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Chelsea Manning Faces Solitary Confinement and Charges After Suicide Attempt [The Guardian] Chelsea Manning may face charges relating to a suicide attempt this year, which could lead to indefinite solitary confinement or transferral to a maximum-security facility, according to a civil rights group. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Thursday that Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence in military custody for leaking state secrets to the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, was under investigation for three charges related to her 5 July suicide attempt: “resisting the force cell move team”, “prohibited property”, and “conduct which threatens”. Manning confirmed through her lawyers in July that she was receiving medical care after having tried to take her own life. If convicted of these new “administrative offenses”, she faces punishment that could include solitary confinement for the rest of her sentence, reclassification as a maximum-security prisoner, and an addition of nine years to her sentence. It might also negate her possibility of parole, according to the ACLU. [Previously.]
comment posted at 10:46 AM on Jul-29-16

"It’s one of those films that whenever you happen to catch it, you’re caught and you can’t turn away." ‘Stand by Me’ From Variety- Oral History: Rob Reiner and Cast on River Phoenix and How Coming-of-Age Classic Almost Didn’t Happen.
comment posted at 2:38 PM on Jul-28-16

What we owe the slaves that built the White House
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Jul-28-16

Starbucks wants its baristas to wear fedoras and other awful hats — The fedora is meme shorthand for so many things, but perhaps most succinctly, it conveys the attitude of a male with poor hygiene, a Reddit addiction, and the firm belief that women keep putting him in the "friend zone" while dating assholes despite the fact that he's a "nice guy"—which is a thin cover for immature and often repellent ideas about gender roles.
comment posted at 11:44 AM on Jul-28-16

Mad Men to Seinfeld: TV's most criminally overrated shows — The Guardian's reviewers unburden themselves.
comment posted at 9:30 AM on Jul-27-16

Writing for the BBC, Lucy Scholes lists "Ten 'Lost' Books You Should Read Now," starting with Teffi's Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea. An excerpt from Memories appeared in The New Yorker in 2014, and a recent article there provided additional background for that book as well as the collection of which the essay "My Dinner with Rasputin" is a part.
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Jul-24-16

In 1963, more than a dozen African American girls, aged 13-15, were held in a stockade for two months. Their crime: demonstrating for integration in Americus, Georgia.
comment posted at 2:00 PM on Jul-22-16

When Did the Media Turn Against Taylor Swift? - In an interview with The Guardian, she came out as a feminist. A charitable read is that Swift was simply growing as a person as she entered her mid-20s. A more cynical outlook is that, in the words of BuzzFeed's Anne Helen Petersen, she was employing "an incredibly savvy image maintenance strategy." These interpretations are not mutually exclusive. [...] It's increasingly popular to use celebrities as signposts (or, as Roxane Gay puts it, "brand ambassadors") for various strains of political thought [...] This development has been very beneficial for the media — entertainment news spreads better when injected with a dose of political signaling, and potentially abstract political discussions spread better if they're attached to a recognizable name — and for an artist, there can be definite benefits in having your work linked with a specific politics. But the risks are heightened, too: Your failings become not just the failings of a person, but the failings of an ideology, and must be denounced even more loudly. [previously]
comment posted at 5:37 AM on Jul-22-16

The morning after Trump's running mate, Mike Pence's big night, the headlines read, "Ted Cruz Dashes Hopes for Unity by Snubbing Donald Trump." Welcome to Day Four.
comment posted at 11:58 AM on Jul-21-16

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president, but there are still two days left for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, OH.
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Jul-20-16

Live Coverage of the Republican National Convention: Day 2. "The stated theme of Tuesday’s slate is “Make America Work Again” — a potential challenge of tone for speakers eager to sully Mrs. Clinton on a topic as sober as job creation, a night after blistering attacks on her foreign policy."
comment posted at 12:03 PM on Jul-19-16
comment posted at 1:32 PM on Jul-19-16

A New Yorker profile by Rachel Aviv: Martha Nussbaum’s far-reaching ideas illuminate the often ignored elements of human life—aging, inequality, and emotion.
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Jul-19-16

How Donald Trump Won: "The specific tactical modalities that took Trump from "well-known celebrity who polled well among Republicans" to "guy who beat a dozen established politicians and became the nominee" are worth recounting on their own terms. It’s a story of strong, innovative behavior on Trump’s part. But it's also a story of massive blundering on the part of the Republican establishment."
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Jul-18-16

