I am torn between wanting to organise a crowdfunding campaign to help you do this, and organising a crowdfunding campaign to prevent you doing this, for your own good. 😁
(I feel like we could compromise by raising money for a respirator mask as well, then everyone's happy.)
I just quickly Googled "Victorian houses for sale in UK" but of course that's how you find all the already-renovated ones with modern furnishings and eye-popping price tags. What you want is to talk to a man in the pub who knows someone whose sister's niece's cousin's father-in-law knows about this big old place that's being sold soon because its owner, a 95-year-old woman called Mary Candles who hasn't been seen in public since 1963, just passed away, and now the house just sits there up on the hill amidst a tangle of garden, with a sign at the front that says "NO THANK YOU", empty and silent, but some nights you can see a tiny wavering light through the windows, like someone's wandering back and forth holding a candle in their hand...
Mike, you've done a great job in describing how the complexity of discovery means that unexpected outcomes can yield both positive and negative results.
I think a lot about how Bayer (the drug company) was a dye company previous to inventing aspirin.
I think about today's bazooka-full of money headed to AI, and I'm sure we're going to see lots of Pets dot com failures along with wondrous innovations.
Thanks, Andrew! Yes, I share your concerns here - now that there's an established playbook for this kind of misinformation-based steamrolling of credible scientific calls for caution, with the aim of making as much money as possible before being "found out" - yeah. I feel like the biggest issues with AI in the short to medium term won't be the machines themselves or the ways they can help people do their jobs - it'll be the people using them as the latest excuse to disempower and sideline human beings to make bigger profits, which is already starting to happen, if reports like this are accurate: https://news.sky.com/story/bt-aims-to-slash-workforce-by-up-to-55-000-before-2030-12883383
It'll be a bumpy road with more surprises than anyone expects, me included! I do look forward to a little bit of schadenfreudeish amusement with like every single idea being tried out because it has "AI" or "generative" or "GPT" in the name.
Yep! There will be a lot of tedious, lazy huckster-style nonsensing, I'm sure. But I'm also interested in the positive effects - a good person to follow on this topic is Professor Ethan Mollick, who is admirably bullish in a deeply analytical way: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/
Just delightful, as ever! I once lived in an apartment with green walls, but it was paint not wallpaper, and mint green not Scheel's or whatever green. I'm not sure I could ever get my head around why someone would want their interiors that color, ever. It always made me feel slightly seasick (but then, we lived right on the ocean, so maybe there was a subconscious suggestion going on).
Or maybe there was arsenic in the paint. Probably not, but I'm not taking anything on faith right now!
"Greenwashing is about preventing people asking questions." So much yes! Goes along with, "You can't stop progress." Buuuuut ... how about we stop your idea of progress making millions of people miserable? How about that?
Oh wow - so you are one of the rare modern folk that have actually tried a bright green living room for a while? (I wonder how rare that is, actually?) I must admit, I like the idea, even though I've never done it, which might mean I'm in for an unpleasant surprise some day. But - didn't it make you feel like you were somewhere natural, mossy or leafy? I look at the examples here - https://www.realhomes.com/design/green-living-room-design-ideas - and even with the brighter ones like #6 and #8, they definitely give me that Nature-y buzz. But mayne not so much in practice?
I would say it was more mint green than bright green. Probably closest to that "sage green" example in that link. It made me kind of seasick most of the time, honestly! I wouldn't recommend it.
It was indeed! There's a chapter/mini-essay in Kassie St Clair's "The Secret Lives Of Color" (a superb book, which I'll be yelling more about at the end of this season). It concludes:
"In order to finally settle the question of Napoleon's death, [researchers at Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics] tested other samples of hair from different stages of his life, and found that the levels of arsenic had remained relatively stable. They were, yes, very high by today's standards, but not at all unusual for his."
On the subject of green, this is from my post last week - a long read about the artist Joan Eardley, that delved into the reasons people buy particular kinds of art.
