Today I Learned

Paraphrased:

The narcissist’s smirk is a subtle but telling expression that occurs when a narcissist experiences pleasure from manipulating or deceiving someone.

For narcissists, the smirk usually reflects contempt, which is a deep-seated disdain or lack of respect towards others. For narcissists contempt is tied to their belief in their own superiority. They view others who do not serve their needs as worthless or beneath them, showing a complete disregard for how their actions impact those around them.

For a long time, I believed the story that they QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typing, because typing too fast would cause jams on old typewriters, but apparently it isn't true.

Skip to 3:00 for the part that talks about this.

David-Neel already had a passion for travel in her youth. She travelled through many european countries and wrote travel guide books. She was also active in anarchist and feminist circles all over Europe. At 21 she converted to buddhism and later travelled to India, where among other things she learned Sanskrit. From the ages 27 to 36 she worked as an opera singer and writer.

In 1911, at the age of 42, she set off on her longest journey to India and Tibet. She met the 13th Dalai Lamai in India and became fluent in Tibetan. The next years were spent in a buddhist monastery in India studying with several buddhist teachers. In 1916 she began her Journey to Tibet, entering which was at the time forbidden for foreigners. Still she managed to study buddhist scripts at the tempels and had an audience with the Panchen Lama. Upon her return to India the british authorities informed her that she was to be deported for violating the ban. Instead of going back to France, she travelled on to Japan, where she again spent time meeting with and learning from buddhist philosophers.

In 1924 she again entered Tibet, this time disguised as a beggar monk. Since she was travelling illegally, she mostly moved at night. She recounts fending off robbers and highwaymen by reciting songs or poems in her native language, French. Together with her unfamiliar European looks, that convinced the often very superstitious Tibetan robbers that she was a witch and to better not mess with her. In case that didn't work she was carrying a gun. She reached Lhasa as the first European woman the same year. She mingled with the crowd of worshipers and celebrated the Monlam Prayer Festival. She managed to stay for two month before she was discovered and had to leave. After 13 years in Asia, she decided to return to her home country.

In May 1925 David-Neel finally arrived back home in France. She wrote the book "My journey to Lhasa" and bought a house, which she turned into a buddhist temple that she called "Samten-Dzong" or "fortress of meditation".

In 1937, age 69, she again travelled to China to study buddhist scriptures. Again she also visited Tibet, studying scriptures at various temples. She returned back to France in 1946 at age 78. She went on to publish several books about buddhism and translated many buddhist scriptures from Tibetan to French.

In 1956 she went to stay with a friend in Monaco where she died in in 1969, one month before her 101st birthday.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_David-N%C3%A9el

https://himajomo.com/the-life-and-legacy-of-alexandra-david-neel/

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240313-trailblazing-journey-forbidden-city-of-lhasa

https://womeninexploration.org/timeline/alexandra-david-neel/

Attached a pretty cool article covering it. This is something I never would have thought of before.

Death rates correlate with education levels, urbanization rate, alcohol consumption, car size, driving laws, speed cameras, and road design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBPkI3CCY8o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cox_(police_officer)

In the early 1990s when Cox joined the Boston Police Department (BPD), crime was high in minority neighborhoods, and among BPD officers, loyalty overruled training, resulting in widespread brutality and a code of silence. BPD officers frequently used stop and frisk tactics on black men and women, and beat black men with impunity. Lying under oath was common. A mayoral blue-ribbon commission to reform the police and a permanent injunction placed by a judge had both failed to change police culture. As a plainclothes officer, Cox was mistaken for a suspect and briefly beaten while still in training, and once purposefully hit by a police vehicle and pinned to a wall. He recovered quickly both times so did not file complaints.

In 1995, Cox's car was at the front of a high-speed chase which had involved several cars from the BPD and other departments. Cox continued the chase on foot, but was again mistaken for a suspect and this time badly beaten by four officers and hospitalized, suffering a serious brain injury. After the officers realized his identity, they quickly abandoned him to bleed on the sidewalk, and he learned only from newspaper reports that they had failed to report the incident. Cox began receiving harassing phone calls from other officers even before he had decided whether to file a complaint. A lawsuit ultimately led to BPD settling with Cox for $900,000 in damages, as well as $400,000 in attorneys' fees. No officer admitted to the beating. Following the battle in court, three of the officers were eventually fired, but one, Dave Williams, successfully sued for unjust termination and was returned to the service in 2006. Williams was again fired for brutality in 2009, and again reinstated.

In July 2022, Cox was announced as the incoming commissioner of the Boston police by Mayor of Boston Michelle Wu. He was officially sworn in on August 15, 2022.

What an absolute shitshow.

Edit: More info:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/boston-police-commissioner-michael-cox/ (Boston University Alumni Magazine)

Wow this is just...

Idk how people even put up with this.

I hope this guy tries to do some actual reform with his position, given what he went through, but I don't have high hopes given that... gestures broadly at US law enforcement nationwide

Brilliant name. Here's a small video for those interested: https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idRW273417062025RP1/

Pictured here is Brookesia nana, discovered in 2021 in Madagascar

Photo by Frank Glaw (herpetologist)

Measuring just shy of 14 millimetres, B. nana can perch cozily on an aspirin tablet.

For nine years, Brookesia micra, a cousin of B. nana described in 2012, clung to the title of tiniest chameleon. B. nana is smaller than B. micra in body size, measured from snout to cloacal opening at the base of the tail. But it sports a longer tail. Differences in how size is determined make it complicated to definitively claim that a species is the planet’s littlest.

Read more here: https://india.mongabay.com/2021/03/newly-described-chameleon-from-madagascar-may-be-worlds-smallest-reptile/

Also, that the Sterling is the longest continuous use currency in the world.