jadanzzy

fridayfinds

It's been a very, very long time since I last had a Friday Finds update. I hope some of these links I share are worth people's time.

There’s a Better Way to Parent: Less Yelling, Less Praise (The Atlantic)

One of the craziest things we do is praise children constantly. When I was first working on the book, I recorded myself to see how frequently I praised my little girl, Rosy, and I noticed that I would exaggeratedly react to even her smallest accomplishments, like drawing a flower or writing a letter, with a comment like “Good job!” or “Wow! What a beautiful flower!”

It’s hard to cut back on praise, because it’s so baked in, but later on, I decided to try. It’s not that there’s no feedback, but it’s much gentler feedback—parents will smile or nod if a child is doing something they want. I started doing that, and Rosy’s behavior really improved. A lot of the attention-seeking behavior went away.

Not to suggest wholly prescribed inevitability, but I do believe how we were raised by our parents has an outsized influence in who we become as adults. I hope I don't fuck it up.

Some honest reflections on parenting, from the morning quiet (Twitter)

Your kids are not you. You share genes and points of reference and maybe even ancestral belief patterns and trauma, but they are not you. You will never fully know them, but that’s OK. Kids are allowed their own mysteries, just as us parents should have ours.

And yet, here is an equally comforting and nerve-wracking statement from a tweet thread I came across.

Reddit is an interesting place. While some corners of Reddit are disgusting, crude, and downright dangerous to society, most subreddits range from fun, weird, thoughtful, to highly informative and helpful. Except the occasional witch-hunting and brigading that lead random redditors to digitally mob and identify wrong suspects in domestic terror attacks.

I've said before that seeking and receiving wisdom from random strangers on social media is, at best, mildly valuable, and, at worst, extremely dangerous. And yet, I will completely contradict myself here by sharing two subreddits that I frequent all the time and look to for crowd-sourcing information when it comes to expecting and raising an infant.

BabyBumps is a subreddit for expecting parents. I can't tell you how many times Amy and I wondered something, and the first thing I did was search in this subreddit to see if anyone here has discussed it. Some worries or concerns we had were allayed by the fact that we'd see many other posts asking or saying the same thing.

BeyondTheBump is a subreddit for, you guessed it, parents post-partum. While I've not yet frequented this subreddit, you better believe I will when the little one's born and all up in upending our lives.

#fridayfinds

Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds (Illinois News Bureau)

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign study found that 50 minutes of dry heat in an electric cooker, such as a rice cooker or Instant Pot, decontaminated N95 respirators inside and out while maintaining their filtration and fit.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture supported this work.

Instructions in the link.

Oatly: The New Coke (Divinations)

Putting 12oz of Oatly into your latte and adjusting for the higher GI of maltose means adding almost a tablespoon of table sugar to your drink. Put a tablespoon of sugar next to your coffee next time you have a chance and seriously consider if that’s a decision that’s “made for humans.”

When you drink oat milk, you’re mostly drinking oats, water, sugar, and canola oil. Sugar isn’t healthy for anyone. But what about the canola?

The evidence for the harms of canola oil is still in its early days, but continues to grow. Research has linked it to: Memory impairment, Alzheimer’s risk, Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, Increased all-cause mortality, Metabolic syndrome, Decreased brain function, and Oxidative stress.

For a period of about 2 months, Amy and I went on an obsessive Oatly binge. It's delicious. But this write-up is depressing.

If you love Oatly, and you don't want to complicate that love, ignore this article haha. Knowledge is the utter absolute of bliss.

‘Christianity Will Have Power’ (NY Times)

“I guess the biggest concern for me is trying to keep our country the way it was. Conservative. The values. For us, I mean, this is as good as it gets. We can do whatever we want,” said Mr. Driesen, 56, sitting at his kitchen table this spring with his wife, Cheryl, 52. Next to them, a family motto was painted on the wall in gold and black lettering: “Home, Where Your Story Begins.”

So what I gather about people who identify with the more rural Christians at the center of this article is that their faith is just an identity and protective barrier for their own way of life—not a directive for how they should engage with the world by “learning to do right, seeking justice, defending the oppressed, taking up the cause of the fatherless, and pleading the widow's case.”

Got it.

