Month: November 2020

This week: Learning from the losers / Spend the holidays with some generals at war / Our love affair with bookstores / A critical look at Barack Obama / Presidential sex scandals

Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.

1. What Trump Showed Us About America
Politico Magazine | November 2020
“A disruptive presidency is coming to a close. Here’s what 35 thinkers say it revealed — not about the man, but about the rest of us.”

2. Generals at War: The television series.
National Geographic | 2010
“[The] series takes a fresh approach to the great battles of World War Two, examining them through the decisions, dilemmas and disasters of the generals on both sides.”
Watch the episodes: El Alamein | Stalingrad | Kursk | Singapore | The Bulge | Midway

3. The Etiquette of Defeat: What Donald Trump Can Learn From History’s Biggest Losers
By Daniel Mendelsohn | Vanity Fair | November 2020
“From ancient Macedonia to recent Emmy Awards, history offers good and bad examples of how to handle not winning.”

4. How to Suture a Wound
By Malia Wollan | Tip :: The New York Times Magazine | August 2020
“A medical-grade suture kit is the most hygienic option, of course, but sometimes you have to improvise.”

5. A Literary History of the Writerly Love Affair with Bookstores
By Jorge Carrion | Lit Hub | November 2020
“Good bookshops are questions without answers. They are places that provoke you intellectually, encode riddles, surprise and offer challenges, hypnotize with that melody — or cacophony — which creates light and shadows, shelves, stairs, front-covers, doors opening, umbrellas closing, head movements indicating hello or goodbye, people on the move.”

6. Blackjack with Matthew McConaughey
By Simon Willis | 1843 :: The Economist | November 2020
“The smooth-talking Hollywood actor reveals his hand”

7. Barack Obama Doesn’t Have the Answers
By Osita Nwanevu | The New Republic | November 2020
“The former president seems unable to reckon with the failures of his presidency and diagnose the Republican Party’s incurable nihilism.”
— Also see from Politico: Could Obama Have Been Great?

8. A Look At Grand Army Plaza’s $8.9 Million Restoration Design
By Jen Cheng | Gothamist | November 2020
“The arch, which was dedicated in 1892, is the main focus of the restoration work.”

9. A Presidential Affair: The Secret, Salacious Sex Scandals of U.S. Presidents
By Joyzel Acevedo | Rummaging Through the Attic :: Jezebel | October 2020
“[P]olitical figures and their sex lives were frequent topics of discussion in the press throughout most of the 19th century. But things shifted in the early 1900s, with the establishment of the National Press Club.”

10. Can I get the coronavirus twice?
Viral Questions :: Associated Press | September 2020
“It seems possible, though how often it happens isn’t known.”

This week: The enduring strength of hurricanes / Recovering 1980s fashion for ‘The Crown’ / Make a wildflower bomb / The glory of sleep retreats / Picking the right hand sanitizer

Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.

1. Hurricanes stay stronger longer after landfall than in past
By Seth Borenstein | Associated Press | November 2020
“The new study looked at 71 Atlantic hurricanes with landfalls since 1967. It found that in the 1960s, hurricanes declined two-thirds in wind strength within 17 hours of landfall. But now it generally takes 33 hours for storms to weaken that same degree.”

2. Can America restore the rule of law without prosecuting Trump?
By Jonathan Mahler | The New York Times Magazine | November 2020
“Donald Trump’s potential criminal liability is the key to understanding his presidency. When he leaves office, it will present the country with a historic dilemma.”

3. ‘Charles is very stylish’: how The Crown‘s costume designer brought 1980s to life
By Hannah Marriott | The Guardian | November 2020
“Season 4’s wardrobe includes Diana’s Cinderella dress and Thatcher’s power shoulders”

4. How to Make a Wildflower Bomb
By Malia Wollan | Tip :: The New York Times Magazine | March 2020
“Before you go launching wildflower seed projectiles, start with a solid recipe.”

5. The Texas governor who refused to concede after losing a bitter election
By Gillian Brockell | The Washington Post | November 2020
“The incumbent refused to concede. He had lost reelection, by a lot, but he claimed it was only because of election fraud. He appealed his case to the courts and called on militias to defend him. … This is a story about a Texas governor who barricaded himself in the governor’s office and refused to give up control.”

6. Farewell to Jim Cooke, the Greatest Art Director Alive
By Angelica Alzona | Jezebel | November 2020
“If you’ve ever enjoyed the art on any of our websites in their various iterations over the past decade, you have one man to thank: creative director, illustrator, designer, and art team father-of-four Jim Cooke.”

7. ‘Storm Tracker’ Maps Shows How Hurricanes Spread Invasive Species
By Theresa Machemer | Smithsonian Magazine | October 2020
“The U.S. Geological Survey launched the program in 2018 after hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate scrambled coastal ecosystems”

8. Need more ZZZ’s? Sleep retreats are a (glorious) thing
By Stephanie Vermillion | OZY | January 2020
“While the effects of sleep deprivation are ugly, the retreat destinations where you can address it are anything but.”

9. Married sex is like making risotto: always nice, but often you can’t be arsed
By Romesh Ranganathan | The Guardian | October 2020
“I know other couples who have just accepted that sex is now too much effort, and have given up altogether. And while I believe that acceptance will bring them nothing but happiness, I do worry about what not having sex means for our relationship.”

