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Saturday, August 3, 2024

What Color Is Night?, by Rebecca Boyle, Atlas Obscura

It’s tempting to say black, or grayish black, or some variation of a color that really just conveys the feeling of darkness. But the truth is more complicated, and it depends on what time you’re asking, where you’re sitting, and whether the Moon is out.

The sky is never empty of color, not even at night, at least if you’re on Earth.

Flowers Are Starting To Smell Different, by Katarina Zimmer, The Atlantic

A growing body of research suggests that pollution can disrupt insect attraction to plants—at a time when many insect populations are already suffering deep declines due to agricultural chemicals, habitat loss, and climate change. About 75 percent of flowering plants and about 35 percent of food crops rely on animals to move pollen around so that plants can fertilize one another and form seeds. Even the black-mustard plants used in the experiment, which can self-fertilize, exhibited a drop of 14 percent to 31 percent in successful pollination, as measured by three different pollination metrics.

Humorist Simon Rich Amuses Again With ‘Glory Days’, by Curt Schleier, Star Tribune

Humorist Calvin Trillin once defined humor by saying it’s undefinable: “It’s what makes the lady in the second row laugh.” You can’t debate it, he said. You can’t tell her, “This joke worked yesterday; you should be laughing.”

No matter how you describe it, the ability to make that lady laugh is rare. But Simon Rich has it, and his latest, “Glory Days,” is not only extremely and creatively funny but also a testament to what can happen when a writer sets forth without Waze connected to his word processor.

'The Horse' Sees The Animal Through A Historic Lens, by Terri Schlichenmeyer, Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Yeah, it’s roomy but the seat belt is completely missing. Still, four on the floor, zero-to-25 in three seconds, it runs on cheap fuel, she’s got a lot of kick, it’s workable. This is the ride you’ve wanted since you were 14 years old. As in the new book “The Horse” by Timothy C. Winegard, what’ll you do with that one horsepower?