It's almost time for the 2022 ToB!

It's almost time for the 2022 Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes. Check out the short list today!

The Morning News

A supercut of tedious interviews Debbie Harry has endured.

Jun 14, 2019
More Headlines
Inside the FBI's Art Crime Team, which investigates everything from looted artifacts to forgeries to high-profile art thefts.
↩︎ Hyperallergic 9h
Someone has been terrifying Swedish children with mysterious TikToks that claim "war is coming," and it's probably Russia.
↩︎ Defense One 9h

It was the CD that turned Pet Sounds and Another Green World and Heart of the Congos and Astral Weeks into widely beloved classics, as opposed to cult items; it was the format that finally made Lee “Scratch” Perry a mainstream hero.

“No format has ever been kinder to music that takes time.” On the return to compact discs.
↩︎ Rolling Stone
9h
After losing her dog in an attack, a pet owner learns that in Texas a pet has little to no value, legally speaking.
↩︎ Texas Monthly 9h
Covid death figures are unreliable, scientists say. The actual toll may be between two and four times the official numbers
↩︎ Nature 9h
"I was upset with what I was seeing." What happened after a doctor wrote "climate change" as the cause of a patient's heat stroke.
↩︎ WIRED 9h
Citing evidence in birds and mammals, some scientists have proposed that we're entering a Sixth Mass Extinction.
↩︎ VICE 9h

Directly in front of me, I watch one of the attackers leap up on a ledge, rip off his mask, beat his chest, and screech with apparent glee. As if on cue, the attackers all remove their red hoodies and scatter. 

Writer Jeff Weiss writes about witnessing the recent murder of Drakeo, the rapper he helped to free from prison last year.
↩︎ Los Angeles Magazine
1d

Each judge has around four minutes to assess each product – this includes tasting, discussing and writing up feedback for the producer. "We run through the emotional gamut of being curious, frustrated, bewildered, excited, and occasionally exhilarated if we find a three-star product."

“Awards have perhaps always been inextricable from capitalism.” How Britain’s “Great Taste” awards for food are decided.
↩︎ Vittles
1d
Wikitrivia is a game where you try to sequence Wikipedia articles in chronological order.
↩︎ Wikitrivia 1d
Five "weed nuns" in Central California are teaching Christ through cannabidiol products. “Christianity is dying all around us."
↩︎ Rolling Stone 1d

“People don’t want to believe that humans could be better than a machine.”

A Guardian story today about what life is like as a "super-recognizer," someome who's exceptionally good at remembering faces...

She still enjoys looking at faces – the use of face masks during the pandemic is providing a fun challenge. Most of the time she can still recognise a person even if they’re wearing one – and the diagnosis has given her “confidence in my abilities.” “It made me realise: oh yeah, it’s not crazy – I must have been right the whole time. It’s not that I’m creepy, but my brain is just wired that way.”

...reminded us of the much more robust New Yorker article from 2016 about facial-recognizing pros in London, and it's still great.

“Every identification we make is effectively a cold case. We’re unique. There’s no precedent for what we’re doing.”

1d

I am jealous of the people who make it work with an Eames chair, a fancy ottoman, some nice art books, and multigenerational inherited wealth. Their iPads are so empty.

Paul Ford: I often trick myself into thinking that the road to less stuff might be paved with more stuff.
↩︎ WIRED
1d
A new effort's underway to build "a biblical sized monument on the back of a semi-trailer" in honor of Elon Musk.
↩︎ Elon GOAT Token 1d
Some thoughts on what early bikes did for women. "Almost everyone one knows is buying a bicycle or talking of buying one."
↩︎ Flashbak 5d
You can get a bicycle and $10,000 in Bitcoin if you work remotely and you're willing to move to northwest Arkansas.
↩︎ Axios 5d

Kitties vs. Café

A diorama-themed restaurant in Osaka was saved from pandemic-closure after a family of cats made it their home. As related by Spoon & Tamago:

It was like the set of a monster cat movie so the owner began photographing and posting pictures to the restaurant’s Instagram account. Before long, people began showing up from all over Japan to see the cats and business took off.

From the Instagram account:

5d
Your weekly white paper: A new study finds both men and women look better with a mask, preferably blue, obscuring their face.
↩︎ The Guardian 5d

It’s pointless to debate which group is loneliest. Still, I might argue for some sympathy for Northerners in midlevel jobs who work alone or remotely.

Pouring one out for the academics, the accountants, the middle managers dealing with pandemic loneliness.
↩︎ Bloomberg
5d
See More From TMN