February 21, 2018
But who invented the flat white?
"Five years ago, you would be hard-pressed to find flat whites and avocado toast in New York—a mention of either of those things would probably get you laughed out of your local greasy spoon. But today, you can hardly walk five blocks in Manhattan without bumping into a different “Aussie café,” a new genre of coffee shop that emphasizes carefully crafted espresso beverages (such as the flat white), charming service (“G’day, mate!”), and a menu of fresh and light fare (said avocado toast). The sheer number of them indicates that, at the very least, Aussie cafés have been not just a gustatory success but also a commercial one: Two Hands, Toby’s Estate, Citizens of Chelsea, Banter, Ruby’s, Brunswick, Sweatshop . . . the list goes on. They’re popping up not only in New York, but all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland." - How Australian Coffee Took Over—And Why New Zealand Coffee Could Be Next [more inside]
"Most fails happened when an element fall down earlier than expected."
How the Vietnam War's Napalm Girl found hope after tragedy
Kim Phuc, photographed after a napalm attack in South Vietnam in 1972, is interviewed on PRI.
The Mother of Invention
A new short story from Afrofuturist author Nnedi Okorafor: "The city of New Delta was big, but her neighborhood had always been “small” in many ways. One of those ways was how people stamped the scarlet badge of “home-wrecking lady” on women who had children with married men... Only her smart home spoke (and sometimes sang) to her." [more inside]
“Somebody once told me...”
Smash Mouth All Star • Smash Mouth All Star But Every Word Is Somebody • Smash Mouth All Star But I Take a Bite of an Onion Every Time He Says "Star" • Smash Mouth But Recreated From Windows XP Sounds • Smash Mouth All Star But Every Word Is Sung By Google Translate • Smash Mouth All Star But It's 24 Cartoon Impressions • Smash Mouth All Star but it's Vintage Reggae Style Cover ft. Vonzell Solomon • Smash Mouth All Star But It's a Spontaneous Piano Duet in Public • Smash Mouth All Star But I Add A Clothes Pin To My Beard Every Time He Says "The" • Smash Mouth All Star But Composed In Mario Paint Composer • Smash Mouth All Star But All Notes Are In C • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Even More Beautiful • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Chiptune • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Metal • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Jazz
Where Did All the Advertising Jobs Go?
Dismantling of a dam and restoring an ecosystem
The restoration of the ecosystem in the Elwha River Undoing the dam to restore what’s good for all animals [more inside]
He's either as smart as the devil himself or the luckiest bastard alive.
In 1985, KGB Colonel Vitaly Yurchenko defected to America. He told agents he had terminal stomach cancer and had decided to make the world right in the time he had left. Yurchenko told KGB secrets to the CIA and NSA, including important details about 55 to 60 KGB assets in America and two Soviet moles (Edward Lee Howard and Ronald Pelton) inside US intelligence. But three months in, he learned he didn't have terminal stomach cancer -- just a minor bowel disorder. So Vitaly Yurchenko changed his mind and escaped back to the Soviet Embassy. He told the media that the CIA had drugged and kidnapped him. “The agency had either been completely taken in by a brilliant Soviet intelligence officer, or allowed one of its top Soviet defectors to slip out of its hands.” (Via) [more inside]
Remember the 1998s?
Remember the Discman? Remember the best Discmens? Remember the wackiest Discman? Remember the first Discman? Remember the Data Discman?
"The masculinization of fiction, 1800-1960"
The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction is a long essay by Ted Underwood, David Bamman and Sabrina Lee that uses quantative analysis of over a hundred thousand works of fiction digitized by HathiTrust to look at the proportion of fiction written by women, and the proportion of female characters, from 1780-2007. To the authors' surprise both declined steadily and profoundly from 1800-1960, before rebounding. They also looked at gender divisions between male and female characters over the same period, finding that they had lessened. The Guardian has a short summary of the findings. And for more on gender representation in 19th Century fiction, the authors point to Understanding Gender and Character Agency in the 19th Century Novel by Matthew Jockers and Gabi Kirilloff.
