Month: September 2021
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How Miami Seduced Silicon Valley
How Miami Seduced Silicon Valley Awash in coders, crypto, and capital, the city is loving — and beginning to shape — its newest industry. via Intelligencer: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/how-miami-seduced-silicon-valley.html It took a tweet, though, to ignite what Suarez calls “the Miami movement.” On December 4, Delian Asparouhov, a venture capitalist in San Francisco, posted, “ok guys hear…
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We Went to Vegas to Wring Joy From Heartbreak – The New York Times
We Went to Vegas to Wring Joy From Heartbreak (Published 2021) Mitchell S. Jackson and his oldest friends reunited to mourn the ones they lost — and honor the time they have left. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/magazine/covid-las-vegas.html About the Thread — not a day passes that thread goes silent. None. The Thread is where we announce anniversaries,…
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Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture? ❧ Current Affairs
Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture? ❧ Current Affairs A closer look at the economics of Black pop culture reveals that most Black creators (outside music) come from middle-to-upper middle class backgrounds, while the Black poor are written about but rarely get the chance to speak for themselves. via Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/07/who-actually-gets-to-create-black-pop-culture Out…
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Netflix Top 10: The streaming service’s clickbait problem threatens to ruin it.
Netflix’s Latest Innovation Could Be Its Ruin The streaming service has discovered the allure of clickbait. You won’t believe what happens next. via Slate Magazine: https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/netflix-top-10-movies-shows-clickbait.html The answer to What Lies Below might be a jacked aquatic geneticist with a Superman jaw line, but other mysteries are left teasingly unsolved by Netflix’s most popular titles.…
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20 Reasons To Quit Social Media – Durmonski.com
20 Reasons To Quit Social Media You either use social media, or you’re used by these insidious platforms. Here are 20 reasons to quit social media. via Durmonski.com: https://durmonski.com/life-advice/reasons-to-quit-social-media/ The benefits of staying off social media are insanely generous. Not only your time is salvaged, but also your attention – which is far more precious.
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The Master’s Trap – by Anne Helen Petersen – Culture Study
The Master’s Trap What makes a graduate program predatory? Link: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-masters-trap “I was, I think, a little overawed by the jump from a rather anonymous school to a big prestigious campus in the big city and decided I was in,” he told me. It was the peak of the financial crisis; the only other immediate…
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Gov. Whitmer Kidnapping Suspects Claim Entrapment
The FBI Says It Thwarted A Plan To Kidnap Michigan’s Governor. The Suspects Say It Was A Setup. The Michigan kidnapping case is a major test for the Biden administration’s commitment to fighting domestic terrorism — and a crucible for the fierce ideological divisions pulling the country apart. via BuzzFeed News: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/michigan-kidnapping-gretchen-whitmer-fbi-informant In the inky…
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Opinion | This Is Our Chance to Pull Teenagers Out of the Smartphone Trap – The New York Times
Opinion | This Is Our Chance to Pull Teenagers Out of the Smartphone Trap (Published 2021) Loneliness among students has soared worldwide. It doesn’t have to be like that. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/opinion/smartphone-iphone-social-media-isolation.html By 2012, as the world now knows, the major platforms had created an outrage machine that made life online far uglier, faster, more polarized…
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The Trial of Chesa Boudin | The New Yorker
The Trial of Chesa Boudin Can a young progressive prosecutor survive a political backlash in San Francisco? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-trial-of-chesa-boudin The San Francisco surveillance videos that have gone most viral are those that emphasize brazenness and impunity. In June, a reporter at the local ABC affiliate posted on Twitter a cell-phone video taken…
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Qaddafi’s Son Is Alive. And He Wants to Take Libya Back. – The New York Times
Qaddafi’s Son Is Alive. And He Wants to Take Libya Back. (Published 2021) In his first meeting with a foreign journalist in a decade, Seif al-Islam described his years in captivity — and hinted at a bid for Libya’s presidency. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/magazine/qaddafi-libya.html When Omar and Abdel Moala returned to their homes, they found a wasteland.…
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Where Do Poppers Come From?
This Man Does Not Make Poppers For decades, poppers have been the go-to sex drug for gay men. But where do they come from? via BuzzFeed News: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/poppers-factory As it turns out, not many insiders know much about them, either. Where did they come from? Who made them? How did they find their way onto…
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Peru Processes the Death of Abimael Guzmán
Peru Processes the Death of Abimael Guzmán What do you do with the body of a terrorist? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/peru-processes-the-death-of-abimael-guzman According to the new law, when this is all cleared up, the Ministry of Justice will have twenty-four hours to cremate Guzmán’s body, dispersing his ashes as it sees fit.
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The Netflix Teen Drama That Goes Deeper Into the Arab Patriarchy | The New Yorker
The Netflix Teen Drama That Goes Deeper Into the Arab Patriarchy “AlRawabi School for Girls,” a series set in Jordan, is bold in its willingness to depict young women weaponizing patriarchal violence against one another, to ultimately chilling ends. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-netflix-teen-drama-that-goes-deeper-into-the-arab-patriarchy As part of her revenge plot, Mariam creates a fake Facebook…
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The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine – The New York Times
The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine (Published 2021) Israeli agents had wanted to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist for years. Then they came up with a way to do it with no operatives present. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-fakhrizadeh-assassination-israel.html He was nowhere near Absard, however. He was peering into a computer screen at an undisclosed location…
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She Changed Black Literature Forever. Then She Disappeared. – The New York Times
She Changed Black Literature Forever. Then She Disappeared. (Published 2021) In search of Gayl Jones, whose new novel breaks 22 years of silence. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/magazine/gayl-jones-novel-palmares.html Or see a recent photograph of her. Or ask her any questions. What does it feel like, 46 years after the first, to have a new novel coming out? Why…
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The Wild Story Behind the Shooting of Walker Daugherty – Texas Monthly
Who Shot Walker Daugherty? A chaotic night at a Big Bend ranch captured the nation’s attention: first as an alleged ambush, then as a fear-mongering hoax. via Texas Monthly: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/who-shot-walker-daugherty/ In the days to come, the story of the “border ambush” that followed would reverberate outward from the Circle Dug, taken up by blogs and…
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Courtney’s Story | Defector
Courtney’s Story | Defector Three years ago, college football was rocked by a domestic violence scandal that ended with Ohio State firing assistant coach Zach Smith and suspending head coach Urban Meyer. Both men have since reinvented their images and careers. But what about Courtne via Defector: https://defector.com/courtneys-story/ “‘Oh my God, please tell the truth,’”…
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‘They Are Manufacturing Foreigners’: How India Disenfranchises Muslims – The New York Times
‘They Are Manufacturing Foreigners’: How India Disenfranchises Muslims (Published 2021) Persecution in a remote Indian province spawned Modi’s new draconian citizenship law. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/magazine/india-assam-muslims.html By December 2019, the B.J.P. had passed a nationwide law to get around this problem — the Citizenship Amendment Act. The C.A.A. would allow Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh and Parsi…
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Revolt of the NYC Delivery Workers – The Verge
Revolt of the delivery workers Robbed, stabbed, beaten, underpaid, and overworked. They have had enough. via The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/22667600/delivery-workers-seamless-uber-relay-new-york-electric-bikes-apps The man stopped at another locked bike and began again with the buzz saw, threatening the workers whenever they got close. “That thing will cut your face off,” Lopez recalled. The bike freed, the thief started to pedal…
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Rain Boots, Turning Tides, and the Search for a Missing Boy | WIRED
Rain Boots, Turning Tides, and the Search for a Missing Boy Last year in Nova Scotia, after 3-year-old Dylan Ehler vanished, online sleuths descended on Facebook groups to help find him. Then they lost their way. via WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/search-missing-boy-dylan-ehler-nova-scotia/ The vitriol spilled over into real life. People started standing outside their Bible Hill home glowering…