Weekend Reading

  • Do Not Pass Go: Interview With The Monopoly Thimble
    Perhaps nobody cares about their clothes anymore.
    Sad times for a thimble, cast aside.
  • The Coffee Shaman
    “The way a shaman comes to light is that, as a child, he’s given fairy tales that are only that: fairy tales. And the shaman has to then penetrate the veil, to understand that there’s really something else beyond.”
    Now, I love coffee but… shaman?
  • 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump
    Trump’s younger supporters know he’s an incompetent joke; in fact, that’s why they support him. Around 2005 or so a strange link started showing up in my old webcomic’s referral logs. This new site I didn’t understand. It was a bulletin board, but its system of navigation was opaque.
    My first Trump link in a while, charting the rise of the disilluisioned hate that he rode to President
  • How the price of paint is set in the hearts of dying stars
    Today I’m going to try to explain the real reason that barns are painted red: nuclear fusion. And yes, this is an excuse to take a mad ride around some of the stranger corners of physics and chemistry in order to give you the real, this-is-not-BS, answer to a simple question.
    GEEK TASTIC!! Don’t worry I failed my O Grade Chemistry and I understood this, well, most of it..
  • This Giant Gray Blobby Thing Has Become A Huge Meme In Russia For Some Reason
    In January, someone shared a picture of a sculpture at the medical centre of the University of Leiden, Holland on Russian website pikabu. The sculpture, Margriet van Breevoort, created the piece to symbolize patients experience of waiting to see a doctor.
    Your meme is not my meme.
  • Found: 50,000-Year-Old Microbes Hiding in the Cave of the Crystals
    In Naica, Mexico, there’s a fantastic cave filled with giant crystals. First discovered by miners looking for silver and other valuable minerals, the cave is hot, anywhere for 104 to 140ºF, and it is crisscrossed with ancient crystals of gypsum, which can grow as long as 50 feet.
    AMAZE
  • To the people I know who know Milo
    There are lots of people of my acquaintance who have known Milo for a long time, through his many shape-shifting phases.
    I don’t know Milo, and I’m glad of that. This article makes a strong case for condemning the condemnable WHILST they are in action.
  • Should We Die?
    Radical longevity may change the way we live—and not necessarily for the better. Istvan, an atheist who physically resembles the pure-hearted hero of a Soviet children’s book, explained that his life is awesome.
    Bonkers. But plausible bonkers? (the new fake news?)
  • Cake or biscuit? Why Jaffa Cakes excite philosophers
    It’s a delicious structure consisting of a small sponge with a chocolate cap covering a veneer of orange jelly. It is arguably Britain’s greatest invention after the steam engine and the light bulb. But is a Jaffa Cake actually a biscuit, asks David Edmonds.
    More Geekgasming, and a sweet spot hit. My love for the cake of Jaffa knows no bounds!
  • The Trash Heap Has Spoken
    My grandmother was a mountain.
    POWERFUL writing. As a fat person this is at once uplifting, shocking, and moving (and I’m lucky, I’m a fat man, which seems to be more ‘allowed’ than being a fat woman.
  • Selfies aren’t a sign of the decay of civilization. They’re modern art.
    The internet has a love-hate relationship with selfies. On one hand, everybody posts them. On the other, they are a sign of narcissism. They are linked to low self-esteem. They show that our culture has plunged into navel-gazing decadence and, more than that, they’re annoying.
    Interesting. Both the article and the clever steering away from discussing the extension to the selfie, the selfie stick!
  • A Swedish politician is advocating for the ultimate workplace benefit: paid breaks for sex
    Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old local council member for Övertorneå in northern Sweden, proposed this week that Swedes should take a one-hour paid break from work to go home and have sex with their partners.
    *packs bags*
  • Adulting School Teaches Young Adults Grown-Up Skills
    Transitioning to adulthood isn’t new, but there is a more modern way to describe it: adulting. Get your car’s oil changed? That’s adulting. Cook dinner instead of order takeout? That’s adulting.
    Amusing? Yes. Worrying? Yes. Not being able to ‘adult’ for ‘lack of capacity issues is one thing. Not being able to because you are a moron, something else entirely?
  • I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House
    When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days. In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council.
    Wow. Another voice that should be heard.
  • Why Nothing Works Anymore
    Technology has its own purposes. “No… it’s a magic potty,” my daughter used to lament, age 3 or so, before refusing to use a public restroom stall with an automatic-flush toilet.
    You thought I wasn’t posting an AI/tech related link this week, didn’t ya!
  • Video Games Are Better Than Real Life
    On the evening of November 9, having barely been awake to see the day, I took the subway to Sunset Park. My objective was to meet a friend at the arcade Next Level. In size, Next Level resembles a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant.
    Please refer to article title.
  • Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture
    When new employees join Uber, they are asked to subscribe to 14 core company values, including making bold bets, being “obsessed” with the customer, and “always be hustlin’.
    I’d imagine most of you will have read THAT article (if not, it’s linked in this one). I have never used Uber, and I never will.
  • Men, Is Exercise Putting a Damper on Your Sex Life?
    Men who exercise strenuously may have a lower libido than those whose workouts are lighter, according to one of the first studies to scientifically delve into the relationship between men’s workouts and their sex lives.
    I don’t do much in the way of exercise yet where is the quid pro quo?! (TMI?)