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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

...is but one of over 400 plants held in the poet's digitally-accessible herbaria [NYT slideshow] "Her first assembled collection was not, as one might expect, a collection of writing, but a collection of [pressed] plant specimens." The collection is available for digital access through Harvard's Houghton Library: "The digital edition also notes corrected identifications when Dickinson got the plants' names wrong. That wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Fair enough—she was only 14." Cannabis Culture has its own set of opinions about 14 year old Emily's herbaria: "It’s quite possible that she was content with her life of seclusion because she was having daily mystical experiences, aided by psychotropic plants she grew in her garden, or found in the woods."
comment posted at 2:10 PM on May-15-16
comment posted at 12:32 AM on May-16-16

Why a staggering number of Americans have stopped using the Internet the way they used to Nearly one in two Internet users say privacy and security concerns have now stopped them from doing basic things online — such as posting to social networks, expressing opinions in forums or even buying things from websites, according to a new government survey released Friday. This chilling effect, pulled out of a survey of 41,000 U.S. households who use the Internet, show the insecurity of the Web is beginning to have consequences that stretch beyond the direct fall-out of an individual losing personal data in breach. The research suggests some consumers are reaching a tipping point where they feel they can no longer trust using the Internet for everyday activities.
comment posted at 2:03 PM on May-14-16

A visual history of the sometimes unbelievable camouflage used by ships during wartime. The most famous approach, Dazzle camouflage (sometimes Razzle Dazzle), was designed by an artist in Britain during World War I, and is designed to disguise apparent motion and direction, [video] at which it was effective, if controversial. During World War II, the US Navy used a variety of schemes to camouflage ships, including false bow waves that made it difficult for submarines to judge how fast a ship was traveling. Recently, the Navy revived dazzle techniques for the first time since WW II.
comment posted at 11:21 AM on May-14-16

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About How ISIS Uses The Internet by Sheera Frenkel [Buzzfeed] They talk on Telegram and send viruses to their enemies. BuzzFeed News’ Sheera Frenkel looks at how ISIS members and sympathizers around the world use the internet to grow their global network.
comment posted at 12:57 PM on May-14-16

In 1980, Bea Arthur and Madame* sing "A Good Man is Hard to Find" after some banter about each other's respective styles and sexual innuendo about the puppet seducing Rock Hudson that has aged...let's just say....interestingly.
comment posted at 1:16 PM on May-13-16

While the papers explore her motives, the blogs explore the papers motives, and reddit gives us a clear cross section of their motives, I'll just sit here hoping Mallory Ortberg keeps this going.
comment posted at 4:29 PM on May-11-16

Sixteen soon-to-be U.S. Army officers will face no formal sanction over raising their fists in an "inappropriate" but not political gesture during their Old Corps graduation photo shoot, the U.S. Military Academy has announced.
comment posted at 9:38 AM on May-11-16
comment posted at 9:43 AM on May-11-16

Britain has changed so quickly, the gains of 40 years of social progress undone in half a generation, that most of us are still struggling to compute it, but the evidence is right there in front of us, on our cinema and television screens. It’s not posh-bashing to say this is a problem.

Why Working-class Actors Are a Dying Breed, The Observer (8 May 2016).
comment posted at 10:27 AM on May-8-16

The Evolution of the Petrol/Gas/Filling/Service Station Gas stations might be boring or even ugly places, but for the most part, you can’t avoid stopping by one on a long trip. However, they have been so many more beyond the basic design of columns, roof and shop over their history. The following 60+1 filling stations encompass almost a century of architectural progression, showcasing some of the best Art Deco, Bauhaus, futurist, brutalist, minimalist, modernist, Googie building designs of the motorist history. Enjoy the ride!
comment posted at 5:37 AM on May-8-16

If you don't live in the Midwest, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that brick and mortar video stores still exist. Family Video has over 700 stores in the US and Canada. And despite the word "family" being in their name, they still rent porn. The burning question is, to whom?
comment posted at 1:47 PM on May-6-16

The non-enforced borders between European nations are a feast for the eye and a testament of hope for a united, peaceful, border-free world.
comment posted at 4:26 PM on May-4-16

The playgrounds weren’t just beautiful. They were quiet. That was what struck me when I first moved to Vienna, Austria. Children there played and laughed, but rarely yelled across the park.
comment posted at 7:49 AM on May-4-16

After 14 years, Bookslut has published its final issue. Vulture has an interview with Jessa Crispin, the site's founder and editor.
comment posted at 3:49 PM on May-3-16

It’s perhaps no surprise that air rage — instances in which passengers become unruly — appears to be on the rise. The logic is straightforward: When people are strapped to their seats with no escape for hours on end, when they’re hungry and tired and they lack control over their surroundings, that’s when they’re most likely to snap. Except new research suggests that the explanations most commonly offered for passenger outbursts don’t actually explain what’s going on. ... It turns out that what really upsets us in the sky is palpable inequality.
comment posted at 1:13 PM on May-3-16