"One day I was speaking to a gallery owner and he told me green paintings do not sell. Why not, I asked him. 'Because nobody has a green living room,' he said."
I wonder if Eardley and the gallery owner specifically mean "do not sell in Scotland" and "nobody in Scotland"? Because that would suggest a link. I do know that its association with the Celtic football club has led to some problems, including green traffic lights being smashed: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15079019.blue-sky-thinking-scots-town-hates-colour-green/ But I wonder if it goes deeper?
My favorite color is nuclear green, sometimes referred to as flourescent green. It's the color that screams ecological disaster and it's only acceptable to wear in moderation. I have a pair of shoes in this color and people think I've been walking through a wasteland. Although it could also just be the way I look. ☢️
There's a particular color of deep green grass that makes me so happy -- I've finally been able to cultivate it in my own lawn! I know, I know, I'm sympathetic to people who say that manicured grass is stale, one should grow native species, weeds are beautiful... I know. But a tall dark green fescue or bermuda with a nice geometric edge to it -- ahhhhh... :)
Just watching episode 1 of James Burke's new season of Connections. And they say, green was Napoleon's favorite color, used on everything on St. Helena. The image is exactly the same color as in the picture in this post.
Immediately I think, "oh wait, wasn't Napoleon poisoned with arsenic?!"
Then as usual I second guess and go to check that bit of info...
Yes. Yes, he was. And there's some debate about whether it came from his wallpaper!
Well done, Mike. Greenwashing is an effective disinformation ploy. Like a breeze across the water, it disturbs the reflection long enough to keep us moving without looking closely, all while their profits roll in. As for arsenical wallpaper, there's a great account of it in Jennifer Lunden's recent book, American Breakdown, which tells two parallel tales of chronic illness (hers and that of Alice James, sister to Henry and William) while providing a beautifully researched indictment of "the American way of stress" and the bizarre medical system unable to properly treat its patients.
Mike Sowden is always amazing! And that's why I don't always open his newsletter, because I know it will open up another black hole of time, leading to a multitude of brand new rabbit holes.
And that's not even saying anything about the comments underneath them because he either has a good troll filter or his topics require some measure of intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to even understand what he's talking about.
I have been sporadically following Mike for over a year now and his writing style, while always a bit idiosyncratic, quirky, conversational and amusing, has gotten even more so and hence even more enjoyable to read.
As soon as the world settles down a little bit I'm going to attack my addiction to current events and try to get it under control. When I do I intend to follow Mike and others on substack more closely.
Of course, the struggle against authoritarians is the overall cause of the Forever Wars, so even seeing Agent Orange, dressed in Orange and sharing a 6x6 room with some unlucky secret service agent is not going to Usher in an era driven by empathy and leading to one of peace and prosperity and loving our neighbors like ourselves. Hence there will be an abundance of news of existential interest to someone who wants everybody else to have an opportunity to enjoy the kind of life that I have lived for 80 years.
Well-meaning Parks Departments, and eco -heroic projects, plant young trees by the thousands. That is, 18-inch slips, that need plentiful watering every week. Where are the volunteers to do that, for two years minimum to establish the plants? Across the Sahel? I do t see it happening.....
The horrific effects of the green paint/dye remind me of the radium paint industry that spanned several decades in the early 1900's. Even though the radium made paint visible in the dark, nobody thought for a second that it was slowly poisoning people. That's not to mention the environmental aftermath that was still being cleaned up as recently as 10-15 years ago.
I want to buy a Victorian house just to peel off the wallpaper & discover Scheele-green!
I am torn between wanting to organise a crowdfunding campaign to help you do this, and organising a crowdfunding campaign to prevent you doing this, for your own good. 😁
(I feel like we could compromise by raising money for a respirator mask as well, then everyone's happy.)
