Weekend Reading

  • Worcestershire from You’re Probably Pronouncing These 30 Food Words Wrong
    I’ll raise my hand, it’s not “kweynoah” (quinoa)

  • Elena Ferrante: ‘I used to devour news. Now, the uninterrupted rain of it feels like chaos’
    I don’t feel desperate to be informed about everything that happens in the world. As a girl, I merely glanced at the newspaper headlines and occasionally watched the TV news. But a growing interest in politics, which erupted when I was around 20, inspired me to amass information.
    Chaos is the word. Where is the truth and who knows it?

  • Bet You Didn’t Know These Animal Facts
    Vanilla flavoring comes from *what*?
    My favourite ice cream flavour just got complicated..

  • 34 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America
    President Trump was almost universally panned for the press conference that followed the meeting with Russia’s President Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Trump was seen as capitulating to Russia by refusing to confront Putin on the issue of past and present interference in American elections.
    I know, it’s a Trump article but if this is all true then holy shit have we been played.

  • ‘It’s the president we all want’: The melancholy world of liberals watching ‘The West Wing’ in 2018
    Paul and Shirley Attryde drove from Durham, N.C., to Washington this spring for a live taping of “The West Wing Weekly,” a podcast about a TV series that ended 12 years ago.
    It me!

  • The Dog Photographer Of The Year Award Winners Are In, And They’re Fantastic
    This week the UK’s Kennel Club named winners for its 2018 Dog Photographer of the Year contest. As you might have guessed, the winning photos are incredibly precious.
    DOGGO! DOGGO!! DOGGO!!!!

  • Stop Trying to Change Yourself
    You can’t change yourself, so don’t even try. I know that’s not what the infomercials and self-help seminars tell you. But fuck it. They’re wrong. You can’t change. Like a thirsty man in a desert chasing a mirage, or a fat man peering into an empty fridge—there’s nothing there.
    The gentle backlash against hyper-productivity and self-improvement continues. Hey, you, you are ALREADY AWESOME.

  • Gratitude for Invisible Systems
    One way to improve democracy is for more people to appreciate its complex technological underpinnings. Before asking the question of how technology can affect democracy, I’m going to ask: What is democracy for?
    So many things we don’t consider that are so crucial. Peek behind that curtain.

  • Users Sue Juul for Addicting Them to Nicotine
    Juul Labs, the San Francisco-based e-cigarette company, is under pressure from parents, schools, public health advocates, lawmakers, and the Food and Drug Administration for its popularity with younger users, who have gravitated to Juul’s discrete rechargeable vaping device and nicotine pods.
    Shocking. Not. A company with billions of VC money behind it is acting in a ‘not nice’ way?

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Hollywood’s New “Zero Tolerance” on Offensive Speech Makes Zero Sense
    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn’s recent firing over old tweets and a Paramount TV exec’s dismissal amid racially charged comments only reinforce an “atmosphere of fear” and fail to account for the “totality of the person,” writes the Hollywood Reporter columnist.
    Not THAT Kareem (for NBA fans). Seeing a couple of articles about this, are we over-reacting? Are people not allowed to make mistakes and learn from them? Where is the line?

  • The Drone Photography Of The Year Contest Winners Are Staggering
    We at Digg dot com have a complicated relationship with drones. But roughly speaking, our views can probably be summed up as follows: drones that have chainsaws = uncool. Drones that take pretty photographs = very cool.
    Wow.

  • For the sake of fuck
    Just go read it.

  • Artificial Intelligence Shows Why Atheism Is Unpopular
    Imagine you’re the president of a European country. You’re slated to take in 50,000 refugees from the Middle East this year. Most of them are very religious, while most of your population is very secular.
    Stepping outside the bubble of my tribe is hard to do, my world view is not yours, etc.

  • What a musical conductor actually does on stage
    I love hearing people talk about how they work. In this quick video, conductor James Gaffigan explains what it is he does on stage and how different composers like Leonard Bernstein shape and enhance the performance of the musicians they’re leading.
    Learn something new every day. Fascinating.

  • Swedish student’s plane protest stops man’s deportation ‘to hell’
    Her successful protest, footage of which spread rapidly across the internet, shines a spotlight on domestic opposition to Sweden’s tough asylum regime, at a time when immigration and asylum are topping the agenda of a general election campaign in which the far right is polling strongly.
    Power is available to everyone if you are willing to stand up.

  • WW2 Spitfire pilot Mary Ellis dies
    The last living female pilot from World War Two, Mary Ellis, has died aged 101 at her home on the Isle of Wight. Mrs Ellis was a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and delivered Spitfires and bombers to the front line during the conflict.
    Actual legend.

  • Underestimating the power of gratitude – recipients of thank-you letters are more touched than we expect
    We’ve all been there: feeling so grateful to a friend or colleague that we hatch the idea of sending them a thank-you message. But then we worry about how to phrase it. And then we figure it probably won’t mean much to them anyway; if anything it could all be a bit awkward. So we don’t bother.
    Have I thanked YOU for reading these posts? THANK YOU!

  • Merry Clayton Tells the Story of Her Amazing Backing Vocal on The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”
    Some of rock’s greatest singers have catalogs that stretch for miles, with B-sides and deep cuts as plentiful as the well-known favorites. We could rattle off handfuls of names that fit the description.
    Didn’t know this story, wow. Imagine that vocal not happening, which it almost didn’t.

  • Why the UK’s biggest lesbian archive is so important
    Glasgow Women’s Library is not your typical library. Finalists for this year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year award, the Women’s Library is part-library, part-archive, and the only accredited museum in the UK dedicated to preserving women’s lives, histories, and communities.
    Mon Glasgow!

  • Negative People
    “Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.”
    This quote. (that’s all the post is, don’t need to click)

  • The Queer Art of Failing Better
    Some things are just too pure for this weird and wicked world. That video of the golden retriever failing an agility test. Golden retrievers in general. Political science majors who truly believe they can change the system from within. And Queer Eye.  
    Not a fan of the show but might watch a few after reading this article. (Also, my fav ‘viral’ video ever? that golden retriever).

  • Sheffield topiarist ‘disgusted by drunk hedge sex’
    Keith Tyssen has maintained his “privet lady” at his Sheffield home since 2000, but is often woken up in the night by distracted passers-by. Mr Tyssen has considered putting up a sign or an alarm to curb the behaviour.
    Bush. *snigger*

  • A Person Can Instantly Blossom into a Savant–and No One Knows Why
    Savant syndrome comes in different forms. In congenital savant syndrome the extraordinary savant ability surfaces in early childhood.
    I’m still waiting.