jadanzzy

Will the Millenials Save Playboy? (NY Times)

In the office, members of the staff use terms like “intersectionality,” “sex positivity,” “privileging” and “lived experience” to describe their editorial vision — and tout their feminist credentials. Two editors are former employees of Ms., the magazine co-founded by Gloria Steinem.

[...]

It all seems genuine enough. Except for the elephant in the room — which is that Playboy is still a magazine full of nude women, whose chief executive is a straight white male, with a dead man still listed at the top of the masthead as the founding editor in chief.

I'm not sure Playboy will survive in this age of extremes: strong, deserved sentiment for women's rights and equality, and the ubiquity of porn.

Wait, am I saying that Playboy is not porn anymore?

Living Near Trees, Not Just Green Space, Improves Wellbeing (CityLab)

More intriguingly, they also found that exposure to low-lying vegetation was not consistently associated with any particular health outcome. Exposure to grass was, surprisingly, associated with higher odds of psychological distress. The wellness-boosting feature, then, appears to be the trees...

Although where we currently live now, you feel like you're living in a jungle. So, you know, balance, balance.

Motion Smoothing Is Ruining Cinema (Vulture)

It works well on sports, for example, because it helps you keep better track of fast-moving balls and athletes. And sports and live events are already shot at higher frame rates, so they need less smoothing. But movies and narrative shows aren’t just about following the ball, and the creation of new frames feels off, junking up the experience with digital filler. Indeed, the new frames often inadvertently introduce their own artifacts — unwanted shadows, halos, flashes, and the like — that can make the image even more distracting.

Every time I've seen it turned on at a friend's or family member's house, I have gone into the TV settings and turned it off, no lie. It's abhorrent. But reading this makes me wonder: do people not care because they're watching sports way more than they watch anything else, and it's completely flipped for me?

I am so proud of El Paso (Medium)

I tell our story wherever I go. This place of immigrants, of people from all over the planet, who came here to do better for themselves and to do better for this country. I tell people about how we are one of the safest cities in the United States. Nearly 700,000 people and we’ve averaged only 18 murders a year.

#fridayfinds

He Kissed God Goodbye (Joshua Harris' Instagram)

By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.⁣⁣

I wonder when the cracks started to show, and what triggered the cracks. And everytime I hear a story like this, I immediately think of a blog post I wrote on Medium, as a part of my chronicle on leaving Christianity. In it I describe how our life's decisions into adulthood can often a response to our past. It's certainly that way for me. I write:

Is life an exercise in opposite experiences? Why do some people end up unlovingly dogmatic Christians? Or hedonistic liberals? Or xenophobic conservatives? or fundamentalist atheists? I think it’s critically important to ask oneself, or even someone else, what childhood was like. Or what your family is like, how you were raised, how healthy your relationship to your parents are, and how you relate to your spouse. Maybe our current worldviews are mere responses, or reactions, to our past. And maybe one antidote to a pendulum-like life is self-awareness. I don’t think people ask themselves hard questions enough. But of course we don’t. It’s easy to understand why. It’s difficult to be vulnerable to yourself. To be honest with yourself.

Slow fashion: how to keep your favourite clothes for ever – from laundering to moth-proofing (The Guardian)

Extending the lifespan of our clothes isn’t just good for our finances, but also benefits the environment: the fashion industry is a major global polluter and human rights abuses are rife in the garment industries of developing nations.

I am complicit. I buy much of my clothes from the trendy, fast-fashion website ASOS.com. And every time I'm about to order, I think to myself, “I could just buy a high-quality, long-lasting pair of pants that can weather the fashion cycles.”

And I hit order anyway.

A Global Feast in an Unlikely Spot: Lancaster, Pa. (NY Times)

For ages, Lancaster has conjured up images of the horses and buggies, dairy farms and rustic bakeries of its Amish and Mennonite people, who believe in living simply, many of them eschewing modern conveniences like cars and electricity.

And in the last few years, the city has drawn notice for a boomlet of upscale bars, breweries, restaurants and art galleries.

My parents live in Lancaster. Initially, when I would visit, I wouldn't look forward to it. These days, every time I go into downtown Lancaster, I marvel at how many hip things there are to do and eat.

