Welcome to our Sunday morning Longer Reads section. It’s your chance to catch up on some of the more interesting and obscure news items you might have missed. This week: The importance of pubes, gift ideas for gender non-conforming kids, and who knew pizza raves were now a thing?
HuffPo has holiday gift ideas for gender non-conforming kids.
Before you take off for your holiday travel destination, the New Yorker has some pre-flight announcements.
In i-D, photographer Coco Young “picks apart the underlying framework of a generation consumed with its own image.”
Artist Mel Chin waxes poetic about Art Basel, Miley Cyrus, and the Eric Garner grand jury decision in the Creative Times Reports.
The Guardian has the obituary for ’60s showgirl-turned-scandal-queen Marion Rice-Davies.
Uh, we have pubic hair for a REASON, guys. Salon says: Looking prenatal DOWN THERE opens us up to all manner of ailments.
Elon Musk’s hyperloop could be just 10 years away.
PIZZA RAVES!
Slate has a guide to the Japanese art of decluttering your house and your life.
The New York Times has a meditation on the Chinese art of wu wei, or not giving a shit.
The New York Times also proclaims 2014 “The Year of Taylor Swift”
The plight of gay teachers in The Atlantic.
In VICE: What happens when you die alone in LA.
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God forbid you should ever have to, but GizmodoPod has 10 steps to help you pass a drug test.
Vice posits that cryptomarkets (like the Dark Net) are gentrifying the drug trade… and that’s a good thing.
The ever-changing lexicon of gender identity: Slate explains why the word “trans” caught on.
New York magazine explains why the Republicans endorse torture. #CIAreport
New York also has the sad death of Cat Fancy magazine.
Salon explores the many ways Leonardo DiCaprio has devolved into a Judd Apatow character.
Reddit has an open letter to screenwriters from Hollywood celebuspawn Max Landis that’s worth mulling over.
Obligatory “Internet Porn is Destroying Teenagers Minds” post, in the Daily Beast.
Also in the Daily Beast: What is was like being black and gay in the ’50s.
The Times of London on Stephen Hawking’s prophesy: Artificial Intelligence will kill off mankind.
The New York Times thinks that the movie Sybil ruined it for real dissociative disorder patients.
The Trolls among us: How internet commenters often changed a participant’s interpretation of the news story itself.
Half of all children are traumatized, claims the Atlantic.
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The Washington Post explains what white people need to know, and do, after Ferguson. “Benefiting from white privilege is automatic. Defending white privilege is a choice.”
Eye-opening and so very, very sad: What black parents tell their sons about the police, in Gawker. Read it, and be sure to read the comments.
Comedian W. Kamau Bell writes in Vanity Fair about being a 6’4” black man in America.
The New Republic takes a look at why it took America so long to wake up to Bill Cosby’s rape allegations.
Why Thanksgiving food sucks, in Slate.
45 two-sentence Thanksgiving stories from top writers.
Creed singer Scott Stapp is living in a Holiday Inn. Read about his fall from grace in the Daily Beast.
Also in the Daily Beast: The Hunger Games has a Peeta problem – and why Katniss just needs to kick ass and forget about the stupid men in her life.
Why Interstellar should be taken seriously – VERY seriously – in HuffPo.
How much can you really change after 30? Not much, says TNR.
Salon says the old rule about getting eight hours of sleep is wrongwrongwrong. Your body needs two three-hour rest periods with a “watch period” between them. It’s what our ancestors did and it’s what we should be doing.
In the New Yorker: The man who makes the lists.
Photographing imperfection for the digital generation, in i-D.
Grammar Lesson: How to make your last name plural on your Christmas cards (HINT: NO APOSTRAPHES EVER!)
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LA Weekly‘s investigative report on the gay wing of the LA County Jail is hysterical, shocking, eye-opening, brilliant, and informative. Kind of makes you want to get arrested just to see it for yourself.
Oh dear. Vice magazine says climate change might deliver a serious blow to cocaine production. I would tell you to start stockpiling, but who are we kidding? Nobody in the history of the world has ever been able to save cocaine for later.
i-D explains why Robert Mapplethorp matters now more than ever.
Cyborg cockroaches are coming, and that’s a good thing, explains Digital Trends.
Ding! Ding! All Aboard Britain’s new “Poo Bus,” which runs on the pressurized methane of its passenger’s feces. It needs at least five people to poop to get from Bath to Bristol. Read about it in The Register.