Rethinking the Science of Skin (The New Yorker)

With all our soaps and sanitizers and antibiotics, in addition to so much time spent inside, away from dirt and animals and fresh air, we’ve created new problems for our immune systems, which miss out on the chance to encounter benign triggers and instead learn to overreact to perceived threats. Excess hygiene can also be a problem for the skin’s microbiome, which has an ecology that we’re just beginning to understand.

When I was a child, you could very easily find me playing on the dirt, running through overgrowths and rainwater run-offs, and lying down on streets.

Do kids do that today?

#fridayfinds

Capitalists or Cronyists? (No Mercy No Malice)

Morality for [...] the current administration, is not capitalism but the worst type of socialism, cronyism. Rugged individualism and capitalism on the way up, privatizing the gains — and then socialism/cronyism on the way down as we socialize the losses with bailouts.

What Professor Scott Galloway (who I have a hardcore intellectual mancrush on) says so efficiently is something that I'm happy that (I think) most of the democratic party's candidates agreed on. It was absolutely the case for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Why don't Americans know this? Why are we so afraid of socialism that'd benefits the working class when we've been living a socialism for the corporate class for decades now? Why, when crisis hits, do we allow the same things to happen over and over again?

If we're going to want Congress to pass stimulus packages, then we should demand that they bail out wage earners overwhelmingly over shareholders.

Vote the right people in, folks.

Rt Covid-19

These are up-to-date values for Rt, a key measure of how fast the virus is growing.

Have you seen this? Pretty neat, although the visualization is only as effective as they data they have. The two Instagram co-founders (and now ex-Facebook employees), Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, are behind this. Don't think they'll sell this one to Fuckerberg as well, thank goodness.

“The Soup” – Gifts (Seinfeld Law)

After Bania gives Jerry a brand new Armani suit, he tells Jerry that he can pay him back by taking him out to dinner sometime. Is Jerry actually under any legal obligation to take Bania out dinner? When Jerry took the Armani suit, did he create a legally binding contract that obligated him to take Bania out to dinner?

Do my lawyer friends already know about this? This has to be one of the most amusing mashing of two worlds I never previously considered. If you really love Seinfeld (which you should), and you're into law for whatever reason, then this is heaven in blog form.

Timeline: What Trump Has Said And Done About The Coronavirus (NPR)

With near-daily task force briefings, President Trump has delivered an ever-evolving message to the American public about the coronavirus pandemic.

The constant is the inconsistency. At times he has been in sync with the public health experts advising him on the response and with actions initiated by his administration. But often he has undercut or even contradicted his experts or White House policy.

You know what? I think it's better for my mental health to believe that he's not actually stupid. Nope. Instead, he's just such a narcissistic megalomaniac that he'll troll so hard just to stay in the headlines. He knows exactly what he's doing.

It actually makes me less angry believing that.

Brian Kemp on the other hand. Yeah he's just a fucking moron.

#fridayfinds

Astrology in the Age of Uncertainty (The New Yorker)

In 2015, when Aliza Kelly was raising money for a short-lived astrology dating app called Align, she was mocked by prospective investors. (“Literally, this one guy wrote, ‘I usually wish people well, and in your case I don’t, because you’re defying science and the Enlightenment era,’ ” she told me.) Now venture capitalists, excited by a report from IBISWorld which found that Americans spend $2.2 billion annually on “mystical services” (including palmistry, tarot reading, etc.), are funnelling money into the area.

In America, to believe is to make money.

But also, to believe is human. This says way less about any supposed metaphysical reality and way more about the human brain.

Two years ago I sat down on an Amtrak train from NYC to Boston. Shortly afterward Senator Warren sat down in the seat behind me. (Twitter: Jelani Cobb)

I [...] thought I had [this] great story to tell about getting a ride from Senator Warren and multiple people there were underwhelmed or at least not surprised. “Yeah, that’s something she would do,” several people told me.

I'm still pretty sad.

No Cell Signal, No Wi-Fi, No Problem (NYTimes)

“I don’t like to keep my face in my phone all the time because I like to enjoy what’s in the moment.”

That was said by a goddamn 14-year old who lives in this bizarre paradise.

Also, this is fucking sad:

“We’re related to people who tend not to come visit because the teenagers are stressed out too much about not being on wireless,” said Dr. Karen O’Neil, the director of the observatory. On a recent afternoon, Dr. O’Neil stood in the observatory’s basement, where several high school students were tinkering with a computerized robot.

