November 25, 2019
We Regret The Error
In honor of this great GQ correction, what are some of your favorite newspaper/magazine/website corrections of all-time? A twitter thread [ThreadReader link] from @ParkerMolloy about correction reasons given by various publication about various errors they made. The comments also keep on giving. [more inside]
Dutch Masters
The roots of Dutch graphic design culture - Each two weeks a new written and illustrated portrait will be published online.
Old Soldier, Young Soldier
“You have no idea what loss is.”
The Last of Us is worth returning to, 6 years later [Polygon] “TheThe Last of Us may be five six years old, but it’s still the best big game story out there. If you have access to a PlayStation 4 and haven’t played it yet, you should definitely get your hands on the The Last of Us Remastered. [...] In the half-decade since, I’ve played plenty of games that are more fun and more tightly constructed. But no big budget game has yet equaled The Last of Us for story. There have been strong contenders among the multi-million dollar production set — Horizon Zero Dawn, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Wolfenstein 2 come to mind — but none of them have delivered the levels of depth, sophistication and narrative transgression that we saw with this game, back in 2013. I came back to The Last of Us in recent days, wanting to re-familiarize myself with its characters. It surprised me that I was just as affected by the relationships in this game as I was when it first came out.” [The Last of Us Remastered] [Game Trailer] [more inside]
Nineteen days later: How gay are you?
How Earnest Research Into Gay Genetics Went Wrong. When a well-intentioned study led to a dubious DNA test for same-sex attraction, it exposed the need for safeguards on research in the age of big genetic data.
Can I eat it? Roadkill edition
Is it Safe to Eat Roadkill? (Live Science) Yes, but approach with common sense and knowledge of state regulations. "If it's summertime and that deer has been sitting on the highway — let's just say for more than like 10 or 15 minutes — I would be super leery of it," Meier said. [more inside]
Mammoth tusk gold rush
The climate crisis has sparked a Siberian mammoth tusk gold rush. "The Arctic permafrost is thawing, revealing millions of buried mammoth skeletons. But the rush for mammoth ivory could put elephants in danger all over again." [more inside]
Fighting Food Colonialism in the Hopi Nation
Hopi leaders are restoring food sovereignty for the tribe’s 2,500-square-mile reservation—which has only two grocery stores. [more inside]
Japan's Ghost Wolf, or wild dog? Good pupper, not mythical, 14/10
For more than two decades, Hiroshi Yagi has been searching for the Japanese or Honshū wolf (Wikipedia; Canis lupus hodophilax, whose binomial name derives from the Greek Hodos (path) and phylax (guardian), in reference to Japanese folklore, which portrayed wolves as the protectors of travelers). Believed to be extinct for over 100 years, Yagi took photos of a wolf-like animal in 1996, and recently captured a howl (BBC), which was compared to another wolf howl, and considered a close match. Skeptics see a German Shepherd hybrid (Japan Times), but Yagi isn't alone in seeing and hearing animals that seem more wolf than dog. [more inside]
It’s Not Watergate, It’s Reconstruction
“But history does not actually repeat itself, and the differences between that era and ours are perhaps even more important than the similarities. Reading Wineapple’s book, one is struck by the degree to which the Radical Republicans controlling Congress (in the House, especially) were not cowed by the prospect of reprisal at Johnson’s hands. Congress repeatedly acted aggressively and decisively, with no cringing fear of backlash. A Johnson-supporting lawyer, Charles Woolley, refused to cooperate with a House committee investigation into possible corruption in the impeachment vote itself. So the House arrested him for contempt of Congress and locked him in the basement of the Capitol.“ Making Impeachment Matter (New Republic)
"They make so much money selling these devices"
The TI-83 graphing calculator has barely changed in 25 years and yet still costs $105 new, which can be a not insignificant hardship for students taking the advanced algebra, trigonometry, and precalculus/calculus classes where they are required by the curriculum, and when students can't get them, teachers can be forced to step in and foot the bill for a classroom's supply themselves. A brief look at the history and social costs of US high schools' reliance on Texas Instruments. [more inside]
"This is not a feminist community center, it’s a for-profit company"
Neoliberal Feminism Has a New Private Club: "Feminism is a movement for the coordination of women for their emancipation as women. If feminism is just women doing stuff with other women vaguely involved, this life-saving capacity is lost. Even if The Wing gave out entirely free memberships, it would still be fundamentally bad for women." [more inside]
A victory for democracy in Hong Kong
After five months of sometimes violent protests (previously, previouslier), residents of Hong Kong had a chance to vote in district elections over the weekend. The district councillors mostly deal with issues like bus routes and rubbish collection, but the vote was widely seen as a referendum on pro-democracy protestors versus pro-Beijing government and police forces. With record-high turnout of 71.2%, pro-democracy candidates won a massive victory (warning: autoplay video). [more inside]
The Heroines of America’s Black Press
How many black women journalists from the nineteenth century can you name? For many, the list starts and ends with Ida B. Wells, the pioneering newspaperwoman and activist whose anti-lynching crusade galvanized a movement. Wells was celebrated in her own lifetime, and for good reason—she inspired people on both sides of the Atlantic to pay attention to the atrocities inflicted on black Americans. But far from acting alone, she was part of a much larger network of black women journalists who dared to wield their pens in the names of truth and justice. At a time when all women were discouraged from engaging in “unladylike” activities like politics, the women of the black press were boldly writing about racial justice, gender equality, and political reform. In The New York Review of Books, Maya Millett introduces us to journalists we should know. [more inside]
“Bana-nana-nana-na na-na (Ay!)”
Go Bananas, the latest from Little Big (previously), features pigeons, geese, dogs, fish, and a [redacted] used as a musical instrument.
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