Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Twitter’s Brainstorming Notes for Potential New Features. Should we increase the character limit of tweets to 142 characters? No. Increase the character limit of tweets to 145 characters? No. No one wants this. No Twitter user in the history of our platform has ever encountered the problem of trying to cut down a tweet that…
Confederate-flag sympathizers rallying at Stone Mountain Park, in Stone Mountain, Georgia, in August, 2015. Credit Photograph by John Amis / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP Barrier Status: ‘none’ In the winter of 1999, the Kansas City Star asked several local dignitaries and writers to herald the upcoming century by writing predictions, replicating an exercise that the…
In the last century, the hot dog has been on something of a world tour, traveling across the shining seas to every corner of the globe. But nowhere has it received warmer welcome or greater fanfare than in Asia. And while you can find the classic configuration of dog beneath ketchup on bun at any…
Tonight’s state of the union rebuttal was delivered by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. And truthfully, she could have said anything tonight and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Because tonight, America only had eyes for Nikki Haley’s incredible, unmoving jaw. As you can see from the speech below, if politics doesn’t work…
The latest dirt being flung at presidential candidate Hillary Clinton comes by way of GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who suggested at an Iowa campaign stump on Friday that Clinton should receive a spanking. Now, the Internet is trying to give Cruz a walloping of his own. Over the course of her political career, Clinton has…
The Powerball lottery has swollen to $1.3 billion. “Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,” Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery, which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs Powerball, told the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the Association is quietly trying to deal with a multi-state jackpot rigging scandal…
In this episode of a A Phone Call From Paul, Paul Holdengraber talks to William Gibson about the end of the world, writing fiction, and how crazy it is that people can make little marks on a page to represent and share their thoughts with other people. William Gibson on writing through the world… It isn’t…
Another year, another #OscarsSoWhite: Despite 2015 being the year that brought us the stunning Beasts of No Nation, the sleeper-smash Straight Outta Compton, Spike Lee’s satire Chi-raq, and Creed, confirmation for anyone still doubting whether or not Michael B. Jordan is a movie star, exactly zero actors of color were nominated for an Academy Award…
article start Films featuring black actors were shut out of the main categories when the nominations for the 2016 Academy Awards were announced this morning, prompting some movie fans to voice their outrage on social media. No people of color were nominated for best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, or best supporting actress and…
Author Philip Pullman has resigned as patron of the Oxford Literary Festival in protest at its refusal to pay authors. He announced his resignation on Twitter, saying: “Because of the Oxford Literary Festival’s attitude to paying speakers (they don’t) I can’t remain as a Patron any longer. I’ve resigned.” He added: “They never have [paid],…