Weekend Reading

  • Which Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg?
    Roman scholar Plutarch made the earliest written reference to this problem, but it’s clear from his treatise “On Whether the Hen or the Egg Came First” that he wasn’t the first to ask it. In his circle, it wasn’t just about poultry.
    Alas, this still doesn’t explain why everything tastes like chicken.

  • ErrorPort
    It’s a pretty standard pattern. If Apple neglects a product line for five-plus years, it’s dead, Jim. And this one, we actually already knew about in 2016. Still, it’s shockingly dumbfounding that Apple has officially killed off the AirPort product line.
    If only… echoes a lot of my thoughts. Unless there is a much longer game being played, surprised Apple didn’t at least TRY this with AppleTV at least.

  • This Woman Is Her Own Twin: What Is Chimerism?
    Twins often feel like they have a special connection, but for one California woman, the connection is particularly visceral — she is her own twin.
    Learn something new everyday.

  • The Promise of Vaping and the Rise of Juul
    If I get addicted to vaping, I thought, in March, I will always remember this Texas strip mall. I was walking out of a store called Smoke-N-Chill Novelties, in Southwest Austin, holding a receipt for $62.95 and two crisp, white shrink-wrapped boxes.
    I prefer clouds of ‘bubblegum’ flavoured smoke to actual cigarettes being blown in my face, but I wish the whole ‘invade someone else’s air’ thing would stop altogether!

  • Dr. Dre’s Legal Battle With Gynecologist ‘Dr. Drai’ Comes to an End
    Dr. Dre’s years-long battle with a gynecologist who goes by the name “Dr. Drai” has come to a presumably less-than-pleasing end. Dre’s attempt at blocking Dr. Draion M. Burch’s trademark of the Dr.
    Well *I* hadn’t forgotten about… (etc etc)

  • Taboo Week: Let’s (Not) Talk About Sex
    Everywhere we look these days, we’re confronted by references to sex in some shape or form.
    Another great post from this series.

  • My name is Wil Wheaton. I live with chronic Depression, and I am not ashamed.
    I’m about to go speak to NAMI Ohio’s statewide conference, Fulfilling the Promise. These are the remarks I prepared for my speech. Before I begin, I want to warn you that this talk touches on many triggering subjects, including self-harm and suicide.
    All the feels. Also a good ‘primer’ if you want to understand what ‘functioning Depression’ looks like (my term)

  • The Subtle Sexism Of Your Open Plan Office
    Researchers Alison Hirst of Anglia Ruskin University and Christina Schwabenland of the University of Bedfordshire studied the process of a local government moving its 1,100 employees from a series of traditional offices to one big open office over the course of three years in the U.K.
    File under: Why didn’t I realise this before? (Answer: because I’m a man. *sad face*)

  • A spectacular destination for astronomy fans is being built in rural Norway
    I’m saving up already!

  • Life gets better after 50: why age tends to work in favour of happiness
    When Jonathan Rauch fell into the doldrums in his 40s, he had no idea why. Life was good: he had a successful career, a solid relationship, good health and sound finances. Then he learnt about the happiness curve and it all became clear.
    Ohhh things really DO get better then? Phew.

  • Can You Overdose on Happiness?
    It is a good question, but I was a little surprised to see it as the title of a research paper in a medical journal: “How Happy Is Too Happy?” Yet there it was in a publication from 2012.
    Give it a few years and we’ll ALL be zapping our own brains (“Alexa, make me happy” Pzzzttttt)

  • The Ultimate Analog Music Is Back
    It’s no secret that sales of vinyl music are at the highest in decades. Even the lowly cassette tape is regaining popularity as some millennials embrace analog music over digital downloads and streaming services.
    Great. Now I need to write a follow up to this. You kids, let analog die already!

  • If You Think You Hate Puns, You’re Wrong
    The English language is almost nightmarishly expansive, and yet there is no good way to respond when someone drops a bad pun in casual conversation. “Stop” seems ideal, but it’s too late—they already did it.
    I FRICKIN LOVE PUNS! But I do not like Velcro, what a rip off!

  • Don’t Blame Phones for Narcissism
    Let me tell you about my selfie face. I like my head to be at a slight angle, one cheek turned to the lens so my eyes are looking at the camera sideways and never straight on.
    And it were ever thus.

