Mid-Week Reads: Heat, Noise, and Dying

If you have been reading this blog for some time, you know I hate hot weather. This Slate article tells me I'm not (just) being self-indulgent.

Our capacity to endure the heat has an upper limit, and one that isn't very high... After you've stripped naked and dipped your feet in ice water, there aren't many other options. Winter chill, on the other hand, leaves more room for maneuvering: If it's too cold, you can always don another sweater, drape another blanket, or huddle with a friend.

Why aren't we all dead yet? This article offers a bunch of reasons. Including cotton:

Wool was the clothing material of choice before cotton displaced it. Cotton is easier to clean than wool and less hospitable to body lice.

I suspect this is a very western-centric view. Weren't we wearing cotton in India a long time ago? (Wool in Indian summers, ugh.) And didn't they wear linen in ancient Egypt?

Anyway, the rest of the article is good.

And while we're on that, this video is pretty funny.

Isn't this enough? Just this world? Just this beautiful, complex, wonderfully unfathomable natural world?

Now, noise. Also something I complain about a lot. Noise scares me, makes me tense, gives me headaches. Turns out there's nothing wrong with me.