The Mental and Physical Challenge of Hiking Mount Rinjani

Mount Rinjani is the second highest volcano in Indonesia, standing at 3,726m, surpassed only by Mount Kerinci (3,805m) on the island of Sumatra. Situated on the island of Lombok, Mount Rinjani is a popular hiking spot for many tourists, as the island is easily reachable from Bali. Mount Rinjani is quite unique as a volcano,…

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Book Review: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

Star Maker (1937) is a sci-fi novel written by British writer Olaf Stapledon. It describes the rich tapestry of cosmic evolution, surpassing in scale his previous novel First and Last Men (1930), which details the history of humanity from the present day back to two million years ago. Star Maker tells the story of a…

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How Studying Mythology Can Help You Become a Better Entrepreneur

When most people think of entrepreneurs or freelancers who have taken their careers into their own hands and have broken free from the conventional structures of the working world, so to speak, the first thoughts that come to mind are things like “cunning”, “hard-working”, “strategic”, and “pragmatic”. And, of course, to make it on your…

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How the Design of 19th Century Asylums Helped to Ameliorate Madness

Asylum designs in the 19th century were believed by medical practitioners, psychiatrists, and asylum architects to ameliorate, if not cure, madness. (In this essay, I will use the term ‘madness’ instead of mental illness because as sociologist Andrew Scull highlights, “for much of history, “mad” or some cognate of it really was the word that…

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Book Review: 40 Days in the Desert by Moebius

This article was originally published on Blue Labyrinths. Author: Matt Bluemink. French comic book artist and illustrator Jean Giraud (1938-2012), aka Moebius, has had, perhaps, a more profound influence on the contemporary imagination than any other artist working in his field in the 20th century, yet many people will have never even heard his name.…

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