Speaking of Poo – Is Winnie the Pooh transgender or intersex? One town in Poland thinks so. Read about it in The Advocate.
TV Guide says the CW’s Supernatural has a queerbaiting problem that NEEDS TO STOP. Interesting and thought-provoking, even if you don’t watch the show.
The Daily Beast thinks Eminem’s tired, juvenile misogyny NEEDS TO STOP. And I couldn’t agree more.
Slate wonders if Foxcatcher – the new Steve Carrell/Channning Tatum ode to “rough trade” – is homophobic. Sometimes just asking the question is proof that it is.
In FT magazine, Douglas Coupland ponders the meaning of money.
Obituaries for the flamboyant Duchess of Alba –who had more titles than any other person on the planet, being a duchess seven times over, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24 times – in The Telegraph and The Guardian. What a life. What a dame. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Yes, Hannibal Buress was right to call out Bill Cosby, but The Daily Beast points out Hannibal’s own material is often littered with problematic rape jokes.
The Washington Post: You old, embarrassing tweets just got much easier to find.
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The New Yorker looks for meaning in “Too Many Cooks“: Is it “a postmodern satire of television and Web culture, a commentary on the power of nostalgia, a glimpse at the violence that lurks within us all? Perhaps it is a deconstruction on the very idea of virality itself: it’s the Internet that has too many cooks, and all of us, together, with our sharing and repeated clever comments and urge to be the first to share what thousands of others have already shared, have spoiled the broth.”
The Hollywood Reporter has 5 Fun Facts about it.
Sesame Street has the (inevitable?) parody: “Too Many Cookies” starring Cookie Monster (and Cookie Monster and Cookie Monster with special guest Cookie Monster, but not – thankfully – the serial killer).
i-D magazine has a think-piece about how #AlexFromTarget is welcoming in a golden age of boy-next-door beauty. Yes, seriously. “Somehow that blurry photo of a teenage cashier has become today’s equivalent of Caravaggio’s ‘Boy with a Basket of Fruit,’ a much-lusted-after image of everyday boyhood. Ordinary people are turned into stars overnight, as if in a fairytale. What does this say about our changing concept of beauty?”
So…. Health Goth is a thing now. Alexander Wang gets it. Rick Owens gets it. Even Kylie Jenner gets it. Do you?
Nicky Haslam waxes nostalgically about the genius of Cecil Beaton’s interiors in The Guardian.
A story in The New York Times which seriously came as a shock to me: Millennials don’t own TVs. Don’t need to. They consider it a passé symbol of their parent’s generation, like landlines or refrigerator calendars. They watch everything on their phones, tablets, and computer screens. Everything? EVEN GAME OF THRONES?
Also in The Times: Megan Daum spent several days in a medically-induced coma, hovering between life an death. She writes about how it changed her, spiritually (SPOILER ALERT: Not at all). Fascinating read about America’s need for redemption narratives and its corollary, the recovery narrative.
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With a hostile, Republican-ruled House and Senate, What can Obama actually accomplish in his last two years? Slate has the list.
WHAT A TURKEY: Entertainment Weekly lists the 15 most maddening plot holes in Interstellar.
And just how accurate is the The Theory of Everything?
Catching up with cultural warrior/performance artist Karen Finley in the New York Times.
Beautifully written: “Notes on the Exotic” in the New Yorker.
Also in the New Yorker: A 1962 article on the first year of the Berlin Wall.
In Vocativ: Do anti-bullying campaigns really even work?
NPR wonders if the LGBT community’s mono-maniacal focus on gay marriage is preventing us from achieving genuine equality.
Gen-Xers have hit middle age, and as usual we’re waaaaay over-thinking it, as this Salon piece illustrates.
Slate wonders: Should archives allow horrific images of eradicated diseases, suffering patients, and antiquated treatments available to the public?
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What we still don’t know about Ebola (is A LOT), in The New Yorker.
Also in The New Yorker: How Tim Cook’s coming out signals the end of gay rights as a Republican wedge issue.
Why teens sext: The Atlantic investigates. (I’m just going to go out on a limb here and guess: hormones?)
LA Times reports that McSweeney’s is becoming a non-profit, which begs the question: If McSweeney’s can’t make a go of it, what hope is there for other independent presses?
The Independent has a list of the catchiest songs of all time, and SPOILER ALERT number one is really ZIG-A-ZIG AHHHH.
Awwww. Vulture has the opposite trajectories of Ryan Reynolds’ and Bradley Cooper’s careers.
An interview with PEPPER! from American Horror Story in Salon.
The New York Times obituary of photographer David Armstrong, famous for exploring the often overlapping worlds of gay men, drug addicts, transvestites, fashion models and artists.
i-D argues the case for nostalgia.
Ask Polly: Would He Love Me If I Were Skinnier, Prettier, or Sweeter? A kick-ass response.
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The future of porn promises to be 1000% more IN YOUR FACE, says The Daily Beast.
The New York Times goes to the few Times Square peep shows left for a glimpse of porn’s past.
Must-Listen: Lady Bunny sounds off on the changing face of gay culture in the Feast of Fun podcast.
i-D has an interview with Andrew Logan on 42 years of The Alternative Miss World pageant.
BuzzFeed interviews the scientists who may have found the cure for drug addiction.
Although The Washington Post says hardly anyone uses heroin anymore so what’s the big deal? Why freak out over it?
The semiotics of being a “basic bitch” in New York Magazine.
THE SUPERHUMANS ARE COMING! THE SUPERHUMANS ARE COMING! (says Nautilus magazine)
Politico has how the Republicans lost the culture war (seems pretty obvious to me: They alienated the young, the gay, the non-white voters, and women DUH).
HuffPo wonders what happened to that young, energetic guy full of promise who ran for office in 2008. What was his name? Barack something-or-other?
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A panel of experts on HuffPo Live debate whether it should be legal for consenting adult siblings to have incest.
Explosive new evidence suggests that Sid DIDN’T kill Nancy. Read about it in The Daily Mail.
“I really envied the guy who laid in the bathtub at the Mineshaft every night. He really owned it. The Mine Shaft was his Cheers.” – True tales of ’80s nightlife in PAPER magazine.
YOU GUYS: WHY ISN’T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT NICK JONAS’ HAIRY ASS? (They are at HuffPo Gay)
The horror: PTSD after waking up under anesthesia in The Atlantic.
As Jean Paul Gaultier announces his retirement from ready-to-wear, i-D examines how he changed fashion…. and the WORLD.
John Galliano has been tapped to design for Margiela. The Washington Post finds it a jarring fit.
Also in The Washington Post: What is “Explainer Journalism” and why it’s so wrong.
In Salon: Why Raven-Symone and a lebian couple from Ohio illustrate the fight to assert one’s humanity.
The New York Times investigates whether putting a #hashtag in a title is a trend that is backfiring.
Vice has an interview with the Weekly World News reporter who created Bat Boy in the 1980s
Do you harbor a secret fantasy to own and run a neighborhood bar? Slate thinks you should give it up.
And finally: Ever since the ’60s, drugs have been used to bring about social revolution. i-D wonders what our drugs choices say about us today.
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Bret Easton Ellis writes in Vanity Fair about the too sensitive, too narcissistic, and too stupid Millennials, or as he calls them, “Generation Wuss.” SING IT, SISTER!
As a plane begins its potentially fatal crash landing, a passenger pulls out his phone, takes a selfie, and films what could be the last moments of his life. The New York Times says it’s symptomatic of life (and death) in the iPhone age.
Jay Roberts was a young Marine who spent a single, unforgettable afternoon with a notorious serial killer. Orange Coast magazine has his haunting and beautifully written account of that day, and I promise you: His story will stay with you a loooong time. If you only read one article today, make it this one.
The Daily Beast takes a hard look at Ello (which being touted as THE NEXT FACEBOOK, OMG), and predicts it won’t survive the year.
Meanwhile, HuffPo‘s Michelangelo Signorile profiles Sister Roma (of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence) who is leading the charge against Facebook’s Real Names Policy.
It’s the Battle of the Early 20th Century Female Authors and “the Anxiety of Influence” over at The New Yorker! In this corner, stuffy old Edith Wharton! Her competitor? Uber-bitchy iconoclast Virginia Woolfe! It’s icon versus icon! You can’t afford to miss this historical bout!
New York magazine has the incredible story of an 18th century sex-change operation. Yes, you read that right. The year was 1779, when a surgeon named Thomes Brand made the decision to “return a child to his proper gender.”
An Illinois teacher tweets his classroom discussions. Read about it in The Atlantic.
Elizabeth Wurtzel gazes at her navel.
And finally: Contemplating a New York City without any dive bars in The New York Times.
