Listening to
Mom and Dad Are Fighting. Various episodes. I can’t remember how I stumbled on this but I’m glad I did; parenting chat in an engaging and not annoying way. Peep the convo about ‘should you let your child get a fascist haircut’ for instance (no you shouldn’t). I can see myself listening to this podcast a lot more; it’s the best one on parenting that I’ve found. Not that I’ve been looking tbh, but I am looking now – open to recommendations!
99% Invisible 301: Making it Rain. I’ve heard of cloud seeding before, but I didn’t really know the extent that some people (i.e. the US military) had gone toward trying to control the weather. Trying to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail with rain was apparently a thing. Surely though, any sane person knows that doing something like controlling clouds is fantastical and reserved for people like Storm… It’s not something that should have millions of dollars and many years chucked at it. Or is it?? Who knows? Ask the scientists. I did like this though:
Humans — especially military humans — have wanted to control the weather for a long time. Some rainmaking ceremonies have ancient roots. “It goes back to traditional rainmaking ceremonies,” explains historian Jim Fleming. “Turns out that if you do a rain dance for up to two weeks it’ll probably rain and then you can take credit for that.”
Distraction Pieces 177: Jean Grae. I’ve slightly veered away from listening to Distraction Pieces for a while now, but had to dive back in for this episode. Way back since How To Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’ve been a fan of the music, and more recently I’ve been a fan of the person (via twitter). Despite the disclaimer from Pip at the start of this chat, it’s a great listen.
Reading
Why The Last Snow On Earth May be Red. Apparently “watermelon snow was known to Aristotle, two thousand years ago, and its biological origins became apparent in the early nineteenth century” but this article is the first time I’ve heard of it. See also: ice worms (also mentioned in the article). It’s a short piece about snow algae and climate change, but I wanted to share it because of the pink snow.