  • A New Scientific Study Supports Putting Two Spaces After a Period … and a Punctuation War Ensues
    In former ages, wars erupted over the finer points of religious doctrine, a historical phenomenon that can seem perplexing to modern secularists. We’re past such things, we think.
    Goddammit, I thought we settled this last week.

  • Five fab spring dresses with POCKETS
    Everyone who wears dresses prefers one with pockets, right? Even if you carry a handbag most of the time it’s always nice to have the option of keeping your phone/money/keys close at hand, but plenty of designers and manufacturers overlook this useful feature.
    Because I know some people who like pretty dresses. Also, POCKETS.

  • The Longest Route You Can Sail in a Straight Line Without Hitting Land
    The Earth is about 71 percent ocean. If you start at a port and head into the sea, you’ll likely travel hundreds or thousands of miles before seeing land again. But what course would allow you to travel the farthest distance in a straight line without ever hitting land?
    GEEK ALERT, GEEK ALERT!

  • I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye
    Kanye West wants freedom—white freedom. I could only have seen it there, on the waxed hardwood floor of my elementary-school auditorium, because I was young then, barely 7 years old, and cable had not yet come to the city, and if it had, my father would not have believed in it.
    Kanye wants a lot of things.

  • Why is there stigma around male baldness?
    Scientists say a drug normally prescribed for osteoporosis could potentially lead to a new treatment for hair loss. But why is there stigma around male baldness? And why do men try to “cure” themselves of it anyway?
    I’m actually being increasingly proud of my baldness. Next step will be to completely shave my head. Oh yes.

  • Trump angers Scots with ban on Irn-Bru at luxury golf resort
    White House diplomacy has dipped to a new low after it emerged that Donald Trump’s luxury golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland, has banned the sale of Irn-Bru on the premises.
    Fine, it’ll stain the carpets. But won’t that Irn Bru coloured eejit do the same (and is this REALLY how he gets his perma-tan?

  • Yonhapnews Agency
    South Korea’s telecom watchdog said Wednesday it released a new service that locks smartphones when the device detects the user walking more than five steps in a bid to prevent accidents and keep pedestrians focused on their surroundings.
    Genius. Can we get this in Glasgow ASAP please.

  • Every Culture Appropriates
    The question is less whether a dress or an idea is borrowed, than the uses to which it’s then put. Meet the Death Metal Cowboys of Botswana.
    But does that make it ok? (pondering my own appropriations at the moment).

  • Eyes Wide Shut Meets a New Age of Hetero Anxiety
    I just rewatched “Eyes Wide Shut” — or Stanley Kubrick’s unofficial sequel to “The Shining,” as I like to call it — for the first time since we publicly began having all these conversations about the way men treat women.
    Oh no. A reason to watch a Kubrick movie you say?

  • “But That’s Another Story”: Will Schwalbe Talks Books with Book Lovers
    Will Schwalbe has a delightful relationship with books, though that shouldn’t be read to mean that all of his encounters with them are light-hearted. What Schwalbe finds in books that have meaning for him is “resonance,” which a reader will feel within themselves while reading.
    New Podcast alert, this one sounds fun.

  • Make Google Do It… And Then What?
    In the middle of its Tuesday morning I/O presentation, Google played an audio recording of what was essentially an AI-powered crank call. In it, the latest version of Google’s Assistant calls a hair salon and books an appointment — on its own.
    Yeah. These are starting to freak me out *glances at Alexa*

  • The futuristic safety reason behind why UPS electric trucks are so adorable
    US delivery service UPS announced this week that it partnered with UK-based technology company Arrival to roll out a “pilot fleet” of 35 new electric trucks. But what has captured many people’s attention isn’t the new technology—it’s how cute the trucks look.
    But ARE they cute? I mean, really? Draw some eyes on them, Pixar style, then ask me!

  • Number of middle-aged renters doubles in a decade
    Forty-somethings are now almost twice as likely to be renting their home from a private landlord than 10 years ago. Rising UK house prices have left many middle-age workers unable to afford a first home, or as “accidental renters” after a relationship break-up.
    It me.