I just quickly Googled "Victorian houses for sale in UK" but of course that's how you find all the already-renovated ones with modern furnishings and eye-popping price tags. What you want is to talk to a man in the pub who knows someone whose sister's niece's cousin's father-in-law knows about this big old place that's being sold soon because its owner, a 95-year-old woman called Mary Candles who hasn't been seen in public since 1963, just passed away, and now the house just sits there up on the hill amidst a tangle of garden, with a sign at the front that says "NO THANK YOU", empty and silent, but some nights you can see a tiny wavering light through the windows, like someone's wandering back and forth holding a candle in their hand...
You still sure you want this place, Jillian?
Haha! You've successfully changed my mind!
Of course, first I’ll have to figure out how to make that kind of money 😂
Mike, you've done a great job in describing how the complexity of discovery means that unexpected outcomes can yield both positive and negative results.
I think a lot about how Bayer (the drug company) was a dye company previous to inventing aspirin.
I think about today's bazooka-full of money headed to AI, and I'm sure we're going to see lots of Pets dot com failures along with wondrous innovations.
Thanks, Andrew! Yes, I share your concerns here - now that there's an established playbook for this kind of misinformation-based steamrolling of credible scientific calls for caution, with the aim of making as much money as possible before being "found out" - yeah. I feel like the biggest issues with AI in the short to medium term won't be the machines themselves or the ways they can help people do their jobs - it'll be the people using them as the latest excuse to disempower and sideline human beings to make bigger profits, which is already starting to happen, if reports like this are accurate: https://news.sky.com/story/bt-aims-to-slash-workforce-by-up-to-55-000-before-2030-12883383
It'll be a bumpy road with more surprises than anyone expects, me included! I do look forward to a little bit of schadenfreudeish amusement with like every single idea being tried out because it has "AI" or "generative" or "GPT" in the name.
Yep! There will be a lot of tedious, lazy huckster-style nonsensing, I'm sure. But I'm also interested in the positive effects - a good person to follow on this topic is Professor Ethan Mollick, who is admirably bullish in a deeply analytical way: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/
Ethan is great. He thinks and talks about AI in a very erudite (and sensible) way. Great stuff!
Just delightful, as ever! I once lived in an apartment with green walls, but it was paint not wallpaper, and mint green not Scheel's or whatever green. I'm not sure I could ever get my head around why someone would want their interiors that color, ever. It always made me feel slightly seasick (but then, we lived right on the ocean, so maybe there was a subconscious suggestion going on).
Or maybe there was arsenic in the paint. Probably not, but I'm not taking anything on faith right now!
"Greenwashing is about preventing people asking questions." So much yes! Goes along with, "You can't stop progress." Buuuuut ... how about we stop your idea of progress making millions of people miserable? How about that?
Thank you, Antonia - as always, far too kind.
Oh wow - so you are one of the rare modern folk that have actually tried a bright green living room for a while? (I wonder how rare that is, actually?) I must admit, I like the idea, even though I've never done it, which might mean I'm in for an unpleasant surprise some day. But - didn't it make you feel like you were somewhere natural, mossy or leafy? I look at the examples here - https://www.realhomes.com/design/green-living-room-design-ideas - and even with the brighter ones like #6 and #8, they definitely give me that Nature-y buzz. But mayne not so much in practice?
I would say it was more mint green than bright green. Probably closest to that "sage green" example in that link. It made me kind of seasick most of the time, honestly! I wouldn't recommend it.
Mike, was Napoleon's residence in exile painted Scheele green? Just curious.
It was indeed! There's a chapter/mini-essay in Kassie St Clair's "The Secret Lives Of Color" (a superb book, which I'll be yelling more about at the end of this season). It concludes:
"In order to finally settle the question of Napoleon's death, [researchers at Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics] tested other samples of hair from different stages of his life, and found that the levels of arsenic had remained relatively stable. They were, yes, very high by today's standards, but not at all unusual for his."
I love this piece! Also made me think of Jill Lepore's recent essay about trees: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/what-we-owe-our-trees
Ooh. That's my reading for this evening sorted, then. Cheers, Anna!
On the subject of green, this is from my post last week - a long read about the artist Joan Eardley, that delved into the reasons people buy particular kinds of art.
