Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Last time we checked on The Binding of Isaac community, a glitch caused people to believe the game’s missing content was part of a giant conspiracy. Instead, it was just a glitch. But in the last few days, culminating in a real-life search of Santa Cruz, California, fans did band together to solve a grand…
The so-called caliphate has a special hatred for ‘apostate’ Muslims who adopt Western ways—and declared them special targets of the Paris attacks. PARIS — Although officials have been slow to release the names of the victims of the Paris terror attacks, from those that are known a portrait is emerging of vibrant young people as…
The New York Times Fear not, media ethicists: When columnist David Brooks enjoyed two bottles of champagne on a ritzy assignment for T Magazine, he wasn’t being courted by the subject of the story. That’s according to New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan, who says The Times picked up the check for Brooks’ participation…
Four weeks away from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens—and nine weeks after the film’s merchandise hit shelves—Hasbro is running low on inventory. Star Wars sales met the toymaker’s highest expectations when new merchandise debuted on Sept. 4, and while the rush has eased since, demand is still ahead of expectations, CEO Brian…
The Taliban has a brutal reputation when it comes to women’s rights: The group made its name in part by banning Afghan women from going to school or work, or even leaving the house without a male chaperone. But a new faction of Taliban militants claimed on Sunday it would permit women to work and get an…
We like cats too. Online activity is ceaselessly tracked. In publishing, this has become an acute dystopia. Yes, we read what we read for a variety of complex, nuanced reasons, arguably now more than ever, for the cognitive economy forces intimacy on its consumers, with social media asking us daily to consider what our…
This hasn’t been a good week for Snapchat. News that the startup got a 25% markdown from a big investor dominated the first half of the week. And on Friday, Snapchat released a new version of its app that makes people pay to keep using certain “Lenses,” a special type of photo filter. When users…
Every day in June, the most popular wedding month of the year, about 13,000 American couples will say “I do,” committing to a lifelong relationship that will be full of friendship, joy, and love that will carry them forward to their final days on this earth. Except, of course, it doesn’t work out that way…
Like millions of people, I’ve been obsessively following the news from Paris, putting aside other things to focus on the horror. It’s the natural human reaction. But let’s be clear: it’s also the reaction the terrorists want. And that’s something not everyone seems to understand. Take, for example, Jeb Bush’s declaration that “this is an…
This looks like a really awesome television show, recently previewed at DISCOP AFRICA 2015. Jongo is a television series set to premiere in 2016 in South Africa, following a young man who gains supernatural abilities after discovering an alien crystal. Jongo is set in Johannesburg, following Eli King after he finds a crystal left to…