March 2, 2017
It would appear that the latest body art trend is “freckling”—tiny ink freckles of a semi-permanent nature. / Bored Panda
A survey of over 200 local governments in 11 states of the Great Plains finds that county commissioners and mayors are concerned about climate change, but use phrases like “conservation,” “air quality,” and “energy savings” to accomplish change. / Scientific American
“[Female assistant bots like Siri and Alexa] entrench sexist tropes through their passivity.” When bots largely accept direct sexual harassment, their creators need to step in and force behavioral changes. / Quartz
In a century and a half, there’s never been a January and February without snow in the heart of the Windy City’s winter. / Chicago Tribune
“You could have forgiven a black farmer back then for believing that the reason Roosevelt was so hell-bent on preserving these forests was because white folk were running out of trees for lynchings.” Black leaders aren’t waiting around for environmentalists to get over their history of racism. Instead, they’re building their own movements, including one for climate action in the South. / Outside
China’s rush to copy foreign landmarks—the country has at least 10 White Houses, four Arcs de Triomphe, several Great Sphinxes, at least one Eiffel Tower—hits a stumbling block with a new version of London’s Tower Bridge in the eastern city of Suzhou, with some asserting it’s better than the original, others complaining about a lack of confidence in Chinese history. / The Sun, Time, shanghaiist.com, dailymail.co.uk, NBC News
We love a good Florida man story. / archive.tcpalm.com
In the first episode of Alexis Madrigal’s new podcast, he revisits how the Vietnam War changed trade, crisscrosses the Pacific with an artist who signed up to travel in a shipping container, and talks with Oakland longshoremen about how their trade has changed. / soundcloud.com
“Without the TPP, the other 11 countries aren’t completely dead in the water, but they do need to pivot—and they’ll likely pivot to China.” A great primer in Teen Vogue about next steps for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. / Teen Vogue
Content producers like American News LLC build the components of a story, process it through hyperpartisan filters, and publish versions with opposing spin on their sites. / BuzzFeed