Innocent people with dirty-sounding last names face the “Scunthorpe problem”
Sitting through roll call in school is already bad enough if you have a last name like Weiner, Butts, Cummings, Medick, Dickman, or Suconcock. But if that sounds rough, just try getting past the first stage of an online registration process. Seymour? Is there a Seymour in the room? A Mr. Seymour Butts? (yes, I am 8 yrs old!)
Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound
Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older boys don’t read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on Kindles or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Part of the reason I post these Weekend Reading posts is because I read all the articles I link to, and I would never post something I hadn’t read. So you are all keeping me accountable, thanks!
How wonder works
When I was growing up in New York City, a high point of my calendar was the annual arrival of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus — ‘the greatest show on earth’. My parents endured the green-haired clowns, sequinned acrobats and festooned elephants as a kind of garish pageantry. Ohhh how we all desperately need more wonder.
Reading with a pencil
The intellectual is, quite simply, a human being who has a pencil in his or her hand when reading a book. —George Steiner There’s a way of reading that is like writing. One for the people who can’t even crack the spine of a book…?
The importance of being Idles: Trauma, masculinity and immigration
The provocative Bristol-based five-piece are midway through their headline set at London’s Visions Festival and that’s the cue for them to drop Danny Nedelko – a blistering new anthem for the anxious pre-Brexit era. Seeing these guys in October. Nice to read about their sensibilities ahead of the aural onslaught I’m expecting!
Top tips for staying on Twitter as Jack fucks it up
Well. It’s not looking good for Twitter at the moment as its founder is announcing even more potential shitty plans for ruining his website further. I know some of us are exodusing, making our way over to Mastodon. Despite the recent blocking of infowars asshats, still some great advice in here.
Watch your step: why the 10,000 daily goal is built on bad science
In recent years, the 10,000-steps-a-day regime has become entrenched in popular culture. You can barely walk down the street without someone stomping past you wearing a FitBit; when Jeremy Hunt was health secretary, he was often pictured with his poking out from his shirtsleeves. Linked to something along these lines before, once again do your research people!
Female monkeys don’t trust males, even when they’re obviously right
Female monkeys are reluctant to follow the example of males even when they would obviously benefit from doing so, new research has found. The behaviour, which the researchers said echoes some human traits, is rooted in the tendency of male vervet monkeys to roam between groups. For god sake, if the MONKEYS know it’s true….
Shooting and editing great photos with Halide and Darkroom
We love Halide — we picked it as our favorite third-party camera app for the iPhone. We’re also big fans of Darkroom, which is our favorite photo editing app. Not only great on their own, these apps work brilliantly together to allow you to shoot and edit fantastic photos. Let’s take a look. I occasionally bookmark links just for me but this one is pretty handy so thought I’d share it too. iPhone only y’all.
Ten Things I Never Knew About Las Vegas Until I Ran a High-Roller Suite
A stint managing premier client relations at the Cosmopolitan revealed secrets that probably should stay in Vegas. Oh well. In Las Vegas, the ultimate sand trap-turned-capital of capitalism, there’s no better byword for sophistication than the Cosmopolitan. Just makes me want to visit it all the more (once I’ve won the lottery of course).
Sorry, Pal, I Don’t Want to Talk: The Other Reason People Wear AirPods
Rebecca Dolan: Wearers of AirPods have adapted their daily behavior to the product in ways even its designers might not have foreseen—as a cloak of invisibility. Yes. But. This has been applicable to headphones FOREVER? No??
Where Do “Messy Bisexuals” Fit Into the Bi+ Community?
For reference, this friend of mine has been married for eight years to a woman. A woman he loves and cares for deeply. He’s monogamous. He’s faithful. He’s open and communicative with his wife. Recently, he told her that he needs to experience an intimate connection with a man. Already linked to friends on FB I’ll use the same comment: “Wherever they damn well choose?”.
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. Trump news, sorry. But this both offers a glimmer of hope, and a terrifying insight.
Major opioid maker to pay for overdose-antidote development
A company whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it’s helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced Wednesday that it’s making a $3. Reality is increasingly fucked, and resembling some Atwood-esque dystopia.