"One day I was speaking to a gallery owner and he told me green paintings do not sell. Why not, I asked him. 'Because nobody has a green living room,' he said."
That is so interesting! Thanks, Kenny.
For everyone else, here's the piece: https://thejaggythistle.substack.com/p/a-burning-frost-joan-eardley-in-catterline
I wonder if Eardley and the gallery owner specifically mean "do not sell in Scotland" and "nobody in Scotland"? Because that would suggest a link. I do know that its association with the Celtic football club has led to some problems, including green traffic lights being smashed: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15079019.blue-sky-thinking-scots-town-hates-colour-green/ But I wonder if it goes deeper?
I guess Kermit was right. It ain’t easy being green.
Seeing red = angry
Being yellow = cowardly
Scheele must've been green with envy when they came out with Emerald Green.
Wonderful tie in with greenwashing, too. My (least) favorite variety is when companies like BP want us to calculate our personal carbon footprint.
My favorite color is nuclear green, sometimes referred to as flourescent green. It's the color that screams ecological disaster and it's only acceptable to wear in moderation. I have a pair of shoes in this color and people think I've been walking through a wasteland. Although it could also just be the way I look. ☢️
There's a particular color of deep green grass that makes me so happy -- I've finally been able to cultivate it in my own lawn! I know, I know, I'm sympathetic to people who say that manicured grass is stale, one should grow native species, weeds are beautiful... I know. But a tall dark green fescue or bermuda with a nice geometric edge to it -- ahhhhh... :)
Just watching episode 1 of James Burke's new season of Connections. And they say, green was Napoleon's favorite color, used on everything on St. Helena. The image is exactly the same color as in the picture in this post.
Immediately I think, "oh wait, wasn't Napoleon poisoned with arsenic?!"
Then as usual I second guess and go to check that bit of info...
Yes. Yes, he was. And there's some debate about whether it came from his wallpaper!
Well done, Mike. Greenwashing is an effective disinformation ploy. Like a breeze across the water, it disturbs the reflection long enough to keep us moving without looking closely, all while their profits roll in. As for arsenical wallpaper, there's a great account of it in Jennifer Lunden's recent book, American Breakdown, which tells two parallel tales of chronic illness (hers and that of Alice James, sister to Henry and William) while providing a beautifully researched indictment of "the American way of stress" and the bizarre medical system unable to properly treat its patients.
Mike Sowden is always amazing! And that's why I don't always open his newsletter, because I know it will open up another black hole of time, leading to a multitude of brand new rabbit holes.
And that's not even saying anything about the comments underneath them because he either has a good troll filter or his topics require some measure of intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to even understand what he's talking about.
I have been sporadically following Mike for over a year now and his writing style, while always a bit idiosyncratic, quirky, conversational and amusing, has gotten even more so and hence even more enjoyable to read.
As soon as the world settles down a little bit I'm going to attack my addiction to current events and try to get it under control. When I do I intend to follow Mike and others on substack more closely.
Of course, the struggle against authoritarians is the overall cause of the Forever Wars, so even seeing Agent Orange, dressed in Orange and sharing a 6x6 room with some unlucky secret service agent is not going to Usher in an era driven by empathy and leading to one of peace and prosperity and loving our neighbors like ourselves. Hence there will be an abundance of news of existential interest to someone who wants everybody else to have an opportunity to enjoy the kind of life that I have lived for 80 years.
Well-meaning Parks Departments, and eco -heroic projects, plant young trees by the thousands. That is, 18-inch slips, that need plentiful watering every week. Where are the volunteers to do that, for two years minimum to establish the plants? Across the Sahel? I do t see it happening.....
The horrific effects of the green paint/dye remind me of the radium paint industry that spanned several decades in the early 1900's. Even though the radium made paint visible in the dark, nobody thought for a second that it was slowly poisoning people. That's not to mention the environmental aftermath that was still being cleaned up as recently as 10-15 years ago.