August 22, 2019
“I raised all these babies / Call me Katherine Jackson”
Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott has released a new five-song EP, Iconology, and a new music video for one of the tracks, “Throw It Back”. It’s a good way to start Friday!
Bernie Sanders’s $16 Trillion Green New Deal
Bernie calls for a World War II-style mobilization to reverse global warming. Mr. Sanders unveiled his proposal one day after Gov. Jay Inslee announced he was dropping out of the 2020 race. His plan calls for 16.3 trillion federal investment dollars and the creation of 20 million jobs. [more inside]
Python Action Team
Python wars: the snake epidemic eating away at Florida "There are tens of thousands of pythons in the Florida wild, attacking animals and damaging ecosystems – and the quest to stop them has become a collective crusade. [. . .] "the FWC (Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission) and the South Florida water management district each created independent python removal squads in 2017 of hardy, civic-minded individuals who are skilled at capturing the non-native constrictors" (SLGuardian) (CW: of course, some pictures of snakes plus some of the links in the article lead to possibly disturbing videos or articles.)
Ninja History
Only one woman had completed the American Ninja Warrior City Finals course in the history of the show, and that was Kacy Catanzaro in 2014.
[more inside]
Smell is especially important when it comes to these Dunks
Zac leans into the pair of sneakers in his hands and takes a great big whiff—the sort of noisy inhale typically reserved for fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies and the heads of newborn babies. Zac is a sneaker authenticator at Stadium Goods [... and they] are entrusting Zac’s nostrils to safeguard their investment. Today, he is eagerly hoovering the vapors from a pair of Nike x Supreme SB Dunks from 2002 that have been on a long and telling voyage—one that says a lot about the booming, and still-growing, sneaker resale industry. How a Single Pair of Sneakers Explains the Booming Billion-Dollar Sneaker Resale Industry -- Inside the wild, shockingly lucrative world of sneaker reselling. (Cam Wolf for GQ) [more inside]
A Random, Motley Crew Of Fuckups Flying Through Space
Mission to Zyxx is an improvised science fiction podcast following a team of ambassadors as they attempt to establish diplomatic relations in the remote and chaotic Zyxx Quadrant. What elevates it above other improv podcasts is an obsessive dedication to professional sound design and editing, with each 30-45 minute episode requiring up to 80 hours of post-production work. Read about the team's process here - and then get listening.
All the world’s a stage, especially when you have no job prospects
"an ultraconservative news outlet and a conspiracy warehouse"
Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times (NBC News) [more inside]
“...you can just have Cookie Monster eat whatever you’re writing about.”
"Now, as it marks its 50th anniversary — after 4,526 episodes, not to mention specials, movies, albums and more — the legacy of “Sesame [Street]” is clear: It impacted the music world as much as it shaped TV history, inspiring countless fans and generations of artists. And the show is still innovating, finding ever more ways to sing out loud." (SLNYT) [more inside]
He Hate Good Brand Design
With the relaunch of the XFL in February 2020 drawing closer, the nascent league has announced their initial eight team lineup. Needless to say, the release has resulted in panning of the new team logos, along with comparisons to the original XFL roster. [more inside]
Will no-one think of the male ultrarunners?!
Earlier this month, Ellie Pell won the Green Lakes Endurance Run 50K, finishing in 3:58:37. Pell took both the 1st Place Overall and 1st Place Female trophies, but because the overall winner was wrongly predicted to be a man, there was no 1st Place Male trophy available for Richard Ellsworth, the second place finisher. [more inside]
Miette, her eyes wide
“She also records the early advent of being online, lovingly, like a relative with a camcorder at the internet’s birth, before it grew into a brute. It helped in return to birth her voice, intense and lewd and personal, the sound of someone ripping off the tastefulness that afflicts American letters, performing the literary equivalent of that tablecloth magic trick. Though we had never met, listening to the book created the uncanny sensation I had already spoken to Lockwood for ten hours and sixteen minutes, so it felt perfectly natural when she did not offer much in the way of hellos. It just … began.” A Tortoise Stakeout With Patricia Lockwood - The Paris Review catches up with the ‘Poet Laureate Of Twitter’ while NY Mag’s The Cut talked to her about her cat’s internet fame. (Lockwood previously Previously)
"When she reaches the road, Felicity understands her fate..."
Headlights; Toward Happy Civilization; Olingiris; The Size of Things; Irman; Father Christmas Spends the Night; My Parents and My Children and To Kill a Dog are short stories by the Argentine writer Samanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, Daniel Alarcón, Kit Maude and Brendan Lanctot. "The Grimm brothers and Franz Kafka pay a visit to Argentina in Samanta Schweblin's darkly humorous tales..." blurbs J. M. Coetzee.
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