Sensible Endowment RSS Feed

The eternal offering of Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom”

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 06:01:00 GMT

quote [Alt-Rock Dept. is author Niko Stratis’ essay series about working at a grocery store in the mid-‘90s and the radio songs that filled every aisle and stockroom.] Entry Comment: Possum Kingdom, that's a real place

The invention of Year Zero

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 06:17:32 GMT

quote [The Republican calendar crystallised a French dream of rationality and symmetry, which echoes in everything from the geometry of garden design to the metric system.] Entry Comment: [sings] Time is on my side, yes it is

The strange tale of Sigmund Freud’s begonia

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 06:00:44 GMT

quote [How the gift of a plant helped Emma Freud finally get to know her great-grandfather] Entry Comment: She wore scarlet begonias

A Number Of Surprising Importance

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 06:01:01 GMT

quote [The number 26, which gets back-burnered compared to numbers with neater divisibility, is an essential digit. And you’re gonna be hearing all about it in 2026.] Entry Comment: Was it 26?

Joan Lowell and the Birth of the Modern Literary Fraud

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 06:00:25 GMT

quote [A century ago, an aspiring actress published a remarkable autobiography. She made up most of it.] Entry Comment: Now is that book a fraud or is it really truth

Can Venice’s Iconic Crab Dish Survive Climate Change?

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 07:49:10 GMT

quote [For more than 300 years, Italians have fried soft-shell green crabs, called moeche. But the culinary tradition is under threat] Entry Comment: I'm snapping like crabs

Alain Bombard: The Biologist Who Shipwrecked Himself to Prove a Point

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 07:58:38 GMT

quote [In the autumn of 1952, a small black rubber dinghy drifted out of the Canaries and into the immensity of the Atlantic Ocean. Its lone occupant was a doctor, Alain Bombard, a young French biologist determined to answer a deadly question.] Entry Comment: You know, that's why I'm shipwrecked

Protoweb

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 20:02:50 GMT

quote [ProtoWeb is an online service that allows users of vintage computers to browse classic web sites. It is the easiest way to browse the Internet as it appeared in it's early days.] Entry Comment: I thought you might be interested in this. While the link goes to the main page, read the Features page for info. This is a combination of proxy/archive allowing for browsing on very old devices seemingly using a combination of http/ftp protocols for use with backports like Retrozilla. Didn't test.

The Hidden Aesthetics of Early Astrophotography

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 06:03:39 GMT

quote [Behind the transformative star photographs of the 1880s lay a complex collaboration between astronomers and engravers.] Entry Comment: Star sur les photos

Conditional bribery

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 18:53:52 GMT

quote [Our results show that people are conditionally corrupt: They offer bribes based on their partners’ national backgrounds for whom they hold inaccurate corruption stereotypes.] Entry Comment: That looked like something you might be interested in: people over-estimate the corruptness of nationalities they assume corrupt and vice-versa. (thumb via free study PDF)