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var import_index_10ac95e2 = require("./index-10ac95e2.js");
const metadata = {
  "title": "Things I learned this week #17",
  "author": "Thomas Wilson",
  "date": "2020-12-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "draft": false,
  "slug": "2020-12-05-things-i-learned-17",
  "tags": ["things-i-learned"]
};
const _2020_12_05_things_i_learned_17 = (0, import_index_10ac95e2.c)(($$result, $$props, $$bindings, slots) => {
  return `<p>It\u2019s time of year again: Spotify have released their <em>Rewind</em> - showing you what you listened to throughout this year. After the <em>year</em> (or decade, or complete non-year, whatever helps you) that 2020 has been, I think a lot of people have looked to music for a bit of refuge, or good news, or distraction. Go and check yours out, it\u2019s a cool little use of data, presented in a really nice way. In other news, the UK has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and the first people should receive their doses in the next couple of weeks. Things are starting to look up, we may be over the hump of this.</p>
<ul><li><strong>These Different Ingredients</strong>: I remain a staunch defender of the Brussels Sprout. They\u2019re a seasonal, nutritional, deeply flavoured winter ingredient that goes beautifully fried in butter with garlic, baked in roast tins, or as part of any winter curry. They get a bad wrap, but there\u2019s a chance that even over the last 5-20 years we\u2019ve bred our sprouts to have different (e.g. stronger, or less bitter) flavour profiles than we had before. So the sprouts that gave a bad name to their brethren may no longer be around. Go on - give them a go. (<a href="${"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/from-culinary-dud-to-stud-how-dutch-plant-breeders-built-our-brussels-sprouts-bo?t=1606677046048"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">source</a>)</li>
<li><strong>These COVID-affected Amazon Reviews</strong>: One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is a loss of smell and taste. One consequence of this, especially in the US which is handling this pandemic quite badly, is that people can\u2019t smell their scented candles. This is causing an increase in low-scored reviews of scented candles on Amazon, with more people mentioning that the candle has no scent. Whereas, in reality, people could be losing their sense of smell but not recognising it as a COVID symptom. (<a href="${"https://twitter.com/kate_ptrv/status/1332398737604431874"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">source</a>)</li>
<li><strong>These Best Mince Pies</strong>: Over the past couple of years I\u2019ve become increasingly aware of the competitive, and critically important, world of Mince Pie judging. Mince pies taste of Christmas, and I\u2019m personally a fan of having them hot (though I\u2019ll have a cold pie if the mood takes me). The real question we want to answer every year, though, is \u201Cwhich supermarket does the best mince pie?\u201C. Well, this year ASDA and Iceland are both leading the charge for both quality and value for money. Avoid Sainsbury\u2019s, though - they\u2019re not great and overpriced. (<a href="${"https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/19/budget-mince-pies-from-asda-and-iceland-top-which-taste-test?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">source</a>)</li>
<li><strong>This Cartoon Trivia</strong>: You know how, in Disney\u2019s 1991 <em>Beauty and the Beast</em> his castle is oddly full of weird grotesque sculptures? Like, inside <em>and</em> out? Anyway, a lot of those sculptures are actually based off of previous concepts for Beast that the animators and artists created before arriving on how he would actually look. (<a href="${"https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Beast%27s_Castle"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">source</a>)</li>
<li><strong>This Origin Story</strong>: Fun fact: snow globes are man-made, they don\u2019t just grow in the wild. I mean, I didn\u2019t think they grew on trees but I can imagine that someone would. Again, that someone definitely wouldn\u2019t be me. Snow globes were invented in Austria in 1900 by Erwin Perzy, a medical repair man who was trying to invent a brighter light, for use in medical settings. He experimented with water-filled bulbs, in the hope that maybe if he filled it was water and a reflective material - more light would be reflected in the operating theatre. What he actually stumbled on was something that resembled snow, and so he gave up all hope of helping the medical profession and started selling gimmicks.</li></ul>
<h2>What I\u2019ve had on rotation</h2>
<ul><li><strong>Something New</strong>: <em>in Florescence</em> (EP) by half\u2022alive (Indie). This little EP is four orchestrated versions of some of half\u2022alive\u2019s previous songs - and it\u2019s really great. It\u2019s light and magical, the vocals really shine through, and the original tone of the pieces is still there. (<a href="${"https://songwhip.com/halfalive/in-florescence"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">links</a>)</li>
<li><strong>Something Old</strong>: <em>Yesterday\u2019s Gone</em> by Loyle Carner (Hip Hop). I\u2019ve been really getting into Carner\u2019s music over the past couple of months - his unique mix of British and American influence is pleasing to me. He\u2019s right on the lyrical, poetic, and melodic end of hip hop, and this whole album strikes as very true to himself and his upbringing. His mum has a track on the album, which is just so great. (<a href="${"https://songwhip.com/loyle-carner/yesterdays-gone"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">links</a>)</li></ul>
<h2>Cool articles</h2>
<ul><li><a href="${"https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-religion-is-not-going-away-and-science-will-not-destroy-it"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">Why Religion Is Not Going Away and Science Will Not Destroy It</a> by Peter Harrison for <em>Aeon</em>. This is an interesting piece which looks at how a fanatical belief, in either secularism or religious-ideals, are not conducive to finding a middle ground. Instead they can lead to further conflict and bad-opt</li>
<li><a href="${"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03441-8?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB"}" rel="${"nofollow"}">The UK has approved a COVID vaccine \u2014 here\u2019s what scientists now want to know</a> by Heidi Ledford, David Cyranoski, and Richard Van Noorden for <em>Nature</em>. The past month has been abundant with really great vaccine news for COVID-19. This is a massive step towards getting us closer to our pre-2020 lives. There\u2019s a still a lot we\u2019re uncertain of with the vaccines, like if people can still transmit the disease if they have been vaccinated; how long do people remain immune for?; or exactly effective are they in certain demographics (primarily age and gender)?</li></ul>`;
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