August 25, 2016
iPhone security hack
A truly horrendous zero-day exploit has been revealed which targets the iPhone. Apple has issued an emergency update to correct it and advises all iPhone users to update immediately. The latest OS version, and only safe one, is 9.3.5. (More coverage)
How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All
From a spot price of around $6 per ounce in early 1979, the price of silver shot up to $50.42 in January of 1980. In the same week, silver futures contracts were trading at $46.80. Film companies like Kodak saw costs go through the roof, while the British film producer, Ilford, was forced to lay off workers. Traditional bullion dealers, caught in a squeeze, cried foul to the commodity exchanges, and the New York jewelry house Tiffany & Co. took out a full page ad in the New York Times slamming the “unconscionable” Hunt brothers. They were right to single out the Hunts; in mid-January, they controlled 69% of all the silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) in New York.
El sueno americano
Tom Kiefer was named one of the 50 best emerging photographers for 2015 in the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards based on his El Sueno Americano project, which emerged from his work as a janitor at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Over an 11-year period, he salvaged and cataloged hundreds of personal items thrown away in the facility. [more inside]
Fingerwave Saint
“I wanted to create images that portray black women in a way that would inspire them not to be necessarily pretty, which is what most beauty stuff is about, but to kind of embody that and more within themselves,” Ms. Crowe said [NYT]. “Everything starts within you and how you feel about yourself. It’s just trying to glorify black women and make them imagine themselves beyond their wildest dreams.” [more inside]
Not just a menu item, but a way of lunch
The Slow & Sad Death of Seattle's Iconic Teriyaki Scene (Thrillist) But new Seattle -- with the locals priced out of the area, those that remain forgetting teriyaki exists, and newcomers ignoring it -- risks losing those real shops for good. Teriyaki could be heading the direction of deep-dish… just ask a Chicagoan about it and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s for tourists.” Teriyaki is from a different era, and it’s fading as fast as traffic-free days on I-5. Since teriyaki came to town, Seattle’s waved goodbye to the Kingdome, Kurt Cobain, and the Sonics. A signature stadium, a signature musician, a signature team -- and now, perhaps, a signature dish. [more inside]
Sail Away... Sail Away...
Because sometimes, when the stresses and hardships of earthly existence threaten to overwhelm, you just really need to see two Pokemon dancing to Orinoco Flow.
Una donna americana sta leggendo tutto il catalogo...
New York City's Karen Barbarossa is reading the Biblioteca Adelphi catalogue, in order, from 1965 through now. All of it. That's 653 titles, to date.
Narrative stinginess in binge-worthy shows.
"Delay of audience gratification has been a staple of episodic storytelling for a long time, but no show advanced the practice more than the grandfather of plotblocking, Lost. No matter how well-written the various flashbacks often were, the writers knew that what kept us hooked was the mystery of the island — and that storyline was illiberally meted out like capfuls of water to a thirsty man. Just enough to keep us alive. I’ve actually found that the shows that are the most “binge-worthy” are the most narratively stingy. You start each new episode almost out of frustration, hoping it will deliver a morsel of satisfaction, an inch of forward progress."
Writer-director Andrew Matthews on Stranger Things and his idea of "plotblocking".
The worst of the worst.
Where the Death Penalty Still Lives. In the U.S., 20 states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment and four others have imposed a moratorium on executions. Of the 26 states that remain, only 14 handed down death sentences last year for a total of 50 across the country — less than half the number six years before. California, which issued more than one-quarter of last year’s death sentences, hasn’t actually executed anyone since 2006. A new geography of capital punishment is taking shape, with just two percent of the nation’s counties now accounting for a majority of the people sitting on death row. [more inside]
Edible uses of cheese
In Sweden, they dice it and pour coffee over it, while in Minnesota they dice it and smother in crushed seasoned tortilla chips (previously). Some people add a banana on the side, or perhaps some blackberries. Other people turn it into waffles, or put it inside vegetables. TV chefs bake it with paprika, or turn it into a pinwheel. In Florida, it is hidden in pie crusts, while others hide it inside bread, and others drizzle honey on their balls. But how do you eat yours? [more inside]
Finger Lickin' Good
Ledington continues to leaf through the family scrapbook, pausing here and there to share a memory or an anecdote about his uncle [Harland Sanders]....But what I'm really interested in is the handwritten note on the back of the document. At the top of the page, in blue ink, it reads, "11 Spices — Mix With 2 Cups White Fl." That's followed by an enumerated list of herbs and spices. Eleven herbs and spices. And the measurements for each. [more inside]
"I encourage ESPYs to…change the category to Best Adaptive Athlete"
Bethany Hamilton: surfing with only one arm isn't as hard as beating the stigma (Guardian)
In Bethany Hamilton’s mind, winning the ESPY award for best female athlete with a disability would have been like “rewinding back to square one”—square one being the fateful day 13 years ago when she was attacked by a 14ft tiger shark and lost her left arm.
