October 13, 2016

Of all McDonald’s troubles, a copyright infringement over some in-store wallpapering doesn’t seem so major. But a lawsuit from the family of a graffiti artist is a problem for them, and it should be for us, too, because it’s time to set a precedent on the intellectual property rights of graffiti artists. / The Wall Street Journal, theconversation.com

“The massive mouthful comprised of two beef patties, special sauce, American cheese, pickles onions, and lettuce served on a three-part sesame seed bun is waning in relevance, as customers ditch the frozen patty for ‘better-for-you’ varieties at Shake Shack and Smashburger.” Only one in five millennials has tried a Big Mac. / NY Daily News

“McDonald’s struggles in recent years have been due largely to the chain’s failure after 10:30 a.m.,” business analysts say, and the embarrasing fact is that they don’t sell enough burgers. / nrn.com

Asia Bibi has less than 24 hours for Pakistan’s Supreme Court to void her blasphemy conviction, or she will be executed over a case that began when her fellow fieldhands didn’t want a Christian like Bibi to handle their water bowl. / rt.com

If public policy followed public opinion polling, voting rights would be restored to 77 percent of the 6.1 million people who are currently disenfranchised due to felony convictions. / sentencingproject.org

Nineteen states explicitly allow the use of corporal punishment in schools; its use is concentrated mostly in the Deep South. As a result, researchers found that “black children are at a much greater risk of being subject to corporal punishment than white children in districts where it is being used.” / Society for Research in Child Development

“Risk assessment” processes are regularly used to deny prisoners a release when their terms are up. / Truthout

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provide access to user data to Geofeedia, a monitoring company that contracts with law enforcement agencies, and specifically markets itself as a tool to track Black Lives Matter activists. / aclunc.org, Medium

The Impossible Burger—the first vegan meat—is available today for the first time on the West Coast. / vegansaurus.com

Even as the country is beginning its rebuilding and emergency operations after being ravaged by Hurricane Matthew, Haitians are requesting that those looking to help please not donate to the Red Cross. / The Independent

McDonald’s is curtailing Ronald McDonald’s public appearances in light of the rash of clown-clad pranksters scaring kids across the US and UK, with some “killer clowns” even showing up at the chain. / Los Angeles Times, thesun.co.uk

“MY LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE? DO I MOVE TO FINLAND?” Members of the alt-right are taking 23&Me ancestry tests en masse so they can boast about their racial purity, or bemoan their lack of it. / Vice News

Probably only for press nerds, but maybe not? A fun oral history of The Stranger, the great Seattle indy newspaper that gave the world Dan Savage. / Longreads

Pastry chefs are in high demand, but their wages aren’t rising. / The New York Times

Despite Don Delillo’s last minute rise in the betting pool against the likes of Haruki Murakami, it’s Dylan who wins the Nobel Prize in literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” / The Guardian, Rolling Stone

“Masters do nothing, and gain illumination.... Just be with trees. No hiking, no counting steps on a Fitbit.” “Japanese practice of ‘forest bathing’ is scientifically proven to improve your health.” And why? Among reasons: “Forest air doesn’t just feel fresher and better—inhaling phytoncide seems to actually improve immune system function.” / Quartz

“When I got back from India, and got to the West Coast, there was a poet Charlie Plymell at a party in Bolinas, played me a record of this new young folk singer Bob Dylan. And I heard ‘Hard Rain,’ I think. And wept....‘Cause it seemed that the torch had been passed.” When Allen Ginsburg heard Bob Dylan for the first time. / No Direction Home

Delightful scene from No Direction Home where Dylan juggles combinations of words from advertisements on the street. / YouTube

A disproportionate amount of attention to Dylan’s poetic legacy seems to land on the 11-minute epic “Desolation Row,” off 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited, and particularly on the notion that he used it to link himself with poetic forebears. Oxford poetry professor Christopher Ricks, who did a lot of the PR in terms of raising the possibility that Dylan deserved the Nobel, says a particular verse, about “Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain’s tower,” inspired him to think of Dylan as a poet for the first time. / The New York Times, YouTube