December 1, 2016

“With her face unpainted, it’s almost as if Clinton is returning to an earlier iteration, reclaiming her identity as the accomplished, aggressive lawyer Hillary Rodham, who pursued success while rejecting the rules put forth by the patriarchy.” For women in the public eye, makeup is never really “just makeup”—and few are as intimately aware of this fact as Hillary Rodham Clinton. / Quartz

San Francisco’s police union is the sole reactionary conservative political voice in a city where the political spectrum ranges from progressive to liberal. / modernluxury.com

When we hear “White House” and “augmented reality,” we know what’s coming, we steer the other way, we’re still raw. Except this isn’t about Trump: the Obama White House just released an app. / The Verge

Your Thursday morning bread basket of things we valued reading early this morning because they made us see a topic differently, if only for a moment.

1. “Democrats should pick their health-care battles” / The Washington Post

2. “On Airport Privatization” / Marginal Revolution

3. “Donald Trump, the First President of Our Post-Literate Age” / Bloomberg

4. “Sanctuary Cities Must Cooperate With Federal Enforcement” / The New York Times

5. “Four Ways the Jill Stein Recount Screws Black Voters” / The Root

Eye of the beholder, non? A study finds that art experts are worse than students at picking out genuine works of art. A good reminder to drink cheap wine. And did you know you can fake a scientist? / New York Magazine, Slate, Nautilus

In case you liked yesterday’s headline of the day (“Estonian Troops Have Never Fought a Cold War—Thanks to Pop-Up Saunas”) you’ll want to know that people in the Estonian capital of Tallinn can have their meals delivered by a small adorable robot running on wheels. / wolt.com

From “Midpregnancy Marriage and Divorce: Why the Death of Shotgun Marriage Has Been Greatly Exaggerated,” by Christina M. Gibson-Davis, Elizabeth O. Ananat, and Anna Gassman-Pines. / link.springer.com

“When they’re not at their day jobs, a great many of the island’s 330,000 inhabitants dabble in verse, including politicians, businessmen, horse breeders and scientists who study the genetic isolation of the island in pursuit of medical breakthroughs.” In Iceland poetry is a national pastime, but not a particularly “specialist activity.” / New York Times

Bringing this full circle to forms of mass address: Starting in January Donald Trump will be able to send unblockable text messages through FEMA to all Americans. / New York

“They believed that we needed to create a kind of media that would promote democratic personalities. And if we did that, we could prevent racist nationalism. They dreamed of media that would surround you, that would require you to make your own choices and use your individual perception to define the images that mattered most to you.” Midcentury American intellectuals like Margaret Mead and John Cage believed mass media like radio enabled Hitler’s rise. As a counter, they suggested something that sounds a bit like the Internet. / initialized()

If you go to a major tech show, like Europe’s Web Summit, you’re likely to see nearly every booth occupied by startups either inane or downright sinister. / The Atlantic

Which is to say, it’s a place where creativity flourishes amidst disorder. But pessimistically, it’s a failed state, where no central government means crime goes unpunished and key services (trash, spam) aren’t attended to. / The Guardian

Freedom House reports that Internet freedom declined for the sixth consecutive year, driven by dismal trends like reprisals for social media likes, censorship of images (in addition to text), and new restrictions on web-based calls. / Freedom House

“That misinformation plagues our politics is a symptom of a larger, more existential problem: The tech industry has disrupted the public sphere and has shown neither the interest nor the ability to reconstruct it. No matter what Facebook might believe, there is no turnkey algorithmic solution that will ensure a perfect civic network.” In 1990, a couple Japanese modems allegedly launched the Velvet Revolution. Today the rubble of public sphere is a thousand private Slacks. / New York Magazine

There are many reasons why your opinion of Steve Mnuchin might range beyond skeptical. / Vox

The case for calling bullshit every time a news anchor cites “FBI crime statistics”—that data is voluntarily supplied by police departments and is often (if not always) incomplete. / YouTube

“The world does not need any more 17-year-old Wall Street babies who show up during O-Week and learn how to shake hands and take selfies with war criminals, any more moderates who lust for compromise in the legislatures and tweet gleefully about Hamilton while minority voting blocs in rural areas get gerrymandered out of existence.” Elite institutions need to do their part and shut down their establishment training grounds. Beginning tomorrow, if at all possible, with the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, headed by David Axelrod. / The Chicago Maroon

In a duel, assailants draw simultaneously. St. Louis lawyers contend that aggressive pro-gun laws now make dueling legal, with neither party liable. / riverfronttimes.com

“The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march, of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.” Rick Perlstein in 2012: Conservative politicking has always come hand-in-hand with inaccurate, fearmongering messages—“fake news” in today’s parlance. / The Baffler

The haircut this author’s friends referred to as The Win Butler, popular for most of the past decade with hipsters and soccer players, is going out of style after it became the haircut de rigeur of Hitler-aping white nationalists. It’s even referred to now as a “fashy.” / The Washington Post