Weekend Reading

Shorter list this week, largely because I’m presuming everyone is already aware (if they wanna be) of whatever the idiot President of the USA has said/done now, that you’ve already seen/heard enough hurricane horrors, and frankly want a break from the pending nuclear annihilation we might be facing (thanks North Korea!!).

Ummm, so on that… er… cheery note…

  • How Silicon Valley is erasing your individuality

    Until recently, it was easy to define our most widely known corporations. Any third-grader could describe their essence. Exxon sells gas; McDonald’s makes hamburgers; Walmart is a place to buy stuff. This is no longer so. Today’s ascendant monopolies aspire to encompass all of existence.
    If this piqued your interest, I’d suggest heading over to this article by the always wonderful 99% Invisible (listen or read)

  • You can actually be allergic to exercise

    Joe O’Leary went to dinner with his parents at around 8 p.m. one Wednesday in March of 2015. He split a pizza, topped with tomatoes and peppers, with his mom. Then he set out for the gym and hopped on the elliptical. But about a half-hour into the workout, he started feeling weird.
    Allergic is the same as ‘please stop making me do burpees I hate them’, right?

  • The great nutrient collapse

    The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. Irakli Loladze is a mathematician by training, but he was in a biology lab when he encountered the puzzle that would change his life.
    In one ear I’ve got vegans telling me to stop eating animals, in the other ear ‘all your vegetables are fucked’…

  • The ‘internet of things’ is sending us back to the Middle Ages

    Internet-enabled devices are so common, and so vulnerable, that hackers recently broke into a casino through its fish tank. The tank had internet-connected sensors measuring its temperature and cleanliness.
    Alexa, have you been hacked? Oh god, don’t tell them about that multi-pack of … ahem… never mind!

  • Hipster Demand for Fancy Coffee Is Really Helping Africa’s Farmers

    Your $6 single-origin Yirgacheffe habit is giving the industry new legs. The best vendors, restaurants, and concession stands on the Rockaway peninsula.
    OK, some good news. Except, that means… hipsters are good? DAMMIT

  • Cassini Spacecraft: Top Discoveries

    Our Cassini spacecraft has been exploring Saturn, its stunning rings and its strange and beautiful moons for more than a decade.
    Farewall to the little space probe that could. *sniff*