"One man can move out of New Jersey and put the entire state budget at risk. Other states are facing similar situations as a greater share of income — and tax revenue — becomes concentrated in the hands of a few. New Jersey won’t say exactly how much the hedge-fund billionaire, David Tepper, paid in taxes. But according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha, he earned more than $6 billion from 2012 to 2015 ... [Tepper] is leaving for Florida at an especially opportune time for tax savings." (SLNYT)
comment posted at 11:10 AM on May-2-16

Texting and Driving? Watch Out for the Textalyzer [The New York Times] The most provocative idea, from lawmakers in New York, is to give police officers a new device that is the digital equivalent of the Breathalyzer — a roadside test called the Textalyzer. It would work like this: An officer arriving at the scene of a crash could ask for the phones of any drivers involved and use the Textalyzer to tap into the operating system to check for recent activity.
comment posted at 8:06 AM on May-2-16

What is Cuil Theory? One Cuil ( ‽ ) is one level of abstraction away from the reality of a situation. A pictorial guide.
comment posted at 11:24 AM on Apr-29-16

Ken Livingstone suspended (again) by the British Labour Party Never a stranger to controversy, Ken Livingstone - former scourge of Margaret Thatcher, erstwhile London Mayor and close friend of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - was yesterday suspended by the Party. In a continuation of an ongoing issue over alleged Anti-Semitism in the Party (and the British Left in general) he defended MP Naz Shah for remarks she had made (on Facebook in 2014) suggesting: 'Relocate Israel into United States'.
comment posted at 9:12 AM on Apr-29-16

What would happen if we just gave people money?
comment posted at 6:19 AM on Apr-25-16
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Apr-25-16

"That term—library anxiety—is hardly a household name among students, but say it to a college librarian, and he or she will know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s the feeling that one’s research skills are inadequate and that those shortcomings should be hidden. In some students it’s manifested as an outright fear of libraries and the librarians who work there. To many librarians it’s a phenomenon as real as it is perplexing.

"'Why would anyone think we are intimidating?' writes Michel C. Atlas. 'What is intimidating about a master’s-prepared professional earning $35,000 a year?'”
comment posted at 8:41 AM on Apr-21-16

Back in February, Mississippi (Goddam) Governor Phil Bryant declared April Confederate Heritage Month, joining other southern states in in the practice. Orcinus blogger and SPLC contributor David Neiwert thought it would be appropriate to devote his blog this month to exploring the history of the Confederacy, although perhaps not in the way Bryant intended.
comment posted at 6:26 AM on Apr-21-16
comment posted at 8:28 AM on Apr-21-16

At this week's UN General Assembly Special Session on drug policy - scheduled after lobbying by Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, whose leaders are calling for a more “humane solution” to the drugs problem that goes beyond a focus on enforcement and criminalization - Canada's Health Minister Jane Philpott announced that Canada will begin the process of legalizing and regulating marijuana in spring 2017.
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Apr-20-16

I love my cane, but I rarely hold onto it without rage. .."My first cane was black like tourmaline, a crystal used as an aid against jealousy, negative thoughts, destructive forces, and internal conflicts; I’d adorned it with Hello Kitty stickers."
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Apr-20-16

Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. I’m one of them. An essay on "Financial impotence" from Neal Gabler in The Atlantic, part of a longer project on "Financial shame": True Money Stories
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Apr-19-16
comment posted at 3:56 PM on Apr-19-16

In the endurance test that is the 2016 US presidential election, we finally come to New York State where all of the polling stations are now open. The state consists of not only the city famed for fine dining but also the mainly rural upstate region. There's a lot of delegates here; Ballotpedia has information about the Democratic and Republican allocations. Since last time, Paul said "Nope", GOP leaders said "Meh" followed by "Rules?", Washington Democrats had their own local endurance test, Virgin Islands Republicans had an unpleasant meeting, Bernie visited the Vatican, Hillary visited Staten Island (as did Donald), the Democratic candidates debated, Donald is figuring out West Virginia, Ted appears very conservative, and a grumpy John is aiming for second.
comment posted at 9:22 AM on Apr-19-16

How Seattle Gave Up on Busing and Allowed Its Public Schools to Become Alarmingly Resegregated. Seattle reluctantly bused students to integrate schools in the 1970's. They bus no longer—unfortunately, as integration benefited the students who did it.
comment posted at 2:59 PM on Apr-17-16

What did Americans know as the Holocaust unfolded? How did they respond? A new initiative of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, "History Unfolded" is using crowdsourcing to scour newspapers across the country for articles that ran between 1933 and 1945 on the plight of Europe’s Jews. The project focuses on 20 historical events from the time period.
comment posted at 7:46 AM on Apr-17-16