10. What should I look for in a hand sanitizer?
Viral Questions :: Associated Press | September 2020
“Pick one that contains mostly alcohol, and has few other ingredients.”

This week: The future of the space station / Protect yourself from conspiracy theories / Decline of local news poses a new problem / A private tutor’s secret life / The adventures of fighting fires

Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.

1. What happens when NASA retires the International Space Station?
By Andrea Leinfelder | Houston Chronicle | October 2020
“The space station is authorized for human habitation through 2024, and Congress is expected to extend that to 2030. NASA believes the orbiting lab will survive at least another 10 years, and there’s precedent for long-lasting space hardware”

2. Ancient tectonic plate discovered beneath Canada, geologists claim
By Michael Irving | New Atlas | Ocotober 2020
“The face of the Earth has changed drastically over its life, with plates shifting and sinking. Now, geologists at the University of Houston claim to have found the remains of an ancient tectonic plate beneath Canada that was pushed under the surface tens of millions of years ago.”

3. Conspiracy theories: Why some people are susceptible and how to protect yourself
By Angela Haupt | The Washington Post | October 2020
“Conspiracy theories such as these swirl around us like noxious germs, targeting the mind instead of the body. And in the same way that our immune system can leave us more vulnerable to pathogens, our emotional state can make us more open to false — and potentially harmful — beliefs.”

4. How to Talk to Someone With Alzheimer’s
By Malia Wollan | Tip :: The New York Times Magazine | December 2019
“Approach someone with Alzheimer’s from the front. If the person doesn’t recognize you, say your name.”

5. The decline of local newsrooms could make it harder for us to detect the next disease outbreak
By Lauren Harris | Columbia Journalism Review | October 2020
“Here’s the irony: our society is better positioned to recognize the value of monitoring local journalism for viral warning signs—but the local news ecosystem is more beleaguered than ever.”

6. ‘One By Willie’
Texas Monthly | September 2020
“But this series isn’t just about the songs. It’s about what music really means to us — the ways it can change us, take care of us, and connect us all.”

7. First-class flights, chauffeurs and bribery: the secret life of a private tutor
By Emma Irving | 1843 :: The Economist | October 2020
“Tutoring has become a weapon in the global arms race in education. There’s no limit to what some parents will pay”

8. 3,000-Year-Old Orbs Provide a Glimpse of Ancient Sport
By Christopher Intagliata | Scientific American | October 2020
“Researchers say three ancient leather balls, dug up from the tombs of horsemen in northwestern China, are the oldest such specimens from Europe or Asia.”

9. ‘I got the bug’: a pioneering wildfire fighter on the thrills and threats of the job
By Gabrielle Canon | The Guardian | September 2020
“Sara Sweeney, the first woman to lead her unit, once couldn’t imagine fighting fires. Now she doesn’t want to stop”

10. What Just Happened in Peru? Understanding Vizcarra’s Sudden Impeachment
By Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg | Americas Quarterly | November 2020
“Expect more populism ahead in one of the world’s hardest-hit countries by COVID-19.”

This week: Teaching during the pandemic / The NYC subway map reimagined / !!!!!!!!! / Remembering Lolita the orca / Inventor of Rubik’s Cube still at play

Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.

1. In-person classes, Internet snafus, melancholy hallways: This is what teaching in a pandemic is like
By Nikkina McKnight | The Lily :: The Washington Post | October 2020
“Read one teacher’s 30-day diary, plus responses from readers around the world”

2. New York’s Digital Subway Map Comes Alive
By Christopher Bonanos | Curbed :: New York Magazine | October 2020
“In this dire year for New York City and its transit system, this digital launch is a rare moment of things looking up.”

3. Rogue Rocky Planet Found Adrift in the Milky Way
By Nola Taylor Redd | Scientific American | October 2020
“The diminutive world and others like it could help astronomers probe the mysteries of planet formation”

4. How to Spot a Counterfeit Watch
By Malia Wollan | Tip :: The New York Times Magazine | December 2019
“On the watch’s face, inspect the magnifying lens over the date, which is often not as strong on counterfeits.”

5. How the ‘right stuff’ to be an astronaut has changed over the years
By Jay Bennett | NatGeo | October 2020
“The first humans flew into space nearly 60 years ago from the deserts of southern Kazakhstan and the Atlantic shores of Florida. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes to leave the planet.”

6. Countering the tyranny of the clock
The Economist | October 2020
“How flexible working is changing workers’ relationship with time”

7. Read This Article!!!
By Julie Beck | The Atlantic | June 2018
“How many exclamation points do you need to seem genuinely enthusiastic?”

8. Native Americans honor Lolita the orca 50 years after capture: ‘She was taken’
By Cara McKenna | The Guardian | September 2020
“The southern resident orca, whom the Washington state-based nation calls Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, was taken from waters off Penn Cove in Lummi territory when she was four years old.”

9. He Invented the Rubik’s Cube. He’s Still Learning From It.
By Alexandra Alter | The New York Times | September 2020
“Erno Rubik, who devised one of the world’s most popular and enduring puzzles, opens up about his creation in his new book, ‘Cubed.'”

10. Is it safe to drink from a water fountain during the pandemic?
Viral Questions :: Associated Press | August 2020
“There’s no evidence you can get COVID-19 from the water itself. But since the virus may linger on surfaces, experts say to avoid fountains if you can or to limit any direct contact when using them.”