October 2023
This newsletter is a collection of things I have found in the last month that I enjoyed, found interesting, or simply wanted to share.
You can follow me more closely at my personal website or if you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home, you can point them to my real estate website.
Pick Pockets
‘Pockets’ Review: Carrying Capacity
By the 15th century, the shape of armor had changed, and the contours of civilian men’s clothing changed with it. Breeches emerged from the formless void, and men began to walk on two well-turned legs, with pockets to carry their essentials. Tracking the pocket’s real-world appearance through sources as diverse as tailors’ inventories and royal household accounts, Ms. Carlson reveals the emergence of a new feature of male dress and with it, a new “seat of patriarchal power.” (Early modern writers made high comedy of “the fight for the breeches.”) Function followed form. Pockets changed larceny, as pickpockets edged out cutpurses. They changed reading and writing: Pens, almanacs, watches, compasses, even abridged books all shrank to fit the pockets of the man on the move, a miniaturization trend Ms. Carlson calls “the science of the small.” They changed self-defense, too; pistols and pockets grew up together. “Tied up in any man’s look were ideas about honor and his capacity for violence,” Ms. Carlson writes.
Honk Honk
Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy
Car makers have been bragging about their cars being “computers on wheels" for years to promote their advanced features. However, the conversation about what driving a computer means for its occupants' privacy hasn’t really caught up. While we worried that our doorbells and watches that connect to the internet might be spying on us, car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines. Machines that, because of all those brag-worthy bells and whistles, have an unmatched power to watch, listen, and collect information about what you do and where you go in your car.
Links
- This USB button helps Jeopardy! contestants get their buzz on
- Pluto: 1994 vs 2019
- A Journey to the End of Time
- So You’re an American? A Guide to Answering Difficult Questions Abroad
- Ballpark cost for some artists to perform your event
- A clock where the time is made of news headlines
- Record-breaking Super Mario Bros. speedrun approaches robotic perfection
- A literary history of fake texts in Apple’s marketing materials
- Made me Psymile
- Every time I buy ice cream my car won’t start.
- The most-visited English Wikipedia articles, updated daily.
- Can you bring a lightsaber on a plane?
Sign Off
Do not hesitate to reply to this months email to share links, wisdom, or thoughts.
Thanks for reading. Have a great month,
Clay
How kind of you to make your way down here.
A bit about me: I can be interested in anything, for better or worse. I love photography, travel, golf, and baseball. My latest pursuit is learning the guitar. I write a rad newsletter that I publish monthly.