Who is the New Worst Owner in Sports? – GQ
“Let’s suppose that we live in a magical fairy world where endless court battles do not exist and NBA spokesgoblin Adam Silver is instantly successful in his efforts to oust L.A. Clippers owner and demon bridge frog Donald Sterling. You could argue that buy vanquishing Sterling, Silver is ridding professional sports of its worst owner, for Sterling hits on every possible Bad Owner characteristic. He was mean. He was cheap. He was racist. And, worst of all in the eyes of any loyal fan, he prized squeezing out a bare minimum of extra profit at the expense of fielding a competitive team. The scary thing is that there are many, many, many other owners like this. The number of GOOD owners in professional sports is alarmingly small. Most of them are shrewd businessmen who lose all of that shrewdness the second they take over your shitty baseball team. Here now, in order, are ten owners in professional sports who competing to nab Sterling’s title of absolute worst.”
True Blue – the Walrus
“Was he or wasn’t he? The question hung over a meeting room at Toronto’s Board of Trade, where Jason Kenney had come to address more than 100 energy and construction executives at a conference billed as Canada’s New Industrial Revolution. The question had dogged him for months: was he positioning himself to throw his hat into the ring for the leadership of the Conservative Party?”
Google Glassholes: High Tech Visionaries or Fashion Victims? – Collector’s Weekly
“Selling products like Google Glass to a world that doesn’t need them is tricky, which is why the marketing for glasses, smartwatches, wristbands, and other forms of wearables is long on functional attributes to convince us of their value. Amid these laundry lists are images of target users, mostly looking cool while wearing one of these devices and cooking, taking a bike ride, or performing surgery. The message is that wearables provide lots of tangible functionality but are also fashionable. The question remains, though, whether one perceived benefit will prove more important than the other. The answer may lie in the past rather than the future because when it comes to wearable technology, we’ve been down the function-versus-fashion road a few times before.”
Steve Jobs Defied Convention, and Perhaps the Law – the New York Times
“If Steve Jobs were alive today, should he be in jail? That’s the provocative question being debated in antitrust circles in the wake of revelations that Mr. Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, who is deeply revered in Silicon Valley, was the driving force in a conspiracy to prevent competitors from poaching employees.”
The Slow Death of Purposeless Walking – BBC
“Walking is a luxury in the West. Very few people, particularly in cities, are obliged to do much of it at all. Cars, bicycles, buses, trams, and trains all beckon. Instead, walking for any distance is usually a planned leisure activity. Or a health aid. Something to help people lose weight. Or keep their fitness. But there’s something else people get from choosing to walk. A place to think.”
Medicinal Soft Drinks and Coca-Cola Fiends: The Toxic History of Soda Pop – Collectors Weekly
“Because carbonated water was still viewed as a health drink, the first soda shops were situated in drugstores and closely linked with their pharmacies. “Part of the reason they became so entwined is that the process of carbonating water and making syrups or flavorings was something pharmacists already had the skill set to do,” Donovan explains. “They were the obvious people to take this on, and they started adding in ingredients they thought were health-providing. Sarsaparilla was linked to curing syphilis. Phosphoric acid was seen as something that could help hypertension and other problems.” Long-standing favorites like ginger ale and root beer were also initially prized for their medicinal qualities.”
In Deep – the New Yorker
“Caves are like living organisms, James Tabor wrote in “Blind Descent,” a book on Bill Stone’s earlier expeditions. They have bloodstreams and respiratory systems, infections and infestations. They take in organic matter and digest it, flushing it slowly through their systems. Chevé feels more alive than most. Its tunnels lie along an uneasy fault line in the Sierra de Juárez mountains and seethe with more than seven feet of rain a year. On his first trip to Mexico, in 2001, Gala nearly died of histoplasmosis, a fungal infection acquired from the bat guano that lined the upper reaches of a nearby cave. The local villagers had learned to steer clear of such places. They told stories of a malignant spirit that wandered Chevé’s tunnels, its feet pointing backward as it walked. When Western cavers first discovered the system, in 1986, they found some delicate white bones beneath a stone slab near the entrance: the remains of children probably sacrificed there hundreds of years ago by the Cuicatec people.”
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Photo courtesy of Musgo Dumio_Momio.
