March 22, 2019
Girl, I asked him
A Couple That Got Married After 2 Weeks On How It Went Down: "This is about to be a buncha laughs. Just so you know, we’re a very unique couple."
"a unique, fragrant taste that first hits the nose"
The Truth About Wasabi
75-year-old Shigeo Iida, the eighth-generation owner of his family’s wasabi farm in Japan, takes pride in his tradition, which is profiled in Edwin Lee’s short documentary Wasabia Japonica.
What is essential, is invisible to the eye.
Invisible Essence: The Little Prince is a gentle, loving consideration of the legacy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved book. [more inside]
In Soviet Russia, The Video Game Plays You!
Game tips: It's Winter! Stay inside your apartment and make yourself some scrambled eggs... This video game lets you wander about a dreary suburban Russian tower block. Nothing to do, no one to see, you cannot lose nor can you win.
LGBTQ youth safety
Ella Briggs, an 11-year-old Connecticut resident, became her state’s first openly gay “kid governor”. The fifth-grader was elected to the post by 6,400 of her peers from 87 schools across the state. During her campaign, she made LGBTQ youth safety her primary focus, noting that she was inspired by her own experience. She’s already so invested in public service, she said she would love to become America’s “first lesbian president.”
I won't see that kind of life ever again.
The Floods Are Coming: Climate Refugees in Bangladesh (42½min video) “An estimated 2000 people arrive in Dhaka every day. During monsoon season, the number rises to 4000 a day.”
Always A Bigger Fish
Continuing his series on the Alt-Right Playbook, Ian Danskin of Innuendo Studios takes his newest video to discuss what conservatism actually believes in, and why that basis makes it at odds with liberalism...and succeptable to fascism. (SLYT) [more inside]
I am about to say something heretical for a food blogger to say
There are going to be days when you cannot cook, days when your stove is out of commission, or days when you’re suddenly stuck at home because your road is blocked off, and you have few groceries. This is where industrial food comes in. Platitudes about real food are all nice and good until you have a real need for food that cannot wait.Jonathan Katz has some thoughts on how to best stock your pantry.
3D Tremendous Face Pain Slots Is Very Popular With Terrible Users
American Indians, Teddy Roosevelt, the National Parks, and Racism
2019 marks 100 years since Theodore Roosevelt's death, and with it, remembrances for his achievements (History | Mystery Stream), including "his commitment to and advocacy of conservation of the environment." Beyond the conservation versus preservation debate that predates U.S. National Parks (USDA.gov), there's the complicated of the relationship between Teddy Roosevelt and the Indians (Native American Netroots), most damning being his statement that "The truth is, the Indians never had any real title to the soil." Nowhere is this more apparent than the creation of the Grand Canyon National Park, and the exclusion of the Havasupai who inhabited the area (N.A.N.). More on this ugly past: Environmentalism’s Racist History (New Yorker).
Life In The High-Rise
“It’s a very different, and more disquieting, achievement to create a high-rise district on a plinth so sealed-off and yachtlike that nobody need ever leave.” On March 15, after 12 years of planning and six of construction, the Related Companies (which is actually just one mammoth real-estate company) will open the gates to its new $25 billion enclave, Hudson Yards -an agglomeration of supertall office towers full of lawyers and hedge-funders, airborne eight-figure apartments, a 720,000-square-foot shopping zone, and a gaggle of star-chef restaurants. Live Blog of the first day of opening by The NYC Eater (start at the bottom) “It is always a little sad to see what the people rich enough to have everything actually want. ” Hudson Yards Is An Ultra-Capitalist Forbidden City “Unlike a real neighborhood, which implies some kind of social collaboration or collective expression of belonging, Hudson Yards is a contrived place that was never meant for us.” Hudson Yards Has $4.5 Billion In Taxpayer Money. Will We Ever See It Again?
to close the complex of eight jails on Rikers Island and build
Everyday Saints
Psychologists have defined a "light triad" of personality traits. The team led by Scott Barry Kaufman has investigated what exemplifies the best of humanity, as opposed to the worst of humanity that is captured by the "dark triad" (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism). The three traits that constitute the "light triad" are Kantianism (“treating people as ends unto themselves, not as mere means to an end”); Humanism (“valuing the dignity and worth of each individual”); and Faith in Humanity (“believing in the fundamental goodness of humans”).
Rick Steves Wants to Set You Free
Rick Steves is absolutely American. He wears jeans every single day. He drinks frozen orange juice from a can. He likes his hash browns burned, his coffee extra hot... And yet: Rick Steves desperately wants you to leave America. Sam Anderson interviews Rick Steves ("one of the legendary PBS superdorks") for the New York Times Magazine. [more inside]
Motivatiogenesis
"Once the cycle starts and a group get a few such papers out, the auto-catalytic effect sets in: future work can justify itself by saying 'we use a standard model in the field'. All of this even though the 'standard model' never had a justification for it. Eventually the subfield can start generating and answering its own field-endogenous questions that are fundamentally unhinged from reality. ... Sometimes, new authors don’t even realize they’ve fallen into a trap. If they’ve been trained within the bubble, it might be impossible to find the appropriate distance for questioning. When reflection on my own work, I sometimes fear that parts of evolutionary game theory might end up like this. ... Motivatiogenesis can be especially easy to fall into with interdisiplinary work."
"It still hasn't changed enough"
"A man vomited, a woman fainted and an ambulance was summoned."
Today's Guardian has an excellent piece outlining the past excesses of Norway's black metal scene. If you love Spinal Tap and have a robustly dark sense of humour, I'm confident it'll be the most entertaining thing you read today. Meanwhile, here in East London, we're hosting the World Metal Congress. Here's a programme of events (Friday / Saturday) and the organisers' list of metal bands from around the world. This Syrian film they're showing on Saturday looks like it could be pretty amazing.
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