey friends,
Christmas has been and gone and January is now upon us. I hope you all had a great festive period and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. I had a good time, watched lots of movies, and football and ate some great food, as well as reading some good books.
This time of the year is always a bit weird because I feel like January is a big comedown from the high of celebrating Christmas and the new year. It often feels like you’re just waiting for January and February to finish so you can get into spring when temperatures start to pick up and life starts again so to speak.
I aim to share more articles this year, I got a bit sidetracked by other commitments last year and didn’t write as much as I wanted. I’ll also send out my reading list for December on Wednesday and a list of the best books I read last year on Friday.
Here’s what I want to share this week:
Darts as Sporting Spectacle
Darts is essentially a boring sport. Two people take turns throwing darts at a board a few meters away from them. There’s nothing intrinsically exciting about it, yet darts is massive in the UK and increasingly in popularity around Europe. This piece does a good job of explaining why, a lot of it involves British drinking culture and having a good time, but it highlights how a seemingly mundane sport can become entertaining.
Also, this video of Italian commentators going crazy over a nine-dart finish, the fastest number of throws you can go from 501 to 0, is a great example of what I’m talking about. The words “Explodi di Ally Pally” made me laugh!
The DIY Scientist and Olympic Genes
The title makes it sounds like a scientist has taken it upon themselves to create a Frankenstein Olympic athlete. That’s not the case, but the article is no less crazy. It tells the story of a woman who self-diagnosed her own rare genetic condition, and then self-diagnosed herself as having another rare genetic condition. But as well as this, she also diagnosed an Olympic athlete as having the same disease as her, despite being the physical opposite of her and just by using Google Images!
I have shortened the story somewhat, but this is the general gist. It’s a long article but it’s well worth reading. It’s really a fascinating story of what determination and patience can achieve, and how experts can often shut out people who don’t have credentials.
Predictions for 2023
The New Statesman is a political magazine I read every other week in the UK. It provides a good overview of current events and offers some fascinating insight into deeper issues too. Here, their International Editor offers ten predictions for the coming year. Some of them are what you’d expect, while some might surprise you. It’s a good article to read if you want an idea of what could happen in the year to come.
Book I’m reading - Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn
A fascinating book about landscapes impacted by humans that have been left to nature and what happens as a result. Reading this book, it’s remarkable how resilient nature is. No matter where the abandoned location is. and what happened there, nature has found a way to bounce back. Truly a brilliant read and highlights just how small we are in comparison to natural forces.
Quote I’m pondering: – “Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new” – Ursula Le Guin
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom