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Quick Links for April 2018

Beautiful. "This Stunning Studio in Rhode Island Is a Creative's Dream" via @hiutdenim
This is good news. "In just 7 months, the US public domain will get its first infusion since 1998"
The Kindle version of George Orwell's 1984 is only $1.99
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 may be cancelled because of sexual assault scandal involving the committee
The circulation of warm water in the ocean is weakening, which spells trouble for well, everything
It's familiar territory, but I enjoyed this essay on Stalin's use of photography to rewrite history
The Purple Syllabus is a scholarly guide to Prince studies, with sections on theology, race, sexuality, and more
British healthcare before the NHS: thousands of photos of UK hospitals during World War 2
"Two doses a year of an antibiotic can sharply cut death rates among infants in poor countries, perhaps by as much as 25 percent among the very young"
The Onion: Bill Cosby Feeling Disoriented After Jury Slips Conviction Into His Verdict
Eleven Unique NYC Experiences That Deserve Their Own German Expressions, e.g. "Verpassterzug: The Agonizing Feeling Of JUST Missing The Subway"
What Happened When I Took a Year Off From Having a Personal Life. Some of this cuts too close.
A report on the promising research into the development of fungi as a viable replacement for plastic
The YouTube Face: the exaggerated facial expressions used in YT video thumbnails to drive clicks
If a public record existed, you would be shocked and amazed at the things you wrote and actually *believed* 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. (Like, you literally wouldn't remember writing or believing them.)
Gothamist officially relaunches!!!
A playlist of (almost) all the songs played on WKPR in Cincinnati
The Great New York Subway Map, a children's book about Massimo Vignelli's classic modernist NYC subway map
"Once I realized I was old enough to die, I decided that I was also old enough not to incur any more suffering, annoyance, or boredom in the pursuit of a longer life."
Disney didn't restore Cinderella for the Blu-ray release so much as destroy it
Abortion Is Not Murder. "If you are a woman, never forget that your body is yours. No one has any right to any part of it without your consent."
A collection of papers & letters donated by a pair of men was recently opened after their deaths. "Their papers illustrate the ways that gay men living on both sides of the Atlantic formed communities, found love, and told their stories..."
Kronecker Wallis makes beautifully designed science books; their latest is a reissue of Newton's Opticks w/ a shimmery rainbow cover
Do cities need more green roofs? I didn't know the Javits Center had a massive roof garden...and it saves them almost $3M/yr.
From OG design blogger Grace Bonney, a new magazine called Good Company. Tagline: Where Creativity Meets Business.
Book jackets are pretty but annoying; I always remove them and, more often than not, discard them
Frank Chimero's Modest Guide to Productivity: "If work is stymied, ask: are you eating clean? Getting enough sleep? ... Start with your body, not your work methods."
Using the shadows of the Moon to date a pair of Ansel Adams photographs of Denali
"Saltine fury", a term that describes "white people complaining online about black success". See also "mayo packets".
Amazing: a one-second video taken by the Rosetta probe on the surface of a comet
It appears that there's an effective ebola vaccine now (for at least one strain)
WTF? Bill Clinton & James Patterson co-wrote an upcoming thriller novel called "The President Is Missing"?!
Photos of Amish Spring Break
The Real Cost of Cheap Shirts. In the five years since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, not a lot has changed for the better.
Alexandra Lange profiled legendary designer Susan Kare for the New Yorker. Kare was recently awarded an AIGA medal, one of the most prestigious honors in design.
In Japan, "people who are short on relatives can hire a husband, a mother, a grandson". Really interesting piece by @bananakarenina
Tom Coates riffs on what made Flickr great in the past and how its new owners could apply those lessons to the current product
Whoa, SmugMug bought Flickr; the CEO is committed to "breathing new life" into the service
The ten works with the most citations on Wikipedia are… not necessarily what you might expect
Microsoft PowerPoint is Turing-complete: this video explains just what that means.
A tough, moving read: seven sex workers discuss what it means to lose Backpage
Prince's original studio version of "Nothing Compares 2 U," set to band rehearsal videos from 1984:
The Onion: "Single Mother Hogging 2 Jobs"
Photos of the Great Wall of China in the fog and unfettered by tourists
Sexual Harassment Was Rampant at Coachella 2018. "During the 10 hours I was reporting on this story, I was groped 22 times."
"Ready to Feel Old? Michelle From 'Full House' is Now Two People." I full-on LOL'd at this.
Since 2016, Half of All Coral in the Great Barrier Reef Has Died (because of anthropogenic climate change). Soon we'll call it the Great Barely a Reef.
Fun piece about expeditors in restaurant kitchens. I wonder how many other types of organizations could benefit from such a role?
Dang it, a legal dispute between George Miller and Warner means we might not get any sequels to Mad Max: Fury Road
A collection of vintage Apple ads, from the Apple I (check out that old logo!) to Think Different
Three families let the kids make the household rules for a week
Update on the NYC Girl Scout troop of homeless girls selling cookies: they crushed their goal
On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog pretending to be a cat with the help of artificial intelligence
Spending time with like-hearted people vs like-minded people
A group of Quakers in the UK recorded a 30-minute silent meeting as a podcast episode. "You can hear a clock ticking, pages being turned and the rain falling, as the group meets and sits in silence..."
