This proposal investigates zenkha, a culturally defined olfactory and gustatory experience common in Arabic-speaking regions, characterized by a pungent, aldehyde-like sensation arising from specific animal proteins under environmental exposure. The phenomenon is consistently reported in poultry, game birds, lamb, camel, and eggs, but absent in beef, pork, and fish. Unlike spoilage, zenkha appears immediately upon… Continue reading Species-Specific Environmental Protein Reactivity in Poultry and Select Mammals: Biochemical Basis of the Zenkha Phenomenon
Author: H.D.
I've figured it all out and it really doesn't make any sense. I'm serious.
The War Correspondent on Holiday
Imran Khan sent us a thousand words from his holiday in Greece. They describe a man camouflaged in a pale pink suit and white polo that dissolve into the golden hour’s lavender-tipped amber light washing over the Aegean, the whitewashed walls, even the tablecloths of the repurposed fortification where he stands. For someone who has… Continue reading The War Correspondent on Holiday
AI Hallucinates a Case – Humans Hallucinate a History
The real danger isn’t AI’s fabrications. It’s the ones we institutionalized. Two articles caught my attention this week—not because of what they said about AI, but because of what they revealed about us. The first was the familiar panic: AI is hallucinating and we can’t stop it. Lawyers are citing phantom precedent, researchers are footnoting fiction, and… Continue reading AI Hallucinates a Case – Humans Hallucinate a History
Burn the Pageant
MAGA is not a party. It’s a court of self-abasement. The way to beat it is to plant an arsonist inside its walls. Nancy Mace is back in the headlines—not for policy, but for drama. Her ex-boyfriend is counterclaiming that she threatened to expose private details of his sex life, which she illegally obtained, unless… Continue reading Burn the Pageant
By the People v. United States
No. 24–1209 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES October Term, 2024 By the People v. United States No. 24–1209 Opinion of the Court Justice H. S. Shaaban delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners, self-styled as representatives of a philosophical movement rooted in individual sovereignty, seek to establish that broad swaths of the modern administrative… Continue reading By the People v. United States
The Complexity That Made Us Possible?
Freshly baked by back-to-back meetings in the beige desert boardroom that is my day job, I collapsed onto the couch—equal parts mogul teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and tired toddler whose tantrum ended before it could even begin—when Apple TV served me a drone-shot sermon on why Earth is an anomaly that defies belief… Continue reading The Complexity That Made Us Possible?
Bobos in Babel
How to Know a Person by David Brooks succeeded my own effort written years earlier. That essay made a simple claim: that becoming acquainted with someone is an art. And that art, like so many others, is vanishing. I cannot say if Brooks took something from me — intellectual property infringement requires a showing that… Continue reading Bobos in Babel
A HOUSE WITH A ROOF (AND A BASEMENT)
On the Layers of Self and the Question of Destiny David Brooks, in How to Know a Person, offers us a useful architecture of the self: four distinct layers that together compose a human being. The Presented Self, which the world sees — the curated, optimized exterior. The Inner Self, where conscience, memory, and character… Continue reading A HOUSE WITH A ROOF (AND A BASEMENT)
Let’s Not “Do The Needful”
Not because what is necessary shouldn’t be done - of course it should. But when it is, it is not needful, it is required. This morning my assistant put me in mind of these aberrant constructs when she messaged me: Good Morning SirReminder for your PWA Amicable Settlement Teams Meeting.Please note it has been preponed… Continue reading Let’s Not “Do The Needful”
Boards, Brands, and the Blind Spot for the Broader Context
Why every organization needs a resident historian—not just a marketing department I’ve been thinking a lot about organizational effectiveness lately. I’m working on a primer for innocent bystanders thrust into high-stakes managerial roles, as a prelude to something even more ambitious—one that concerns a titan of industry—and since then, everything around me seems to be… Continue reading Boards, Brands, and the Blind Spot for the Broader Context
SEÑOR - The Blog 