Month: February 2021
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Speaking of Britney … What About All Those Other Women? – The New York Times
Speaking of Britney … What About All Those Other Women? (Published 2021) Monica Lewinsky. Janet Jackson. Lindsay Lohan. Whitney Houston. We are living in an era of reappraisals. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/style/celebrity-tabloid-women-reappraisals.html But the race for the most salacious shot was never an equal-opportunity game. It was not young men who appeared in photos with their bra…
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Rwanda Official Admits Legal Violations in ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Case – The New York Times
Rwanda Official Admits Legal Violations in ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Case (Published 2021) A video, aired by Al Jazeera English, shows that the attorney general intercepted legal materials from Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed in the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and is accused of terrorism. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/world/africa/paul-rusesabagina-hotel-rwanda-case.html But in an hour-and-half-long preparation video that his public relations team…
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How to Unite a Deeply Divided Kosovo? Name a Lake After Trump – The New York Times
How to Unite a Deeply Divided Kosovo? Name a Lake After Trump (Published 2021) A lighthearted suggestion by a U.S. envoy hoping to bridge a vast rift between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo has taken on a life of its own — only to be ridiculed by local residents on both sides. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/world/europe/kosovo-trump-lake-serbs-albanians.html “He…
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Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College – The New York Times
Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College (Published 2021) A student said she was racially profiled while eating in a college dorm. An investigation found no evidence of bias. But the incident will not fade away. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html The janitor who called campus security quietly returned to work after three months…
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How Investigative Journalism Flourished in Hostile Russia – The New York Times
How Investigative Journalism Flourished in Hostile Russia (Published 2021) A new wave of news outlets has used conventional, and unconventional, methods to pierce the veil of Putin’s power. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/business/media/probiv-investigative-reporting-russia.html But the one that blows my mind is “probiv.” It’s drawn from the word that means “to pierce” — or to enter something into a…
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Opinion | Rush Limbaugh’s Life as a Woman-Hater – The New York Times
Opinion | The Life and Death of a Woman-Hater (Published 2021) Rush Limbaugh made the G.O.P. the party of misogyny. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/opinion/rush-limbaugh-women.html This from a man who had been detained at an airport with a prescription, not in his name, for Viagra, a sexual aid typically paid for by health insurance, and who trumpeted the…
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» Ultima VIII (or, How to Destroy a Gaming Franchise in One Easy Step) The Digital Antiquarian
Link: https://www.filfre.net/2021/02/ultima-viii-or-how-to-destroy-a-gaming-franchise-in-one-easy-step/ All of these factors led to Ultima VIII shipping in a state that almost defies critical description; seldom has a game so blatantly unfinished been allowed onto store shelves. The writing is so sparse and unrefined that it often seems like placeholder text, and yet still manages to leave threads dangling and plot…
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“Fake Famous” and the Tedium of Influencer Culture | The New Yorker
“Fake Famous” and the Tedium of Influencer Culture The HBO documentary follows three nobodies who are trying to become social-media famous—a pursuit that involves buying followers, unboxing products, and staging photo shoots in a plastic kiddie pool. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/fake-famous-and-the-tedium-of-influencer-culture There is a kind of D.I.Y. creativity about all of this, a spirit…
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China Censors the Internet. So Why Doesn’t Russia? – The New York Times
China Censors the Internet. So Why Doesn’t Russia? (Published 2021) The Kremlin has constructed an entire infrastructure of repression but has not displaced Western apps. Instead, it is turning to outright intimidation. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/world/europe/russia-internet-censorship.html More broadly, the question of how to deal with the internet lays bare a dilemma for Mr. Putin’s Russia: whether to…
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The Apology Line – Wondery – Feel The Story
The Apology Line If you could call a number and say you’re sorry, and no one would know…what would you apologize for? For fifteen years, you could call a number in Manhattan and do just that. This is the story of the line, and the man at the other end who became consumed via Wondery…
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After Pork Giant’s Cruel Killings Exposed, FBI Pursued Critics
After Pork Giant Was Exposed for Cruel Killings, the FBI Pursued Its Critics The agency, seeking information on an animal rights group, attempted to recruit a former truck driver as an informant, the truck driver says. via The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2021/02/17/fbi-iowa-select-pigs-whistleblower/ Now, the FBI had a favor to ask: Would Walker become an informant? More specifically,…
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Inside the Worst-Hit County in the Worst-Hit State in the Worst-Hit Country | The New Yorker
Inside the Worst-Hit County in the Worst-Hit State in the Worst-Hit Country When COVID-19 surged through a North Dakota community, a battle with the pandemic became a battle among its residents. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/inside-the-worst-hit-county-in-the-worst-hit-state-in-the-worst-hit-country wanted to learn about Minot because it was exceptional: it was in the worst-performing county in the worst-performing state…
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The Covid-19 era’s anti-Asian racism isn’t new. I learned this the hard way.
Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-19-era-s-anti-asian-racism-isn-t-new-ncna1258184 At the time, there was a lot of discussion about whether the movie’s slurs were insensitive and gratuitous or simply “harmless jokes.” I found it unnerving, the laughter that the slurs elicited in theaters with predominantly white audiences. And it was always white people who would say, “Can’t you take a joke?”
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What Happened to Lim Ji-hyun, the North Korean Defector?
The Mystery of the Missing North Korean Social Media Star Her life in South Korea seemed perfect: new friends, a burgeoning career, reality-TV fame. But she was about to become notorious—disappearing without a trace, only to reappear pledging allegiance to North Korea. What happened to Lim Ji-hyun? via Marie Claire Magazine: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a35365775/lim-ji-hyun-north-korean-defector/ Lim has not…
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The Sound and the Fury of Andrew Cuomo | The New Yorker
The Sound and the Fury of Andrew Cuomo Assemblyman Ron Kim was bathing his children when he got an unexpected call from the governor. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-sound-and-the-fury-of-andrew-cuomo Kim, who has been a persistent critic of Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, was in the meeting with DeRosa. A month earlier, he…
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Erik Prince, Trump Ally, Violated Libya Arms Embargo, U.N. Report Says – The New York Times
Erik Prince, Trump Ally, Violated Libya Arms Embargo, U.N. Report Says (Published 2021) Mr. Prince offered to supply weapons, drones and mercenaries to a Libyan militia commander seeking to overthrow the government, according to U.N. investigators. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/world/middleeast/erik-prince-libya-embargo.html The sheer breadth of evidence in the latest U.N. report — 121 pages of code names, cover…
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“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection — ProPublica
“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection Interviews with 19 current and former officers show how failures of leadership and communication put hundreds of Capitol cops at risk and allowed rioters to get dangerously close to members of Congress. via ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/i-dont-trust-the-people-above-me-riot-squad-cops-open-up-about-disastrous-response-to-capitol-insurrection One officer…
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Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon? – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon? The reasons for the United States new intercontinental ballistic missile—the ground-based strategic deterrent, or GBSD—are historical, political, and to a significant extent economic. Many people in the states where the new missile will be built and based via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: https://thebulletin.org/2021/02/why-is-america-getting-a-new-100-billion-nuclear-weapon/ America…