Reminder: TurboTax maker and H&R Block lobby to keep the process of filing your taxes complicated and expensive
Epilogue, a comic by Roz Chast about finding a place for her parents' remains
Lessons from when Citymapper (the best transport app) started a bus network in East London
In recent years, the Harlem Globetrotters have "drafted" the likes of Gal Godot, Missy Franklin, Usain Bolt, and Lionel Messi
A list of artists & bands and their signature songs, e.g. Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett, Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, etc.
Binging with Babish shows us how to make shawarma at home, complete with homemade pita bread
NYC friends: set a calendar alert right now for Friday 4-6pm in Union Square to buy Girl Scout Cookies from this troop of girls who live in homeless shelters. Their goal is 6,000 boxes...but how about 15,000 boxes?
A forthcoming book from @jasonfried & @dhh: It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, a strategy guide for building "calm companies"
What if we paid for Facebook? It would cost us about $20 per user per year. (Also, Cowen's point that WhatsApp is a suitable 1-to-1 replacement for FB seems wrong.)
Trend: YouTube confessional videos from self-proclaimed time travellers from the future
Teen Shang makes the case that Isle of Dogs isn't culturally tone deaf but is "a vibrant commentary on the future relationship between the United States and Japan, its closest Asian ally"
The makers of Oregon Trail apologize for improperly sharing their players' "private dysentery information"
For the latest episode of On Margins, Craig Mod interviewed Elena Favilli about the making of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. Setting aside some time tomorrow to listen to this one.
The Civil War never ended
"Women in the U.S. make 82 cents to the dollar men earn doing the same job."
The Simpsons' Steamed Hams bit but it's voiced by Jeff Goldblum
A nifty iOS app for finding cocktail recipes that use ingredients you have on-hand in your home bar
John Oliver on the deceptive practices crisis pregnancy centers (many of them run by religious groups) use to steer women away from having abortions
Oh good: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S.
DVD extras are more difficult to come by on streaming platforms, perhaps to the detriment of budding filmmakers. (But OTOH, YouTube is amazing film school-ish resource.)
The Last Conversation You'll Ever Need to Have About Eating Right, aka answers to almost all of your food & diet questions. Much of this boils down to @michaelpollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
Interesting piece on Ben Falk's one-man subscription-supported website about the NBA. I am dying to know how his site (or @stratechery) would do with no paywall (like @kottke or @waitbutwhy).
Junot Díaz: "I was raped when I was eight years old. By a grownup that I truly trusted. I never got any help, any kind of therapy. I never told anyone."
New issue of the Noticing newsletter just went out!
Molly Ringwald revisits The Breakfast Club, examining how John Hughes films hold up in the #MeToo era
"After states legalized weed, the number of opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids went way down"
It's gonna snow here later today, but spring is coming, spring is coming, spring is coming, spring is coming, SPRING IS COMING!!!
The NHL's Sedin twins: "the magical thing it is that identical twins played pro-hockey together for over a decade"
Twitter's continued mismanagement of their APIs and developer community is shameful. Tweetbot is the only thing that keeps Twitter usable for me these days.
For the old schoolers: @bn2b is bringing back early blogging platform Pitas with a Kickstarter campaign
Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies at 82
Make your own emoji garden
An early script of Kubrick's 2001 contained "a benevolent second HAL, determined to thwart his evil twin"
YES: "Cool is an emotional straightjacket."
Great thread about how Stevie Wonder put his career on the line to advocate for a national holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.
Tim Wu: "Don't Fix Facebook. Replace It." (I suspect FB is already doing this itself with Instagram & WhatsApp.)
An extensive 5-part video essay on the films of PT Anderson
A list of twin films, movies with similar plots released around the same time (Deep Impact & Armageddon, Antz & A Bug's Life, Capote & Infamous, etc.)
Elena Ferrante doesn't like exclamation points!!
Great story about a championship high school basketball team from Montana's Flathead Indian Reservation
The delightfully dumbest thing you'll see online today: Dogs Review Isle of Dogs
Gothamist is coming back (they're a non-profit now) and they're running a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their excellent NYC coverage
Instructions on Not Giving Up, a poem by Ada Limón
It's common for law enforcement to access iPhones with the fingerprints of dead people
The sound from a toilet bowl lid that fell only 8 inches almost caused permanent hearing loss. "The toilet bowl lid probably resonated at both those frequencies and their harmonics..."
American fast food chains are illegal in Iran. But you can visit knockoffs like Mash Donald's, Sheak Shack, Pizza Hat, and Kentucky House.
Kubrick's 2001 will make its way back into theater this summer in 70mm for the film's 50th anniversary
Mark Kulansky (Cod, Salt, Paper – those are all books) has an upcoming book on the history of Milk
An API for a deck of cards. Includes commands to shuffle, draw a card, and get a new deck.
The @KimKierkegaard Twitter acct (a Kim Kardashian + Søren Kierkegaard mashup) has been turned into a book. "Glamour, menswear, top hat...I stick my finger into existence, and it smells of nothing."
March 2018 Archives »