March 20, 2014
From the Merchants of Cool to Generation Like
'The media is a chaotic place. Like an ocean or a weather system, it no longer respects authority. In fact, those who attempt to impose their authority are ridiculed, while brilliant and valuable tidbits emerge from the most remote and seemingly inconsequential sources.... Younger, media-savvy viewers instinctively reject authoritative voices and laugh at commercials in which people try to act "cool." ' That was Douglas Rushkoff's assessment of companies courting the youth demographic as covered in print in 2000, and the next year in video as the PBS Frontline documentary, Merchants of Cool (streaming documentary; prev: 1, 2, 3, 4). Earlier this year, Rushkoff revisited the topic with PBS in Generation Like (streaming documentary), in a time when young people are generally happy to tell the world what brands they like as a way of identifying who they are. [more inside]
Who Had Richer Parents, Doctors Or Artists?
What's the link between household income during childhood and job choice during adulthood? Stats and pretty graphs ahoy!
Atlas
Last week, a publication based in New York that is called “New York,” asked the question, “Is San Francisco New York?”
A publication based in San Francisco answered, quite resolutely, “No.”
A publication based in San Francisco answered, quite resolutely, “No.”
All editors write headlines they dare not use. Put them here instead.
Heds will roll: Inappropriate but amusing headlines that never made it to print.
They don't make lederhosen in my size
Princesses come in all shapes and sizes. A photo set of two best friends.
No one is safe from the big fruit.
The world's first Apple reseller is no more. Minneapolis-based FirstTech sold its first computer, an Apple II, in 1977 as a sideline to its growing technology business. By 1984, Apple computers were its primary focus. The world's first Apple reseller, FirstTech actually used its own boilerplate legal documents and swapped in Apple's name when drawing up its first sales contract. Its final day of business will be March 29. [more inside]
R.I.P. Lucius Shepard
R.I.P. Lucius Shepard On March 18th, Science Fiction Literature lost one of it's best short story writers, Lucius Shepard [more inside]
"It took more time than it should have for them to be put in isolation"
In the past weeks, there have been 20 confirmed cases of the measles in New York. After being virtually "eradicated" in the United States in 2000, 2013 saw 189 cases reported. The most recent outbreak seems to have spread due to "failure of medical workers to recognize the disease quickly enough and to quarantine patients so they would not infect others." And via Slate: "I’m a Pediatrician. Should I Treat All Kids, or Just the Vaccinated Ones?"
Dodging solar storms
FYI, we came close to losing the power grid back in 2012. What we? Oh, just the planet.
What's the opposite of (.)
Westboro church founder Fred Phelps has died. Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church known for its virulently anti-gay protests at public events, including military funerals -- has died. [more inside]
Where Bad Records Go When They Die
Vinyl Terror and Horror uses physically altered vinyl records and many turntables to produce an eerie soundscape.
"That's it. You'll never be famous."
The Pity-Charity Complex
"I say “you” deliberately here, because much of the writing about low-wage workers tends to obscure just that fact — that these stories could well be about you. Too much writing on the left and the right has tended to treat the people in some of the nation’s most common jobs as if they are some exotic Other rather than our neighbors, our family members and ourselves. "
--Sarah Jaffe on the media's strange ways of talking about low-wage workers.
The proof is in the pudding
"I don’t really know the first thing about Classical Music."
Take a tip from knitting
The Beastmasters
GQ visits the Cute Animal Viral Machine at the heart of Buzzfeed. "One joke in the BuzzFeed offices is that no one employed there can quite explain to their parents what exactly it is they do. To those parents, I would like to say: I can't entirely explain it, either, but whatever it is, these men and women are so fucking good at it. They have thought hard about who looks at what and why. Jack has done entire studies on why cats have triumphed over dogs on the Internet. (The answer involves 'path dependency,' the fancy economics term for when one product, like VHS, conquers another equally legitimate one, like Betamax.) He can tell you with some certainty that a reader of BuzzFeed is equally inclined to click on a photo of a dog or a cat—but that he or she is significantly more likely to share the photo of the cat with others. (Why? 'Totally non-data-driven theory is that dogs are trying too hard,' Jack says.)"
Want to party with Nathan Fillion? Zach Levi? You can...sort of?
Of course, you have to help PAY for the party. "Something seems broken here. Asking people for money to put on an event they may not even be able to participate in? How is there no level that gives you an all-access badge? How does throwing a million dollar party to raise a quarter of a million dollars for charity make sense? I'm not begrudging people the good times they have at Nerd HQ, and more power to everyone who felt included and part of a fun event. But this seems like a huge misuse of crowdfunding to me, the kind of situation that sours people on the very concept. Zach Levi wants to throw a party and for you to pay for it... and maybe you can get in, if you wait around long enough in line."
Coordinating The World
Chief Scientist Demetrios Matsakis gives us a tour of the U.S. Naval Observatory's Time Services and explains where time comes from.
Locking up your treasures
The Overprotected Kid
A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk-taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.
A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk-taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.
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