An evolutionary look at why, in times of economic hardship, we may be “hard-wired” to eat foods higher in fat and calories – even though we know better. Read more here.
[nytimes.com]
“Evolutionary biologists have long speculated that in prehistoric times, when the blueprint of modern human behavior was created as our ancestors struggled for survival, gluttony may have been a useful response to scarcity: If you knew — or feared — a famine was coming, it made sense to tuck away as many calories as possible to prepare for it.”
Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice is celebrating it’s 200th birthday. The BBC naturally had lots of coverage, which brought my attention to Austenland, a rom com/mockumentary about a young woman obsessed with Pride & Prejudice. Watch the movie trailer and Sundance review here.
Austenland
Happy 200th Pride & Prejudice!
• Also worth reading: “Janeites: The curious American cult of Jane Austen” [BBC]
WBEZ in Chicago recently launched Curious City, where Chicagoans submit their curiosities about the city and surrounding area – and CC does their best to answer. Recent inquiries have included “did Al Capone really have secret tunnels throughout the suburbs?” and “where does all the Lincoln Park Zoo animal waste go?” (I’d never thought about it, but was indeed curious for the answer).
This week, Curious City discusses the question “What happened to the Nike Missile sites around Chicago?” During the Cold War, Chicago had several missile launch sites scattered about the lakefront, including at Belmont Harbor. The story of the Nike Missiles, how they got here and where they went, is a fascinating piece of forgotten Chicago history.
IFC Radar Towers at Promontory Point, 55th St & South Shore Drive [Courtesy of Michael Epperson / wbez.org]
A fascinating conversation with physicist Geoffrey West about the mathematics of lifespan. “Life is short for small creatures, longer in big ones. So algae die sooner than oak trees; elephants live longer than mayflies, but you know that. Here’s the surprise: There is a mathematical formula which says if you tell me how big something is, I can tell you — with some variation, but not a lot — how long it will live.”
In recognition of Roe V. Wade’s fortieth anniversary, NPR had several stories on one of the nation’s most controversial subjects. Terry Gross’s Fresh Air was especially horrifying: ‘We Have No Choice’: A Story of the Texas Sonogram Law. “What good is a law that adds only pain and difficulty to perhaps the most painful and difficult decision a woman can make?”
On Morning Edition, Tina Brown recommended her three must-reads for the week. Her last pick peaked my interest – The New York Times obituary for Jeanne Vertefeuille, a longtime CIA official who was instrumental in catching Aldrich Ames, “one of the 20th century’s most notorious moles.”
Jeanne Vertefeuille, center, and other members of the team that tracked down Aldrich Ames. [nytimes.com / CIA]
A day behind, but still worth sharing. Smithsonian Magazine writer Megan Gambino recently wrote about Lincoln’s menu for his second inaugural ball – which ended in some-what of a food fight. Listen to the NPR story here.
“The floor of the supper room was soon sticky, pasty and oily with wasted confections, mashed cake, and debris of fowl and meat…”
Menu for Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural ball, March 6, 1865 [Smithsonian Institution / NPR.org]
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I heard it on NPR 