Weekend Reading

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  • Google’s File on Me Was Huge. Here’s Why It Wasn’t as Creepy as My Facebook Data.
    Google has far more data about us than Facebook. Yet unlike Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking empire, which has been under fire for improperly leaking user data, Google has sidestepped controversy.
    Next up, Apple who announced their own way to check all your data. I’ve checked. Apple has the least data on me of the big ‘3’. Just sayin’

  • Rise And Shine! Astronauts Get Wake-Up Music In Space
    As you might expect, many of the tracks match a theme: Fries’s list includes David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on three separate occasions, and Elton John’s “Rocket Man” six.
    Struggle to get out of bed, wake up like an astronaut!

  • The Endowment Effect: Why You Can’t Let Go Of Your Possessions
    Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Louis Chew of Constant Renewal. Not long ago, I tried assearing some of my possessions. It didn’t go well.
    I can attest to this. Figuring out that the emotions and memories of an event/person are not held in an object was the hardest thing to unpick.

  • The Secret Codes Hidden in the Books of a Scottish Library
    Georgia Grainger had only been working at Charleston Library in Dundee, Scotland, for six weeks when she was met with a mystery. One of the library’s customers, an older woman, approached her with a question and an open book.
    Well this is lovely.

  • Tattly™ — Forever Rainbow Pin
    For the first time ever, Tattly is going permanent. Because we believe in wearing pride all year round. 10% of the proceeds from Ben Wagner’s Forever Gay pin go towards a queer non-profit like GMHC, the Transgender Law Center, or the Ali Forney Center.
    Isn’t this pretty!

  • Yes, It’s Okay to Break up with a Good Man
    Several years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the prolonged and heart-wrenching breakup that persisted in destroying my entire life over the course of many months, a friend sent me an essay she thought I should read. I was officially single and deeply ashamed.
    Posted without comment (but lots and LOTS of thoughts)

  • The Rage of the Incels
    Lately I have been thinking about one of the first things that I ever wrote for the Internet: a series of interviews with adult virgins, published by the Hairpin. I knew my first subject personally, and, after I interviewed her, I put out an open call. To my surprise, messages came rolling in.
    The word ‘incel’ makes me icky, but this is scary.

  • Big Ag turns to peas to meet soaring global protein demand
    In a joint venture at a Wisconsin plant, flour milled from Iowa yellow peas is mixed with water and spun at high speed through stainless steel drums, separating the protein from starch and fiber.
    PEAS and goodwill to all men.

  • The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints
    Recently, for a background check, for a visa, I had to get fingerprinted by an agent admissible to the FBI while I was still in France. No, we can’t fingerprint you, the website of the Embassy of the United States in Paris stated clearly.
    The world it is a changing, just as well we all have unique fingerprints really. Right?

  • How the Vegas Golden Knights became the most remarkable story in sports
    While attending a wedding full of the Las Vegas elite on Sunday evening, Carolyn Goodman kept losing focus on the bride and the groom.
    For sports fans: This is another Leicester City style story.

  • Saving Africa’s wildlife
    Two decades ago, this patch of Malawian forest was almost emptied of wildlife. The last elephants had been poached. The lions had been caught in snare traps. Other species died off as their range was diced by machete-wielding farmers.
    There is some good in the world.

  • Bach at the Burger King
    AT THE CORNER of 8th and Market in San Francisco, by a shuttered subway escalator outside a Burger King, an unusual soundtrack plays. A beige speaker, mounted atop a tall window, blasts Baroque harpsichord at deafening volumes. The music never stops.
    I like Bach but, yeah, that baroque harpischord is gonna be harsh…

  • Barack and Michelle Obama Sign Netflix Production Deal
    Netflix has secured a deal with former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to produce series and movies for the streaming service.
    Right now can we just have President Obama give his take on world events every day? You know, FOR MY SANITY.

  • The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations
    The nation’s famed mastery of rail travel has been aided by some subtle behavioral tricks. It is a scene that plays out each weekday morning across Tokyo. Suit-clad office workers, gaggles of schoolchildren, and other travelers gamely wend their way through the city’s sprawling rail stations.
    I’m fascinated by this kind of thing, gentle social conditioning. Little nudges here and there. Amazing.

  • Following a Tuna from Fiji to Brooklyn—on the Blockchain
    I had just learned everything there was to know about the fish in front of me. Now a small part of its fleshy, red body was in my mouth. Five minutes earlier, I saw a video showing the waters in Fiji where it was caught, where it traveled on ice, and how exactly it ended up inside a sushi hand roll.
    OK. This is odd but clever. Wanna learn about blockchain (and what it actually is), try this.

  • ‘I felt exposed online’: how to disappear from the internet
    Worried about what’s out there about you? You’re not alone. But is it even possible to become a digital ghost?
    Imagine. If you’d done this already you wouldn’t even have gotten a single email about GDPR…

  • Childish Gambino and how the internet killed the cultural critic
    Sometimes, a work of art is so urgent, so rich, you need help to understand it. So it was that, on Tuesday, I found myself searching the internet for things to read about Childish Gambino’s This is America. There was no shortage of options.
    It’s worrying that these things happen by stealth until you are so embedded in the new normal you don’t realise what’s missing.

  • Fuel With This Fruit
    Every athlete knows that education is a crucial part of performance. Sport and exercise research, insight from top trainers, science, and technology help you to better understand your body so you can craft a healthier lifestyle, workouts, and recovery plan.
    *Minion voice* BAAANNAAANNNAAAA

  • Weekend lie-ins could help you avoid an early death, study says
    Many people complain they do not get enough sleep, and it seems they are right to be concerned.
    Thank god, I’m terrible at getting enough sleep during the week, if it weren’t for Sundays…

  • Sarah Silverman Is the Troll Slayer
    You’re gonna need a moment to get used to this new Sarah Silverman, but I assure you it’s worth it. Come with me for a visit and just know, before we go in, that we are a long way away from the Jesus Is Magic Silverman. You know the one.
    Well I never.

  • No one’s ready for GDPR
    The General Data Protection Regulation will go into effect on May 25th, and no one is ready — not the companies and not even the regulators. After four years of deliberation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was officially adopted by the European Union in 2016.
    I’m sorry.

  • TANK
    A short video, 80s TRON stylee.
    Visually simple yet gorgeous.

  • Are Suicide Bombings Really Driven by Ideology?
    Harvey Whitehouse doesn’t like how New Atheists like Richard Dawkins make religion out to be a mere “set of propositions” amounting to a “failed science.”
    For those in Glasgow, the ‘green or blue’ people exhibit a lot of these behaviours.

  • The World Wants More Camel Milk. Australia Can Help
    Marcel Steingiesser gave up a 14-year career at the world’s biggest mining company to stake his future on what he says is an even better opportunity — Australian camel milk.
    Pretty soon the choice of milk in a coffee shop will be longer than the coffee options… Almond, Oat, Soy, Camel…

  • A new scientific expedition aims to find out whether the Loch Ness monster is real
    It sounds like the start of a low-budget thriller: A New Zealand scientist is traveling with his international research team to Scotland to investigate whether the Loch Ness Monster is real, according to the Associated Press.
    People of Scotland, they must be stopped. We CANNOT let them find out the truth! ACTIVATE NESSIE4EVA.

  • The Songs of the Years, 1925-2018
    Back at the end of 2010, Ben Greenman created a playlist for the New Yorker’s holiday party that featured one song from each year of the magazine’s existence ordered chronologically. At the party, the mix worked like a charm.
    I don’t plan the order of these links, but if I did, this would be a pretty good one to finish off with. Enjoy your weekend!