Things we like II

1. Frank Bölter’s fully functional origami boat, which would be perfectly at home in The Science of Sleep, and which I think should be available for conversations that neither wholly take place in dreams nor in waking life.

2. Elephant shrews: the manner in which they wiggle their noses to search for grub makes them look as if they are permanently a fixture of a stop-motion film.

3. Marcel Mauss lamenting the loss of the squatting position in the adults of the Western world. Tomorrow's activities involve attempting to reclaim this both humble and incredibly useful posture.

4. Whale calls that sound like bird's songs when sped up, and bird's songs that sound like whale calls when slowed down.

5. Diaphaneity as mineralogical category, and minerals that exhibit all types of it at once.