How to Get a Selfie With Elizabeth Warren in 8 Steps (NY Times)

Since entering the presidential race, Ms. Warren has taken pictures with more than 38,000 people, her campaign estimates. Ms. Warren says the photos are part of her effort to build what she likes to call a “grass-roots movement.”

This is a snazzy article showing how Warren's staff has a well-defined process for her post-rally selfie lines. Amy actually had a good thought that this is a brilliant advertising strategy: think of all the people excited to get a selfie and a few words in with a candidate they're interested in, and then posting that selfie to friends and family with a supportive and enthusiastic caption.

#fridayfinds

'I Kissed Dating Goodbye' Author Is Maybe Kind Of Sorry (Slate)

Harris’ conversation with me was part of an ongoing not-quite-apology tour in which he is grappling earnestly with the legacy of I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Last month he gave an interview to NPR in which he said he is re-evaluating the book’s impact, and he has been responding to critics on Twitter and having phone conversations with some of them, too. A few months ago, he started soliciting messages on his website from readers about how the books affected them.

Not only is he kind of sorry about the negative impact of book, he's also getting a divorce with his wife.

I read parts of it, I think. Or maybe I read all of it, and don't remember a single thing from it. It definitely made its rounds throughout my church. It had little impact on me, though. In fact, thinking through all the Christian books I read as a late teen and early young adult, very few had a real impact on how I lived my life. It's like I had some subconscious bullshit protection that blocked out books I know I'd never take seriously anyway.

Books like these need to die. Or maybe just Western Conservative Evangelicalism needs to die. Yeah, let's go with that.

I Tried Emailing Like A CEO And Quite Frankly, It Made My Life Better (Buzzfeed News)

Let’s call this “boss email.” It’s defined by nearly immediate — but short and terse — replies. The classic two-word email. For underlings, it can be inscrutable. Is that an angry “thanks” or a grateful “thanks”? Does “please update me” imply impatience with you? Boss email can be the workplace equivalent of getting a “k” text reply from a Tinder date.

I still have a hard time shaking the concept of email as a replacement for hand-written letters for two reasons:

  1. If I'm going to treat email like texting/messaging, why not just text/message? Or Slack or whatever.
  2. I email too many people in my professional life where I don't want to come off as so casual.

But I've already been dropping the salutation (e.g. “Hey Padraig,”) and the closing (e.g. “Thanks,”) in replies. One step at a time, right?

The Texan Who Invented Chili Powder Also Accidentally Created the American Taco (Atlas Obscura)

...[I]t’s a mistake to believe that the iconic hard shell taco is something that clueless white people invented. “Both Americans and Mexicans would love to believe that the hard-shell taco was a travesty of an invention by clueless gabachos. But that’s simply not the case,” says Gustavo Arellano, perhaps America’s foremost scholar on the taco.

Well shit. Then how am I supposed to be arrogantly indignant when I don't see onions, cilantro, and cabeza on top of two corn tortillas, with a grilled pepper, salsa, and a lime slice on the side?

List of cognitive biases (Wikipedia)

Now you'll have the ammunition to accuse friends, family, and coworkers of all the cognitive biases they're displaying!

Your Dad: “Man, that one $10 taco I had was really good.”
You: “Nice display of choice-supportive bias, you asshat. I can get amazing tacos for $1.50.”

The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory (Yahoo! News)

TL;DR Russia

By the way, has anyone else in Atlanta noticed that someone(s) are spray-painting “Seth Rich” around the city? And then they get painted over by the city two weeks later. I should try getting a picture when I can.

#fridayfinds

It's Part II because I'm going to consider my March's “I'm supporting Elizabeth Warren” post part I.

In that previous post I said the following:

She is a deeply moral, kind, and good person.

She has a clear platform for her candidacy: capitalism works when it is fair and responsible to all Americans.

She is the best communicator out of all the Democratic candidates of complex policies to the average American voter.

Her economic and tax policies are largely the right prescriptions for what I believe is an extremely dangerous problem: income inequality.

She has a great early life story that can appeal to the Rust and Wheat Belt regions of the U.S.

The first set of Democratic TV debates have come and gone, and I feel even more certain about my reasons. However, a lot of people have settled on the notion that Kamala Harris was the runaway star for putting Joe Biden in his place. But for what? The fact that she just put Joe Biden in his place, thus connecting that to her potential ability to make Donald Trump look like a loser? Fine. But is that enough.

Second to Harris was that Elizabeth Warren was a strong and clear voice in the debates, although she was the sole “A list” candidate in a “B list” pool on that first night.

Despite the fact that Kamala Harris proved to be a worthy opponent against what I perceived to be a no-longer-nimble Joe Biden, I still stand by my criticism of her candidacy:

I do not know what her central message is.

I do not know what Kamala Harris stands for from a core messaging perspective.

I know that Joe Biden is the “let's not be too extreme here” and “Hey I'm the guy you've known for a long time” and “I was Obama's VP!” candidate.

I know Bernie Sanders is the “The Millionaires and Billionaires are the problem” and “Social Democracy” candidate.

I know Pete Buttigieg is the “I'm young, gay, a veteran, a Rhodes scholar, from the Rust Belt, and a mayor!” candidate.

I know Cory Booker is the “I live on the streets” and “Peace, Love, and Harmony” candidate.

Hell, I know Andrew Yang is the “Universal Basic Income Forever!” candidate.

But what's Kamala's core message, pray tell?

I still stand with Liz Warren. Her message is extremely clear, and her campaign is laying down strong groundwork.

P.S. My how far Beto O'Rourke has fallen.

#warren #2020

See the video below? I was enthusiastically watching it on the TV at a pretty high volume, while Amy was in another part of the house.

By enthusiastically, I mean that I'm standing up and alert. Pacing around. Staring vigorously at how they're playing their instruments. At times mimicking via air guitars and air drums. Sitting back down. Standing back up. Bobbing my head up and down to the beat.

(At some point, I'll write a post about why and how much I love punk music.)

I wasn't wearing my Apple Watch (and ew, I don't enable sound notifs on my iPhone), so little did I know that Amy was furiously texting me...

#theend

#damy

The 8 Best Melting Cheeses, For Your Cheese Pull Pleasure (Bon Appetit)

Cheese makes me farty, and I'll never stop eating it.

And speaking of Bon Appetit, their YouTube channel is one of my favorite things right now and I can't recommend it enough. I know all of the main chefs/editors' names and their unique personalities. The two most popular series are “It's Alive!” and “Gourmet Makes”. So good and so funny.

Can Elizabeth Warren Win It All? (The New Yorker)

On many economic issues, Warren has been remarkably prescient. She has spent decades warning Americans about the pernicious effects of income inequality, predatory corporations, and consumer debt, and about the failures of our financial system—issues that are at the heart of the 2020 Presidential campaign.

Income inequality is one of my biggest concerns, and I think she's got the best message about it. Still my first choice—with increasing excitement.

Facebook lawyer says users ‘have no expectation of privacy’ (Daily Dot)

“There is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy,” Snyder said.

Is it then also true that most people don't care either?

Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace (NY Times)

In The Matrix, Agent Smith said this to Morpheus:

I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague[,]...”

Although, to be fair, so is english ivy. Gotta make myself not care somehow, right?

#fridayfinds

Photos and videos of our trip.

Initially, we were going to spend our June vacation week in Switzerland, and then maybe England. But we just settled on staying within the contiguous 48. So last week, Amy and I got back from a week in Montana.

Wow. What a beautiful fucking state.

Some quick reactions on our time there:

  • Did I mention it's a goddamn beautiful state. Rolling green hills, beautiful blue lakes, and snow-capped mountain vistas for days.
  • We were charmed by Montanans, at least in Missoula and Whitefish: friendly in a genuine, non-flowery way.
  • Their summer weather is agreeable to us. Dry, crisp and clean air. No humidity.
  • We think we like the quieter, less populated feel.
  • We think we don't like how un-diverse it is, though?
  • Don't underestimate Missoula and Whitefish's western cuisine. We were continually impressed by how delicious the food was.
  • We didn't order any non-Western food, though, and that made us sad.
  • We must've had 10 mini conversations about what it'd take to live there.
  • Glacier National Park is a goddamn treasure. Jesus Fucking Christ I wanna go back tomorrow to hike up Grinnell.
  • We spent a total of about an hour looking into being a park ranger, maybe as a retirement option. Boy do they not make a lot of money...
  • Summer sunsets at 9:45pm are jarring.
  • I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole learning about Montana's history one sleepless night. Native Americans got really fucked over by the whites.

