December 2, 2016

The student journalist who spoke with Abdul Razak Ali Artan thought he’d found the perfect human interest story: a young, intellectual Muslim man who successfully transferred to a better school, only to find nowhere to pray at one of the nation’s largest universities. / issuu.com

By the end of Elaine Chao’s two-term tenure at George W. Bush’s Department of Labor, her administration was known for favoring business over workers, violating its mandate to enforce laws protecting workers. / The Nation

During Samatha Power’s tenure as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, there was a period of time in which she was one of six women sitting on the 15-person Security Council. Today, Power is the only woman on the council. / YouTube

From Cars—New York City, 1974-1976, by Langdon Clay. A very early take on #soloparking, or perhaps inspiration for Michael Paul Smith’s vintage tableaus. You’ll want to read Luc Sante about this. / Atlas Obscura, Instagram, flickr.com, The New Yorker

In this series, two expats in China ride around on motorcycles and have conversations about their adopted land. / YouTube

A short profile of Finnish freediver Johanna Nordblad, who holds the world record for a 50-meter dive under ice. Brings to mind Marten Lange’s photographs of crows. / martenlange.com

With Dead Bookstore, artist Ben Pieratt deconstructs old books and puts together interesting pairings and collages. He offers a “how to dead book” guide so you can make your own. / Dead Bookstore

Google Earth updates Timelapse, “with four additional years of imagery, petabytes of new data, and a sharper view of the Earth from 1984 to 2016.” / blog.google

“My motivation to create this atlas was a childlike belief that there must a place somewhere that is truly beautiful. But as it turned out, it does not work that way. Most of the islands I chose are barren land, without a tree or even drinking water.” Have we wanted to own a book so much? Quick interview with Judith Schalansky, author of anti-travel book Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will. / The Island Review

China wants to create a statewide “social credit score,” which will first take into account minor infractions like jaywalking but could expand to include things like test scores and web activity. / technologyreview.com

“I should acknowledge just how wrong I was about this election. I never once questioned my confident prediction that Donald Trump would never become president. ‘Just because Trump makes no sense doesn’t mean common sense has become worthless,’ I wrote after Trump won some early primaries. ‘One black swan does not foretell a flock of black swans.’ (Yeah. About that.)” Excellent David Roberts summary piece looks back at the election. / Vox

Americans who die resulting from police car chases—one of the deadliest police practices, and one that ought to be banned outright—are vastly disproportionately black. / USA Today, priceonomics.com

“Over the past 45 years, we have virtually stood still while our peers have zoomed ahead in the realm of traffic safety. Many of these countries have taken the long view and have tackled the hard, ingrained cultural, political and engineering issues that must be addressed to bring about sustained reductions in traffic fatalities.” Laziness on the part of American public policy officials has caused our abysmal world road safety rankings. / Vox

How the Dutch got their cycling infrastructure: Increased child deaths due to car accidents, paired with the 1970s oil crisis, led to the Netherlands adopting a nationwide protected bike lane system. / bicycledutch.wordpress.com

“The only innovation in hand is that the old ‘You rang m’Lord’ system has been transformed into a ‘you hailed me on your app m’Lord’ one instead.” Uber investors are no longer paying for innovation, they’re paying for Uber to maintain its monopoly by subsidizing user costs (the price of rides)—a “charity case.” The bottom will fall out sooner or later. / FT Alphaville

America’s roads cost drivers billions of dollars a year. It does not need to be this way. / The Washington Post, Gizmodo

An interview we did with photographer Andrew Bush about his portraits of other drivers that he took—often at 70 miles per hour—with a medium-format camera attached to the passenger side of his car. / Andrew Bush

We like a good skateboard video as much as the next person, but especially when it takes place in the snow. / YouTube, whitelines.com