You Might Like… a Metric Dozen Diversions on Bangkok, Cartoons, Sex, Aging and More

This is a post in a series to appear occasionally, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Kickstarter – Willard Asylum Suitcase Documentation – Jon Crispin – The photographer in this video describes his project, which is to photograph suitcases found in the attic of what was once New York State’s Willard Psychiatric Center that had been deposited between 1910 and the 1960s when their owners were admitted to the facility.

The Grid TO – Down the rabbit hole – Sheila Heti – “Back in the 1980s, the hottest ticket in town for kids was an invite to The Mad Hatter, a birthday-party centre owned by future real-estate tycoon Harry Stinson. Former partygoers and Stinson himself reflect on the wildest haunt this city’s ever seen.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Losing It in the Golden Groves – William Ian Miller – “The lament of an aging professor” who feels it slipping away as he worries about brain shrinkage.

NeuroTribes — What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? – Steve Silberman – Hmm. Turns out both Jobs and I read “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” way back in the old days: so how come I’m not rich? This piece offers an interesting interplay between Buddhism and Jobs’s work at Apple.

garytaxali.com – New Work – Gary Taxali – 25 slides of this cartoonist’s work. His retro-style drawings have graced the pages of many American magazines (including the ABA Journal, for what it’s worth).

BBC News – How the Joy of Sex was illustrated – Cordelia Hebblethwaite – “Forty years ago, a London publisher was working on a groundbreaking sex manual – a “gourmet guide” to sexual pleasure, with copious and detailed illustrations. But how could this be done tastefully and legally?” The illustrator, Chris Foss, tells all in this video and the accompanying article.

IEEE Spectrum – Engineering the 10 000-Year Clock – David Kushner – “A monument-size mechanical clock designed to measure time for 10 millennia.” As the creators say in the article, it’s not easy to make something designed to last for just shy of forever—and to get people now to care about it.

The Atlantic – Bangkok Underwater – Alan Taylor – Very beautiful photographs of a very unfortunate situation, that’s only gotten worse since these shots were taken. I find something distressing about the gorgeous depiction of trauma.

Big Way Photography – California state record for number of skydivers – You’ll need to agree to the site’s terms before you’re allowed to look at this video, but it’s worth it. This is a spectacular event done simply for the sake of spectacle.

The Observer – How cognitive illusions blind us to reason – Daniel Kahneman – The author of Thinking Fast and Slow talks, in this extract, about how our settled ways of thinking trip us up (… and let us believe it’s okay to jump out of airplanes?).