Also, I want to make it a life's goal to visit as many national parks (totals 61) as possible. Next up, in no particular order: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Arches, Acadia, Zion, and Death Valley. That'll take... 10 years?

At the Doraville H-Mart last Friday, while Amy went to go pay for an umbrella she was really excited about (it reverse collapses, like this), I happen to spot four mildly hipstery looking folks standing together chatting away.

My very first thought was that they had a “we're in a band”-type of aura. I'm bad at remembering names, but I'm really good at remembering and recognizing faces. More than that, and maybe it's my life's priorities, but I know both the names and faces of bands I really like. So I decided to give a closer look, in case they were a band I recognized.

“Wait...” I thought to myself.

“Is that...” as I inched closer to one man in particular.

I was moving closer and closer to him, my eyes fixated on his face as my certainty increased with every step. At the critical distance, he noticed this Asian guy creepily stepping closer to him. First, a quick peripheral peek to determine if there was a creeper, and then the intentional stare to confirm that there was.

Our eyes met.

”...Robin Pecknold??” I asked, hoping I was right.

His confusion turned to pleasantly surprised, as his face grew red with embarrassment.

“Yeah, hey man.” he said, with a wide, friendly grin. “How would someone at a Korean supermarket recognize me?” is what I guessed he'd be thinking.

“Holy shit. What are you doing here? Wait, are you touring? Is Fleet Foxes touring?”

My hands stretched out to shake his, and I looked at the others.

They started backing away, motioning in denial with two hands shaking side to side in front of them, heads shaking “no, no”. They were saying with their body movements, 'We're not in Fleet Foxes. Robin's the star, not us. We're just with him right now.'

Makes sense, I don't recognize the others, I thought. Or do I? Isn't the one with the baseball cap also in the band? Looks familiar...

“Oh, no. We're not touring.” Robin said.

I look over at the cashiers line to see where Amy is. She spots me, unaware of my serendipitous exchange.

“Dan! I'm gonna get this umbrella! Come here!” she shouts enthusiastically.

Gah, come here and meet Robin, I think to myself.

“Amy, come here!” I said quietly. Whatever, it's not worth more time for this embarrassing exchange.

“Hey,” I turned back to Robin, “can I get a picture with you?”

“Of course!”

One of the others he was with looked at me saying, “I can take it for you.”

“Oh, thanks!” I told her.

“One, two, three...”

“Thanks, Robin! I really love your music.” I said, to his appreciation, and nervously walked towards Amy and her new umbrella.

“Look what it can do! I'll show you how it works when we get to the car.”

“Okay okay, but that's Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes right there! Look at this picture!”

“What?? Really? Whoa.”

We had to walk past Robin and his friends. Rather than saying bye again, I looked down at the umbrella, feigning inspection. I should've just said, “Great meeting you!” or something.

Amy laughed at me, walking out. “I like how you were looking at the umbrella instead of saying bye to him again.”

At our car, she starts to demo the umbrella's main feature with great enthusiasm.

“Okay check it out. It's raining, I have to get in the car, and I'm carrying an umbrella! But wait, this umbrella collapses the other way! No more awkward getting in the car, while getting wet!”

At that moment an Indian man with his shopping cart looks over at Amy with this, “what the hell is she doing?” look.

We laugh.

Rihanna.

Confessions of a Presidential Candidate (The New Yorker)

The Democrats running for President in 2020 have walked in different shoes, from ballet slippers to football cleats. They carry different banners. They are fighting different fights. But most of their books contain one version or another of an eerily similar scene, from a single night.

This was pretty fun to read because it distills each Democratic candidate's books into short TL;DRs.

South Korean Women 'Escape The Corset' And Reject Their Country's Beauty Ideals (NPR)

Traditionally, she says, Korean women are taught that beauty is their biggest asset. By getting married, they can exchange that asset for social and economic status. Even today, such views affect women's options and choices related to careers, marriage and motherhood. Rejecting beauty standards leads some women to rebel against an entire social structure, she says, and that means boycotting romance, marriage, sex and childbirth.

In Constance Wu, Asian Americans Finally Have a Diva to Call Our Own (Slate)

For Wu to air all of this for mass consumption was unwise, if not disrespectful, for a couple of reasons...

Can someone tell me how I should think about this “scandal”?

