Tag: Gadgets

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Follow these tips to ensure a long, happy life for your dog / The 58 essential books to read / Democracy needs a mass movement now / Happy 200th to the Erie Canal / Rings are forming around Chiron, a celestial centaur / The mysteries of Hadrian’s Wall and Al-Kindi

This week: Follow these tips to ensure a long, happy life for your dog / The 58 essential books to read / Democracy needs a mass movement now / Happy 200th to the Erie Canal / Rings are forming around Chiron, a celestial centaur / The mysteries of Hadrian’s Wall and Al-Kindi

Most of these items come from my social media networks. Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here and about me here.

1. 58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know)
By Emily Temple | LitHub | October 2025
“We will be sharing their opinions on various subjects with you over the next weeks, but to start, we’ve collated some of the best answers on one of our favorite questions: what’s the best book you’ve read recently?”

2. What Are We Living Through?
By Jedediah Britton-Purdy and David Pozen | The Boston Review | October 2025
“Three competing narratives of the second Trump administration.”

3. Are these local newsletters local news? (And does it matter?)
By Sophie Culpepper | Nieman Lab | October 2025
“Meet a few of the entrepreneurs and hobbyists building community — and sometimes, making real ad money — from newsletters aggregating local events.”

4. Late bloomers
By Gail Dugelby | Garden Style San Antonio | October 2025
“There’s a large bouquet of wildflowers that signal the arrival of fall — and welcome the butterflies and birds that pass through our area this season.”

5. The 2025 Esquire Gadget Awards
By Krista Jones, Luke Guillory, Bryn Gelbart and The Esquire Editors | Esquire | October 2025
“These 63 products prove that keeping up with the times matters. Ranging from robots to red-light technology, this is what you’re missing.”

6. America Needs a Mass Movement — Now
By David Brooks | The Atlantic | October 2025
“Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.”

7. Astronomers observe rings forming around icy celestial body Chiron
By Will Dunham | Reuters | October 2025
“The rings of Saturn are among the wonders of our solar system, with a diameter of roughly 175,000 miles as they encircle the giant planet. But smaller celestial bodies in the solar system also boast ring systems that are impressive in their own right, even if their scale is not as grand.”

8. The Case for Unbordered Reporting
By Jean Guerrero | Columbia Journalism Review | October 2025
“A guide for taking immigration stories beyond walls both physical and mental.”

9. Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary: How a technological marvel for trade changed the environment forever
By Christine Keiner | The Conversation | October 2025
“When the Erie Canal opened 200 years ago, on Oct. 26, 1825, the route was dotted with decaying trees left by construction that had cut through more than 360 miles of forests and fields, and life quickly sped up.”

10. These 16-ton self-driving cargo trucks are joining the US Army
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal | New Atlas | October 2025
“The next iteration of these 10-wheel trucks, designed to carry 16.5-ton payloads across practically any terrain, will get ‘by-wire functionality to enable autonomous operation and active safety systems that increase protection and efficiency for soldiers operating in complex environments.’ “

11. The Best Books of the Year So Far
The New Yorker | October 2025
“Each week, our editors and critics choose the most captivating, notable, brilliant, surprising, absorbing, weird, thought-provoking, and talked-about reads.”

12. Want your dog to live a longer life? Here are 6 science-backed tips
By Julia Ries Wexler | National Geographic | October 2025
“We asked scientists from the Dog Aging Project for practical tips to improve your dog’s lifespan—from what to feed them to exactly how often they need a walk.”

13. ‘Hot mic’ hot mess: gaffes made by global leaders when they think no one is listening
By Prabowo Subianto | Explainer :: The Guardian | October 2025
“Indonesia’s Prabowo is the latest world leader to fall foul of the ‘hot mic’ – diplomatic snafus that have caused embarrassment to leaders around the globe”

14. How Healthy Are Lentils?
By Alexandra Pattillo | The New York Times | October 2025
“Some experts call them a superfood. Here’s why they deserve a spot in your pantry.”

15. No amount of alcohol is safe, at least for dementia risk, study finds
By Richard Sima | The Washington Post | October 2025
“Even a drink or two a day isn’t risk-free, a new study suggests.”

16. The Polio Crusade
American Experience :: PBS | December 2022
“In the summer of 1950 fear gripped the residents of Wytheville, Virginia. Movie theaters shut down, baseball games were cancelled and panicky parents kept their children indoors — anything to keep them safe from an invisible invader. … Polio had struck in Wytheville. The town was in the midst of a full-blown epidemic. That year alone, more than 33,000 Americans fell victim — half of them under the age of ten.”

17. The turbulent history of the union jack
By Neil Armstrong | BBC News | October 2025
“For centuries the ultimate emblem of Britishness has meant different things to different people, and now it is back in the news. What does its history tell us?”

18. Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internet
By Samanth Subramanian | The Guardian | September 2025
“A colossal volcanic eruption in January 2022 ripped apart the underwater cables that connect Tonga to the world – and exposed the fragility of 21st-century life.”

19. Reign of Destruction
By Steve Ryfle | The Criterion Collection | October 2019
“While Godzilla has evolved with the times, the Showa series as a whole is undeniably the foundation of this ever-growing pop-culture phenomenon.”

20. The Rapture
By Melvyn Bragg | In Our Time :: BBC 4 | 2011-2020
Also see: Hadrian’s Wall | Al-Kindi | The Ming Voyages | The Etruscan Civilisation

Interested in more like this? Since June 2011, Stillness of Heart‘s “Recommended” series has accumulated a magnificent collection of articles, essays, music, podcasts, historical analyses, cultural reflections, and documentaries. Scroll through the offerings here.

