The Women Who Mapped the Universe And Still Couldn’t Get Any Respect – Smithsonian
“So began an era in Harvard Observatory history where women—more than 80 during Pickering’s tenure, from 1877 to his death in 1919— worked for the director, computing and cataloging data. Some of these women would produce significant work on their own; some would even earn a certain level of fame among followers of female scientists. But the majority are remembered not individually but collectively, by the moniker Pickering’s Harem.”
How Evil Should A Video Game Allow You to Be? – The New Yorker
“The question of whether—or to what extent—literature should allow readers into the minds of terrorists, murderers, and abusers both fictional and historical is one that continues to trouble authors. But if video-game creators share such qualms it hasn’t stopped the production, in the course of the past forty years, of games that ask players to march in the boots of legions of despots and criminals, both petty and major.”
The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts – The New York Times
“Eighty to 90 percent of people who use crack and methamphetamine don’t get addicted,” said Dr. Hart, an associate professor of psychology. “And the small number who do become addicted are nothing like the popular caricatures.”
How Being Poor Makes You Poor – Pacific Standard
“Relying on data collected from numerous tests and experiments, the co-authors argue that the mental toll of constantly having to deliberate over which credit card should be paid down first or jar of peanut butter placed into the shopping cart depending on the sale both depletes one’s cognitive resources and diminishes the importance of planning for tomorrow, since today’s demands feel just so damn demanding. In other words, when you’re struggling with the necessity of treading water, the ability to calculate which shoreline is closest becomes a luxury.”
I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything – The Awl
“I woke up one day not long after I started “Roving Typist” to a flurry of emails, Facebook posts, text messages and missed calls. A picture of me typewriting had made it to the front page of Reddit. For those who don’t know, being on the front page of Reddit is hallowed ground—the notoriety of being on the front page can launch careers, start dance crazes, inspire Hollywood. In other words, ending up on the front page of Reddit meant a decent chunk of the million-plus people who log on daily saw my picture.”
The Play Deficit – Aeon
“But then, beginning around 1960 or a little before, adults began chipping away at that freedom by increasing the time that children had to spend at schoolwork and, even more significantly, by reducing children’s freedom to play on their own, even when they were out of school and not doing homework. Adult-directed sports for children began to replace ‘pickup’ games; adult-directed classes out of school began to replace hobbies; and parents’ fears led them, ever more, to forbid children from going out to play with other kids, away from home, unsupervised.”
Container shipping: the secretive industry crucial to our existence – The Telegraph
“The public is not allowed on this ship, nor even on this dock. There are no ordinary citizens to witness the workings of an industry that is one of the most fundamental to their daily existence. These ships and boxes belong to a business that feeds, clothes, warms and supplies us. They have fuelled if not created globalisation. They are the reason behind your cheap T-shirt and reasonably priced television. But who looks beyond a television now and sees the ship that carried it? Who cares about the men who brought your breakfast cereal through winter storms? How ironic that the more ships have grown in size and consequence, the more their place in our imagination has shrunk.”
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Photo courtesy of Mo Riza.
