November 16, 2018
The Definitive Ranking of the Coen Bros. Movies
I suspect that the Coen brothers would not regard a ranking of their films with much respect. For nearly 35 years, the duo from Minnesota have been making movies that celebrate and undermine genre, thumbing their noses at convention and trends, and exploring the meaninglessness of existence with the depth and absurdity worthy of the cause. Joel and Ethan Coen’s 18 films—including The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the anthology Western debuting on Netflix this week—represent one of the truly unified American accomplishments in the arts.
I knew I'd get postnatal depression
Before I had PND, I already had a psychotic illness. I knew I'd get postnatal depression. The reality was nothing like what I expected. While I was pregnant, I’d already conceded defeat, getting my black dog a new bed and a fancy ceramic bowl. But I had got it all wrong. PND didn’t just blend into the depression I already had. I didn’t just become “more depressed”. It was a whole distinct illness with its own symptoms and its own treatments.
Anna Spargo-Ryan in The Guardian.
It’s just two people trying to figure out what it takes to keep living
Jerome Motto's research found that simple acts of showing people that someone was there for them, and expected nothing in return— would make suicidal patients feel less isolated, less in conflict with themselves. So his team wrote letters, simple and direct, without clinical jargon that demanded nothing. Motto's goal was to convey a genuine sense of kinship—“simply what one might say to a friend.”
Motto's data found that the suicide rate of the control group was nearly twice as high as that of group his team had contacted.
The Best Way To Save People From Suicide is a Single Link Huffpost from their Highline series by Jason Cherkis. [more inside]
New kingdom of eukaryotes discovered on a hike near Halifax
Canadian researchers have discovered a new kind of organism that doesn't fit into the plant, animal, or any other kingdom of known organisms. Two species of the microscopic organisms, called hemimastigotes, were found in dirt collected on a whim during a hike in Nova Scotia by Dalhousie University graduate student Yana Eglit. Hemimastigotes were first seen and described in the 19th century, and about 10 species have been described over the past 100 years. But up to now, no one could figure out how they fit into the evolutionary tree of life. Based on the Dalhousie lab's new genetic analysis, it looks like you'd have to go back a billion years before you could find a common ancestor of hemimastigotes and any other known living thing. [more inside]
Flaming Locks of Auburn Hair, Ivory Skin, and Eyes of Emerald Green
Dolly Parton has recorded a new, stripped-down, strings-only version of her 1973 hit Jolene. Happy Friday. [more inside]
Dr. Koop's Digital Korner
How famed
U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, at the age of 82, became an internet
entrepreneur, and why his namesake website burned out, fast. (from Ernie
Smith's excellent Tedium newsletter)
Yes, 4:44 was pretty good, but so is Voodoo Lounge.
Hearts filled with love and garbage
Art students at SUNY Purchase had a good thing going behind a paper towel dispenser in a bathroom, until someone tweeted about the Danny DeVito shrine hidden back there and it went viral. Despite the school issuing a statement praising their students' creativity, the shrine has been shut down because we cannot have good things. However, DeVito himself has addressed the matter with some words and a mission for us all.
A view to a lab
"Frederick Banting discovered insulin but he was more than just a Nobel prize-winning scientist. He was also an artist and he painted the lab where he made his famous discovery." The painting will be put up for auction on November 21. Banting's papers and more can be found via the University of Toronto's Insulin Collections.
Stripping and Planking
Here's Why Tires Are Black
Tire technology has come a long way since the Ford Model T first rolled out of the factory in 1908. Modern tires are not only different in dimension, compound, and overall structure, but they’re also a different color. That’s because early tires were white, and only around World War I did they turn black. Here’s why. [more inside]
Poverty—both individual and social—is a policy, not an accident.
“The American commonwealth is shockingly impoverished. Ask anyone who’s compared the nine-plus-hour train ride from Pittsburgh to New York with the barely two-hour journey from Paris to Bordeaux, an equidistant journey, or who’s watched the orderly, accurate exit polls from a German election and compared them with the fizzling, overheating voting machines in Florida.” The Lie Americans Tell Themselves (TruthDig)
"Art is not a plaything, but a necessity,"
Currently showing through 19 JAN 2019, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Toward A Concrete Utopia showcases Yugoslavian architecture from 1948 to 1980 [more inside]
Sometimes it's better not to be the best.
I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It. A reporter reflects on his responsibility. Should we all start keeping quiet about hidden gems? [more inside]
The Manhoff Archives
The Manhoff Archives Stalin's Soviet Union comes to life in full color with the discovery of a long-hidden collection of images. Major Martin Manhoff spent more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, serving as assistant army attaché at the U.S. Embassy, which was located just off Red Square at the beginning of his time in Moscow. [more inside]
Life isn't fair; it's just fairer than death, that's all.
"I have been informed by friends of the family that William Goldman died last night. He was 87. Goldman, who twice won screenwriting Oscars for All The President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, passed away last night in his Manhattan home, surrounded by family and friends. His health had been failing for some time, and over the summer his condition deteriorated." [more inside]
28 Indigenous Guardian programs get federal funding
Pilot programs to help young people get onto land and monitor fishing, tourism activities [more inside]
Reloading a Boeing 747 'Supertanker' firefighting plane
In coverage of the recent fires in California you may have seen a Boeing 747 being used to drop fire retardant. Here's a behind the scenes look at how a 747 and DC-10 are refuelled and reloaded during firefighting operations, along with some insight into how the retardent equipment functions. The turnaround is very fast.
Visiting the Whitney Plantation/Slavery Museum
I hope a FPP from mathowie doesn't cause some sort of weird self-link ban loop that destroys the site, but his account of visiting the Whitney Plantation/Slavery Museum is absolutely the best of the web.
There is so much talent wasted, so many silenced
Back of the Class: Julia Bell recalls her admission interview for Oxford University [TLS]: "I wonder now about all the other kids like me, the ones at odd angles, the queer and working class and black, or even just Northern, or Welsh, or provincial. This is not a place for them, however loudly they might be knocking on the door." Julia Bell writes about her 1988 interview for admission to Jesus College, Oxford University, touching upon class, elitism, social control and how the mind reacts in high-pressure situations. In response other people have shared similar experiences on twitter. [more inside]
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