August 17, 2016
The Grey Lady's Big Plans
Can Anyone Save the New York Times from Itself? "In 2014 the New York Times Media Group generated just over half the advertising revenue it did in 2002. The organization now generates more revenue from its subscribers than its advertisers. And while the Times now has more than 1 million paid digital-only subscribers, an estimated 70 percent of the company revenue still comes from print subscriptions and advertising. (... the Times’s individually paid weekday print circulation as of September 2015 was 528,000, compared to over 1 million for The Wall Street Journal and 330,000 for The Washington Post. Its Sunday circulation is more than 1.1 million...) In other words: digital revenue is nowhere near enough to support a 1,300-person newsroom—a number that even [executive editor] Dean Baquet has acknowledged must shrink." [more inside]
NSA malware released by "The Shadow Brokers"
Was the N.S.A. Hacked? A group calling itself The Shadow Brokers [Google cache], widely supposed to actually be Russian state-backed hackers, released an archive of purported NSA Tailored Access Operations/'Equation Group' malware, including zero-day exploits on commercial routers. NSA insiders confirm likely legitimacy. The archive dates to mid-2013, shortly after the Snowden revelations, leading him and others to ponder whether the resulting cleanup operation shut out the hackers. Schneier guesses the timing was meant to signal the Obama administration against sanctions for the DNC hack.
Story of Your Life
Trailer for Arrival, the new Denis Villeneuve film based on a Ted Chiang short story, starring Amy Adams, Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Renner. Ted Chiang on seeing his stories adapted to the screen. Previous Ted Chiang.
We Built This Robot to Explain Rape Culture to Men
Reductress Is Devoting Its Entire Site to Rape Jokes That Punch Up: "In response to a sexual assault controversy that’s currently engulfing the New York comedy scene, women’s satire site Reductress has devoted its entire landing page to humor articles (primarily written by women) about rape."
[warning: pointed satire about rape, rape culture, and abuse] [more inside]
Somewhere Between A Bottle Of Nail Polish And A Can Of Soda
FiveThirtyEight's "Science Questions from a Toddler" series aims to "use the curiosity of kids ages 5 and younger as a jumping-off point to investigate the scientific wonders that adults don’t even think to ask about. The answers are for adults, but they wouldn’t be possible without the wonder only a child can bring." Their most recent article is "How Big is a Fart?" [more inside]
“Wronnnng!”
John McLaughlin, TV Host Who Made Combat of Punditry, Dies at 89 [The New York Times] John McLaughlin, a former Roman Catholic priest who became an aide to Richard M. Nixon in the White House and parlayed his fierce defense of the president into a television career as host of “The McLaughlin Group,” the long-running Sunday morning program of combative political punditry, died on Tuesday at his home in Washington. He was 89. [more inside]
I am the Potter Who Was
George Ohr: The Mad Potter of Biloxi. Visit the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum in Biloxi, where his twisted, flowing, lumpy, misshapen, crimped, dented, folded, and shimmering ceramic pieces are on display. [more inside]
‾‾‾MAKE‾IT‾‾‾‾ ‾‾‾‾STRANGER‾‾‾‾
makeitstranger.com is a toy that lets you generate Stranger Things-style logos with the text of your choice. Spaces, alas, are forbidden.
"The hair stood up on the back of my neck. There's two of them!"
Stealing Bitcoins with Badges: How Silk Road’s Dirty Cops Got Caught. Ars Technica explores the investigation into two federal agents/contemporaries who were, unbeknownst to one another, simultaneously robbing the online drug marketplace they were tasked with bringing down. [more inside]
Jeffrey Wood
In 1996, Jeffrey Wood was sitting in a getaway car, when, inside a convenience store, his friend Daniel Reneau shot and killed a clerk during a botched robbery. Wood was sentenced to death in Kerr County in March 1998, and will be executed next week in Texas. He was sentenced to death under Texas’ felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. Under the law, prosecutors are not required to prove that a defendant had any part in committing a crime, or even intended to commit it. [more inside]
Some of these methods have proven invaluable. Others less so.
As of August 23rd, NPR.org is discontinuing its Disqus-based comment system and will not replace it. [more inside]
Pac animal
World-record-holding balloon fiend Twinkie hunts down ghosts and balloons (but mostly balloons) in Pac-Dog
She’s never ever cute or soft or scared of you.
