December 9, 2016
“A feedback loop of political clout, content, advertising, and readers—with each node of influence dutifully echoing the core dictates of the political philosophy that rules the Democratic Party. Journalism finally has its unicorn.” Against Vox. / The Baffler
If you have in-laws who love Boston basketball, or just Larry Bird, this is the video they’re emailing you right now—and for good reason. / YouTube
An economist writes a response to a Krugman assertion that East Germany is more depopulated than Appalachia. / The New York Times
Your morning conversational tidbit: a “SufganiKing” is Burger King’s new hamburger-jelly-donut hybrid, to be sold in Israel. / tabletmag.com
An A.I. created a carol after studying a photograph of a Christmas tree. / news.developer.nvidia.com
An investigation into the country’s largest chain of psychiatric hospitals (an unnerving descriptor) reveals a culture designed around profit, not treatment. / BuzzFeed
It’s that time of year, and what a year to look back on. Here are some of our favorite takes so far, to be updated as 2016 walks slowly offstage.
1. Trends and commentary: Some of the year’s best tweets and hastags. / The New York Times
2. Trump v. Clinton: Nineteen things learned from the US presidential election, from a statistical modeling point of view. / andrewgelman.com
3. Music: The Quietus albums of the year; the best of Bandcamp; Popmatters’s best of the year in jazz. / thequietus.com, daily.bandcamp.com, popmatters.com
4. Books: We’ve previously summed some of these up, but here are 30 medieval texts that were translated this year, also what Bill Gates enjoyed reading. / medievalists.net, linkedin.com
5. Longtime gear reviewer Michael Lanza’s favorite backpacks and things from 2016. / thebigoutside.com
“When you really, really play yourself—when you attach your identity to a political or moral position, and end up damaging or repudiating that position by your own actions—the process often takes years.” Jia Tolentino’s amazing “The Year We Played Ourselves.” / The New Yorker
An annual special issue of the Economist looks forward to the year to come. What to expect for 2017? Bolshiness around the world, toxic politics in France, ever more money dumped into virtual reality. / The Economist
Tom Whitwell kept track during the year of interesting new facts and stories that he learned about. The list of 52 things includes, with citations: / Medium
the best games of the year / TMN
120 titles from the year in fiction / TMN
Cheerleading has received provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee. A brief history of what’s becoming considered a sport in its own right. / collegian.psu.edu, The New York Times
Filipino police forces—funded, in large part, by millions of State Department aid dollars—have a near-perfect kill rate, exposing the government’s line that police only fire when fired upon and suggesting an official practice of extrajudicial drug killings. / BuzzFeed, Reuters
Remember Peter Thiel’s Randian rich-dude “fellowship” to entice teens to drop out of school, move to San Francisco (probably displacing an artists’ collective or family in the process), and become “founders?” What it actually looks like now is more of “a kid version of the Young Presidents’ Organization,” a network of 120 or so rich twentysomethings, most of whom had already achieved what most human beings would describe as “success.” / Backchannel
“This harrowing character study reads like Breaking Bad only after Walter White becomes rich and evil, also he somehow becomes younger and more insufferable and flies to Dubai occasionally.” YouTube’s top 10 viral videos of 2016 reviewed with the thoughtful analysis they deserve. / GQ
“It is the writer who is meant to be the naive child, but I maintain that people who believe in fundamental and irreversible changes in human nature are themselves ahistorical and naive.” Zadie Smith, on optimism and despair, proving again she’s among the best nonfiction writers working. / New York Review of Books
Until 50-60 years ago, opposing evolutionary forces led to a brutal paradox: about 3% of all births would put the mother in danger because her hips were too narrow. As caesarean sections have relieved the countervailing pressure on women to have hips wide enough to avoid death in childbirth, baby heads can be bigger, and now about 36 of every 1000 births fall into this category, an increase of 20% in less than a century. / BBC