August 8, 2017
Former Obama science staffers are still organized, and continue working and advising Democratic lawmakers. / STAT
“Nazi Germany was also defeated. But while its surviving leadership was put on trial before the world, not one author of the Confederacy was convicted of treason.” HBO’s planned Confederate isn’t alternative history—it’s unacknowledged reality. / The Atlantic
Sci-fi about uploaded and shared consciousnesses sheds light on moral panics about social, media-spread contagions. / Somatosphere
New paintings by Zambian artist Jonathan Wateridge. / ARTNAU
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma faces a no-confidence vote, yet another attempt to unseat the president. / BBC News`
“Across all of human history and going back thousands of years, there have existed a tiny handful of people who’ve simply wanted to be alone.” Interview with the author who profiled Chris Knight, the man who escaped to the Maine wilderness for decades. / Hazlitt
Game theorist kills his wife and only serves 10 years. His brother-in-law thinks he gamed the system. / Philadelphia Magazine
A trailer for Loving Vincent, supposedly the world’s first fully oil-painted feature film. / lovingvincent.com
Emails outline the USDA’s linguistic advice to employees on how to avoid saying “climate change.” / The Guardian
The It’s Okay to Be Smart team explains how glaciers move. / YouTube
“By flooding the consciousness with gnawing unpleasantness, pain provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness.” Some interesting but not super convincing theories about why rich people enjoy masochistic events like cycling, running, and obstacle course racing. / Outside Magazine
A new career’s available in Hollywood: “intimacy directors,” people who specialize in choreographing sex. / LEO Weekly
“With few exceptions, American conservatives respect the Constitution. The modern American left, by contrast, thirsts to get rid of one of the most fundamental protections that the Constitution enshrines: free speech.” An absolutist rails against liberals for being weak on free expression. “If the criterion for censorship is that nobody’s feelings can be hurt, we are finished as a free society.” / The Boston Globe