Equal parts amazing and depressing that i had the time to find and read all these articles, among others.
Would you rent a friend? - Tim Dowling, The Guardian. Feeling lonely? Don’t have anyone to go to the pub with? Then a friend rental service could be just the thing you need. But what’s it like to spend a day with someone you’re paying to be your friend?
Malwebolence - Mattathias Schwartz, NY Times. Measured in terms of depravity, insularity and traffic-driven turnover, the culture of /b/ has little precedent. /b/ reads like the inside of a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line, or a blog with no posts and all comments filled with slang that you are too old to understand.
What It's Really Like to be a Copy Editor - Lori Fradkin, The Awl. Absolutely hilarious. I identify.
Bernice bobs her hair - F. Scott Fitzgerald; the 20s bob cut which went beyond just a radical change in hair fashion but represented the triumph of the feminist movement. Women gained the right to vote in 1920 and many things started to become androgenous - masculine clothing, masculine cigarettes and, of course, masculine hair.
This is Your Brain on Food - Gary Wenk, Seed Magazine. The foods you eat often affect how your neurons behave and, subsequently, how you think and feel. From your brain’s perspective, food is a drug.
The Classic Tale of Sportsmen Who Put Carnivores Down Their Pants - Donald Katz, deadspin. Some 11 years ago I first heard of the strange pastime called ferret legging, and for a decade since then I have sought a publication possessed of sufficient intelligence and vision to allow me to travel to northern England in search of the fabled players of the game.
Experience; I spent 29 years in solitary confinement - Robert King, The Guardian; the first released on the famous Angola 3. ‘I talk about my years in solitary as if it was the past, but the truth is it never leaves you. In some ways I am still there.’
Can Preschoolers be Depressed? - Pamela Paul, NY Times. Children diagnosed with clinical depression.
Reclaiming the Imagination - Timothy Williamson, NY Times. Why did humans evolve the capacity to imagine alternatives to reality?
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - Guy Deutscher, NY Times. Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century.
Does Language Influence Culture? - Lera Boroditsky, Wall Street Journal. How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak.
The Chessboard Killer - Peter Savodnik, GQ. The prolific serial killer Alexander Pichushkin for whom 'life without killing is like life without food.'
Washington, We Have a Problem. - Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair. A day in the life of the president reveals that Obama's job would be almost unrecognisable to most of his predecessors - thanks to the enormous bureaucracy, congressional paralysis, systemic corruption and disintegrating media.
What Is It About 20-Somethings? - Robin Marantz Henig, NY Times. Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?
Manifold Destiny - Sylvia Nasar, New Yorker. A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it. (Poincare).
Voices of a Nation - Brenda Wineapple, The American Scholar. In the 19th century, American writers struggled to discover who they were and who we are.
Roald Dahl's Darkest Hour - Donald Sturrock, Telegraph. About the time in Roald Dalh's life that was choked in tragedy.