Rethinking the Map: How the lower 48 could be realigned into seven mega-regions.
comment posted at 11:16 AM on Apr-16-16

Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is?
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Apr-15-16

Writer Marti Leimbach explores how her personal circumstances make it difficult for her to define privilege.
comment posted at 6:13 AM on Apr-15-16

"I am on the US kill list. I know this because I have been told, and I know because I have been targeted for death over and over again."
comment posted at 5:06 PM on Apr-12-16

Considering the constant fatalities, rampant pollution, and exorbitant costs of ownership, there is no better word to characterize the car’s dominance than insane. "The car is the star. That’s been true for well over a century—unrivaled staying power for an industrial-age, pistons-and-brute-force machine in an era so dominated by silicon and software. Cars conquered the daily culture of American life back when top hats and child labor were in vogue, and well ahead of such other innovations as radio, plastic, refrigerators, the electrical grid, and women’s suffrage. A big part of why they’ve stuck around is that they are the epitome of convenience."
comment posted at 7:34 AM on Apr-12-16

As we enter the last 30 weeks of the election campaign, delegate talk becomes more prevalent. On the Republican side, current Donald (future Donald) did not have a good Saturday in Colorado and South Carolina, with Cruz picking up delegates, and Kasich seeing a path despite lacking delegates. On the Democratic side, Bernie's recent good run has added to his count, although he remains behind Hillary. Voter suppression continues to be a strong issue, while Wikipedia has some interesting data on historical voter turnout. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan may or may not be running, while Kevin Spacey, who plays Frank Underwood in House of Cards series, says some real-life presidential candidates ‘appear to be fictional’.
comment posted at 3:16 PM on Apr-11-16

Conan O'Brien and Steven Yeun go to Korea and end up in J.Y. Park's "Fire" music video along with the Wonder Girls and Twice.
comment posted at 1:50 PM on Apr-10-16

Fetishizing Family Farms Broken families, underground vice, and sexual variance - not stability - characterized the American family farm for most of its history, argues historian Gabriel Rosenberg.
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Apr-10-16

Wonkblog analyzed the names of almost every Chinese restaurant in America. As expected, certain words were very commonly used.
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Apr-10-16

Smithsonian Magazine looks at the Whitney Plantation, the first slave museum in the United States.

“Often, plantation exhibits were established for those who lived through the Civil Rights era and yearned for a less complicated time,” says Ashley Rogers, director of museum operations. “And that’s an easy thing to accomplish when you have a ‘chandelier’ tour. Where the previous focus at plantations has been on the house and the culture of Southern gentility, things are changing.”

comment posted at 2:37 PM on Apr-9-16

Content providers are in a double bind: readers don’t want to pay to read, but they also resist and resent the use of advertising and tracking software to generate income. While the introduction of subscription-only models has had mixed success, the UK newspaper The Independent recently shut down its print run, while the Guardian is cutting 250 jobs. Who'll pay to publish if we won't pay to read?
comment posted at 11:39 AM on Apr-8-16

Where The Hell is Upstate New York? With the $15/hour minimum wage set to take effect across New York State in a complex fashion (geographically and otherwise), and the arrival of primary candidates in New York State, Gothamist explore the time-old question of where exactly upstate New York is and interviews scholars and historians whose opinions (surprise!) differ.
comment posted at 1:46 PM on Apr-7-16

"What's the world's loneliest city?" "Urban life is more stressful than rural life, but whether it’s lonelier is a point of debate among social scientists. A 2016 report by Age UK noted there are higher incidences of loneliness in cities, but precisely what brings it on is surprising. The same report found that gender and education are largely irrelevant – except for those with the highest level of education, who are often lonelier – and that household income and caring for a pet also have little effect."
comment posted at 7:09 AM on Apr-7-16

Merle Haggard 1937-2016
comment posted at 2:36 PM on Apr-6-16

“prisoners are the slaves of today, and that slavery affects our society economically, morally and politically.” (pdf)
comment posted at 3:43 PM on Apr-5-16

This longform Jezebel article walks through the Greek rush period at UVA today, two years after the discredited and retracted Rolling Stone article 'A Rape on Campus.' It takes a nuanced look at the effects of the article and the attitudes of students in and out of the Greek system today. It's a depressing ride but worth it for the thoroughness of its thinking on the problem of rape on college campuses. Notably, it suggests that the problem isn't that it's only fraternity guys who rape, but that the Greek system tends to provide cover for those who do.
comment posted at 3:18 PM on Mar-30-16

In only the second case decided since the recent death of Justice Scalia, the United States Supreme Court today reached a decision [PDF] in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, deadlocking in a four-to-four tie that upholds an earlier circuit court ruling finding agency fees for non-union teachers to be constitutional, but that sets no precedent for future cases.
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Mar-29-16