Despite the ferocious name, brain eating amoeba do not, in fact, dine on our grey matter Hannibal Lecter style. They do have a fondness for neurons, should they find their way inside a human nasal passage, but death comes from our very own bodies overreacting and causing our very own brains to swell inside our relatively inflexible skulls. They’re not even technically an amoeba but a “shapeshifting amoeboflagellate excavata". 

I’m writing today from the shores of a warm lake in the American Southeast, the preferred natural home of the microscopic terror with a 97% kill rate, where I plan on showing these bastards who’s boss.

Researchers have compiled a database of more than 50 years worth of mass shootings, a grisly study that seems destined to be both timely and evergreen in contemporary America. They identified four commonalities amongst shooters: an experience of childhood trauma, a feeling of having reached a crisis point in their life, a desire for validation often fueled by increasing mass media, and access to means (which is to say easily purchased guns). 

I know why the researchers didn’t single out demographics in their top line finding, but I can’t help but feel the headline would be different if the vast majority weren’t committed by white men. 

The lovely and brilliant @phillygirl (my partner in life) sends me dispatches from the once great birdsite. This thread on making bread with ancient Egyptian grains and 4,500 year old yeast (!!!) is stellar. 

https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1158264819503419392

I spent the better part of a decade as a vegetarian. Over the past few years, I’ve been reorienting our family meals around more vegetables, less meat, and when we do eat meat, from smaller and more humane local farms. 

This piece on vegans and vegetarians turned butchers as a means to help fix a broken food system hit home. 

In real life, Hobbes vs Shaw duke it out via teams of lawyers.

Bloomberg runs the numbers on body blows.

I’ve seen precisely zero of the entries in this particular franchise but the numerology is fascinating.  

📚🎥🎧 

Some recently read, viewed, and listened-to recommendations

Fleishman is in Trouble

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2906238319

Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood

https://letterboxd.com/jimray/film/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood/

The Bourne Ultimatum

Every movie in the Bourne series falls into the category of “I will sit down and watch this when it is on” for me and it didn’t hurt that I flipped over right at the cool condo fight scene. I spent a good ten minutes fixing the motion scanning and brightness and contrast on the tv at the rental house. 

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b1g3c/episodes/downloads

I don’t really do podcasts ever since I stopped running a small podcast network, so I’m possibly the last human on earth to discover this excellent one. 8-10 minutes is also the length of my walk from train to office so it’s perfect. 

As always, thank you for following along. Be well and be kind.

Jim