Democracies end when they are too democratic. - Andrew Sullivan
Britain’s democratic failure - Kenneth Rogoff How American Politics Went Insane - Jonathan Rauch
It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses - James Traub
comment posted at 11:32 AM on Jul-15-16

White privilege and gentrification in Denver, 'America’s favourite city' (slTheGrauniad)
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Jul-14-16

Why We're Giving Our Employees a Raise Jamie Dimon, CEO of Chase Bank, wrote an op-ed for the NY Times proclaiming he would raise salaries, over time, for his lowest paid workers from $10.15 an hour to $12 to $16.50 an hour. Dimon's compensation is $27M per year.
comment posted at 3:49 PM on Jul-12-16

Sanders endorses Clinton. Trump rebukes Ginsberg. RNC prepares for their convention in Cleveland. Pundits debate the best VP choice for Trump.
comment posted at 9:51 AM on Jul-12-16

The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante’s Bad Book Covers by Emily Harnett [The Atlantic] With their sandy beaches and windswept women, the U.S. editions of Elena Ferrante’s novels look familiar even if you’ve never seen them. That’s because they look like virtually every other book authored by a woman these days—not to mention like bridal magazines, beach-resort brochures, and even “Viagra ads.” On Twitter and beyond, readers have described Ferrante’s covers as “horrible,” “atrocious,” “utterly hideous,” and as a “disservice” to her novels. At Slate, one commenter approvingly mentions a local bookstore’s decision to display one of Ferrante’s books in plain brown paper, reviving a practice used for Playboy and the infamous issue of Vanity Fair with a pregnant Demi Moore on the cover. The implication, of course, isn’t that Ferrante’s covers are obscene in the traditional sense—just obscenely bad. Previously.
comment posted at 12:32 PM on Jul-9-16

Fifty years ago, Rona Barrett forged a Hollywood gossip empire. Then she left it all behind, her innovations attributed to others, her legacy almost entirely overlooked. But as she nears 80, there’s very little Miss Rona regrets. [sl Anne Helen Petersen@BuzzFeed]
comment posted at 1:58 PM on Jul-7-16

A Brief History of Terrible Yogurt Commercials Targeted at Women
comment posted at 10:03 AM on Jul-1-16
comment posted at 11:44 AM on Jul-1-16

As the rich get richer, trouble continues to brew for law schools in the United States.
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Jun-28-16

Brexit: why Britain left the EU, explained with a simple cartoon [Vox] // UK appeals for calm as markets drop, EU leaders huddle [AP] // David Cameron resigns after UK votes to leave European Union [Guardian], Brexit: David Cameron rules out second EU referendum [Independent] // Brexit: Six key questions after Britain's vote to exit the EU [BBC] // Brexit loophole? MPs must still vote in order for Britain to leave the EU, top lawyers say [Independent] // Brexit: Germany rules out informal negotiations [BBC]
comment posted at 10:26 AM on Jun-27-16

Man Who Claimed to Have Escaped Auschwitz Admits He Lied for Years [The Guardian] Joseph Hirt said he fabricated story of being sent to camp and meeting Nazi doctor Josef Mengele to ‘keep memories alive’ about history of the Holocaust.
comment posted at 8:26 AM on Jun-25-16

The Guardian presents a 5-part video series about people redefining how to live in busy urban centres. Listed: Toyko, New York City, London, Constitucion (Chile), Los Angeles.
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Jun-20-16

A Mother Jones Investigation: Fully Loaded: Inside the Shadowy World of America's 10 Biggest Gunmakers.
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Jun-15-16
comment posted at 1:58 PM on Jun-15-16

Period. Full Stop. Point. Whatever It’s Called, It’s Going Out of Style by Dan Bilefsky [The New York Times] The period — the full-stop signal we all learn as children, whose use stretches back at least to the Middle Ages — is gradually being felled in the barrage of instant messaging that has become synonymous with the digital age So says David Crystal, who has written more than 100 books on language and is a former master of original pronunciation at Shakespeare’s Globe theater in London — a man who understands the power of tradition in language The conspicuous omission of the period in text messages and in instant messaging on social media, he says, is a product of the punctuation-free staccato sentences favored by millennials — and increasingly their elders — a trend fueled by the freewheeling style of Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter
comment posted at 7:28 AM on Jun-15-16

