September 25, 2023
A Tasty Long Con
As the year turns to fall, (it'll be a chilly 85°F for me tomorrow) it's time to think about preserving a larder for the long cold winter. And while you can think about your pickles, your preserves and canned goods for days, let's look instead at the French technique of "confit". [more inside]
Spider silk is spun by silkworms for the first time
Spider silk is spun by silkworms for the first time, offering a green alternative to synthetic fibers. Scientists in China have synthesized spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, producing fibers six times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests.
Can't wait for the sequel: 702 Gouldman Lane: Electric Boogaloo
Look for the helpers
A private US citizen was responsible for rescuing thousands of women from the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. [more inside]
I'm going to need to get some quarters
Top 10 Arcades Games Every Year From 1980-1989 (100 Games) [25m] offers without commentary a list of each of the 100 games, showing gameplay and those delicious sound effects. Right away I was struck by "oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that one!"
Don't Leave Voice Mail.
A guide to modern phone etiquette. (WaPo gift link.) Evidently Apple is bringing old school answering machine "screening" back, although if you're not supposed to use voice mail I don't get the point. Anyway here's a handy guide to the bewilderment that is modern phone use. For those who have a cell phone, anyway.
Free as in -boot
To freeboot is to commit an act of piracy without the authorization of any government or state. Derived from the Dutch, from vrijbuit (“plunder, spoils”) + -er or vrijbuiten + -er (from vrijbuit (“plunder”)), from vrij (“free”) + buit (“booty”). Lately the term has been used to refer to the sharing of digital media beyond the limits of restrictive distribution controls. Here's your Monday morning free thread!
Clothes are Always Tangled in Broader Social Struggles
Instead, the version of prep that persists is the democratized, constantly reinvigorated version that these three works trace. Always a multiracial, multiethnic project, prep has been shaped by striving women and queer people as much as by the insouciant WASP college men supposedly synonymous with the style. Troublingly, white nationalists in polos and khakis are perhaps the latest group to claim prep, clearly to blend in with people who would look askance at brown shirts and steel-toe boots. The style’s insistent spread beyond campus has spawned so many reinventions and remixes that it can be hard to pinpoint any longer exactly what qualifies as prep. If prep is everywhere, can we still recognize it as distinct? from We're All Preppy Now [The New Republic; ungated]
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