Clock Work Orange is the New Black
Timing is everything. That’s why you’ve undoubtedly already heard the story of Ahmed Mohamed, the fourteen year-old who was taken from his Dallas high school in handcuffs after he showed up with a homemade clock. School officials and police (who opted not to file charges) contended that the clock could have been mistaken for a bomb. It turns out the only thing that exploded was the Internet. The story started to go viral last night, and by midday, the Potus had chimed in with a note of support and an invitation to the White House (and then the other top world leader, Mark Zuckerberg, invited him to visit Facebook). If Ahmed gets any bigger, the Kardashians may try to adopt him. This is a story of the power of social media; and it’s also evidence that when it comes to public attitudes towards something like the ridiculous arrest of a Muslim kid with a clock, times have changed.
+ WaPo: Why Ahmed Mohamed should be a topic in presidential debates.
+ Last week, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick hit upon the larger topic: A reminder as the school year opens — The juvenile justice system eats kids for breakfast.
+ And from Wired: How to make your own homemade clock that isn’t a bomb. (For the first time I’m glad I sucked at science in high school. It may have kept me out of the joint.)
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
“If I get frozen I will get my head chopped off. It’s cheaper, and apparently it gets the juice in there faster.” Kim Suozzi died at the age of 23, but she chose to use cryonics to have her brain preserved. Is there any chance her mind, or some part of it, can ever be revived? The technology is a long way off, but the question provides fodder for a very interesting piece by the NYT’s always interesting Amy Harmon: A dying young woman’s hope in cryonics and a future.
One and Not Done
There’s a lot of talk about the increasing riches of the one percent. But the bigger issue could be about a larger percentage of Americans. CityLab’s Tanvi Misra on the sharp rise of the upper-middle class.
+ The economic gulf between the upper middle-class and the rest of America can be seen in a lot of places. Including on the sports field. From PRI: When you can’t play ball for your school because you’re poor. (It’s even worse when the the afterschool sport isn’t affiliated with a school.)
Deal Brewing
In a potentially massive merger, AB InBev plans to make a bid for SABMilller; a deal that would combine the world’s two largest players in the space and bring all the world’s worst beers under one roof.
+ Quartz: This is what the family tree of beer companies will look like if AB InBev acquires SABMiller.
+ Merger or no merger, I do sort of want to try a can of Metallica Beer. (I have a feeling it will taste a little like James Hetfield.)
Inside the Huddle
“Josh’s stable of experts includes a mindset coach, an isokinetic performance trainer, a nutritionist, three sprinting specialists and a power-lifting guru. He also has a family friend who acts as his public relations guy, although Josh already speaks like someone who has had extensive media training.” Matthew Stanmyre on the engineering of 15-year-old sports superstar.
+ “You did what you were supposed to do — which is to force the issue. And you did that. You shouldn’t feel bad.” Great piece by Giant’s third baseman Matt Duffy who tells the story of his first couple weeks in the big leagues. This is assigned reading for me, and for my nine year-old son.
The Twelve Percent
According to a recent study, on any given day in America, a third of all kids eat some fast food. And kids consume 12% of their calories from fast food. (Maybe I should thank my mom. When I was a kid, I consumed 12% of my calories in wheat germ.)
Mob Mentality
“We don’t glamorize all violent crime; no one holds the Son of Sam or Charles Manson in high regard. (It’s hard to imagine their descendants gathering for a celebratory dinner at a steakhouse.)” But we do glamorize some criminals. From The New Yorker’s Maria Konnikova: Why Do We Admire Mobsters?
Kitchen Sync
“Who would have guessed 15 years ago that this self-styled rebel, who wrote about waitress blow jobs and shooting heroin in his best-selling 2000 memoir, Kitchen Confidential, would become America’s contemporary answer to, say, Mark Twain — our most enthusiastic chronicler of life outside our borders?” Josh Eells tags along to get a firsthand look at Anthony Bourdain’s world domination.
The Seven Millon Year Itch
“There aren’t a lot of animals for them to eat in the Arctic, so when they finally find one, they are ferocious. They are relentless. They do not stop.” Think you’ve got a mosquito problem in your backyard? Climate change has helped turn the Arctic’s mosquitoes into what some Alaskans call their state bird.
Bottom of the News
“That gaze — interpreted as loving or slavish, inquisitive or dumb — can cause dog lovers to melt, cat lovers to snicker, and researchers in animal cognition to put sausage into containers and see what wolves and dogs will do to get at it.” The NYT’s James Gorman on the endless quest to answer an age old question: Why Is That Dog Looking at Me? (When my cats look at me, I’m pretty sure they’re imagining me dead.)
+ Rebecca Mead on the semiotics of rose gold. (Or as my 7 year-old daughter calls it: pink.)
+ When actors pretend to snort cocaine on film, what are they really snorting?
+ Bad news for music lovers with amazingly bad taste in technology. Zune is shutting down.
+ If not for the clock fiasco, this would have been the story that caused today’s social media outcry. Apparently, wearing socks with sandals is now OK.
