You Might Like … to Commune for a Mo With Doc, Sleep, Hergé, Corrosion, Life, Commas and More

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, 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.

Los Angeles Times – Guitarist Doc Watson dead at 89: A 1-2-3 video primer – Randy Lewis – The man who invented a new style of flat-picking has died. This article features three video clips of Doc singing and playing in three different contexts. Set aside five minutes to listen to one of the greats.

BBC – Why your body jerks before you fall asleep – Tom Stafford – From death to “death’s younger brother,” sleep, and why it is that we sometimes twitch and jerk as we head over the feathered cliff.

Lens Culture – Karambolage (Smash-up) – Arnold Odermatt – Of course, there are rougher ways of heading into oblivion — or at least some hefty bills and sleepless nights — and the invention of the automobile is responsible for a lot of them. Here are some shots of road accidents by a Swiss traffic cop, starting in 1948. More interesting than you’d imagine. (The covering article is here.)

OUPblog – The soul of a child, Hergé – Pierre Assouline – Children are supposed to have untroubled sleeps, and some of us aim for that condition the whole of our lives. Tintin’s creator, Hergé, was one such, it seems, though it also seems he failed in his personal life.

YouTube – Anodizing (Or the beauty of corrosion) – engineeringguyvideo – Rust is a form of death, I suppose, but some kinds of oxidation aim for and attain perpetual youth, not to mention luscious colours. Bill, the engineering guy, explains anodizing — and a lot more in his other videos, if you find that engineering is your thing.

Statistics Canada – Life expectancy at birth and at age 65 by sex, Canada, provinces and territories, 2007-2009 – Bringing it all home, here, hot off the presses, are the latest stats on what you can look forward to. As it’s better to be aluminum than iron, so it’s better to be a woman in BC than a man in the territories. (Some explanatory material is here.)

NYTimes – The Most Comma Mistakes – Ben Yagoda – In the meantime, take a break and pause for a while. Sometimes commas can help. Sometimes you get them wrong. Here’s an English prof who actually believes in grammar.

Information Aesthetics – Hans Rosling’s Shortest Talk Ever – Hans Rosling – The master of data-show makes use of a bunch of stones to illustrate his point — and all in less time than the brief life of Solomon Grundy.

The Smart Set – Walk Like a Man – Jessa Crispin – Mr. Rosling and Mr. Grundy may have been uncommonly fleet (or fleeting), but chances are extremely high that they conformed closely to the prevailing social norm of masculinity, because some things change very very slowly — and views of masculinity seem to be quite . . . sluggish. The author reviews three books on the topic.

OPENROV.com – Open Source Underwater Robots for Exploration and Education – Sam Kelley – Technology, of course, is anything but sluggish. Here are some photos of a new affordable, small, effective machine that can explore the watery depths. Moreover, for you DIY enthusiasts, there are clear and full instructions on how to build one. Dive, dive, dive.