The notion that every woman you may hire has some measurable risk associated with her—as if we’re all ticking discrimination lawsuit timebombs—is itself discrimination. The “risk,” if there even is any, isn’t located in the women a firm may or may not hire, but in the structure of their own organization. That is, the “risk” isn’t that a woman will call you out—it’s that you’re already committing acts of discrimination, consciously or otherwise, and just don’t know it.
30 species, 30 pieces. In Pieces is an interactive exhibition of 30 of the world’s most interesting but unfortunately endangered species — their survivals laying literally, in pieces.
Tressie McMillan Cottom: Starbucks Wants To Talk To You About Race. But Does It Want to Talk To You About Racism?
It is hard to know where to begin talking about race the way Starbucks wants to talk about race. I know theories, histories and measurements of race and racism. I do not know much about race “perspectives” that might fit on stickers that would be worth sticking somewhere.
What these two moves share is the underlying view that some kinds of affective labor and digital interactivity are good–the kinds that Swift can both control and extract the most surplus value from–and some kinds of interactivity are bad–the kinds that Swift doesn’t control and extract enough surplus value from. The bad kinds feminize Swift–they put her in the position of feminized laborer, of wife. We can think of Swift’s two moves this week as attempts to Lean In, that is, pull herself out of structural/economic feminization.
Here's a collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights and current missions. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" every time you get a phone call if you make our sounds your ringtone. Or, you can hear the memorable words "Houston, we've had a problem," every time you make an error on your computer.
Stassa Edwards: A Short History of the Executioner
What remains of the history of the executioner is his professionalism; his ability to efficiently manage the spectacle of death, to make his work seem like justice’s natural route, and to above all avoid disruption or botching. Like the throngs that gathered to witness the work of Charles-Henri Sanson or the beheading of Thomas Cromwell, we do not question the executioner’s purpose—to kill the condemned—only the cruelty of his methods.
Mike Sheffield: Internet slang meets American Sign Language (Hopes and Fears)
How do you sign "new" words? The Deaf community works as a network, collectively brainstorming new sign language terms over the web, until dominant signs emerge.
"moDernisT" was created by salvaging the sounds lost to mp3 compression from the song "Tom's Diner", famously used as one of the main controls in the listening tests to develop the MP3 encoding algorithm. Here we find the form of the song intact, but the details are just remnants of the original. Similarly, the video contains only material which was left behind during mp4 video compression.
Fredrik deBoer: What’s Really Going on with the Beck-Beyonce Thing
These vague associations with arts and media are intended to send a message that, if voiced explicitly, we all know by now to ridicule: some of my best friends are black.
A series of tweets by @betajames spotted by @cwodtke.
Instititutionware is about preserving the institution as it is and has been, enhancing/supporting rather than challenging/threatening.
James Fisher: Wikipedia needs an IDE, not a WYSIWYG editor (Medium)
Wikipedia has a declining population. Their own research identifies the editing process as a significant barrier to entry and as a reason for leaving. Their solution to this was a WYSIWYG editor, which failed for the basic reason that it denies the fact that Wikipedia is a program. I suggest a more conservative solution: as a program, Wikipedia needs an IDE that embraces and understands the Mediawiki language. That IDE should make rapid feedback its priority: realtime compilation, realtime diff viewing, and realtime correspondence between source and HTML.
Spencer Kornhaber: Making Peace With Music That Everyone Loves But You (The Atlantic)
Part of maturing, I think, is realizing that charges of acting in bad faith are often themselves made in bad faith, an attempt to explain away gaps in understanding between two people rather than trying to bridge them, or even make peace with them. That's as true in politics and in relationships as it is in music, but in music—arguably the strangest and most subjective art form there is—the best option often is "make peace." Not everything is for you, even you of eclectic tastes and voracious listening appetite. That doesn't mean others are lying about their enjoyment.
Nathan Rabin: Your Childhood Entertainment Is Not Sacred
The entertainment of your childhood is not sacred. Adults, our childhoods are over, and waxing apoplectic over Michael Bay’s Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies won’t do anything but broadcast our inability to move beyond the silly, entertaining ephemera of our youth, or understand how it might appeal to a younger generation with a different set of ideas about how entertainment works.