“Engineers, medical people, scientific people, have an obcession with solving the problems of reality, when actually most problems, once you reach a basic level of wealth, are actually problems of perception.” — Rory Sutherland.
I think YOU should learn to play the concertina this winter. You can pick one up cheap here (or get a nice one), and read up on how to play. Not easy!, but you will be feared and respected like this guy.
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There is a massive debate going on about chapter 5 of Superfreakonomics, which you can read here.
The frankencamera — an open-source camera you can re-program to do “anything,” although none of the examples they cite sound that compelling (except changing the focus after taking the picture, of which — skeptical, right?).