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The Daily Beast takes us, kicking and screaming, Inside Napa’s State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
No, “going lesbian for a year” is not an acceptable hobby, says The New Statesman.
Buzzword, graph, celebrity example: Generic trend piece in highbrow magazine is funny because it’s true.
Simon Doonan on the death of his homophobic, emotionally withholding dog, Liberace.
Friday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Slate explains why they actually talk like that. The answer will surprise you.
From Salon: An interview with an actual asexual!
What happens when we all live to 100, in The Atlantic.
Also in The Atlantic: What internet vernacular reveals about the evolution of language.
Michael Musto spends time with the decidedly unpolished drag queens of Brooklyn’s Bushwig festival.
An interview with Brigitte Bardot on the occasion of her 80th birthday in The Guardian.
The New York Post: Julian Casablancas left New York because of brunch.
Also in The Guardian: “The English are unrestrained wild beasts and totally out of control,” says Portugese writer João Magueijo. “British homes are less clean than my grandmother’s poultry cage. Their diet is deplorable and fish and chips is a dish that makes you want to wash it with detergent before eating. The north is hideous, the class system the source of reciprocal fear and hate. And then there’s the drinking, and the shagging, illustrated through a number of eye-popping anecdotes involving projectile vomit and casual blowjobs. I never met such a group of animals.” HA! It’s funny because it’s true!
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Fuckin’ Facebook, man. Why Facebook is cracking down on the drag community, in Slate.
It’s Facebook vs Drag Queens in the Wallstreet Journal.
Read more about the uproar in The Guardian, Salon, Business Insider, DeathandTaxes, Towleroad, and The Edmonton Journal, among others.
Pink News reports openly gay San Francisco supervisor David Campos has now called on Facebook – which is based near his district – to meet with the drag community. He said: “I have reached out to Facebook and am working to schedule a meeting at City Hall between Facebook officials and local drag queens as soon as possible.” We’ll see how far that gets.
What can you do? Sign this petition at Change.org and spread the word. Remember: First they came for the drag queens….
Ironically, here’s an article about “the tiresome culture of outrage” in The LA Times.
In Salon, two authors travel across the country visiting independent bookstores, and report that BOOKSTORES LIVE!
The surprising theory why so many Disney characters are motherless, in YahooCelebrity.
Adulthood is dead, cries The New York Times. Vulture agrees, and adds that Seth Rogen is now more serious than Woody Allen.
In the Daily Beast: Why porn is leading the fight for net neutrality.
From celebrity nudes to Ray Rice’s domestic abuse to the ISIS beheadings, The Atlantic has an unresolved debate about what pics should be published, what pics should be taken, and what pics should be shared.
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Let’s just do this: How Joan changed the face of fashion forever in the Daily Mail.
Joan’s 50 best jokes in Vulture.
Remembering Joan’s iconic style in The Cut (I was partial to her ’80s big-hair-and-ballgown phase when she thought she was Nan Kempner) .
A fascinating remembrance “”Joan Rivers Always Knew She Was Funny” in New York
This is interesting: Read a previously unpublished chapter from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory in The Guardian.
Also in The Guardian: A brief history of psychedelic psychiatry.
Because it needs to be said: Vanity Fair‘s 7 Tips for Surving Fashion Week.
In “Mullets I Have Loved” David Keeps and Suzan Colón reminisce about working at Star Hits magazine in its ’80s heyday.
15 movies everybody will be talking about after the Toronto Film Festival.
ENOUGH, ALREADY! According to Salon: Hipster bashing has become a stand-in for anti-intellectualism, middle class resentment, and subtle homophobia. So STOP IT!
The Most Overrated Albums of the ’90s. Yeah, we’re looking at YOU, OK Computer.
Bestiality is on the rise in Europe. Vice has the investigation and gripping mini-doc.
In Slate: How Saved By the Bell invented the tween, and other reasons you shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss that SBTB biopic on Lifetime.
And finally, dealing with digital cruelty, in The New York Times.
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It was revealed this week that Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a teenage girl. And if that wasn’t shocking enough, The New Yorker wants you to know the truth about these OTHER cartoon characters.
Porn Again: The Spectator takes a look at the middle-aged men and women warped by internet porn.
Of course, nothing really matters because government researchers think we’re all just living in a 2D hologram. Read about it in VICE.
Hilary’s gay rights evolution is chronicled in The New York Times.
