January 31
From a Sight & Sound poll of video essayists, academics, critics and filmmakers, a list of the best video essays of 2021. So much good good in here.
The propagandists at Fox News milked the story of a former WA state trooper who resigned from his job rather than get vaccinated...until he died of Covid-19. Fox hasn't reported his death.
On Scrabble. "Once your brain is attuned to anagrams, you start seeing them everywhere. When I see 'New York,' my brain rearranges it into WONKERY. The 'Hamptons' become PHANTOMS. A street sign reading 'right lane' becomes EARTHLING."
I Ditched My Smart Watch, and I Don't Regret It. "Once you outsource your well-being to a device and convert it into a number, it stops being yours."
January 30
Jodi Ettenberg (@legalnomads) on how her life derailed after a botched medical procedure. "Toxic positivity promises that gratitude is all you need... Feeling general appreciation or gratitude does not fix everything when life unspools."
January 27
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. As the events of that horrific period in human history slip from living memory, it becomes more important to not forgot what happened and why.
"A new study suggests that regular cash payments to parents can speed up brain activity in infants."
Seven technologies to watch in 2022. They're almost all biological/genetic: targeted genetic therapies, precise genome manipulation, CRISPR-based diagnostics, etc.
CityLab: How the Dutch Delivered a Traffic Safety Revolution. The safety of Dutch and US streets in the 70s was roughly the same but "by 2019, the fatality rate in the Netherlands had plummeted to 34 per million, 70% lower than that in the U.S."
January 26
Wow, Jad Abumrad is stepping away from hosting Radiolab after almost 20 years. One of the absolute best of the OG podcasters.
January 25
The winner ran the world's coldest marathon (held in Yakutia, Siberia) in 3h 22m. The temperature was -53°C.
All Your Favorite Cartoon Characters Are Black. "Bugs Bunny, black. Scrappy Doo, black. Elmo, definitely black."
January 24
The Anne of Green Gables VR Experience. "Marilla says 'Fiddlesticks!' a lot. Matthew doesn't speak but can grimace, shrug, grunt, nod, or frown."
The James Webb Space Telescope has arrived safely at its new home nearly 1 million miles from Earth.
January 21
Meat Loaf Was My Softball Coach. "To the scrappy group of girls he was trying to mold into softball players, he was Coach Meat."
Results of a new study suggest that CBD can treat and slow the transmission of Covid-19. "Our results suggest that CBD can block SARS-CoV-2 infection at early and even later stages of infection."
"There Will Be Another Variant. Here's What the World Can Do Now." But the world probably won't do anything so basically what you're saying is...there's going to be another variant.
January 20
On the benefits of deliberate ignorance. "It's a way to maintain our beliefs about ourselves and others, it can be a mechanism for fairness or to remove bias, or a way to avoid overwhelm when bombarded with information."
Thread on the Omicron wave in the US. "Having ~40% of the population infected by a single pathogen in the span of 8 weeks is remarkable and I can't think of an obvious modern precedent."
January 19
The five levels of hype. Marketing claims > exaggerated claims > utopian futures > magical thinking > othering ("the technology has become a group identity for its boosters").
Play a 9-hole course of mini-golf where each hole is shaped like a gerrymandered voting district. The 8th hole, of comically shaped 4th district in Illinois, is a par 12. (Hole 9 is a par 26 in Maryland.)
Being Bad at Wordle Doesn't Mean You're Dumb. "Simply put, intuiting the perfect word to fit in a sentence requires different knowledge of a language from thinking of a five-letter word starting with A and E as its fourth letter."
January 18
The Wirecutter recommends the best pandemic partner for most people. "Licensed carpenters have abilities that are transferrable to home and leisure pursuits, e.g., slicing summer squash and Thai eggplants on a mandoline without cutting off fingertips..."
Fun thread about a castle that some jackass built in Connecticut. "Suits of armor watching you eat!"
The site is live a day ahead of schedule: "Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free." (This is only working for some people. Site should be live for everyone tomorrow.)
January 14
"Every home in the U.S. can soon order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests." No shipping costs, ordering begins Jan 19.
A list of the best data visualization lists of 2021. Lots of fantastic work in here.
bell hooks reviews Beyoncé's Lemonade (2016). "Images of female violence undercut a central message embedded in Lemonade that violence in all its forms, especially the violence of lies and betrayal, hurts."
January 12
The Physics of Wile E. Coyote's 10 Billion-Volt Electromagnet. I am here for any vigorous fact-checking of cartoon physics.
January 11
January 10
Let's Settle This. "Internet debates have raged for too long. It's time to settle the big questions so we can move on." Marvel or DC? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Could Jack have fit on the door in Titanic?
January 7
An interesting collection of threads from web gem Ask MetaFilter, compiled by Phil Gyford (also a web gem), e.g. "Easy reads with literary flourishes", "Ikea, but like, the *good* Ikea", and "Nurses! What's on your feet?"
Novelist Emma Straub loved working in her neighborhood bookstore and it eventually inspired her to open her own. This is a lovely piece about books, bookstores, neighborhoods, and book lovers.
Rick Rubin: The Invisibility of Hip Hop's Greatest Producer. "It's still difficult to explain the legacy of a man who doesn't appear to do much while doing everything at the same time."
A Note of Reassurance from Your School District Regarding Our Updated Omicron Policies. 1. "Your child's classroom will have no teachers." 2. "Your child should report to school no matter what."
January 6
Afghanistan Has Become the World's Largest Humanitarian Crisis. Four months after the Taliban resumed control of the country, "more than twenty million Afghans are on the brink of famine".
With their Housing First policy, Finland is making great progress in reducing their unhoused population by giving everyone a home, unconditionally. "A home should be the secure foundation that makes it easier to solve your problems."
A visualization of mass shootings in the US since 2014. More than once a day on average, there's a shooting in which four people are injured or killed by guns.
Jimmy Carter: I Fear for Our Democracy. "Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy."
January 5
"This is a short story about what happened to the U.S. economy since the end of World War II." How debt, inequality, and expectations got us to where we are now.
January 4
On the secondary effects of getting vaccinated. "We estimate that COVID-19 vaccination reduces anxiety and depression symptoms by nearly 30%."
Readers of the NY Times Book Review pick the best book published in the past 125 years. Is it 1984? The Fellowship of the Ring? To Kill a Mockingbird? Beloved?
January 3
Solid thread about Matrix Resurrections and its "lack of subtlety". How would you "react if the worst stupidest people DID make an entire fascist movement off your campy-cyberpunk action-philosophy franchise"?
Superheroes create cultural acceptance for popular oligarchy. "What does the current popularity of comic book superheroes, in culture, do? It reinforces the idea of a hierarchy of human, with the ubermensch as its apex."
2021, The Year in Questions. "Can psychedelics cure us? Did George Floyd get justice? Is it too late to buy Bitcoin? Should we get rid of the SAT? Is there a reality crisis?"
Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now. "The Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends."