đ° plaster saint.
on the agenda this week:Â the first modern disaster, escalators & hypocrites.
estimated reading time:Â 3m 30s.
â° 30 days until 2020.
whatâs top of mind for you âşď¸?
on the agenda this week:Â the first modern disaster, escalators & hypocrites.
âĄď¸Â tag me on instagram or twitter if you enjoy this week's brain drain!
đ earworm:Â sebastian paul.
âstuck inside a thought
dreaming 'bout our talks.â
sebastian paul is carving out a path all his own. raised in a military family and currently finding himself between los angeles and colorado, paul claims no specific home. this sense of constant transition fuels his expansive sophomore ep.
this is one of those rare projects that simply demands your attention. an artist clearly not too keen to linger on any singular moment for far too long, paulâs sophomore outing is rife with unexpected twists and turns, which only unfurls to give way to further unexpected developments. the result is intoxicating.-Â ones to watch.
stream now:
listen to sebastian paul on spotify or on apple music.
đ word of the week:
âpostprandialâ.
after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
the father alone did nothing, but still rested on his couch, perhaps indulging in a postprandial nap.
-Â w. h. hudson.
𤪠mildly humorous:
outtakes from the twitter-sphere.
đ§ brain candy:
đ the first modern disaster.
on the morning of november 1, 1755, an earthquake rocked lisbon, the portuguese capital and a bustling port city of roughly 275,000 people. as buildings collapsed, flames from hearths and candles ignited a massive fire that burned for a week, devouring much of what the quake itself had spared. meanwhile, not long after the last tremors ended, a tsunamiâthe largest in history, reaching speeds of up to fifty miles per hourâengulfed the ruined city.
when it was all over, as many as 40,000 people had perished in lisbon and its environs, though some contemporary estimates of the death toll were much higher. thousands more died in nearby spain and northern africa. rumbles from the earthquake and its aftershocks were felt throughout europe, as far north as scandinavia.
the cultural impact of the lisbon earthquake was nearly as extraordinary as the physical wreckage it caused. often called the first modern disaster, the great lisbon earthquake gave rise to vigorous investigations of its causes, with empirical observations and scientific knowledge informing the ambitious rebuilding of the ruined city that was undertaken and financed by portugalâs royal government. the horrific and widely publicized lisbon disaster also led to the first international relief effort in world history.
read more via laphamâs quarterly.
đśââď¸ uneven escalators.
a study in london found 74.9 per cent of people choose to stand instead of walking, especially on the longer ones. with this âstand on the right, walk on the leftâ rule, weâre giving up 50 per cent of the space on our escalators for roughly 25 per cent of our commuters.
look for this problem next time during rush hour where the âstandingâ side of the escalators ends up with a line of people trying to get on. it may seem counterintuitive, but people who are walking up escalators to save seconds off their commute are actually slowing everyone else down.
efficiency aside, thereâs another reason why walking on escalators might be a bad ideaâsafety. escalator accidents are much more common than you think.
a cbc investigation found that escalator accidents happen every second day in the montreal metro. in the u.s., about 10,000 escalator-related injuries end in emergency room visits every year.
read more via cbc.
đ° plaster saint.
a favourite headline from this week: âprofessor who wrote book on drug crime is accused of money laundering.â
a miami professor whoâs an expert on drug trafficking and organized crime was charged by the u.s. with laundering money from venezuela, skimming more than $250,000 for himself.
bruce bagley, 73, a professor of international studies at the university of miami, was the co-editor of the 2015 book âdrug trafficking, organized crime, and violence in the americas todayâ as well as a contributor to various journals on the topic.
but on monday prosecutors in manhattan charged bagley with laundering about $2.5 million into the u.s., money that foreign nationals embezzled and got from bribes and other corrupt schemes. bagley pocketed about 10% of the money, according to prosecutors.
read more via bloomberg.
thatâs all for this week.
i hope you hold me accountable to keep this interesting đ.
đ see you next monday!
𦶠footer:
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đ read one of my last 5 posts:
đĄ cul de sac.
đ rising waters.
đ smarter, not harder.
âď¸Â burnout.
or click to see them all.