October 11, 2018
dispensing with the soft focus in adoption stories
Why do you think we are asked to lean so hard into this fantasy of everyone being the same, deep down? Nicole Chung (formerly of the Toast; previously) in conversation with Mira Jacob (previously) about Chung's new memoir All You Can Ever Know. [more inside]
She Says, He Sues
One of the men named in the Shitty Media Men spreadsheet (earlier), author and filmmaker Stephen Elliott, has now followed up his recent essay "How An Anonymous Accusation Derailed My Life" with a lawsuit against Moira Donegan, creator of the list, for libel and emotional distress.
Capitalism with a communist face
You buy a purse at Walmart. There’s a note inside from a “Chinese prisoner.” (vox.com)
“First, a shopper in the US or Europe finds a note in the pocket or on a tag of a product from a big retailer — Walmart, Saks, Zara. The note claims the product had been made using forced labor or under poor working conditions. The writer of the note also claims to be in a faraway country, usually China. The shopper takes a photo of the note and posts it to social media. It’s reported on by all sorts of publications from Reuters to Refinery29, where the articles reach millions of readers.
Then the hysteria cools, and the story falls into the viral news abyss.”
“First, a shopper in the US or Europe finds a note in the pocket or on a tag of a product from a big retailer — Walmart, Saks, Zara. The note claims the product had been made using forced labor or under poor working conditions. The writer of the note also claims to be in a faraway country, usually China. The shopper takes a photo of the note and posts it to social media. It’s reported on by all sorts of publications from Reuters to Refinery29, where the articles reach millions of readers.
Then the hysteria cools, and the story falls into the viral news abyss.”
Should marrying a child be allowed?
She was 16. He was 25.
Even in an era when the median age of marrying has climbed higher and higher, unions like Phil and Maria’s remain surprisingly prevalent in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, an estimated 248,000 children were married, most of whom were girls, some as young as 12, wedding men. [more inside]
Co*Star: the Record Acting Game
Today is the day your bizarrely specific dream comes true: this is your chance to act with Vincent Price in scenes from An Enemy of the People and The Importance of Being Earnest. [more inside]
I think that we basically waited out the span of his short-term memory
Please Adjust Your Set for Live Disasters
Live Disasters is not just a video game. It is a surreal, dizzying piece of art comprised of a nightmare collage of hallucinated blasts of cable news coverage, disaster fetishism, and staticky, between channel weirdness from American multimedia artist (mefi's own) Andrew Vennell. You play as a perpetually-crashing airliner that is on fire. You can fly around, collecting power-ups, avoiding obstacles, and ejecting passengers with the space bar. Or not! [more inside]
It's hard to get things right and we will fail; we must be humble
Shaping our children's education in computing : a talk by Haskell designer Simon Peyton Jones at Strange Loop about computer science in childhood education- its nature and place, and the work of effectively implementing it.
Larger Spleens Help Bajau “Sea Nomads” Dive
'Sea Nomads' Are First Known Humans Genetically Adapted to Diving. "For hundreds of years, the Bajau (previously) have lived at sea, and natural selection may have made them genetically stronger divers."
“We had insolently threatened to roast the Duck.”
How we roasted Donald Duck, Disney's agent of imperialism [The Guardian] “We had received death threats, an irate woman had tried to run me over and neighbours – accompanied by their children – had stoned the house where my wife, Angélica, and I lived in Santiago, shouting: “Long live Donald Duck!” It was later discovered that the 5,000 copies of the third printing of the book [How to Read Donald Duck] had been taken from a warehouse by the Chilean navy and cast into the bay of Valparaíso. What had we done to incur such enmity? Armand and I had denounced Walt Disney as an agent of American cultural imperialism, incarnated in the life, adventures and misdeeds of Donald Duck, that innocuous icon, then one of the most popular characters in the world.”
For Sale: Haunted Shoes. Very Cursed.
Haunted teddy bears, eyeglasses, dolls, and teacups are big business on eBay. So we bought some. [more inside]
Environmental protection is incompatible with capitalism
What Is Eco-Socialism? (Motherboard)
for the rest of your life
How I Learned to Love Bonsai, Harley Rustad - "When my amateur attempts at the art weren’t working, I went to YouTube star Nigel Saunders"
Inuit of Clyde River v Big Oil, a block to seismic testing
How an Inuit community won against Big Oil (New Republic), in which the Clyde River community teamed up with Greenpeace Canada to forge a new relationship in the wake of Greenpeace's public apology for demonizing the traditional practice of seal hunting and won in Canada's Supreme Court to block seismic testing that would have had a ound impact on marine animals.
A Tale of Two Games
With Magic: The Gathering turning 25 this year, it's creator Richard Garfield is not resting on his laurels. November sees the release of not one, but two brand new Garfield designed card games with very different philosophies - Keyforge on the tabletop and Artifact online. [more inside]
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