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Quick Links for December 2017

December 29
"It was always safe to assume, and I certainly did, that the main characters in The Simpsons, the happy people at the center, were meant to be white people."
"Culturally, I think the way that a lot of African American and Latino people experience gentrification is as a form of colonization. The gentrifiers are not wanting to share - they're wanting to take over."
December 27
If Wes Anderson were directing the Trump/Russia investigation; "When we exit this room, let's all make sure to walk together in very slow motion for a few minutes."
Nice profile of Food Lab guru Kenji López-Alt, who is opening a restaurant in Silicon Valley soon
An annotated photo of the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk
December 26
Jazz legend Charles Mingus's secret eggnog recipe (it's mostly brandy and rum)
December 22
On December 26 at 6pm ET/3pm PT, @robinsloan will be reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight live on the internet:
Why Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" is more relevant than ever
"I love big swaggering books written by people who have never been afraid to walk into a room."
Facebook needs to add "complicity in genocide" to its threat model. But that might not happen without the law.
Brilliant talk by legendary iconographer Susan Kare (the original Mac, Windows, Facebook, Nokia, and more)
December 21
A History of Women Who Burned to Death in Flammable Dresses
December 20
From Bustle, The Best Stories By Women In 2017
For the first 40 million years that woody trees were around, wood was not biodegradable...until a fungus figured out how to rot it
From @alexrossmusic, the New Yorker's music critic, a list of notable performances & recordings of 2017
Ha ha ha ha ha ha (this makes me more skeptical than ever about Magic Leap)
From @LangeAlexandra & @marklamster, a review of 2017 in architecture, "the good, the bad, and the pink"
December 19
Dynamicland. "The entire building is the computer."
The most futuristic predictions that came true in 2017 (AI, growing baby sheep in plastic bags, DIY gene therapy, etc.)
We've spent $900 billion rescuing Matt Damon (from Mars, from the Nazis, from a faraway planet in Interstellar))
If you want your dog to live as long as you, all you need to do is send her speeding away at 99% the speed of light
December 18
BREAKING NEWS: Rome has finally revoked Emperor Augustus's order that Ovid be exiled from the city.
Over the weekend, the NY Times reported on a super secret US government program that investigated possible UFOs (with video footage!) and no one really cared. Ten years ago, this would have been headline news for days.
All 147 Michael Jackson songs, ranked from worst to best. Go on, get your arguing overcoat on and dive in.
In addition to tree rings and ice cores, a record of our climate can also be seen in art and pop music; "when times were stormy in the real world, the weather in pop music was darker, too"
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transport."
December 15
A dynamite essay on the unfinished James Baldwin book that became the documentary I Am Not Your Negro
Today was Mike Francesa's last radio show for New York's WFAN. @katiebakes has written some of the best Francesa stories:
The future of news isn't social media, but friends sharing links with smaller groups of friends. (Hey wait a second)
"Mom, why does no one like Trump? Is he really going to send a lot of people away?"
"This year, this prolonged unraveling, is what survival looks like. Semi-survival. Partial, because it is important to remember that not everyone made it"
Why write fiction in 2017? "The feeling I'm talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are."
How Star Wars: Rogue One is actually about internet freedom, by @sarahjeong
Five implications of the Disney-Fox merger that should scare you (including four you probably haven't thought about)
Remembering Otis Redding 50 Years After The Airplane Crash That Took His Life
December 14
Users at perfume site Fragrantica have chosen their favorite perfumes of 2017
Study: young children believe that birthday parties cause aging (and not the other way around)
From Emily Gould: An Unabashed Appreciation of Smitten Kitchen, the Ur-Food Blog
Halt and Catch Fire season 4 is now on Netflix
Disney will soon own The Simpsons and Star Wars
Five Times the Internet Was Actually Fun in 2017
December 13
The most memorable obituaries from the New Yorker in 2017
Bloomberg Businessweek writers pick their favorite stories of 2017 published in other media outlets
How the team behind the Halide photography app designed it for iPhone X without actually having an iPhone X. (Don't miss the "bonus round" at the end...clever!)
According to a recent fossil find, giant human-sized penguins once lived near New Zealand
Rex Sorgatz asks and cheekily answers the hot question of our times: "What is the future of television?"
December 12
The NOAA official Arctic Report Card for 2017: "[the] Arctic shows no sign of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades"
Blitzen, a car roof rack for chilling beverages (so you don't show up to your holiday party with a warm bottle of booze)
On Dec 26th at 3pm PT, Robin Sloan will do a live reading of Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The official death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is 64. The actual number may be more than 1000.
Adobe is shutting down Storify
"We have now emitted more carbon into the atmosphere since Al Gore wrote his first book on climate than in the entire preceding history of humanity"
Gun sales surged after Sandy Hook, resulting in "about 60 more accidental gun deaths than would have occurred otherwise"...and about 20 of those were children, same as the number who died at Sandy Hook
A group of former Gawker Media employees are doing a Kickstarter to buy back Gawker (the brand + archives)
Bar and bat mitzvah party motivators...hired guns that help get the dance party started
I love these enamel book pins from 20x200
December 11
How to make your own "John McClane crawling through an air duct" Die Hard Christmas tree ornament
"Cat Person"
How Prince makes consent sexy. "Prince doesn't just want you; he wants your wants. And your wants come first."
I was both cringing and chuckling at these competitive diving fails
Cooking show hosts are fed up with us: Can You Hapless Fuckwits At Least Handle An Omelette?
December 8
When you've been in therapy so long that all that's left is for your therapist to teach you Scrabble
Disco Ball Cement Mixer is the name of my new band
Is LeBron James still getting better?
"An optimist sees the glass half-full, we're told, as though optimism is a personality trait and not a discipline. Confusing optimism for naiveté is one of our greatest cultural misunderstandings."
December 7
Bitcoin's potential massive carbon footprint: "By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses."
The 3.67 million year-old hominin skeleton of "Little Foot" took over 20 years to put together. "It was like excavating a fluffy pastry out of concrete."
From @tedgioia, the best online essays of 2017 (w/ a heavy music focus)
Irish locals complain about Viagra factory: "One whiff and you're stiff. We've been getting the love fumes for years now for free." #notTheOnion
December 6
It's weird that you can buy Netflix gift cards on Amazon, right?
In the New Yorker, Errol Morris writes about the human capacity (desire?) to want to see truth in everything.
Jolt Cola... still exists?!?
Columbia is selling parkas based on the coats worn by Han, Leia, and Luke on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back
December 5
Tarantino has a good idea for a Star Trek movie and JJ Abrams is convening a writer's room to talk it over?
December 4
Old school TV news aggregator TV Tattle is still going strong…refreshingly lo-fi and just-the-facts
Good news: Elena Ferrante is at work on something new (while also working on the Neapolitan novels screenplay for HBO)
December 1
Painter Edvard Munch experimented with photography and enjoyed taking selfies
Latest parenting trend: The CTFD Method. To use, simply follow these steps: 1. Calm the fuck down. 2. There is no second step.
November 2017 Archives »
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