Essential curiosities from us and our favorites.

THE *OTHER* BAD APPLES
Assuming our newsletter is not the only one of its kind in your inbox, you've probably been bombarded throughout the week with takes, interviews, and dissections of the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal from places like Wired, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. To quote Zuckerberg from his interview with the latter, “it’s not good.” If you haven’t, and you happen to find intersecting technology/privacy narratives interesting, you know where to look. If you don’t, it’s now out of the way of the less-exhausting events of the week, and - unfortunately - the equally-exhausting ones, too.

David Blue
Editor-in-Chief

DIVISION

⊚ In Japan, prisons have become a refuge for the elderly.
"I don’t have freedom here, but I have nothing to worry about, either. There are many people to talk to. They provide us with nutritious meals three times a day."

⊚ Certifiably dead.
"The court told him he was too late, and would have to remain officially deceased."

⊚ Scientifically shitty.
I was personally quite disappointed to discover - via this piece - that Vanity Fair willingly published an especially unfunny essay by Christopher Hitchens entitled "Why Women Aren't Funny."

⊚ The Atlantic understandably fails to avoid citing Black Mirror in describing developing Chinese technologies.
"People in China don’t know 99.99 percent of what’s going on in terms of state surveillance."
+ China's "Social Credit" system from The Verge.

⊚ God continues to fall short.
"Religiously unaffiliated voters now account for a third of Democratic voters, up from just 9% in 1997."

⊚ Rich parents and the infantile swang.
"When you buy a buggy – or rather, when you buy into one – you can feel like you’re pushing around a physical representation of how much you love your child."

ART

⊚ Huck on the Hong Kong underground.
“If young people can gather and have a place to voice themselves and make their power stronger, this is what the underground music scene can do.”

⊚ The Outline embeds a Bun B track from my youth in criticizing Spotify.
“Making it so that every producer had a little hub indexing every album they’ve worked on would be intuitive and in line with hip-hop’s long-held customs."
+ 2 million users have apparently accessed their premium experience for free.

⊚ The Oregon Trail in your hand.

MEDIA

⊚ Your bump stock vlogs are doomed.
Nominated for the BBC Angle of the Year Award.

⊚ """"Sanctimonious.""""

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