Saturday Morning Links

Photo by Raph Howald on Unsplash

1. Ever heard of Kiama? Me neither, but it’s just south of Sydney and the name Kiama is Aboriginal meaning “place where the sea makes a noise.” Do we have English words that have meaning like that? Anyway, Kiama is on the coast and one of the cool things that people know about is the Kiama blowhole, which is where depending on the tide, the wave will crash through a hole in one of the rocks on the beach and water goes flying in the air like a geyser.

2. Ever thought a lot about pencils? I know I haven’t thought about them in a really long time. But pencils have their different grades, 22 in fact and there are both American and European systems to determine the type of lead. Leads with an H grade are smudge resistant and are very light. The #2 pencil that you know and love is the combination of an H and a B, a B is a more soft lead with greater graphite content, but in the middle of this is also an F that’s a #2.5 pencil. B leads are smooth and people like drawing with them, but can smudge easily and also erases easily. So if you really get into pencils, when you go on Amazon, you can choose the type of lead. With mechanical lead pencils, it’s more difficult because the softer the lead, the easier it breaks.

3. The story of Miriam Rodriguez, the mother whose daughter was murdered in Mexico and found the murderers when the Mexican police couldn’t or wouldn’t. Miriam was eventually murdered in front of her home after finding a handful of the murderers.

4. Good Beer Hunting is one of those websites where the photos are so fantastic and make me want to go have a beer at these breweries around the world. This particular article is in Salem, Massachusetts, at the Notch brewery. This one is about making cider in Herefordshire, England. Soon.

5. I didn’t even know that cold water paddling is a think on the Colorado River, but it is during the winter, via Texas Monthly:

It felt like a selfie moment, so Sosa snapped a picture with her phone. And that’s when she noticed it. “Oh my God, is there ice in my hair?” Sosa recalls asking her teammate, who confirmed that, yes, her braids were covered in caterpillar-size icicles. At the next checkpoint, sixteen miles downstream, the wife of another paddler took one look at Sosa and tossed her the fleece jacket off her back, then handed her a Styrofoam cup of hot cocoa. Still, Sosa never fully thawed. For more than twelve hours, from the start of the Texas Winter 100K race on Lady Bird Lake to the end, at Bastrop’s Fisherman’s Park, Sosa experienced what outdoors types call “Type 2 fun.” On the so-called “Fun Scale,” Type 1 fun is enjoyable-in-the-moment fun. Type 3 is awful to experience and to recall—not really “fun” at all. Type 2 is miserable at the time, but remembered fondly later.