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There is something amazing and comforting and classically awe-inspiring about listening to ► the sound of the wind on Mars. || Pairs well with: The Search for Alien Life Begins in Earth’s Oldest Desert.
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Announcing the Winner of the 2018 Bad Sex Writing in Fiction award || See also (if you can bear it), the shortlist.
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Ironically, significantly less robotic writing can be found in this roundup of the 2018 Interactive Fiction Competition entries. Also known as IFComp, the competition is "an annual celebration of new, text-driven digital games and stories from independent creators." || See also: the full list of 2018 entries.
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The US Library of Congress’ Crowd initiative invites everyone to help transcribe and tag items from their vast collection. How can you pass up a chance to discover fascinating writing and make a contribution to historical knowledge? Campaigns right now include Civil War Reminiscences and Letters to Lincoln. Thanks, Reader C.
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Is speciesism, aka anti-animal language, really a thing? || See also: a new PSA from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Philosophers
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What if there was a war on a religious minority with more than one million detainees, constant surveillance and espionage, and a complete abrogation of human rights…and no one seemed to care? → China’s Uighurs told to share beds, meals with party members & Spying On The Uyghurs: A First-Person Account From A Han Chinese Student & China’s brutal crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, explained & China admits to locking up Uyghurs, but defends Xinjiang crackdown
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"In their latest installment of Literature vs Traffic, Spanish design collective luzinterruptus transformed a major street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, into a glowing river of 11,000 books."
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Two fantastic (in very different ways) longform pieces about technology and humanity and connection at its best → The Friendship That Made Google Huge and worst → Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche.
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The eyes have it, paper and books edition → Daria Aksenova’s narrative shadowboxes and "illusionary paper" series & Elizabeth Sagan’s book-lov(ing)(er) photos & for the DIY-ers How to make a book page wreath, and more book art ideas.
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Today in 1905, screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo is born in Montrose, Colorado, USA. Trumbo’s 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun won one of the first National Book Awards…and so inspired the band Metallica that they not only wrote their well-known song "One" as homage, but bought the rights to the film so they could use segments from it in their iconic ► music video. But it was as a screenwriter that Trumbo would find his greatest fame, success and eventually—as a blacklisted member of the Hollywood Ten—heartache, writing films such as The Brave One (which won an Academy Award he couldn’t claim because he couldn’t be credited), Roman Holiday (same), Spartacus, Exodus, Papillon and the aforementioned Johnny Got His Gun.
WEB
Links, links, links…from a certain, uncertain mind.
Links: December 2, 2018
- Yaas! → America can thank Black Twitter for all those new words
- Do You Even Bake, Bro? (subtitle: How the Silicon Valley set fell in love with sourdough and decided to disrupt the 6,000-year-old craft of making bread, one crumbshot at a time) is a fascinating article both on its face and because of its deep, neo-romantic assumptions about enjoyment and authenticity (and sometimes gender).
- Centuries of Sound is “an attempt to produce an audio mix for every year of recorded sound. Starting with 1860, a mix is posted every month until we catch up with the present day. The scope is moreorless everything, music of course, but also speech and other sounds…”
- Paper engineer and artist Matthew Shlian is back in Colossal with fabulous new paper sculptures || Previously: 2016 paper sculpture gallery & Geometric Paper Sculptures || See also: Paper Animation Film Fest 2018.
RIP Ricky Jay, the best close-up (and old-school, scholarly) magician ever. You can’t go wrong with this 1993 profile: Secrets of the Magus.
“Counterintuitively, the social justice stance on human evolution closely resembles that of the Catholic Church. The Catholic view of evolution generally accepts biological evolution for all organisms, yet holds that the human soul (however defined) had been specially created and thus has no evolutionary precursor. Similarly, the social justice view has no problem with evolutionary explanations for shaping the bodies and minds of all organisms both between and within a species regarding sex, yet insists that humans are special in that evolution has played no role in shaping observed sex-linked behavioral differences. Why the biological forces that shape all of life should be uniquely suspended for humans is unclear. What is clear is that both the Catholic Church and well-intentioned social justice activists are guilty of gerrymandering evolutionary biology to make humans special, and keep the universal acid at bay.” → The New Evolution Deniers (and the comments) perfectly illustrate the maddening paradox of Quillette.
I’ve said many times that Ear Hustle is one of the best podcasts/audio shows out there. It’s still true, so you should go listen. But the most current news is: co-host Earlonne Woods just had his sentence commuted!
“It seems to me, as just a layman and an amateur, that the internet is almost the perfect distillation of the American capitalist ethos, a flood of seductive choices.” → A new (to most of us) David Foster Wallace interview || See also: Maria Bustillos on coming to terms with the art, life and legacy of “damaged or criminal” artists like Wallace.
Meet Birds Aren’t Real, QAnon disinformation parody as performance art (I’m waiting for the Bards Aren’t Real parody of the Shakespeare deniers) || Previously, The Wizard of Q considered QAnon as a kind of sprawling new form of the novel.
