Top of the weekend to you, good reader. It’s been quite a seven days, in which we’ve heard too much about cricket’s so-called spirit and not enough about a global temperature record being repeatedly smashed over consecutive days.
This week’s great reads offer none of the above, but if things have been getting you down, there’s a little nugget at the end to remind you how ridiculous the world can be.
1. ‘I feel protected while that stuff is there’
The reasons people hoard are varied and complex. Some are responding to bereavement or trauma. For older people, dementia can cause it or make it worse.
One thing is certain: the “cure” is not as simple as just throwing things away. A self-confessed “extreme hoarder” who first approached her GP for help 15 years ago says: “It’s like you throw away your dreams when you chuck things away.”
A way forward? “Therapeutic decluttering” involves a practitioner talking with a hoarder, over the course of weeks or months, while helping them to clear the clutter.
How long will it take to read: Eleven minutes.
2. How to overcome a fear of flying
If you ever want to traumatise a 10-year-old, sit them down in front of the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba for the coldest of cold opens: two planes colliding over a school yard.
It was years before I could board a flight without a healthy side order of Serepax. Anna Codrea-Rado can relate and the climate crisis is only making turbulence worse for jittery flyers. Can she overcome her fear in time for a wedding?
“The more you acknowledge the fact that you will die someday, the better you usually live – and the more peacefully you die.” – Julie McFadden, an American hospice nurse who suggests a fear of flying is actually a fear of death.
How long will it take to read: Five minutes.
3. Accidentally turning humid air into energy
Before the name Tesla was synonymous with Elon Musk, it belonged to Nikola Tesla. One of the ambitious turn-of-the-20th-century Serbian inventor’s dreams: pulling limitless free electricity from the Earth’s atmosphere.
Like many geniuses, Tesla was ahead of his time. But a similar experiment in an American laboratory is beginning to show promise – and it only began because a student scientist forgot to plug in the power.
What does it involve: Millions of nanopores and a device the size of a thumbnail. Stack enough of those into a washing machine-sized cube and the inventors reckon it could power an average household for a day.
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
Further reading: Toyota is claiming a technological breakthrough will allow it to halve the weight, size and cost of batteries for EVs.
4. Trying on some new Threads
Twitter is the social media hellhole we news hounds hate to love, but when TweetDeck started returning spinning wheels earlier this week it was clearly time to reconsider our life choices.
Enter Threads, Meta’s incredibly timely rival to the home of doomscrolling. Is it any good? Kari Paul tested the new social network minutes after its launch.
The bottom line: “As a tech writer who has reported extensively on the privacy concerns surrounding Meta … it pains me to say I actually enjoyed using Threads.”
How long will it take to read: Two minutes.
5. Covered in glory
Houses of the Holy. Wish You Were Here. If you or your parents – or your exceptionally cool grandparents – boast a record collection containing one of these classics, it’s likely one of many with a sleeve crafted by Hipgnosis.
Control director and photographer to the stars Anton Corbijn has turned his lens on the Dutch design firm for a new documentary, Squaring The Circle. Key takeaway: “Neither of them were educated in the visual sense. They found ways to do the impossible.”
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
Further reading: Flick through our gallery of classic album covers – or revel in the atrocities of an exhibition that professed to display the worst of the art form.
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