Welcome to the Wednesday Walk Around the Web, where we weave & wind through weblinks weekly. Hopefully you will find the links on offer amusing, interesting, or, occasionally, profound. Views expressed in the Wednesday Walk do not necessarily reflect those of anyone but the writer. Do you have a link you want to see featured in next week’s Walk? Comment on the Walk post at the Place to Be Nation Facebook page, or find Glenn on the social media platform of your choice!
- Shanah Tovah, y’all! Welcome to the year 5777; believe me, we’re probably better off pulling the ripcord on last year. To celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Manishewitz opened its factory to visitors for the first time so we can see how the gefilte fish is really made. (It was in that article that I learned of the existence of artisinal gefilte fish, which is of course a real thing.)
- This Week in Self-Pluggination: I had the honor and privilege to appear on the latest episode of Rank & File, talking about my top ten tabletop games. It’s a cracking good time.
- Ants that cultivate fungus (or fungus that cultivates ants) helpfully place human agriculture in context as a symbiotic process.
- This Week in Genetic Engineering: let’s go ahead and make bioluminescent trees to replace (some) street lights and promote the planting of more trees in cities. Awesome.
- What do you do if you need a consistent source of fresh food and refrigeration hasn’t been invented yet? If you’re an ancient Roman, you build fish tanks outside of your villa and make them precisely calculated to let water in & out at high tide but not let tasty tasty fish get away from your prying hands. (Now with bonus refutation of “climate skeptics” re: historical sea levels.)
- This Week in Non-Human People: researchers have observed dolphins speaking in sentences and having conversations. Apparently they can use their flippers for sign language too. Fascinating stuff.
- Give me all of the weird, profound, and gorgeous libraries of the world. Start a biblioburro program in your town today!
- The detail and poise to set up fifteen thousand dominoes perfectly is just astounding.
- This Week in Flowcharts: decide which Shakespeare play to see today.
- The World Nomad Games are a central Asian sports competition that seriously looks incredible. Eagle hunting, bone-throwing, horseback wrestling, polo except with a goat carcass, Steven Seagal — the games have everything.
- This Week in Gift Ideas: crochet a blanket that envelops your giftee’s legs in a merperson’s tail. At the very least you know that’s a warm merperson.
- Six words: Hook anniversary cast reunion, in costume.
- Try to report a sexual assault committed by an Uber driver and you might get laughed off the phone.
- It’s October now, and you know what that means.
- We can drive noise pollution down, and we can do it in our time.