On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Guns. Some people love ‘em. Some hate ‘em. Some fear ‘em. Regardless of how you feel about them, they’re a part of modern life. One day you may find yourself in a position where you have to handle one. So, it couldn’t hurt how to know how to handle them safely and effectively. Just ask Victorian-era Lieutenant H. Onslow Curling, who in 1885 wrote the primer called “Hints on the Use and Handling of Firearms Generally and the Revolver in Particular.”

You can download this public domain book for free, if you’re so inclined, at Project Gutenberg.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

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On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Coconuts. We all know they will fall on your head and kill you. Or do they? Well, kinda yes, kinda no. In this world, rarely are there simple answers to any question.

We’re reading from Wikipedia today. How embarrassing. You can read along here and here. And then, why not consider donating to the Wikimedia Foundation?

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In the bestselling “The 48 Laws of Power,” Robert Greene shares anecdotes about different power dynamics and how to navigate them. That means lots of stories about con artists and swindles; you know we love that.

You can read about the book here and buy a copy here. And you know what, while we’re at it, go watch The Love Witch.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Thousands of years ago, a Sumerian king built a resplendent tomb at Ur, where he was buried along with dozens of servants and piles of treasure. Then, years later, his queen also died, and she was buried in an adjacent tomb, and the workers plundered the king’s grave. Then, hundreds of years passed, and the Sumerians forgot the king and queen were buried there, so they piled tomb after tomb after tomb on top. Then, thousands of years later, Englishman C. Leonard Woolley dug it all up and wrote about it.

If you’re interested in reading this moldy old tome, you can find it on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.33908/page/n7/mode/2up.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

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On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In 1801, in Georgian-era England, doctor George Winter did not think much about the medical fads of the day. He believed in proper medicine, and wrote a whole book about all the patients he successfully treated. Except, he never said what he actually did to treat them. Surely, that’s so he could protect the value of his medical “knowledge,” rather than to conceal that he didn’t have any. Surely.

If you’re interested in reading this moldy old tome, you can find it on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/b21445667/page/n3/mode/2up.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In 1801, in Georgian-era England, a doctor called George Winter wrote about the quack medical fad of the day, ‘Animal Magnetism,’ what we today would call hypnotism. Doctor Winter was quick to deride medical hypnotism as junk science that couldn’t really cure disease. But frankly, the so-called “medical science” of 1801 was no great shakes either.

If you’re interested in reading this moldy old tome, you can find it on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/b21445667/page/n3/mode/2up.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In 1974, Robert Nozick set out to write a work on libertarian political philosophy. In the process, he went on a tangent and hit on a compelling argument for veganism. Suppose space aliens came down to Earth and started eating all the humans. Does the fact that the aliens are smarter, more advanced, higher beings than humans give them the right to eat us? Probably not, right? Isn’t that pretty much what we do to animals?

If you haven’t read “Anarchy State and Utopia” by Robert Nozick, I’d recommend checking it out. You can of course buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-State-Utopia-Robert-Nozick/dp/0465051006

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Happy New Year! Wishing a healthy and prosperous 2026 to you all. And, not for nothing, your health and prosperity would both be enhanced if you were to stop smoking cigarettes. It’s not as difficult to do as you may be led to believe. In fact, if you ask the late Allen Carr, there’s an easy way to do it: the Easyway®.

This is the 1985 book “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking,” by Allen Carr, who went on to found Allen Carr’s Easyway (International) Ltd., and whose advice and methods for stopping self-destructive habits like smoking cigarettes has helped millions of people. This is the time for New Year’s resolutions; if you haven’t given this a thought already, maybe today’s the day. You can buy this book practically anywhere, including here (https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0615482155) or check out the website https://www.allencarr.com for more information.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Merry Christmas! Have you been good this year? Or have you been bad? What’s the difference? Is there a difference? If you ask Niccolo Machiavelli, author of ‘The Prince,’ he would probably say whether you are quote-unquote “good” or “bad” is irrelevant – but it would behoove you to at least appear to be good. So long as you are not actively hated, you’ll probably be fine.

Download this public domain book for free from Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In the 9th Century, Arabic polymath Al Jahiz wrote ‘The Book of Misers,’ a collection of stories about greedy people. Sometimes you have such poor table manners and are so uncouth at the table, that we’re still talking about it, behind your back, a thousand years later.

You can read this book on The Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/bookofmisersalbu0000jahi. Or why not buy a copy? https://www.semcoop.com/book-misers-al-bukhala

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Check out our website at www.plutocrat.biz. Donations are gratefully accepted. Find us on Bluesky, @shortinteresting. If you’d like to discuss copyright, contact us at [email protected]. All other inquiries received at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.