Today in 1942, Enrico Fermi creates the first nuclear chain reaction, turning an abandoned squash court underneath the University of Chicago football stadium into “Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1),” a primitive nuclear reactor that generated a half-watt of power. The success of CP-1 lead directly to the production of enough plutonium to produce the atomic bombs that would end World War II and usher in the nuclear age and the ensuing Cold War.
Links: December 2, 2018
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Most of Africa is north of the equator…and it extends to the same latitude as Norfolk, VA. Barcelona is in line with Portland, OR. Paris is further north than Montreal. → Why your mental map of the world is (probably) wrong
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Why Is Japan Still So Attached to Paper? || Pairs well with The Complete Guide to Japanese Washi Paper
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On Quillette, The Voice of the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’
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“You realize that you need not obey the impulses of this moment — which, it seems safe to say, tend not to produce a tranquil mind.” → To survive our high-speed society, cultivate ‘temporal bandwidth’
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“New methods are allowing a group of scientists to reëxamine the world’s libraries and archives, in search of the hidden lives of authors.” → Do Proteins Hold the Key to the Past?
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I’ve been reduced to this: learning of mesmerizing performers like Chris Rodrigues and Abby the Spoon Lady through a fascinating Washington Post story, despite their 100k+ YouTube subscribers and a ► video of their performance of “Angels in Heaven” that is about to break 11 million views.
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Very different feasts for the eyes: Eron’s haunting wall paintings & Christopher Payne’s General Pencil photos.
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Commencing today, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through December 10th, International Human Rights Day, is 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, an “international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.” More than 3,700 organizations from more than 160 countries are participating.
Links: November 18, 2018
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The basic story of today’s WORK is curious…but the deeper story behind it—and Geisel’s painful Hollywood experience—gets real interesting.
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I’ve been following the Threatin hoax…here is a meander for the Clamor: Threatin: band creates fake fanbase for tour attended by no one → A fake band goes on tour: Threatin provides a perfect tale for our times → Did Threatin’s Ridiculous European Tour Stunt Actually Work? → The Story of Threatin, a Most Puzzling Hoax Even for 2018.
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“…it didn’t matter in the slightest if participants showed any artistic ability. After just 40 seconds of low-quality sketching, subjects not only remembered significantly more, they also recalled more detail and context about the words and ideas they were studying. In short, they learned more, faster.” → Drawing Is the Fastest, Most Effective Way to Learn, According to New Research
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(We are hanging by) a thread. → The Dystopia is Already Here || Pairs well, in my mind anyway, with Guess who’s championing Homer? Radical online conservatives.
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I’m not sure what to make of Rebecca Mead’s article “How Podcasts Became a Seductive—and Sometimes Slippery—Mode of Storytelling”…is it news that podcasts aren’t, well, news? That storytelling and narrative are part of nonfiction? That manipulation of the audience is part of the art and craft of story?
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When Michelle Alexander speaks, I listen. “Recent criminal justice reforms contain the seeds of a frightening system of ‘e-carceration.'” → The Newest Jim Crow
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This is a technology going in the right direction for lovers of paper and digital… → IllumiPaper: Illuminated Interactive Paper
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Look! → Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) & Soviet Russia in full color [Thanks, Reader B.!] & 1913-1915: Views of Tokyo, Japan
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Listen! → The Biblio File features “twenty-forty minute interviews with accomplished authors, publishers, biblio people, conducted by an excitable bibliophile.” The archives go back to 2006. A few episodes to get you started: Richard Minsky on his Book Art and Scholarship & Hugh McGuire on an alternative future for book publishing & Alberto Manguel on his favourite libraries and bookstores
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Today in 1828, Walt Disney’s ► Steamboat Willie (starring Mickey Mouse), premieres in New York. In addition to being the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound, it was also the first cartoon that could boast a fully post-produced soundtrack. More links: Steamboat Willie on Wikipedia & Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again.
Links: November 11, 2018
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Via Reader O. comes news that the Art Institute of Chicago has put more than 50,000 hi-res images online and into the public domain (“using CC0 licenses for copyright nerds in The Clamor”).
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In the latest “they’re coming for you” news, the ‘world’s first’ A.I. news anchor has gone live in China.
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The eternal readers’ debate about readability and literary value continues in Sam Leith’s “Pretentious, impenetrable, hard work … better?” I say: yes, and we need unpretentious, penetrable books too. And all kinds in between.
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“Once a television comfort for preschoolers, ‘Look for the helpers’ has become a consolation meme for tragedy.” I wanted to write off Ian Bogost’s article as typical backlash (no one is taking Mr. Rogers away from me) but…I couldn’t. → The Fetishization of Mr. Rogers’s ‘Look for the Helpers’
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A “snapshot of our time,” a “global selfie,” whatever you want to call it, the Memory of Mankind (MOM) project is a fascinating project creating a million-year time capsule. Learn more about the project and its founder.