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Great iPhone apps / Smarties’ gadgets / Bachelor pad essentials / Writers’ libraries / Octopus intellect

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Some New Little Treasures for the iPhone
By Bob Tedeschi | The New York Times | Dec. 21
“If you really want to turbocharge your device, combine these with last year’s picks. … Like last year’s list, this one includes many free picks.”

2. The Indispensable Gadgets of the World’s Smartest People
By Larry Greenemeier | Scientific American | Dec. 21
“We ask our board of advisers to choose the technologies that they could not live without.”

3. Nine Essentials for the Perfect Bachelor Pad
By Michael Carl | Carl’s Crush :: Vanity Fair | Dec. 21
“So here are the nine things you need to create the perfect apartment for ‘company’ (I’m trying to avoid saying ‘getting laid,’ O.K.?).”

4. Writers and Their Books: Inside Famous Authors’ Personal Libraries
By Maria Popova | The Atlantic | Dec. 21
“As a hopeless bibliophile, an obsessive lover of bookcases, and a chronic pursuer of voyeuristic peeks inside the minds of creators, I’m utterly spellbound by Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books — a vicarious journey into the personal libraries of thirteen favorite authors. …”

5. Trial of the Will
Vanity Fair | January 2012
“Reviewing familiar principles and maxims in the face of mortal illness, Christopher Hitchens has found one of them increasingly ridiculous: ‘Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.’ Oh, really?”

6. The Gulf War
By Raffi Khatchadourian | The New Yorker | March 14
“Were there any heroes in the BP oil disaster”

7. Deep Intellect
By Sy Montgomery | Orion Magazine | Nov./Dec. 2011
“Inside the mind of an octopus”

8. India, China Show Military Grit
By Nitin Gokhale | The Diplomat | Dec. 22
“The latest defense dialogue between the Chinese and Indian militaries had some constructive ideas for improving military ties. Can they follow through?”

9. Analysis: Republicans risk backlash in 2012
By Tim Reid | Reuters | Dec. 21
“This week’s tense standoff over how to extend payroll tax cuts for 160 million Americans offered an unflattering look at how conservative House Republicans occasionally have overreached in avoiding compromise, lawmakers, strategists and analysts say.”

10. Reagan assassination attempt
Witness :: BBC News | March 30
“On 30 March 1981, there was an attempt to assassinate the US President.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Occupy Wall Street’s defeat … Another Obama Doctrine … MRIs and depression … Narcissistic jerk-wads … Tweeting WWII

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. US fugitive’s 41-year life on lam
By Alan Clendenning and Barry Hatton | Associated Press | Nov. 20
“The tale of Wright’s life on the run spans 41 years and three continents. It starts in New Jersey with a prison break, moves to Algeria on the hijacked plane, to Paris where he lived underground, to Lisbon where he fell in love, to the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau — and finally to an idyllic Portuguese seaside village, where he built a life as a respected family man.”

2. Longest serving Airman calls it a career
By Tech. Sgt. Richard Williams | U.S. Air Force | Nov. 21
“As the sun sets on the career of Maj. Gen. Alfred K. Flowers, he looks back with a sense of accomplishment.”

3. The World Isn’t Flat: The Well-Intentioned Lie That Led to Occupy Wall Street’s Downfall
By Alex Klein | The New Republic | Nov. 28
“Wall Street’s occupiers — and the mainstream left that supports them — have unintentionally propped up the arguments of their fiercest critics and helped hasten their own eviction.”

4. Civil War app takes on Virginia’s Chancellorsville
Associated Press | Nov. 21
“The application uses GPS technology and Apple’s iPhone platform to help visitors locate and learn more about the Chancellorsville battlefield.”

5. Obama’s Foreign Policy Doctrine Finally Emerges With ‘Offshore Balancing’
By Peter Beinart | The Daily Beast | Nov. 28
“The deadly NATO strike in Pakistan reveals that the president has decided to contain U.S. adversaries with an affordable strategy of maintaining our naval and air power while strengthening smaller nations.”

6. Using Search Engines for Higher Math
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | June 17
“The ability of search engines to calculate basic arithmetic right in the search box is well known, but some can handle higher math as well.”

7. Scan’t Evidence: Do MRIs Relieve Symptoms of Depression?
By Ferris Jabr | Scientific American | Nov. 28
“Researchers continue to explore whether magnetic fields produced by magnetic resonance imagers and other devices improve mood in those who suffer from depressive disorders.”

8. Narcissistic Jerk-Wads Make the Best Leaders, Study Says
By Nick Greene | The Village Voice | Nov. 19
“Frederick Allen, leadership editor of Forbes, writes that the study found ‘narcissism and hunger for attention lead to innovation and daring decision-making.’ In addition, 80% of narcissistic leaders believe that Carly Simon has written a song about them.”

9. The Tweets of War: What’s Past Is Postable
By Jennifer Schuessler | The New York Times | Nov. 27
“Volunteers have started translating the RealTimeWWII feed into Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Turkish, with talks under way for versions in French, Dutch and German.”

10. About Those Maps …
By Ross Ramsey | Inside Intelligence :: The Texas Tribune | Nov. 28
“Our insiders don’t have much desire to see lawmakers redo the maps after the elections, but there’s a contingent — 40 percent — who think the Legislature and not the courts should have the final say.”

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