September 30, 2019
What Does It Feel Like to Die?
Depictions of death on TV and in the movies are unrealistic; the characters are awake and carry on meaningful conversations, then suddenly close their eyes and die. That’s not how it works. In the days when deaths occurred at home, most people had seen a relative die. And today we have a lot of knowledge about what happens in the body as it begins shutting down. It’s a gradual process.
Harriet Hall, MD, reviews What Does It Feel Like To Die?: Inspiring New Insights Into The Experience Of Dying by Jennie Dear.
Harriet Hall, MD, reviews What Does It Feel Like To Die?: Inspiring New Insights Into The Experience Of Dying by Jennie Dear.
The Saddest Leafy Green
"My first inkling that kale was in trouble came from the New York magazine restaurant critic Adam Platt’s recent account of his attempt to love takeout-lunch salad, the purveyors of which dot seemingly every street corner in Manhattan...During Platt’s experiment, someone from Sweetgreen told him that kale sales had waned at its stores, even as its menu had expanded to include grain bowls and warm dishes."
Amanda Mull writes in The Atlantic that maybe America never really liked kale.
Amanda Mull writes in The Atlantic that maybe America never really liked kale.
Michael Chabon asks "What's the Point?"
"These feel like such dire times, times of violence and dislocation, schism, paranoia, and the earth-scorching politics of fear. Babies have iPads, the ice caps are melting, and your smart refrigerator is eavesdropping on your lovemaking (and, frankly, it’s not impressed).
It has all seemed to fall apart so quickly. Looking around, it’s hard not to wonder who or what is to blame. I think it might be me. No, hear me out...." [more inside]
It has all seemed to fall apart so quickly. Looking around, it’s hard not to wonder who or what is to blame. I think it might be me. No, hear me out...." [more inside]
“...no better way of telling this story than with one continuous shot.”
1917 [YouTube][Official Trailer] [Behind the Scenes Featurette]“James Bond director Sam Mendes wants to put audiences right in the center of World War I with his new war movie 1917. To do that, he shot the movie in one long, perfectly choreographed shot. In a behind-the-scenes featurette released on Monday morning, Mendes and some of the cast and crew go into detail on the challenge of shooting a movie this way, and why it was worth it.1917 follows two soldiers in WWI on a mission to deliver a message that could save thousands of lives. However, to do so, they have to carry that message across some of the war’s most harrowing battlefields. And Mendes wanted to make sure that the audience got to see every single step of that journey. “From the very beginning I felt this movie should be told in real time,” Mendes says in the featurette. “Every step of the journey, breathing every breath with these men, felt integral.”” [Via: Polygon]
Accessibility under fire at the Supreme Court
Domino’s Wants to Slice Away at the Americans With Disabilities Act The potential consequences of this fill me with genuine terror because the consequences extend far beyond pizza. I’m legally blind, and the internet, phone apps, and e-commerce are more integral parts of my daily life than shopping malls or brick-and-mortar stores have ever been. If the Supreme Court were to eventually rule in the company’s favor, the blind, visually impaired, and others who rely on accessibility tools to use the web could be locked out of the modern economy—and much of modern life. If companies and other organizations are not required to make their websites and apps accessible, people like me would be unable to access our bank accounts, look up or pay our utility bills, or buy household essentials from Amazon or other retailers.
The Toll Of #MeToo
Writing for The Cut, Rebecca Traister seeks to talk about the cost of #MeToo - not for the accused, but for those who came forward, as a foreword to the experience of 25 people who came forward to expose their abusers, and the experience in their own words.
Wise Guys
Tsktsk!
Cheating Hangman [via mefi projects] Avapoet has created an app that perfectly recreates the infuriating feeling of playing hangman with your older sibling who was *definitely* cheating and also knew way more words than you. It is rage-inducing and tremendously fun.
People were saying, “You can’t do that.” Well, we did…and people came.
"In 1996, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan was tipping from alternative icon into something more like traditional pop success. At 26 she had garnered serious momentum—and 2.8 million albums sold in the United States—after her 1993 crossover Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. But as she ascended through the music industry, she kept hearing “no.” No, we can’t play your song—we already have another woman artist in rotation. No, you can’t put two women on the same concert bill—it’s box office poison. Sexism was passed off as age-old industry logic—logic that forced her into competition with other women artists to be the sole exceptional woman allowed opportunity. McLachlan was not alone. So she presented a challenge to her team—let’s prove them wrong" An Oral History of Lilith Fair
From Now On
A girl hears a bump in the night .... From Now On by Worakls - a charming low-budget interpretation of an epically cinematic piece of music. You have to have the sound on for it to make any sense. SLYT
“Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?”
Yet another woman comes forward to accuse Al Franken of groping her. The military veteran, who is now a senior staffer at a major progressive organization, says that while working for U.S. Senator Patty Murray and posing for a picture at an event with Franken, he “puts his hand on my ass,” asks the photographer to take another picture to prolong the experience, and “gives me a little squeeze on my buttock.” She is the ninth woman to accuse Franken of inappropriate conduct and the fourth to accuse him specifically of groping her buttocks. [more inside]
If their lips are moving...
Why Europe’s new populists tell so many lies. An article in the Guardian by Catherine Fieschi. Populist lying... is designed to be seen – it is the opposite of a cover-up. In the populist playbook, lying itself is glorified; it is an instrument of subversion, its purpose to demonstrate that the liar will stop at nothing to “serve the people”. ... Above all, though, the lies are about taking one of representative democracy’s creeds – authenticity – and turning it on its head.
The Real Questions: Who Would Make This And Why?
“Every few months, after I’d dismissed it in my mind as an obvious fraud, someone new would bring the tape up to me. Usually they’d just seen it and wanted to see what I thought. I would retread my initial suspicions and explain that, while it must be a fake, it’s certainly a very good fake. And each time, I’d walk away a little less convinced.” The Pee Tape Is Real, but It’s Fake: There’s a video going around that no one’s really talking about. What makes it most unreal is how believable it is. (Slate) (cw: blurry nudity, possible pee)
Podunk, based on an Algonquian word meaning ... something?
Podunk was a place name (Wikipedia) long before it became a punchline. The word has Algonquian roots, but Ives Goddard, senior linguist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and a leading expert on Algonquian languages, notes that "you'll be able to find guesses in the sources if you look around. Don't believe any of it." (NPR Codeswitch) [more inside]
Can you microwave lube?
Can You Microwave? is a helpful blog answering questions about what can and cannot be microwaved.
No, "Labradoodle" is the monster, not the doctor
The Climate Crisis, Illustrated
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell author to return after 16-year gap
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