Recent research suggests that PTSD may be more of a physical issue than a psychological issue.
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Jun-11-16
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Jun-11-16

The American bison once faced extinction – now they’re being culled. Native American photographer Joe Whittle attends a hunt held by tribal members
comment posted at 9:59 AM on Jun-11-16

When many lower-income Americans feel isolated and empty, they yearn for physical social networks. All across US, this happens organically at McDonald’s.
comment posted at 1:36 PM on Jun-9-16

Design for the One Percent by Alex Cocotas [Jacobin Mag] Contemporary architecture is more interested in mega projects for elites than improving ordinary people’s lives.
comment posted at 1:40 PM on Jun-7-16

Journalist Michelle McGagh has opted to not buy anything extra for a year. (sltheGuardian)
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Jun-6-16

The Families That Can't Afford Summer. "The assumption that underlies summer vacation — that there is one parent waiting at home for the kids — is true for just over a quarter of American families."
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Jun-5-16

Horse yoga
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Jun-4-16

On Wednesday, The New York City Parks Department decided to continue allowing women-only swimming hours at a public indoor pool in Williamsburg, a heavily Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn. An anonymous complaint had previously led the city’s Commission on Human Rights to notify the parks department that the policy violated the law, but supporters of the women's only hours state that disbanding 'Women's Swim' "would be akin to banning Hasidic women from the pool altogether."
comment posted at 8:36 AM on Jun-3-16

A meatless burger that bleeds vegetable juices just debuted at Whole Foods [The Washington Post]
comment posted at 1:04 AM on Jun-3-16

Who Is David French and Is He Running for President? Conservative writer Bill Kristol floats a third party alternative for the US presidential race.
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Jun-1-16

How one California university faked students’ scores, skated by immigration authorities — and made a fortune in the process. Buzzfeed News covers allegations of grade faking (and more) at Northwestern Polytechnic University.
comment posted at 9:54 AM on May-27-16

POLITICO eulogizes Salon
comment posted at 9:18 AM on May-27-16

Mike Senatore is a high school senior with a hidden talent. He can flip a water bottle. So he did. In front of his whole school. History was made and the world went crazy.
comment posted at 2:28 PM on May-25-16

Millennials’ Roommates Now More Likely to Be Parents Than Partners. "Millennials, who have been slower than previous generations to marry and set up their own households, reached that milestone in 2014, when 32.1 percent lived in a parent’s home, compared with 31.6 percent who lived with a spouse or a partner, the report found."
comment posted at 2:54 PM on May-25-16

In his follow-up to Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari envisions what a 'useless class' of humans might look like as AI advances and spreads - "I'm aware that these kinds of forecasts have been around for at least 200 years, from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and they never came true so far. It's basically the boy who cried wolf, but in the original story of the boy who cried wolf, in the end, the wolf actually comes, and I think that is true this time."
comment posted at 10:40 AM on May-24-16

"While gay and lesbian consumers loved the shout outs in the license plates, straight people would only notice features like a bike rack. Paul Poux, who helped come up with the license plate idea, says he held focus groups with straight audiences where he’d show ads featuring gay couples. Even after an hour of talking about gay issues, they’d think a man was shopping with his uncle." (See also: pinkwashing, pink money.)
comment posted at 8:19 AM on May-24-16

"On or about December, 2014, student character changed” The New Yorker looks at millennial politics. Nathan Heller talks to many students.
comment posted at 12:28 PM on May-24-16

Patrick Iber reviews Adam Hochschild's account of the Spanish Civil War in The Spain Orwell Never Saw
comment posted at 8:08 AM on May-23-16

Kafkaesque: A Word So Overused It Has Lost All Meaning? by Alison Flood [The Guardian] On Monday night, Han Kang’s strange, disturbing, brilliant novel The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International prize. Shortly afterwards, dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced that searches for the word “Kafkaesque” had “spiked dramatically” in the wake of her win, because the novel “has been described by its British publishers (and by a number of reviewers) as Kafkaesque”.
comment posted at 1:18 PM on May-19-16

The Intercept is broadening access to the Snowden documents. Here´s why.
We encourage other journalists, researchers, and interested parties to comb through these documents, along with future published batches, to find additional material of interest. Others may well find stories, or clues that lead to stories, that we did not. A primary objective of these batch releases is to make that kind of exploration possible.
The Intercept’s first SIDtoday release.
comment posted at 11:02 AM on May-16-16