Which is why, this year, she withdrew her name from consideration. [more inside]
In Bethany Hamilton’s mind, winning the ESPY award for best female athlete with a disability would have been like “rewinding back to square one”—square one being the fateful day 13 years ago when she was attacked by a 14ft tiger shark and lost her left arm.
Which is why, this year, she withdrew her name from consideration. [more inside]
Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature
Microsoft Excel blamed for gene study errors. [G]ene symbols such as SEPT2 (Septin 2) and MARCH1 [Membrane-Associated Ring Finger (C3HC4) 1, E3 Ubiquitin Protein Ligase] are converted by default to ‘2-Sep’ and ‘1-Mar’, respectively.
All mixed up
What do we call people of multiple backgrounds? Leah Donnella writes about the complexities of naming yourself and being named by others. She also links to Evoking the Mulatto, a project to explore black mixed identity in the 21st century. [more inside]
Come See the Softer Side of Sears
In the wake of Sears Holdings' reorganization of its assets, which included the liquidation of several of its brick-and-mortar outlets (including its former flagship store in Chicago), the Canadian arm of the retailer announced it was following in the stead of Yahoo! by revealing an in-house redesign of its logo as a reflection of the future, and its expected perseverance amid online competition.
What's it like to be a woman in comedy? Oh, it's my favorite question.
"If you watch a lot of television and you don't know what could happen to lesbians if they don't die, this is a show about that. I promise you, no lesbians die in this show." Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito play a lightly fictionalized version of themselves -- a married couple who co-host a standup comedy show in Los Angeles -- in their new sitcom, Take My Wife. [more inside]
An actual crime, or just “suspicious activity”
“Fear is a natural response,”
One Third of Parents Avoid Reading Children Scary Stories, Study Finds [The Guardian] “A survey of 1,003 UK parents by online bookseller The Book People found that 33% would steer clear of books for their children containing frightening characters. Asked about the fictional creations they found scariest as children, a fifth of parents cited the Wicked Witch of the West from L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with the Child Catcher from Ian Fleming’s Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in second place. Third was the Big Bad Wolf, in his grandmother-swallowing Little Red Riding Hood incarnation, fourth the Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s The Witches, and fifth Cruella de Vil, from Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians.”
Loomings
"Do I save the robin, or do I eat it?"
Margaret Atwood (and artist Johnnie Christmas) have created Angel Catbird, a comic book about a winged human/cat/bird hybrid. It will be published by Dark Horse, and chronicles the adventures of a genetic engineer whose DNA is mixed with that of a cat, and an owl. The comic is part of her advocacy work for Keep Cats Safe and Save Bird Lives.
The Mammoth Pirates
In Russia's Arctic north, a new kind of gold rush is under way: With the sale of elephant tusks under close scrutiny, “ethical ivory” from the extinct woolly mammoth is now feeding an insatiable market in China. This rush on mammoth ivory is luring a fresh breed of miner – the tusker – into the Russian wilderness and creating dollar millionaires in some of the poorest villages of Siberia. [more inside]
Zoe Quinn's new game.
The Country Restaurant
The Most Exclusive Restaurant in America
Damon Baehrel’s methods are a marvel, and his tables are all booked until 2025. Or are they?
Damon Baehrel’s methods are a marvel, and his tables are all booked until 2025. Or are they?
They do what they can, then move on.
For years, passengers on Washington State ferries have spent their trip working on communal jigsaw puzzles. It is a delightful, adorable thing. Here are some pictures. Here are a few more. The New York Times is on it.
Nobody's Perfect...
Best Supporting Weirdo is a movie mashup of " interesting, eccentric, and iconic characters", introducing themselves, making famous moves and saying famous quotes, and reacting to everything (often with NSFW language).
Turn and look
John V. Muntean's magic angle sculptures: The Shape of Imagination | Knight Mermaid Pirate Ship | Dragon Butterfly Jet
Your Call: A young black man's education
Mychal Denzel Smith, author of Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, discusses his new book: "We have to be willing to let go of the things that we think that we like about ourselves because if they are things that deny others access to respect and dignity and humanity, then they're not things worth having. So we have to be willing to let go." (MDS: previously) [more inside]
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