Saturday Morning Things

1. Ever heard of La Push? Me neither. It is a small village on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. The name “La Push” is from the French La Bouche which means “the mouth” of the Quillayute River and has the westernmost zip code in the United States, 98350.

Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash

2. A map of the universe is insane yet beautiful. The map/graph/chart at the end of the page, which shows you where you are and how many billions (with a “b”) of years you are looking back at of various galaxies in order to see because of the speed of light. And I totally realize I’m probably not explaining that correctly, but I understand it in my brain. The smallness of me is a great reminder.

3. You might think that this is some sort of gag gift, but it is not. I bought the Goshi last year for myself. It is a nylon Japanese shower towel. It replaces your wash cloth that loofa or plastic thing that you’re using. I’ve used this for a year and it’s great. I don’t really ever worry about replacing it because it dries quickly. Doesn’t ever stink because it dries very quickly. And the way that you’re able to scrub your skin is pretty great, better than anything I’ve ever used. It was $15 and I’ve gotten way more than $15 from this purchase because I use it every day and the absolutely ridiculous idea of you explaining what it is to the person you gift it to will be great.

4. By the end of the century, Africa will have 40% of the world’s population and this article focuses on the part of Western Africa from Adidjan, Ivory Coast, to Lagos, Nigeria.

“I have worked in China and in India, and that is where most of the attention on cities has been until fairly recently, but Africa is unquestionably the continent that will drive the future of urbanisation. And it is that strip along the coast of west Africa where the biggest changes are coming,” said Daniel Hoornweg, a scholar of urbanisation at Ontario Tech University. “If it can develop efficiently, the region will become more than the sum of its parts – and the parts themselves are quite big. But if it develops badly, a tremendous amount of economic potential will be lost, and in the worst of cases, all hell could break loose.”

I’m writing about this because I tend to think about Africa more than most, but I think a lot of people tend to not think about Africa much at all.

5. Van Neistat is the less famous of the Neistat brothers, but he may be more interesting. This video about the resentment and gratitude diagram with new and experienced artists, featuring Tom Sachs. I don’t really know who Tom Sachs is, but I’ve heard his name before as an artist and he’s a living breathing artist that does art things. Tom Sachs has his own Nike shoe. I can’t say that I fully understand artists or why they create what they create, but I am glad that they do. Also, the point of the video, the diagram is on point. I’m not an artist, but when I do have to make something or figure something out, I definitely get the gratitude when I finish whatever it is that I’m doing and I can look back on the work and overcoming the wall.