Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
How many times can we intercut tense courtroom exchanges with footage of Gawker writers hanging out, talking about “traffic” and “content,” and inciting the wrath of Peter Thiel? The next year should put our tolerance to the test! There are not one, not two, but threedramas chronicling Gawker’s demise currently in development. The latest, to be…
Photo: Moises Saman/Magnum Photos There’s a famous Ursula K. Le Guin short story called “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” about a fantasy city called Omelas, a joyous metropolis without guilt or violence, populated by “mature, intelligent, passionate” people who celebrate beautiful festivals and shop at (duh) a “magnificent Farmer’s Market.” Le Guin is…
The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed. Here are two truths and a lie. Which one’s the lie? 1. Pedophiles are taking advantage of YouTube’s algorithm to…
Cathartic musings on a legal pad, a trip to the basement, and a eureka moment all led Cohen, Trump’s disgraced former lawyer, to a moment of public triumph. February 28, 2019 1:33 pm Michael Cohen is sworn in to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill. From J Scott…
During Theranos’s final days, Holmes was wearing white fur and partying in the desert. Oh, and her dog-wolf, Balto—the one who pooped all over the office? That story just keeps getting weirder. February 26, 2019 6:39 pm Elizabeth Holmes in New York City in 2015. By Taylor Hill/Getty Images. By the end of…
Men are scum. You can’t say that on Facebook. Men are pigs. You can’t say that either. Men are trash. Men are garbage fires. Also banned. It’s nine A.M. on an autumn Tuesday, and I’m sitting in on a meeting about “men are scum” at Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, California. The trouble started a…
Photo: C-SPAN (Twitter) Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib may have been the last lawmaker to question Michael Cohen during today’s mind-numbingly long hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, but it ended up being absolutely worth the wait. After initially offering a basic overview of Cohen’s testimony, and the allegations of crimes committed by President…
Photo: Alex Brandon (AP) During today’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing, Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made Michael Cohen a stepping stone, focusing her questioning instead on what the committee needed to know. In doing so, she effectively made a list of the Democratic majority’s next targets. Ocasio-Cortez’s Republican colleagues attempted to make the…
Image: New Line Cinema Listen, I’m not here to argue about whether the 2004 film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ novel The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling is or is not a good film. But to trim the last minute of the movie and swap in a comparatively dispassionate prelude to credits starring a…
Photo: Marc Piscotty/Getty Another day under the Trump administration, another sociopathic idiot vaulted into the halls of power. This time, it’s William Happer, a National Security Council senior director, who Trump has tapped to chair a Presidential Committee on Climate Security, according to Vox. Great! Happer is a well-known climate change denier with some far-out…