Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Rebekah Marine, a model with an i-limb quantum prosthetic hand, will walk in New York Fashion Week on Sept. 13 in the FTL Moda show. The 28-year-old was born without a right forearm. She was told at a young age that she wouldn’t have a future in modeling. She quickly gave up the idea, went…
It is a truism to say that relationship is hard to maintain. It might be even more difficult when the Atlantic Ocean separates them. But thanks to internet and those big data companies that feed themselves with our personal informations, we can now have a real relationship even with 5,500 km between us. Real in…
After searching through the Ashley Madison database and private email last week, I reported that there might be roughly 12,000 real women active on Ashley Madison. Now, after looking at the company’s source code, it’s clear that I arrived at that low number based in part on a misunderstanding of the evidence. Equally clear is…
So lately I’ve had people passing around this article by Caitlin Flanagan about the p.c. police ruining campus comedy, which appears to be stage one of a one-two punch from the Atlantic about how p.c.-ness is ruining college in general, with the haymaker being Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s magnum opus about how p.c. culture is somehow…
Many straight men, as many a straight lady can tell you, have an annoying habit of mistaking basic manners — a smile, a laugh, even a simple polite reply — for flirtation. Recently, a team of Norwegian psychologists decided to investigate this romantic mystery, and they concluded that this sexual misperception — as they…
The new issue of Jacobin, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Union victory and emancipation, is out now. Subscribe today to get a copy or order a single issue. In principle the annual Burning Man festival sounds a bit like a socialist utopia: bring thousands of people to an empty desert to create an alternative society. Ban money and advertisements and make it…
Ever since I wrote on Thursday about the Ashley Madison hack and resulting reactions and consequences, I’ve heard from dozens of people who used the site. They offer a remarkably wide range of reasons for having done so. I’m posting below one email I received that I find particularly illuminating, which I very lightly edited to correct a few…
When a team of hackers dumped data online that revealed the identities of millions of users of the infidelity dating website Ashley Madison, among the revelations was just how few women seem to use the site. Ashley Madison claims that around 5.5 million of its 37 million users are women. But some stories asserted that…
Photo via Flickr user Francis Storr In the modern world, it’s impossible to live ethically without going off the grid or killing yourself. If you did live off the grid (or didn’t live, period), you wouldn’t be reading this right now. But you are. Which means you—yes, you, in spite of your Prius with the…
It’s 2015, and feminism is still a dirty word. But it’s a real expletive on places like Tinder, where sexism is all-too-often all-too-visible. That’s why Laura Nowak created the Instagram account Feminist_Tinder, showcasing what happens when women put the word feminist into their Tinder bios. For the account, Nowak screenshotted various conversations she had…