August 1, 2018
Ogni pittore dipinge sè
Looking at art like an artist, we see that Every Painter Paints Himself. Art's Masterpieces, Explained, by Simon Abrahams [more inside]
John Egerton: Southern Foodways & Life
John Egerton was more than a Tennessee journalist who crusaded for civil rights. He also foresaw the potential of black and white Southerners coming together over one thing we all have in common: the fact that we eat. He said: The time has come for all of us — traditional and nouvelle cooks and diners, up-scale and down-home devotees, meat-eaters and vegetarians, drinkers and abstainers, growers and processors, scholars and foodlorists, gourmands and the health-conscious, women and men, blacks and whites and other identity groups, one and all — to sit down and break bread together around one great Southern table.”
What Happened to General Magic?
Chances are that you’ve never heard of General Magic, but in Silicon Valley the company is the stuff of legend. Magic spun out of Apple in 1990 with much of the original Mac team on board and a bold new product idea: a handheld gadget that they called a “personal communicator.” [more inside]
The Bullshit Web
A story at the Hill took over nine seconds to load; at Politico, seventeen seconds; at CNN, over thirty seconds. This is the bullshit web.
Deep into the weeds on color-matching at an auto body shop
Something strange was happening in the drawers
The World’s Largest Speedo Collection Almost Oozed Away. In 2012, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum discovered that something strange was happening with some of their swimsuits: The Inherent Vice of Speedos.
My parents just asked me what all this Q stuff is about
What Is QAnon? The Craziest Theory of the Trump Era, Explained (Will Sommer, Daily Beast). "From celebrities to the grassroots, the right is obsessed with the idea there is a secret conspiracy where Hillary is headed for Gitmo. Here’s everything you need to know." [more inside]
Everyone has a book in them, right?
What's in the water? It tastes great!
Bottled, filtered or straight from the tap? With or without additives? When picking a water, even "healthy" water, it's largely a matter of taste (NPR). In most of the U.S., municipal water is as healthy as other commercial water sources, and the biggest concern is due to lead pipes, and NPR has an app a step-by-step guide for that. This is all very focused on municipal water in the United States, so let's turn to the CDC to learn more about other water contaminants, how to identify and mitigate them, with a focus on private wells.
Understanding spiders
What does it take to understand spiders? False eyelashes, capes and face paint "By covering up or adding stripes to the live spiders, then observing interactions between them, Taylor and her students get clues to coloration’s influence. That requires putting makeup on a tiny spider, ... (and) then watches what happens"
The most dangerous place in the developed world to give birth
"The vast majority of women in America give birth without incident. But each year, more than 50,000 are severely injured. About 700 mothers die. The best estimates say that half of these deaths could be prevented and half the injuries reduced or eliminated with better care."
Male Violence And State Violence
Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “What Is Socialist Feminism?” From 1976 with a new introduction from the author. (Jacobin) [more inside]
How Ducking Annoying
If, God forbid, we say something too obscene, Apple is there to remind us that we didn’t really want to say it. [more inside]
Ecuador's colonial past 'written in soil'
The arrival of European settlers in Ecuador had a profound effect on the country's population and environment. [more inside]
Det var en imponerande stöld
U.S. DEPARTMENT of REPRODUCTIVE CONTROL
The newly formed U.S. Department of Reproductive Control's vision is simple: A reproductive health care system that reflects traditional American values and religious beliefs. And with the current administration's help, they're making great strides. They're putting doctor-patient relationships back where they belong, offering birth control for real Americans, and restoring order to your choices. But some folks, it seems, just can't be pleased.
HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER!
A self-mythologizing memoir
"Nothing makes me happier than a 5-year-old boy laughing at a grown woman acting like a 5-year-old." An excerpt from Parker Posey's Memoir, You're On an Airplane.
Social Graph Data and Identity Portability
Want to move your online data? New service could simplify the transfer to a rival site - "The Data Transfer Project, announced Friday by Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, would make taking your business elsewhere much easier. If a company hosting your music, photos, calendars, contacts or other important personal data killed a feature, altered a privacy policy, hiked a fee or otherwise made you question why you gave it your time, you could use the tools the 'DTP' is developing to move that information right over to a competing service."
Beautiful libraries
Nazi vampires, begone from this place!
With controversy surrounding the latest edition of the table top rpg Vampire: The Masquerade a new forward in the game book will explicitly condemn fascism and white supremacist ideology and an appendix will give advice on playing a game with mature themes.
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