August 31, 2017
“Unpopular opinion, I love our pumpkin spice. Hate the commotion that comes with it but I think that half syrup with an extra shot, it’s absolutely delicious.” Employees of “The Siren,” aka Starbucks, use a Reddit panel to prepare for this week’s arrival of pumpkin spice. / Reddit
For your Thursday deep dive: A smart, considerate conversation about gender differences, stocked with data analysis. / Slate Star Codex
For sale: a vast collection of horrible, awful, nightmarish things—600 clowns—plus a couple rooms favored by truckers in Nevada. / YouTube
1. The great writer Terry Pratchett, recently deceased, wanted his unpublished work crushed by a steam roller. Wish granted: / The New York Times
2. The future of public transportation in dense cities is gyroscopic. / designboom.com
3. All your nigiri will soon be fashioned by tiny robot hands. From the precisely titled, “How an Angry Candy Man Revolutionized the Modern Sushi Industry.” / bloombergquint.com
4. Amazon and Microsoft are working together so that their AIs can work together. / The New York Times
5. Ooh, look: a book contains Mt. Fuji (found via Things). / colossalshop.com, thingsmagazine.net
And the newsmakers report with glee. “Houston floods have created massive colonies of floating fire ants.” / Quartz
The presidency has been licensed: Mr. Trump’s new “USA” cap is for sale, with profits returning to Mr. Trump. / NPR
Using their Katrina experiences, former government workers crowdsource online cries for help during Harvey. / BuzzFeed
“It’s great, especially since two weeks ago we had all that bullshit with the white supremacists... it’s sad that it takes something like this to bring unity to our people.” A brief selection of the stories of everyday Houstonians who are saving their neighbors’ lives. / BuzzFeed
Bringing the scale of Harvey closer to (your) home: what a 500-year flood would look like in other cities. / The Washington Post
Long after floodwaters recede, Houstonians may deal with long-term health problems due to mold overgrowth. / The Atlantic
A mapmaker reorganizes the Golden State with more consistent conceptualization than usual. / GeoCurrents
“I and others will be the first ones to stand up with you. If you need help and someone comes and they require help, and then for some reason, then somebody tries to deport them, I will represent them myself, OK?” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner reasserts his city’s sanctuary status. / The Hill
The world is so big, and we are so small: Aerial photos of the Houston flooding. / The Huffington Post
“No limits to what we may learn from the application of reason combined with experimental observation are yet known.” A bit of inspiration for your afternoon: there’s no boundary to what we may still discover about the universe. / Nautilus
Photographs of the ocean, by Brent Broza, that you’ll be surprised aren’t actually paintings. / Brent Broza