Weekly Filet #204: Why our brains don't explode. And more.
1. Why don’t our brains explode at movie cuts? (Aeon Magazine)
One of those great texts that start with a question that is so simple that it never even occurred to you to ask yourself – and that then takes you into a fascinating realm you didn't think you'd be interested in. How do our brains cope with cuts in movies, a sudden change of everything that you see, something that never happened in the 3.5 billion years or so that it took our visual systems to develop?
2. Sex redefined (Nature)
No, not that sex.
3. The Pollen Detective (Matter)
A thrilling crime story in four parts, beautifully illustrated. Could the sex life of plants help solve a murder?
4. Black on Black (Public Domain Review)
A surprisingly interesting read: How blackness has been used and thought about through the history of art and philosophical thought.
5. 24+ Brilliant New Words We Should Add To A Dictionary (Bored Panda)
This never gets old. My favourite: destinesia.
Recommended by Sham Jaff: The Arab Spring’s best legacy: Egyptians are now reading once-banned books (Quartz)
Remember the Arab Spring? Yes, the one which many say has died amid brutal civil wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya. Not everyone agrees with this death sentence. Since the uprisings in 2011, Egypt's bookstores tell another story- the one of young Egyptians turning to once-banned books such as Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses (which is deemed blasphemous by many Muslims). To many, the Arab Spring has yet to fully fade.
April guest curator: Sham Jaff is an Iraq-born journalist and author who lives in Germany. She's the editor of a weekly newsletter I've come to like a lot in recent months: It's called «What Happened Last Week» and gives you a concise summary of the week. Subscribe to it, you won't regret it. You can also follow Sham on Twitter, which is never a bad idea.