Five Things: Ukraine, Barbenheimer, Smart Displays, Peak Girl, Kitchen Devices
It's Sunday Morning. Enjoy these five things.
Welcome to the latest edition of Five Things! I’m Nico, I read a lot and I like to share the best articles I read this week with you.
Currently it feels like Hamburg is a bit like the introduction text in the french Asterix comics. Instead of all of Gaul being occupied by Romains except for this one village, we have a heat wave in the Northern hemisphere - everywhere with the exception of Hamburg, where we have rain and wind and it feels like fall.
So we save money on sunscreen this summer. And I don’t need a heatwave, but some more sun would be nice.
Speaking of heat, I saw Oppenheimer this Saturday. What an intense movie! And I didn’t know Oppenheimer and I have something in common: we both went to Göttingen and Berkeley, although I must admit that his academic career was a lot more impressive than mine. But lots of names in the movie did ring a bell with me, as they were bigshots in their fields in the 30s and 40s and mentioned in historical abstracts of both universities. Really go see Oppenheimer in a movie theater, it was very much worth it. Also, now I know why the Lawrence Berkeley Lab was named after Lawrence, and yes, my knowledge of physics is not really strong.
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Ruined, Empty, Mined and Overgrown: Ukraine’s Forgotten Villages
When the war in Ukraine is over, it will take so much time to rebuild everything. Meanwhile, people still try to live on in the ruins of their villages. (New York Times)
‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ tell the same terrifying story
The 1950s were the decade of plutonium - and of plastic. To this day we try to figure out what to do with this legacy and how we can get rid of nuclear waste and microplastic everywhere. (Washington Post)
Did Anyone Ever Really Need a Smart Display?
I bought a smart display a few years ago, because - actually I cannot remember the reason anymore. I also don’t know where this device now collects dust. Do you have a smart display and do you use it?
We’ve Reached Peak Girl
“Is it reactionary or radical, then, to don the pink dress and beribbon ourselves in spite of what we know? Is it possible, then, to think of Barbiemania and our current expressions of hypergirly theatricality as something more than just a line of magical thinking? Consider it, maybe, not as a statement, but a series of exclamation points at the end of a trapped, guttural scream: That if they’re going to treat us like little girls, we might as well act the part.” (Vanity Fair)
The Instant Pot and the Miracle Kitchen Devices of Yesteryear
We ran out of counter space a while ago thanks to equipment that some people in our household use for baking. It’s amazing how many things we think we need to properly prepare meals in our kitchen, including the fondue set we use once a year. I still want a rice cooker, even though preparing rice is really simple and effortless already… (New Yorker)
That’s it. Have an amazing Sunday!