February 28, 2017
IKEA has weird economics, wherein favorite pieces of design get better and cheaper. / FiveThirtyEight
Related: If you enjoy the Billy Index, you’ll love the Economist’s Big Mac Index. / The Economist
“The President ordered a well-done steak. An aged New York strip. He ate it with catsup as he always does.” Secrets learned after a reporter schemes to eat dinner near the President: he likes his meat thoroughly cooked with ketchup on top (like a six-year-old?); he’s a big tipper of busboys; he’s open to selfies with drunk guests. / Independent Journal Review
Artist Mark Leckey, a Turner Prize winner (still on view at MoMA PS1), reminisces over his iconic video Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, “a roughly chronological overview of 30 years of British nightclub culture.” / momaps1.org
Going into the president’s Congressional address, Trump’s proposed spending plan is proving divisive, difficult to spin for Republicans. / The Washington Post
A fun puzzle for the morning: Should the moon be reclassified as a planet? (And Pluto, too?) / Quartz
“When Henry finally arrived, he was cool and noncommittal. It was pretty clear to me that he had little interest in dealing with the problems that would inevitably arise if I brought out this challenging, uncompromising novel, originally published in Paris in 1934.” If you’re interested in publishing, here’s a long account by Grove Press’s Barney Rosset on the wars he fought to publish Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in the States. / Evergreen Review
Georgia photographer Peyton Fulford turns breakup text messages into heartfelt banners. / peytonfulford.com, Creators
Home to nearly three million illegal immigrants, the state of California demands details from the White House “amid growing concern that agents are targeting non-criminals for deportation.” / Reuters
“Next time you eat Chinese, for example, you might discuss how, during the Yuan dynasty, royalty and upper-class citizens did so, too.” A new book says cannibalism isn’t so abnormal. / New York Times Book Review
Three scary stories about government agencies having frightening powers.
1. “Palestinian Journalist Describes Days of Torture, Mysterious Injections by Palestinian Intelligence” / globalvoices.org
2. “Asio given access to journalists’ phone and web records” / The Guardian
3. “Sources: Trump signed off on checking White House staffers’ phones” / CNN
If you love links like we do, it’s good to hear that the app that began as the “Read It Later” browser extension won’t see any major changes in the short term following the sale. / The Verge
“The fate of the planet could hinge on the success of a veggie burger.” The Impossible Burger is meatless, lab-grown, and aims to be indistinguishable from a real burger. Right now, it falls apart too easily, but it’s getting there. / The Ringer
“The Future of Protein Will Not Be Animal Meat.” Atlantic writer and doctor James Hamblin traverses California learning about the science of shifting diets. / YouTube
There’s a lot of buzz around insect-based protein these days. You can find pasta sauces like One Hop in many gourmet grocery sources, substituting crickets or mealworm for beef to make bolognese. / therecord.com
“2017 might very well be the year of algae.” Spirulina is already used as a protein-rich ingredient by many food manufacturers and health-conscious home chefs, but algae is poised to explode in popularity. / fastcoexist.com
—28: Times more land required to grow a gram of beef protein compared to chicken or pork. / The Guardian
—95%: Projected increase in beef consumption between 2005 and 2050. / wri.org
—289,000: Hectares of forest lost per year in Bolivia, driven in bulk by beef. / onegreenplanet.org
—47%: Percentage of California’s water footprint that goes to meat and dairy. / democracynow.org
—$735,000,000: Healthcare costs averted if people just didn’t eat more meat than guidelines prescribe. / phillyvoice.com
A list of Naval shipbuilding contractors with safety problems, as documented by OSHA, next to the amount of money in federal contracts they still went on to receive: / revealnews.org
Fascinating case in which an Amazon Echo unit, aka Alexa, becomes witness to a murder and tests the bounds of Amazon’s dedication to consumer privacy. / Wired
An extensive history of Trump’s history with the WWE and the night that he took a Stone Cold Stunner from Stone Cold Steve Austin. / HuffPost
Photographs of some of the millions of residents of underground nuclear bunkers in Chinese cities, built during the Cold War and now used as unsanitary, cheap housing. / Antonio Faccilongo