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In celebration of my birthday (or something) on October 23, Starbucks opened up its first ASL store. So cool.
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Disease sniffing dogs could soon be an important part of the fight against malaria and more.
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Not that long ago, something like the GIPHY Animated Gif Film Fest would have existed only as Zoolander level parody. Confession: I spent too much time enjoying the results of the Fest’s prompt: “Can you compel an audience with an engaging story in under 18 seconds?”
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A fascinating story of (in)human endurance, human (in)sanity, a Camel-smoking contrarian, and Courtney Dauwalter winning and losing a kind of race I can’t even begin to understand. → Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter Takes On The World’s Most Sadistic Endurance Race
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Today at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918, an armistice is signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, ending World War I. Described at the time as “the war to end all wars,” an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians would die as a direct result of the violence and up to 100 million deaths are attributed indirectly through various genocides and the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Though the generals on the Western Front knew the armistice was coming, the fighting continued, with more than 11,000 casualties that morning: the last British soldier killed in action had survived four years in the trenches only to die 90 minutes before the Armistice took effect; the last American would die just one minute before hostilities ceased. Despite the scale and the sheer brutality of the combat, World War I is (amongst Americans, at least) arguably a forgotten war. See also: War Is Done! The sights and sounds of the final hours of World War I & In Photos Unpublished for 100 Years, the Joy of War’s End on Armistice Day & World War 1: Harrowing pictures show France still scarred by First World War trenches & Thomas Hardy’s poem “There Was a Great Calm” & listen to the Moment the Guns Fell Silent Ending World War I.
Links: November 4, 2018
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Interesting that the two most important sources in this article give largely contradictory advice. But I guess we who journal do so for all kinds of reasons…depending on the person, the day, the mood… → What’s All This About Journaling?
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Continuing down the candy trail. → In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate. It’s an Obsession.
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Faithful Reader B. shared this story with the click-baity (for a certain set that includes me) title How Instagram Saved Poetry. I thought about it and was equally intrigued and troubled. It reminded me of another recent article on the Instagram poetry phenomenon, Instagram Poetry Is A Huckster’s Paradise. I thought about that and was sad, but I wasn’t sure what I was sad about. Stephen Marche’s The Crisis of Intimacy in the Age of Digital Connectivity started to put it all together for me, and it’s about a lot more than poetry, writing or even art.
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“Day and night he wrote visas. He issued as many visas in a day as would normally be issued in a month. His wife, Yukiko, massaged his hands at night, aching from the constant effort. When Japan finally closed down the embassy in September 1940, he took the stationery with him and continued to write visas that had no legal standing but worked because of the seal of the government and his name.” → The Japanese Man Who Saved 6,000 Jews With His Handwriting
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On the little-known novel Hunter, by the author of The Turner Diaries, and its role in extremist actions. Written in 1995 but even more relevant today. → After the Massacre
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Great news, word nerds! → Green’s (Amazing) Dictionary of Slang will soon be free.
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Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read?
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For your eyeballs: Simon Schubert’s “Paperwork” creased paper art & Joe Reginella’s Memorial Statues Mark[ing] Fictional Disasters in NYC & 2018 Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners
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For your earholes: the oldest surviving Duke Ellington radio broadcast, known only to a small handful of connoisseurs and never made available to the public (includes the story of the recording and solid musical notes and links) & ► The Hot 8 Brass Band covers Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
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Today in 2008, Barack Obama becomes the first person of African-American (or bi-racial) descent to be elected President of the United States.
Links: October 21, 2018
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A history of “tart cards.” → Dial ‘S’ for sex
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I’ve only read a few of these, but I can confidently say Terrance Hayes’ book belongs. → TS Eliot prize announces ‘intensely political’ shortlist
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I’m almost sold by this making of lemonade from the dwarf lemons that are QAnon. → The Wizard of Q
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“Our results indicate that the routinization of Twitter into news production affects news judgment” → Do journalists pay too much attention to Twitter?
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Remember that time Donny Osmond’s needs trumped the red hot Beastie Boys? → Excerpt: Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz
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I’m not surprised by the top three. Are you? → Exclusive: Data Reveals … The Books We Most Often Try To Read But Secretly Give Up On
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Why do these tragic, brilliant pieces of long form journalism keep finding me? → A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death
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It’s all our fault. This is why we can’t have nice things. → The world’s biggest organism is facing its end
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The winning photos in the 2018 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition include some stunning entries. See also, zooming back out a bit, Cantor Arts Center and Stanford Libraries collaborate to make Warhol photography archives publicly available.
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Today in 1915, the human voice is heard across the Atlantic for the first time when B. B. Webb, a radio engineer in Arlington, West Virginia, says “Hello” in a signal received by an American Telephone and Telegraph Company antenna mounted on Paris’ Eiffel Tower. The first two-way transatlantic telephone call wouldn’t be established until 1927. The first text message—the Spanish Influenza of the voice-calling world— wouldn’t be sent until 1992.
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