Weekend Reading

I’m behind on my Goodreads challenge so I’ll admit I haven’t read all of these this week but they all looked interesting…

  • ‘If the Camera Moves it’s Got To Be for a Reason’: An Interview with Roger Deakins
    Nobody shoots movies as well as Roger Deakins. He is without question our greatest cinematographer: an exemplar without comparison.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1L8Zb0g
  • Blank Space: What Kind of Genius Is Max Martin?
    Among the stranger aspects of recent pop music history is how so many of the biggest hits of the past twenty years—by the Backstreet Boys, ’NSync, and Britney Spears to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and the Weeknd—have been co-written by a forty-four-year-old Swede.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1FLqgWR
  • Study: White people react to evidence of white privilege by claiming greater personal hardships
    Researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business have found that white people respond to evidence that they are privileged by their race by insisting that they face greater hardships in life. In a study published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, L.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1JN1Ffp
  • The Untold Story of Susan Hawk
    She had always dreamed about being Dallas County district attorney. But as her career took off, her personal life was falling apart—divorce, pain pills, thoughts of suicide. After two months of treatment, she says she’s ready once again to serve.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Q0mqJQ
  • Online Dating Made This Woman a Pawn in a Global Crime Plot
    Audrey Elaine Elrod was in rough financial shape as the 2012 holiday season drew near. She’d been out of work for a year, ever since quitting her longtime clerical job at the county public health department in Charlotte, North Carolina.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Z2Pdn4
  • 43 Books You Won’t Be Able To Stop Talking About
    I read this over the summer and have probably recommended it to everybody I know at least three times since then. It is an amazingly written novel that explores traumatic childhood abuse but also the universal human capacity for kindness, forgiveness, and unconditional love.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Q2o8up
  • Take a look around the extraordinary derelict island featured in the James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’
    One photographer, Kevin Dooley, has documented the entire island — and it’s pretty spectacular. People first settled Hashima because of nearby coal resources. The Mitsubishi Group bought the island in 1890 to use it as a base for coal extraction from the sea. 
    Read: http://ift.tt/1MbxhgE
  • The Taken King’s titular character is transgender (although you’re forgiven if that’s a surprise)
    Destiny’s most recent expansion, The Taken King, is centered around a transgender character. That’s big enough news, but the more interesting question is the following: Why wasn’t this discussed in the gaming press?
    Read: http://ift.tt/1j0mkap
  • Up Periscope: Why Twitter’s Live Streaming App is a Personal Branding Game-Changer
    Today’s episode of Youpreneur.FM is all about the latest social media favorite, Periscope, and how it’s taking the online marketing world by storm. Chris gives tips on how to start your own scopes and how he’s been able to monetize the app himself.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Z4opD8
  • Google’s Cute Cars And The Ugly End Of Driving
    The thing about covering tech, especially for a long time, is that you have these moments where you get to really reach out and touch the future. They’re rare. But you get to the point where you can recognize them and see the truly significant shifts. The very early web felt that way.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1RrRH9L
  • Times Square: The City’s Id, Now and Always
    Times Square in the de Blasio era.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1KX7Xx4
  • Apple Watch Users Are Working Out (And Standing) More, Survey Says
    Apple CEO Tim Cook announces fitness apps for the new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch in 2014 in Cupertino, California. The Apple Watch automatically nags users to stand up every hour and alerts them when they haven’t met their daily exercise goals.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1QWhIwQ
  • Inside the creation of the Microsoft Surface Book
    No one saw it coming: The Surface Book, history’s first Microsoft laptop (or notebook, if you prefer). And has there ever been a more apt setting for a special delivery than the giant and largely defunct Post Office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City?
    Read: http://ift.tt/1FTmif6
  • Digital dependence ‘eroding human memory’
    An over-reliance on using computers and search engines is weakening people’s memories, according to a study. It showed many people use computers instead of memorising information.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Liqp0d
  • Inside the world of audio branding with Skype’s new pings, bounces, and pops
    The year that Skype launched its calling service, the world was in the midst of a sonic crisis: the ringtone. Mobile phones — to which Skype was an indirect competitor — were becoming ubiquitous, and so were the personalized sounds that went with them.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1j7TkgT
  • This caffeinated peanut butter could replace your morning coffee
    You can now eat a caffeinated peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of drinking a cup of coffee. The food product company STEEM now offers caffeinated peanut butter with as much caffeine as two cups of coffee in one serving, according to the company’s website.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1LhKAQ4
  • The Transfiguration of Aloneness: David Whyte on Longing and Silence
    Longing is one of those acutely reality-warping emotions that magnify their object — be it a person or an outcome — to astonishing proportions until it eclipses just about everything else in your landscape of priorities.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Q9DjSo
  • The Passion of Nicki Minaj
    Pop music is dominated almost exclusively by the female star — Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and, as always, Madonna.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1MZ89wD
  • The Scrappy Female Paleontologist Whose Life Inspired a Tongue Twister
    Mary Anning, pictured pointing at a fossil on the ground next to her dog, Tray. (Image: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons) Say “she sells seashells by the seashore” quickly, three times in a row.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1VHbyYa
  • DNA At the Fringes: Twins, Chimerism, and Synthetic DNA
    Plenty of things can go wrong in DNA testing in a run-of-the-mill case. Problems with interpreting the sample, determining the right match probabilities, and ensuring the integrity of the sample and the evidence collection and testing process are everyday, ordinary kinds of issues that may arise.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Ll69ei
  • When a Father’s Son Becomes His Daughter
    I called Papa in June 2001, the night before my sister Juno’s sweet sixteen party.“I’m coming in on the bus around five,” I said. “I’ll be wearing makeup and women’s clothes. I just want to let you know so you’re not surprised. We can talk about it later.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1Gyx0T0
  • News & Views
    I, like approximately 13 million people in the country, spent Wednesday evening bawling my face off watching Nadiya Hussain become crowned the winner of The Great British Bake Off. It was all too much – the amazing cakes, Nadiya’s tears, the camaraderie of the lovely participants.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1NsEqiH
  • Rampage Killings Linger in Memory, but Toll of Gun Violence Is Constant
    Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and now, a community college in Roseburg, Ore. One after another, mass shootings have horrified the nation, stoking debate about the availability of legal guns and anguish over the inability of society to keep weapons out of the hands of seething killers.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1MjssWT
  • Facebook is supplementing the “like” button with six emoji reactions
    You know what’s cooler than a single emoji to express emotion? Seven emoji to express emotion. That’s right: Facebook is reportedly testing out adding six emoji options (
    Read: http://ift.tt/1L3hkew
  • You can learn to be creative, if you’re willing to embarrass yourself
    In 1666, one of the most influential scientists in history was strolling through a garden when he was struck with a flash of creative brilliance that would change the world. While standing under the shade of an apple tree, Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1L1GPx2
  • To overcome procrastination, be more selfish
    We’ve all had the experience of wanting to get a project done but putting it off for later. Sometimes we wait because we just don’t care enough about the project, but other times we care a lot—and still end up doing something else.
    Read: http://ift.tt/1L1DC0f