Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
But Did You Read the Book? Cara Delevingne, Press Junketry, and Me Earlier this week, an interview with the actor Cara Delevingne made the rounds online. In it, the anchors of “Good Day Sacramento” refer to her as “Carla” and then ask her whether she read the novel Paper Towns. (She stars in the film…
Still upset about Cecil the lion? Maybe you should just skip this story. You see, Cecil’s death at hands of an American dentist who paid guides to lure the majestic beast from a nature reserve has struck a global nerve, and in the US, led to significant criticism of big game hunters and laws that…
Is the media, as it gets ready to supply its product directly to social networks, becoming a “wire service?” Ezra Klein, on/on Vox: [M]y guess is that within three years, it will be normal for news organizations of even modest scale to be publishing to some combination of their own websites, a separate mobile app, Facebook…
July 10, 2015 Donald trawls Google Fonts for ten minutes. There are a few candidates, but Don’s not so confident in his font evaluation skills. He lands on Open Sans. Good ol’ faithful. He sets the actionable headline text to 48pt using the light weight in white. It’s perfectly centred over the stock photo of…
“Millennials,” a demographic group defined by a slavish devotion to “keeping it real” by purchasing the correct consumer products, are now old enough to be “out there” in the world, “doing their thing.” Instead, they are living at home. Of course, it is not the fault of the millennial generation that they are living at…
A piece of a Boeing 777 discovered on an Indian Ocean beach can only be from the missing flight, but it’s 4,500 miles from where it was predicted to wash up. Only one Boeing 777 has ever disappeared over water: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. American investigators tell The New York Times that a part of…
Once the smartest form of comedy, satire has turned into fake news and dumbed-down clickbait. From Colbert to The Onion, the tide is going out. How did satire get so stupid? Not long ago, satire reigned as the highest form of comedy. It could shake political regimes, and spur social change. But in the Internet…
The platforms are like a free sauna. (Photo by Arin Sang-urai/Improv Everywhere) Every summer the subway platforms become hotter, because that is how seasons and temperatures work. Sometimes it feels very hot down there, but sometimes it’s so hot outside that it feels cooler down there, and sometimes when that subway wind comes blowing through…
On Monday, police in Mount Vernon, New York, found Raynetta Turner dead in her holding cell. According to Mayor Ernest Davis, Turner, who was 44, had been arrested for shoplifting on Saturday. Though the cause of her death is still being investigated, Davis has confirmed that Turner reported various medical issues when she was arrested,…
What are your odds of being a millionaire, do you think? One in 10? One in 50? One in 100? If you’re over 62, your odds of having at least $1 million in net wealth (your total assets minus your total debt) are relatively achievable — about 1 in 7. But if you are under 40,…