In Slate: Taylor Swift’s Machiavellian move from country to pop, and how the horrid “Shake It Off” debuted at number one.
Why there should never, ever, ever be a Full House reboot.
And why The Simpsons can never get its mojo back.
Is the facekini the future of beachwear? The Daily Beast thinks so.
And finally: Why THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY YOU WILL EVER READ and how Facebook plans to cut down on click-bait.
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Slate exposes the sad and disturbing world of Koko the gorilla.
The US Copyright Office has weighed in the case of the monkey selfie, and decided that “works produced by nature, animals, and plants” do not belong to the animals or plants that produce them (sorry Groot), they belong in the public domain, and furthermore, so do “works purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings.” Ok…. but does that law also apply to ROBOTS?
If you’re worried about the coming robot revolution as much as I am, I beseech you to watch “Humans Need Not Apply” – the mini-doc on how robots are going to take away your earning power.
Not so fast, says The New York Times. Robots aren’t going to take your jobs because they lack common sense! (FOR NOW).
A prominent law professor addresses addresses why Officer Darren Wilson of Ferguson hasn’t been arrested yet.
Salon catches up with our old friend Jonah Falcon, the guy with the world’s largest penis. SPOILER ALERT: His massive schlong has not brought him happiness and prosperity.
Check this out, bro: The origin and history of the word “bro” and why overuse suggests the word might be on the way out.
GQ has a profile of the legendary North Pond Hermit, who lived alone in the woods of Central Maine for nearly 30 years, and survived on what he could steal from the local townspeople in the dead of the night.
From Oddity Central: Professional Poo Diver Loves his Stinky Job!
Michael Musto lists the 10 Best Bad Movies of All Time.
And The Atlantic explores the psychology behind the word “the” in a band’s name.
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The Onion nails it: Tips for Being An Unarmed Black Teen.
From VICE: How to avoid being an exploding corpse after you die.
This will make you sad: Mental Floss has 11 smells that are disappearing from our world.
Robin William’s death, and how we mourn on social media in The New York Times.
In case you missed it: Lauren Bacall’s obituary in The New York Times.
Boy Culture has an incredibly comprehensive list of the last Golden Age stars left standing.
Vanity Fair revives the old Spy magazine Nightlife Decathlon.
The LA Times has a wrist-slittingly accurate game: So You Want to Be a Writer?
Last month, a North Carolina mother was arrested for letting her 9-year-old daughter play at the park, unattended. Which is RIDICULOUS. When I was nine, I drove a truck from Florida to Kentucky! BY MYSELF! And lived in a cave with a hibernating bear! I tell you, kids today are wussies. Slate tracks kid’s freedoms through the last seventy years.
A HuffPo reporter tries group masturbation! Wheeeeee!
The Daily Dot explains the problem with James Franco’s queerbaiting. And here’s a remedial lesson on what queerbaiting is, any why media queerbaiting tactics, in general, are wrong.
10 things not to do as a New Yorker visiting LA, via The Homemaker.
Why BuzzFeed is shifting its strategy. And why they’ve quietly deleted nearly 5,000 old posts.
And finally, to end on a disturbing note: From Matter magazine: You’re 16, you’re a pedophile, you don’t want to hurt anyone… what do you do now?
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In praise of back hair on The Dish,
An incredibly lengthy puff piece of Vine star Nash Grier on HuffPo Gay (odd, considering his recent homophobic rant. Damage control anybody?)
Forget Ebola. We’re all going to die of Valley Fever.
“I had no idea I’d been sex trafficked”: A terrifying true story in Salon.
Simon Napier-Bell: The ultimate rock n’ roll gossip in the Times of London.
The troubles and triumphs of fat, gay men in Slate.
Simon Doonan has 10 ways to stay chill in the heat of the summer.
Hmmm. If monkeys can own selfies, what other rights should they have? Check out the debate in Wired.
Also in Wired: When robots take all our jobs, what’ll be left for us to do?
How culture affects madness in The New Republic: An anthropologist asks schizophrenics around the world to describe the voices in their heads.
Also in The New Republic: Why did those two US missionaries get the Ebola serum while Africans are left to die?
And finally, the rise and fall… and rise again?… of superstar celebrity journalist Kevin Sessums in The New York Times.
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What you need to know about the Ebola outbreak in the New York Times.
Also: The Ebola virus is outpacing efforts to control it, World Health body warns.
