Friday Food for Thought: March 18, 2022

Hello Friends, welcome to Friday Food for Thought. Every Friday I’ll help start your weekend by sharing four people, thoughts, or things that are on my mind this week. These may be books or movies, podcast suggestions, interesting people I follow on Twitter, music, products, or, well, anything. You may find interesting creativity boosts here, some conversation starters, or just a small dose of entertainment. Click here for last week’s post. Feel free to share this with friends, offer suggestions via the comments, or connect with me on Twitter @bradbravard. Let’s begin!

1) Calming Traffic:

Traffic noise – and noise in general – is harming us more than we realize. As someone cursed with more sensitive hearing than most, I’ve been instinctively aware of this most of my life. Even if you’re not conscious of it, noise triggers your body’s fight-or-flight response; the European Environmental Agency estimates that 10,000 deaths per year – just in Europe – can be linked to excessive noise. I was thrilled at the recent announcement that the city of Knoxville, Tennessee is experimenting with a traffic noise monitor at a downtown intersection. Some cities in Europe have already taken this step, and let’s hope the idea gains momentum in the U.S. and elsewhere.

2) Keeping Time:

The recent spring-forward for Daylight Savings Time gave me cause to reset my Jasco myTouchSmart electric timer. Jasco offers a variety of timers for indoor and outdoor use and with a range of options. My timer has been working flawlessly outdoors in the Florida heat for over a year. Operation is simple, including adjusting the time twice a year for Daylight Savings. If you need lights or electric appliances to turn on and off on a set schedule, I recommend a Jasco timer.

3) Free Viewing:

Movie fans tired of the rampant increase in fee-based streaming services take note: Where can you watch Thief (1981), Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Sing Street (2016), A Self Made Hero (1996), not to mention the first season of Space: 1999? They’re all currently streaming on Kanopy, a completely free service available through public libraries, colleges, and universities. While there’s no guarantee Kanopy is available through your local library, the service becomes more popular every year, and you can search your area here. Kanopy has a great catalog with documentaries, international films, even some television series.

4) Talk is Not Cheap:

Reading Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Preston Neal Jones’ oral history of the production of that beloved and despised 1979 movie, has got me thinking about the virtues, and potential pitfalls, of oral histories. Every oral history collection I’ve read was fascinating. The WPA Slave Narrative Collection, NASA’s ongoing oral history project, and the Virtual Museum of Soviet Repression in Belarus offer profound insights that conventional history books do not. Of course, there is always the risk that individuals will not provide honest testimony, or will focus on legacy-building rather than complete honesty, but historians’ background research and a well-rounded compilation of interviews can overcome that. History may be written by the victors, but the truth is often found in the spoken testimony of those on the margins.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend!

This post contains NO affiliate links. All suggestions are based on my own personal experience, your experience may vary. Nothing herein is intended to serve as medical, legal, financial, or any other advice for which you should consult professionals and not some random guy on the Internet.