"Her hair is done. Her makeup is flawless; her coat, luxurious. She’s single...We love her and we hate her in equal measure. We feel that way because she revels in being all the things that we are told we aren’t allowed to be."
Burkinis interdits
Beach bans on the Burkini in France sparks widespread debate. Burkinis (or burqinis) are a type of swimwear for women that offers full coverage. They are mostly, but not exclusively, worn by Muslim women. Now three French cities have banned the burkini from their beaches: Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco on the island of Corsica have done so, and Le Touquet on the Atlantic coast is planning to do the same. This has understandably lead to a lot of discussion. [more inside]
Queering up the big screen... in teensy tiny steps
The Guardian wonders about why queer characters are coming along on the big screen so slowly and attempts some answers drawing on recent examples like Star Trek Beyond, Deadpool and Ghostbusters.
Lucien Blyau 1925-2016
"He started passing up water to Criquielion and his team mates. Then others saw him handing up bottles and wanted some too. He could hardly say no." [more inside]
"the ad indicated whether the A, B or C ending was playing..."
“[John Landis] thought it would be really great box office,” director Jonathan Lynn told BuzzFeed. “He thought that what would happen was that people, having enjoyed the film so much, would then go back and pay again and see the other endings.” Here’s The Odd Way Audiences Experienced ‘Clue’ 30 Years Ago (Andrew Husband, Uproxx) Previously: Mrs. White, in the marketing office, with a focus group
FBI Seeks Spy-App Developer
Are you an app developer? Are you covert as hell? Do you think we should all throw our privacy cautions to the wind? Boy, does the FBI have the job for you: design an app to help the government spy. [more inside]
Are there exercises he could do?
"Buckle up."
With his campaign chair Paul Manafort mired in scandal and polls showing Arizona and Georgia on the brink of going blue, an increasingly agitated Donald Trump has launched a major shake-up of his political staff. Reportedly infuriated by talk of being "tamed," the Republican nominee has rejected Manafort's moderating sway in favor of Breitbart News CEO Steve* Bannon, an alt-right firebrand who Bloomberg has called "the most dangerous political operative in America." Washington Post reporter Robert Costa foresees a vicious campaign in the making, a prospect further suggested by rumors that disgraced Fox News founder Roger Ailes will be advising Trump ahead of next months' debates with Hillary Clinton (whose odds of a landslide are currently on par with that of any Trump victory). [more inside]
Nice exchanges there, be a pity if anything happened
On August 16, major healthcare provider Aetna announced that it was pulling plans in exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") in 11 states, claiming they were losing (and expecting to lose) too much money under the new law. But the story doesn't end there. [more inside]
Sobriety, Wine O'Clock, and the 24-Hour Woman
"But knives and booze, yoga and booze, 13 mile runs and booze? What’s next to be liquored up: CPR training? Puppy ballet class? (Not really a thing, but someone should get on it.) Is there nothing so inherently absorbing or high-stakes or pleasurable that we won’t try to alter our natural response to it? Maybe women are so busy faking it — to be more like a man at work, more like a porn star in bed, more like 30 at 50 — that we don’t trust our natural responses anymore. Maybe all that wine is an Instagram filter for our own lives, so we don’t see how sallow and cracked they’ve become." Writer Kristi Coulter on making it to "the other side of the pool."
Who you gonna call? (An-ces-tors!)
15 Funky Things Chinese People Burnt for their Ancestors A quirky look into a mainstay ritual of the Hungry Ghost Festival. What's that? From the Straits Times: All You Need to Know and Heed about the 7th Month Celebrations. From The Beijinger: Everything You Need to Know About this Year's Ghost Festival. And maybe you're familiar with the festival and all its taboos. Or are you?
there’s so much more diversity in our fiction, if we just look for it
152 published authors of speculative fiction, of Asian descent. (includes links to stories by the authors, if available online.)
"I could sit here and read figures until I'm blue in the face..."
Australiafilter: MeFi fave and science hearthrob Professor Brian Cox responds to climate change denier, sovereign citizen and Australian senator-elect Malcolm Roberts on ABC panel show Q&A. [more inside]
Hot f***ing Wheels
« Previous day | Next day »