And: Ebola vaccine is possible, but many doubts persist.
How ravers became the new hippies in The New Republic. Interesting, but would have been more interesting 20 YEARS AGO.
In Salon: Why “the Money Shot” became the defining aesthetic of modern porn.
9 things to know about raising the recently dead in Wired
Film Noir “The Elusive Genre” in The New Yorker
Musty on the 13 best clubs in New York history.
Slate wonders if we still need gay resorts like P-town and Fire Island.
GAY SHAME & GRINDR at Gay HuffPo.
JAWDROPPING. UNBELIEVABLE. TRAGIC. 11 heinous lies conservatives are teaching America’s schoolchildren in Salon.
The Washington Post has a story about the Amish prisoners enjoying modern conveniences in Pennsylvania prisons.
Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the last days of World War II, died this week. The New York Times obituary makes you wonder about the morality of men at war.
And finally, for a giggle: The 10 bands you will be forced to listen to in Hell.
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Salon has a fascinating investigation into the history of swearing.
“Buzzenfreude” – Why everyone is gleefully pouncing on BuzzFeed’s plagiarism scandal, at Slate.
Gay Cities lists the 11 types of gay bars, and why they matter now more than ever.
Bear with me. One last column on the Great T-Word Debate of 2014 – From Slate: “Conservatism in the LGBTQ Movement.”
“Sing to Me, O Muse (But Keep It Brief): The New York Times says the future of poetry lies on Twitter.
The Washington Post pointedly notes that in 13 seasons, Project Runway has yet to launch a true fashion star (as they repeatedly promise).
In The Daily Mail: John McCain condemns the two-hour execution of Arizona killer Joseph Rudolf Wood, saying it was “torture.” And the man knows from torture. What gets me is that they can euthanize a dog in 15 seconds, but for some reason they keep botching up these executions. Something’s just not right.
The Independent says that watching TV after work makes you feel like a failure. I could have told them that.
i-D takes Suzy Menkes to task for revealing the identity of the Maison Martin Margiela designer (fashion’s biggest secret).
And finally… The REAL problem with sexy profile pics.
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If you haven’t read the controversial Time magazine piece “Dear White Gays: Stop Stealing Black Female Culture,” it would behoove you to do so now.
Gay man pens rebuttal: “Dear Black Women: White Gays Are Your Allies, Don’t Push Us Away.”
Autostraddle has a rebuttal for his rebuttal.
HuffPo tells Time to stop telling gay men how to act.
New York magazine explains that it’s not so much white gays stealing from black women, but white gays stealing from black drag queens, which makes it all OK? Hmmmm. But aren’t the black drag queens ALSO stealing from black female culture? Which, by the transitive property, leads us right back to the beginning? I don’t know. I’ve lost track of who’s right and who’s wrong.
Black women, it seems, are ALSO upset with Iggy Azalea who “mistakes appropriation for artistry, and [pushes them] to the sidelines” – this, according to Salon.
i-D magazine has a piece on how Instagram’s constant stream of it-girls with fabulous gifted outfits at A-list parties can make you absolutely LOATHE fashion.
In PAPER: Mikey Musto lists the 10 WORST CLUBS IN NEW YORK HISTORY.
The Washington Post explains the plan to split up California into six separate states, and why.
Salon has the story of a Virginia father who recently traveled to Bir Tawil, an 800 square mile territory between Egypt and Sudan, to plant a flag designed by his three children and, thanks to a century-old land dispute over one of the few remaining unclaimed lands in the world, declared it for his 7 year-old daughter Emily. Making her the princess of North Sudan. What a great dad. I’m sure she’s not going to grow up to be an entitled brat. No sireee.
Salon also disputes Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 minute rule: “If you practice the necessary 10,000 hours you can reach the zenith of your field.” I do, too, for the record.
And finally, in The New York Times: Stalking the shadow universe of dark energy. I don’t get it either, but I’m sure nuclear-physicist-tuned-astronaut Scarlett Johansson will be exploring it in a summer blockbuster this time next year.
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BREAKING NEWS: OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS: Will Self proclaims this generation is fucked. Find out why in i-D
Much handwringing in The Guardian because writers can no longer afford to write.
HuffPo After Dark interviews drag legend Linda Simpspn on the evolution of drag from the late ’80s to today.
Turning “Likes” into a career: The New York Times on how social media stars are using Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to build their career.
BEWARE! Hamster cannibals in Slate!
Everything we