Weekend Reading

There are upsides to not being employed, I’m reading a lot more which means you get even more random articles and stuff this weekend.

Whilst I have your attention, I’ve been pondering doing this as a weekly email if there is enough interest, let me know in the comments if you are!

  • The guys behind MegaBots say their giant fighting robot will pioneer an entirely new, worldwide sport
    There is a massive square-city-block building in West Oakland called American Steel. It used to be a repair shop for huge cargo ships.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1VHtgs0
  • Learn these “non-words” to communicate everywhere in the world
    There are some words that are, well, not words. Linguists have a lot of names for them, none especially clear-cut: interjections, exclamations, non-lexical conversational sounds. (For native speakers of American English, think “hmm,” “uh-huh,” et al.)
    Read: http://ift.tt/1MBgcS3
  • Goodbye, Android
    Last week, I was hanging out with some hackers and security experts at a conference in Brooklyn when I took out my Sony phone. “Oh! The journalist uses Android. That’s secure!” said one guy next to me, in a highly sarcastic tone.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1IJvBiv
  • Fitted
    The anthropologist Marcel Mauss once said that the difference between magic and religion is that people actually believe in magic. But wearing a FitBit, it is easy to imagine what it feels like to believe in God. Clipped on my bra strap or tucked into a pocket, my FitBit watches over me.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1gYYwml
  • A Way to Get Fit and Also Have Fun
    Can exercise that is intense also be fun? Researchers in Denmark recently began delving into that issue and in the process developed a new approach to intense interval training that could appeal even to those of us who, until now, have been disinclined to push ourselves during exercise.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1M5ugTW
  • Lunch with the FT
    It is the hottest day of the year and my guest has been delivered to the restaurant by a perspiring middle-aged man whom I recognise as the leader of the Scottish National party’s band of MPs in the House of Commons.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1IcyKSs
  • Two Nine-Year-Olds’ Magnificent Open Letter to Disney About Racial and Gender Stereotypes
    “Like most people we love your attractions, but we found some problems with some of them and those problems are stereotypes.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1IFJXi7
  • The strange phenomenon of musical ‘skin orgasms’
    Sometimes music strikes the body like a bolt of lightning. “I was in a friend’s dorm room in my third year as an undergraduate,” Psyche Loui remembers. “Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 came up on the radio and I was instantly captivated.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1HID4Lj
  • Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans?
    On the morning of Sunday, March 29, Sidney Torres was sipping an espresso in the kitchen of his mansion on the edge of the French Quarter when a jarring notification lit up his iPad and two iPhones. Pimps fighting with drug dealers and johns. Man has gun. Hurry.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1H5HEPU
  • A Perfect Storm of Outrage Oneupmanship
    Even when a dentist kills an adored lion, and everyone is furious, there’s loftier righteousness to be had. Now is the point in the story of Cecil the lion—amid non-stop news coverage and passionate social-media advocacy—when people get tired of hearing about Cecil the lion.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Iyxkp7
  • Why UFC ‘antihero’ Ronda Rousey is such a big deal
    With the swift knockout, the 28-year-old defending champion maintained her dominance as the only female bantamweight champion in the UFC with a 12-0 record. Her fight against Cat Zingano in February also ended swiftly, thanks to her signature move, the armbar.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1N5uEyS
  • Great Leaps Forward In Ice Cream History
    ​It’s one of the most complex food products you’ll ever consume: a thermodynamic miracle that contains all three states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas — at the same time. And yet no birthday party, beach trip, or Fourth of July celebration is complete without a scoop or two.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1IGwXsF
  • The Cop
    Darren Wilson, the former police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an eighteen-year-old African-American, in Ferguson, Missouri, has been living for several months on a nondescript dead-end street on the outskirts of St. Louis.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1SyTDBq
  • The U.K.’s Tallest Sculpture Will Let You Ride A Slide All The Way Down
    Because let’s face it: every tower and skyscraper should have a slide. The anticipation of what you’ll see at the top of a tower can be exciting. Going down, though? Comparatively, that’s a drag. Why go down the stairs or the elevator like a sucker when you can slide on down?
    Read: http://ift.tt/1HlD9Rs
  • In Which We’re Up All Night
    It is impossible to describe insomnia to people who are sound sleepers. These are the people who trust that getting in bed will be followed by falling asleep, as surely as night follows day; these are the fearless people. Sleepless people are a very different breed.
    Read: http://ift.tt/PcGJrU
  • Winners of the 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest
    So many amazing photos!
    Read: http://ift.tt/1MazU7e
  • How To Get Rid Of Clutter And Live Abundantly
    It’s important to be very rich but have almost no items in your home. This will confuse vengeful spirits that come looking to destroy your possessions. Also, if you have too many items in your home, helpful ghosts may be unable to find you, as clutter interferes with their echolocation.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1FoK5Ou
  • How the Sausage Is Made: A Look Inside the World of Bespoke Hot Dogs
    When Tamar Adler decided to hand-make hot dogs for a summer wedding party, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Jesse had dark pink cheeks and on cold days wore a brown skullcap. He wasn’t a crush or an idol—I now realize I don’t even know how to spell his name.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1hftZB5
  • “These Five People Are About to Have a Baby Together”
    Vice An interesting thing about this story is that it treats nonmonogamy as a minor component. The five people are a couple and a triad. They’re treated as friends who decided to commit to live as a family.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1NbE7Vr
  • After a year of high-profile killings by police, Americans’ views on race have shifted
    After a year of high-profile police shootings of black Americans, many captured on video, racial attitudes among Americans — particularly whites — have undergone a significant shift.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1T3xkPs
  • Hiroshima
    At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning
    Read: http://ift.tt/1ntXpME
  • Essential Reading On The 70th Anniversary Of Hiroshima
    Seventy years ago today, the United States dropped the world’s first atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan, in an attempt to force the Japanese into surrender in the late stages of World War II. The bomb flattened the city and killed tens of thousands instantly.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1eVTAND
  • The buzz(kill) about caffeine
    There’s a slow but growing movement in the United States to ban the sale of caffeine – or certain kinds of it, at least. In June, the Ohio Legislature passed a bill banning the retail sales of pure powdered caffeine. This comes on the heels of six U.S.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Ht2icX
  • Debunking the biggest genetic myth of the human tongue
    Roll it, flip it, fold it and even mold it into a squiggle. Your tongue can be an acrobat, regardless of whether your parents are capable of the same tricks.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1SRoBVu
  • Trial by Twitter
    Dave Neese spoke, haltingly, telling Rachel she could “take her apologies and everything else and sit on them because that’s about what they’re worth.” Then Skylar’s uncle, Michael Neese, came forward. “First day this all started…I made 200 flyers and drove…to the new Kroger.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Di6UHE