Google Tries Again With Pixel 3a (Tech.pinions)

I continued to be somewhat perplexed by Google’s hardware ambitions. Many have suggested that the company continues to play in the hardware market to drive best-of-breed devices, to experiment with the intersection of hardware and software, and to keep its OEM partners on their toes. However, in 2019, with the broader smartphone market slowing or declining in many regions, this seems like folly.

This writer continues to be perplexed. I continue to be unimpressed.

#fridayfinds

TL;DR: The Apple Watch is my favorite Apple product, and I'm really excited for its future.

I have a bad habit of leaving my iPhone on conference rooms tables and random desks through the office. It is often the case that a coworker of mine is returning my iPhone back on my desk, or that I'm using my Apple Watch to ping my iPhone, and walking around to hear where the “ding!” is coming from.

It could very well be that I'm just forgetful and I'd likely leave any other item in the conference room. Having an Apple Watch, however, has made me enjoy not having my phone on me so much more.

Don't get me wrong. I love the iPhone and, if you know me well, you know how I feel about it and iOS compared to its competitor operating systems and smartphone manufacturers. But it's not the upcoming iPhone that I'm excitedly anticipating for every September anymore. Nor is it the latest MacBook or the iPad Pro (although those things are getting sexier by the year). It's the upcoming Apple Watch. And I can't wait to see what the new Apple Watch Series 5(?), and watchOS 6, bring to Apple's customers.

I could write a bunch about how the Apple Watch has life-saving health tracking abilities, how Apple and the Stanford University School of Medicine collaborated on the largest ever heart study using Apple Watches wearers who volunteered their data (including me), how it automatically dials 9-1-1 a minute after it detects your fall and you don't interact with it, and can be great for a family or friends communicating on a trip together using Walkie Talkie. But I'll focus more on how I personally benefit from it.

What the Apple Watch has done is reduced my dependence on always reaching for my iPhone. The common user experience rule people attribute to the Apple Watch (I'm not sure if it came from Apple itself) is this:

  • Using a laptop is measured in hours
  • Using a smartphone is measured in minutes
  • Using a smartwatch is measured in seconds

All the seconds-only interactions that I previously had to pick up my iPhone for, which then encouraged me to stay glued to the iPhone for more meaningless interactions, were replaced by my Apple Watch. And on the Apple Watch, it's absurd to have any meaningful medium-to-long term interactions.

I don't like getting notifications for things. I curate my notifications settings on my iPhone very aggressively so that I don't get bothered by seeing or feeling things (more on hearing things later). Even more are my notifications curated on my Apple Watch. Apart from the timer notifications I set, I only get bothered for by four things:

  • Text messages
  • Severe weather alerts via the brilliant Carrot Weather app
  • A tap 15 minutes prior to my next meeting
  • Notifications for transportation-related information (Uber driver approaching, Delta flight changes, etc)

I'm currently using the Siri watch face (shown below), which is essentially a “smart” watch face that shows me the most relevant data at the time based on my usage behaviors and the data I enter into my iPhone. And while it's not always super helpful, it usually is. So, at a glance, I can see the current weather conditions, the time, the next meeting, and a photo that often makes me smile.

And then there are the other icing-on-the-cake, but regularly-used, features:

  • I can take calls on the Apple Watch.
  • I use it to track my sleep every night with the excellent AutoSleep app.
  • Siri and voice dictation work way better than you'd expect on a device like this.
  • I can unlock my Macbook Pro with it, and the security technology that undergirds this feature is pretty awesome.
  • My shopping list is right on my watch using the Things app. This life is the good life.
  • It's a very convenient remote for the Apple TV or for taking pictures on an iPhone across the room.

So about sound notifications. Silence is bliss. With my Apple Watch, I don't need any sound notifications. If a call comes in, I get taps. If I get messages, taps. Sound notifications seem barbaric now by comparison.

I am not athletic and do not exercise much at all. So I am aware that I'm not taking advantage of one the Apple Watch's most popular and robust feature sets: workout-related features. Maybe some day.

Now, there's one thing about the Apple Watch that makes me yearn for a regular ol' watch: that I can't inconspicuously sneak a glance at the time.

Due to the small form factor, the Apple Watch is designed to aggressively manage battery usage. This means that you have to raise or flick your wrist for the display to turn on and check the time. I'd love if it could one day have always-on time display dimmed very low, and I can only hope that Apple's working their best to make that a reality in future versions.

🤞🏻

#apple