October 2, 2016
Firm, but not crazy-firm
Like a detective analyzing a crime scene for potential clues, Ann travels the world at the behest of Small Luxury Hotels of the World (S.L.H.), poking and prodding her way around hotel rooms, spas, restaurants, and lobbies, and reporting back on everything from how many times a staff member smiles and makes eye contact during an interaction to optimum bed bounciness.
Neville Marriner (1924 - 2016)
Sir Neville Marriner, the co-founder and long-time conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, has died at age 92. (NYT link) [more inside]
"There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon..."
"For non-Angelenos, the most LA season is that brief spring, when the days are 72 degrees and sunny. But for Angelenos, who have a far more intimate relationship with both nature and apocalypse than the 72-degrees-and-sunny crowd will ever allow, the most Los Angeles season is Santa Ana season." -- Adrian Glick Kudler, Something Uneasy in the Los Angeles Air [more inside]
"Shadows form in our ghostly past; Ho! Ho! young man. Ho! Ho!"
A signature can reveal a lot about a person. At least that’s what many believed in the early 20th century when people collected signatures of friends, family, and celebrities in autograph albums. But there was one particular book that bled the ink of an autograph into creatures, coffins, bats, and skeletons. [more inside]
ASMR Ear Massage
Put on your head phones, clean your ears, and enjoy the rubbing, cupping, stroking, tapping for tingles.
Bias Laundering, Fry Oil, Fandom Archivists oh my!
Deep-fried Data (Collections as Data, Library of Congress) For the generation growing up now, the Internet is their window on the world. They take it for granted. It’s only us, who have seen it take shape, and are aware of all the ways it could have been different, who understand that it's fragile, contingent. The coming years will decide to what extent the Internet be a medium for consumption, to what extent it will lift people up, and to what extent it will become a tool of social control.
Salud!
Is Puerto Rico the Next Sustainable Ag Hot Spot? Additional related news includes Bayer Opens New Bio-Agriculture Facilities in Puerto Rico and Governor Cuomo Announces First-Ever Agriculture Trade Forum Between New York and Puerto Rico [more inside]
Be The Change You Wish To See In The Cul-de-Sac, Neighborhood, World
101 small ways you can improve your city Feeling cynical? Ground down by the divisiveness and pervasive hate? Just feeling blue about your surroundings? All politics is local. (So, too, are parks and recreation and community building.) Take a page (or 101) out of this post for sparking joy. [more inside]
Tongues for the Memory
After 80 years, the original Carnegie Deli is closing this December. A bit more background information on the NYC landmark at Smithsonian.com.
"a zero-knowledge proof for nuclear-weapons verification"
The Virtues Of Nuclear Ignorance, Alex Wellerstein, whose blog
RESTRICTED DATA covers Secrecy, verification, and purposeful ignorance Handmade nixie goodness
The Politics of Dancing
The economics of dining as a couple - "I am eternally astonished to find not only that many couples I know failed to discuss this key area before they marched up to the altar, but also that many of them still have not developed a joint dining strategy even after 10 or 20 years together. This is madness." Megan McArdle blends economics and marriage therapy.
It’s a river of bullshit and I’ve got no paddle.
Remembering activist Niki Massey (1980-2016). Niki "lived the kind of life that our media and our society like to pretend doesn’t exist; the life of a black, asexual, disabled woman." Her freethought blog, Seriously?!?, among many other things chronicled her disability and her service as a clinic escort. [more inside]
The Sweater Set
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