Quarterfinals of the 2019 Tournament of Books

The Rooster is alive! It's the quarterfinals in the 2019 Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes.

The Morning News
It's March! It's madness! It's the 2019 Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes!
↩︎ The Tournament of Books 1w
Moving to stifle the left, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee bans hiring firms that work with primary challengers.
↩︎ National Journal 2d
The UK government announces it will miss nearly all of the environmental targets it set in 2010.
↩︎ The Guardian 2d

Collected local LA news footage of Depeche Mode fans in a frenzy over the release of Violator in 1990.

2d
Vasectomies in Spokane spike during March Madness, which provides an ideal time to do little else but recuperate on the couch.
↩︎ The Spokesman-Review 2d
The widow of a boxing enthusiast who collected and catalogued VHS tapes of around 55,000 matches needs to re-home the archive.
↩︎ The New York Times 2d
UK researchers want volunteers to digitize 19th-century handwritten weather reports that could help predict future weather events.
↩︎ Ars Technica 2d

"Children watching these unboxing videos establish a trust and believe anything they say. They want to be that girl on the screen; they believe them to be their friend and that they are showing them stuff as a friend."

On the questionable advertising ethics of toy-unboxing videos, whose target audience has no comprehension of sponcon.
↩︎ Vox
2d
The American Museum of Natural History annotated a diorama to show the historical inaccuracies and clichés depicted in the scene.
↩︎ The New York Times 2d
As facial recognition technology proliferates, suspected shoplifters could be unfairly smeared for life.
↩︎ CNET 2d
Forecasters warn recent torrential rainfall in the central US portends "a potential unprecedented flood season" through May.
↩︎ BuzzFeed News 2d

I loved seeing the Replacements in 2014 with only two of its four original members, yet I would not see Pixies, who are touring through mid-April, because they’re missing the bassist Kim Deal, one of its original quartet. If it’s weird to care that much about a bassist, well, being a rock fan is often weird.

On the current spate of reunion tours featuring only a fraction—and sometimes none—of the original band members.
↩︎ The New York Times
2d
Over two million people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe are affected by Cyclone Idai. Satellite images show the damage.
↩︎ European Space Agency 3d
After Rep. Devin Nunes sued @DevinCow, the parody account utterly surpassed the lawmaker in followers.
↩︎ The Daily Beast 3d
"Every type of coin from around the world" gets tested (not really) to see which are magnetic.
↩︎ Final Boss Form 3d
An Instagram feed for slime mold fans.
↩︎ marin_mushrooms / Instagram 3d
People who believe that vaccines are unsafe are more likely to believe nonvaccine conspiracy theories.
↩︎ American Psychological Association 3d

“That’s one of the consequences of the internet. Formerly these people felt isolated and alone, but now they find their mates, they find their people.”

The web fosters communities of aggrieved entitlement, where people heighten “each other’s feelings of group-based grievance.”
↩︎ The Interpreter / The New York Times
3d
Your weekly white paper: Discussing an issue with like-minded people makes people hold more extreme views about it.
↩︎ University of Chicago Law School 3d

Try to imagine George W. Bush ripping into the husband of Karen Hughes, who played a role similar to Kellaynne in his White House. Or Barack Obama mocking George McGovern after he died in 2012. It’s inconceivable.

Trump’s politics are TMZ politics, and he likes it.
↩︎ The Daily 202 / The Washington Post
3d