October 23, 2019
Lock in: no exit, voice nor loyalty
Facebook and Speech: It's All About Power - "As long as there is one Facebook algorithm, one Twitter algorithm, one Instagram algorithm, etc. that will always be way too much power in one place. We all need to be able to programmatically interact with these services." [more inside]
It’s slightly more than 200 years old, and it was born in Germany.
“It’s just a big illusion”: How homeopathy went from fringe medicine to the grocery aisles Homeopathy is a $1.2 billion industry in the US alone, used by an estimated 5 million adults and 1 million kids. It’s become such a staple of America’s wellness industry that leading brands such as Boiron and Hyland’s are readily available at high-end health-focused chains like Whole Foods and Sprouts, supermarkets like Ralphs, and superstores such as Walmart. Analysts project that the global homeopathic market will grow 12.5 percent by 2023. [more inside]
Just take a walk down lonely street / to Haegumgang Hotel
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has visited the Mt Kumgang resort, ordering the project promoted by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Trump to be razed, denouncing the buildings as 'just a hotchpotch with no national character at all'. Mt Kumgang's Haegumgang Hotel was the brainchild of a Queensland property developer in 1987, and originally floated on the Great Barrier Reef. It is commemorated in model form in the Townsville Maritime Museum.
Non-famous open math problems which anyone can understand
Not especially famous, long-open problems which anyone can understand. A MathOverflow thread.
Crusader Kings 3 will let you become the pope of your own cannibal cult
Crusader Kings 3 [YouTube][Annoucement Trailer] “Crusader Kings 3, the next installment of Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy franchise, is arriving next year on PCs — via Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Paradox shared the news this weekend at its annual PDXCON gathering for fans of the publisher’s game. Crusader Kings 3 is highlighting cunning, calculating, scheming and all sorts of other Saturday-matinee adjectives as chief components of the player’s drive to build their medieval dynasty. [...] Now celebrating its 15th year, the Crusader Kings franchise has taken a million players through an endlessly rewritten history of Europe in the Middle Ages. The most recent game in the series launched seven years ago — Crusader Kings 2, strictly for PC, in 2012. Paradox recently made that title free for everyone via Steam in observance of the PDXCON festivities. [via: Polygon]
Why can't I profit from all these Limes?
"New reporting underlines how the scooter boom has proven popular with consumers and investors alike, but remains far from having a sustainable business model." The scooter boom is hot with fundraising, and people who believe that they're the future of urban transit, but a reports in The Information (Paywalled) shows that Lime is losing $300 million on revenues of $420 million. Why? Part of the problem is that their scooters don't last long enough to make a profit. How long do they last? About 28 days, at least in Louisville.
everyone can skate and destroy
A video of mom and her son riding an adaptive skateboard has gone viral on the interwebs this week. It's a great video with a smiling kid and devoted mom, but Lau Patron wants you to know the real story behind the video. (Single link twitter thread)
Canadian Gothic
"As an expat living in Canada, the more I live here, the more I'm convinced I'm actually stuck in some kind of cryptic horror nightmare country that's subtly and slowly eating away at me." [SLTwitterThread; Threadreader version]
Data on clay
"If you're interested in cuneiform writing, you'll be pleased to hear that the major cuneiform symbol groups have been assigned blocks in Unicode," says Robert Mesibov, a data auditor and retired zoologist in West Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia. "There are also online resources for everyday computer users who want to learn more about cuneiform and the cuneiform-using cultures. The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) project not only welcomes new participants, but is also strong on FOSS and open data."
Bachanalia
"I’ve talked to people who feel they know Bach very well, but they aren’t aware of the time he was imprisoned for a month. They never learned about Bach pulling a knife on a fellow musician during a street fight. They never heard about his drinking exploits."
Those Sorts Of People
“When the rude masses began arriving from Eastern Europe, the WASPs got paranoid that they were, to use the phrase chanted by the rioting Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, about to be “replaced.” They turned on their former class siblings, the German Jews, with whom they’d once shared the upper rungs of American society. As the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, many old-line WASPs embraced a toxic mix of social Darwinism and eugenics.” To Serve Is To Rule: On WASPs and the longing for a more polite ruling class. (Harper’s)
But where's Skinny Boy?
Katrin and Janine do an eating tour of New Orleans vis-a-vis a shot-for-shot copy of a Simpsons Episode (s.29 ep.17). There are some good stills here. The attention to detail is impressive. [more inside]
Sam Jordison on the best and worst of the Booker Prize experience
The Booker Prize (one of the most prestigious literary awards in the English-speaking world) is pay-to-play, and that's not even the worst part, as the publisher of Lucy Ellmann's sprawling and singular Ducks, Newburyport tells us.
"I am happy to report that the New Gallery feels just like the old one."
What’s lost isn’t always lost. Sometimes a researcher sifts through a dark corner of a storage unit and uncovers a forgotten artifact. It’s been happening a lot in Philadelphia, of all places.... Cambridge University fellow Jason Scott-Warren posted on his blog that the Free Library of Philadelphia’s annotated copy of the First Folio was once John Milton’s (previously on the blue). And then a South Philly t-shirt shop found and restored the mannequin (WMMR) from Mannequin (trailer on YouTube). But was it really Emmy? Kim Cattrall tweeted that, no, the mannequin on display was a fake. Dan McQuade unraveled the mystery for Jezebel, which, for one week, took over his life.
Death By Structural Power
OluTimehin Adegbeye, writing for The Correspondent: "People die violent deaths in both the US and Nigeria – why do I fear it there and not here? Where people have little power, they become more vulnerable." [more inside]
Guerrilla Gatherers
Shades of blue
Lapis lazuli is a deep-blue metamorphic rock that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
By the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. It was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Fra Angelico.
Shades of blue on wikipedia.
Via localstain
By the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. It was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Fra Angelico.
Shades of blue on wikipedia.
Via localstain
Why Mordor Failed
Sauron’s hegemonic collapse holds potent lessons for the Trump administration. (Austin Gilkeson for Foreign Policy Magazine) “Oct. 21 is, of course, the 65th anniversary of the U.S. publication of one of the classic examinations of Mordorian strategy. Mordor’s downfall can be traced to three primary failings, all of which the Trump administration is also currently facing. The administration would do well to study the Red Book of Westmarch (now in the public domain), The Notion Club Papers, and other ancient texts related to Mordor.” [more inside]
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