Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
London has breached its annual air pollution limits just five days into 2017, a “shameful reminder of the severity of London’s air pollution”, according to campaigners. By law, hourly levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide must not be more than 200 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) more than 18 times in a whole year, but late…
How “safe harbor” turned into a protector of privilege. For Airbnb, suing American cities had become something of a monthly ritual. It started in late June 2016 with a federal lawsuit against San Francisco, the company’s hometown, over an ordinance meant to crack down on illegal short-term apartment rentals. About a month later, Airbnb sued the…
The layoffs came a week after the presidential election. Fusion staffers received a “cryptic” calendar invite for a 10 a.m. meeting the following morning. Minutes before they were set to meet, a companywide e-mail from chief executive officer Isaac Lee went out describing various reorganizations at Fusion parent Univision Communications. Buried toward the end of…
Serfs carrying J.Law’s Golden Globes gown to the fashion closet or a historical reenactment of the battle of Hastings on its 950th anniversary? YOU DECIDE. Image via Getty My glory days of shopping at Charlotte Rousse and Wet Seal in 2002 are finally justified: in its natural state of fashion arbitration, Vogue has declared that…
Illustration by Angelica Alzona. On a Saturday evening last January, Gynnya McMillen was staying at her mother’s apartment complex in Shelbyville, a city of 15,000 in northern Kentucky. Gynnya, 16, lived in foster care but was allowed weekend visits with her mother, Michelle McMillen, since their long-strained relationship had begun to improve. That night, however,…
According to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assessment, “Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world.”CreditPhotograph by Victor J. Blue for The New Yorker Barrier Status: ‘none’ On the morning of August 7, 2014, a team of fighters from the Islamic State, riding in pickup trucks and purloined American Humvees, swept out…
(Mark Lyons/European Pressphoto Agency) Last night, CNN aired a terrific segment on people from coal country who voted for Donald Trump — but are now worried that his vow to repeal Obamacare will deprive them of crucial protections that enable them to stay afloat financially. This dovetails with other reporting that suggests a lot of Trump…
Watch Dogs 2 surprised me with how it handled the microaggressions that black folks in the tech sector often encounter. Considering the way the first game served up an unlikeable stereotype of a misanthropic hacker, the sequel is a breath of fresh air. The hero of the game is Marcus Holloway, a sympathetic young black hacker,…
On Friday night at around 10pm ET—optimal time to release news—the developers of Unsung Story put out yet another update for their longrunning Kickstarter failure. Backers were… not happy. In case you haven’t followed the ongoing Unsung Story debacle, here’s the short version: In January of 2014, the developer Playdek raised $660,000 for a strategy-RPG…
Credit Adam Maida WASHINGTON — If Donald J. Trump decides as president to throw a whistle-blower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter, or gets the F.B.I. to spy on a journalist, he will have one man to thank for bequeathing him such expansive power: Barack Obama. Mr. Trump made his animus toward…