Jeremy Cherfas

Physicists are more playful and less hidebound creatures than, say, biologists—partly, no doubt, because they rarely have to contend with religious fundamentalists challenging the laws of physics. They are the poets of the scientific world.Evolutionary psychologists claim they can explain—as the title of one recent book has it—“why sex is fun.” What they can’t explain is why fun is fun. This could.

Does the value recovered outweigh the cost of investigating these cases? From a simple dollar-for-dollar amount, certainly not. However, the existence of a rigorous investigations team helps deter staff and partner fraud.

Great insights into the botany of the pine nut via @BitKblog. The botany would be the same for Araucaria araucana seeds, but I wonder why they aren’t marketed – too rare? – or how the flavour profile compares.

botanistinthekitchen.blog/2021/12/1…

Chuffed to learn that @scotlandbread won @bbcfoodprog award for Food Innovation. If I were in Scotland, I’d be sourcing from Flour to the People. Instead, I gave a donation to the crowdfunder campaign at crowdfunder.co.uk/scotlandt…

I wasn’t affected by the somewhat scuzzy email sent out by chumps at Princeton to “research” internet privacy regulations, but I was prompted by Ton’s investigation to take a look at Tranco. And blow me if I’m not also in there. One of the compensations of being an old blogger.

Among the many fascinating charts that 538 selected from this year, this is the one I found most informative.

@mer_matthews You can get turnkey Indieweb at micro.blog for $5 a month. The bigger question is, what has payment to do with it? Not everybody who publishes online is looking for payment. Maybe some dislike being sharecroppers for the silos. Not the same as wanting to be paid.