The future will be black. And female. And cybernetic.
Car!
Climbing is a huge part of the mythology and culture of road cycling, both professional and amateur. Legends are born on the slopes of mountains, at least going up them. The fun part, however, is going back down again so join ex-pro riders Si Richardson and Matt Stephens as they descend Mallorca's Sa Calobra. [more inside]
Fast Food, Fair Wages
“The systemic poverty and racism America faces today was not inevitable,” the statement continues. “It is the result of choices made by politicians and corporations.” The revival of The Poor People’s campaign on the 50th anniversary of Memphis sanitation workers’ strike seeks to combine the plight of the working poor, faith leaders, and the fight for a fair minimum wage for fast food workers. Behind the minimum wage fight, a sweeping failure to enforce the law. (Politico) Republicans silent on tip-pooling changes that woukd allow owners to pocket server’s tips. (Eater) [more inside]
Worst Roommate Ever
“You’ve got your whole life in front of you. You’re pretty, you’ve got this house — well, you don’t have this house anymore. This house is my house.” (Warning, disturbing content.)
"Oh!" said his wife. "It's like the War"
Owen Stephens recalls how in 2000/01 he ran a roleplaying session for Wizard of the Coast's then new Star Wars D20 game when an elderly gentleman with actual commando experience showed up at his table. (Hat tip.)
"Joining a whisper network comes with a catch..."
"...it invites participants in on the condition of silence. And because of that, we often miss that whisper networks are a double-edged sword: the same secrecy that protects victims and whistleblowers can shield perpetrators as well." The Verge longform: When Whisper Networks Let Us Down by Sarah Jeong (cw: sexual assault)
A "plain, ordinary preacher from a farm in North Carolina."
The Rev. William "Billy" Graham has died at age 99. Washington Post obituary. Politico obituary.
As a child, he was kicked out of a local youth group for being "too worldly." At age 14, upon the end of Prohibition, his father forced him and his sister to drink alcohol until they got sick, thus creating a lifelong aversion to drugs and alcohol for the rest of their lives.
He rose to prominence after World War II, taking advantage of the new media of radio and TV. Criticized for his centrist views (as well as a registered Democrat), Bob Jones said that "Dr. Graham is doing more harm to the cause of Jesus Christ than any living man." An early integrationist, he was also accused of pandering to southern whites.
Pastor to the presidents, he was a good friend of Richard Nixon and supported the Vietnam War. He also helped George Bush, Jr. stop drinking.
His Crusades reached millions. Here is CNN's 10 things you didn't know about Billy Graham.
God's Bully Pulpit: Time Magazine's feature story on his 75th birthday (paywalled)
And hey, did you know that Mike and Karen Pence follow the "Billy Graham Rule"?
"a back door to the U.S. financial system."
A Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America
Imperial Pacific’s overnight domination of Saipan has generated deep unease among the island’s citizens, many of whom are convinced that their home has been bought. The company, they believe, set out to take over a little piece of America, politicians and all. Given the billions of dollars at stake, it’s not surprising someone would try. What’s shocking is that, so far, it seems to be working.
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
This Design Generation Has Failed
And that’s when I decided that we — and by we I mean those of us currently drawing paychecks for professional design services — are design’s lost generation. We are the Family Ties-era Michael J. Fox of the design lineage. Raised by hippies. Consumed by greed. Ruled by the hand of the market. And nourished by the last drops of sour milk from the withered old teat of capitalism gone rabid. Living where America ends — Silicon Valley. Mike Monteiro on the ethical state of design's lost generation.
The Temple of Knowledge
Ronald Clark’s father was custodian of a branch of the New York Public Library at a time when caretakers, along with their families, lived in the buildings. With his daughter, Jamilah, Ronald remembers literally growing up in a library, creeping down to the stacks in the middle of the night when curiosity gripped him. A story for anyone who’s ever dreamt of having unrestricted access to books.
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