"On the intrigue side, Fieldwork can be relied on to provide the spectacularly weird. Downstream from Richmond we once spotted a polystyrene takeaway tray on which somebody had placed - for no adequately explicable reason - some poo. They had adorned this with a small Union flag, fixed at a jaunty angle, and set the whole thing sailing off down the river. We watched it until it was gone from view."

— From Elegy For a River by Tom Moorhouse 📚 https://micro.blog/books/9781473575660

This, and the piece it’s based on, are well worth a read: Dorothy Thompson On Who Goes Nazi

Sad that it feels as relevant today as it did when it was written. https://first-draft.com/2024/01/09/dorothy-thompson-on-who-goes-nazi/

Futurism:

"After a storm and flash flooding knocked out the power in south-east Queensland, Australia, a local woman used her electric car to power her son’s life-saving dialysis machine."

Sometimes having a giant mobile battery is incredibly useful. https://futurism.com/the-byte/electric-car-power-dialysis-machine-blackout