I've Been Stretching While High, and I Can't Recommend It Enough (Bon Appetit)

I’ve started stretching while high. And it feels gooooood. Like, orgasmic good.

Cannabis is cool.

#fridayfinds

Why scientists believe dogs are smarter than we give them credit for (Vox)

On the whole, psychologist and dog researcher Stanley Coren estimates, the average dog's intelligence is roughly as sophisticated as a 2.5-year-old baby's.

“Well 2.5 year old babies can talk” one could say or think. Yes, but complex speech is but just one indicator of intelligence.

How Bon Appétit Accidentally Made YouTube’s Most Beloved Stars (Buzzfeed News)

“Bon Appétit has done such a great job of shrugging off the stuffy legacy media brand persona and now leans heavily on authenticity, and it's something that people really seem to appreciate,” said Martin and Kersh.

Yes, yes, and yes. I've written a bunch of times about how much I adore the BA folks, and that quote above really nails it. Of course it's produced. But it doesn't feel at all scripted. And if there's any scripting, it's loose. But most of all, they're just very delightful to watch.

One day at work, I was in our kitchen with a bunch of co-workers. One person mentioned Bon Appetit, and we just serendipitously connected over loving BA, asking each other who our favorite member was. None of us knew we were separately fans. It was a very nice moment.

The Promise and Problem of Fake Meat (Buzzfeed News)

Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger do have better nutritional profiles than beef burgers: Less calories, more protein, less fat.

...

But that case only works if you ignore the large body of evidence that processed food consumption contributes just as much, if not more, to obesity, cancer, and other disease risk.

I've had the Impossible Burger (IB) a handful of times now. It's plenty good enough, and I don't feel left wanting a cow burger. I also cooked with Beyond Meat, and it's not quite as good as the IB, but I didn't think it was bad either. Texturally, however, it wasn't as “authentic” as the IB was, compared to cow. Amy wasn't a big fan of Beyond Meat but enjoyed the IB.

But it's that second part that's most important. These meat substitutes are extremely processed. My food guidelines these days are as follows:

  1. Cook food far more than buying it.
  2. Cook whole foods far more than processed foods.
  3. Cook vegetarian food far more than food with animal protein
  4. Enjoy delicious fresh bread.
  5. Don't take things too seriously.

List of people claimed to be Jesus (Wikipedia)

Sergey Torop (1961–), a Russian who claims to be “reborn” as Vissarion, Jesus Christ returned, which makes him not “God” but the “Word of God”.

I actually saw a Vice mini documentary on this guy. Interesting, to say the least.

Full list of small companies named Atlanta Top Workplaces for 2020 (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

12. Big Nerd Ranch

Neat.

(Full List of All Winners)

#fridayfinds

Happy New Year, my friends. I'm hoping to blog more often this year, starting off with a retrospective on 2019 soon. “Soon.”

And with that...

Why 2020 Is Looking Dangerous for Wine Lovers (Food & Wine)

Take a glance through the comments opposing this tariff on the U.S. Trade Representative’s site. You’ll see that they come from salespeople who are worried their jobs will be impacted, wine store owners who may have to lay off staff, wine importers who are worried that after 20 years in business they’ll be forced to close up shop, servers and staff in restaurants that sell European wines—regular people with jobs whose livelihoods will be thrown into question by a draconian penalty in service to a dispute that has nothing to do with their businesses at all.

If you love wine and don’t feel like an unrelated trade dispute should restrict your freedom to buy the bottles you love best, or simply find the possible cost to American businesses alarming, you should tell the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is required to accept comments from the public until January 13. Contacting your representative would be a good idea, too. Email your representative here. Comment at the U.S. Trade Representative’s site here.

You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you (The Oatmeal)

Core beliefs are the beliefs which people cherish the most deeply. They usually develop from childhood and are compounded by life experiences. Core beliefs are inflexible, rigid, and incredibly sensitive to being challenged.

This wonderful comic about how we don't absorb facts and evidence is a wonderful reminder that humans are, first and foremost, an emotional, irrational, and tribal species. Add to that the dramatic impact of all the claims randos on the internet make, and we have the disinformation and misinformation chaos today.

How we re-wire ourselves and future generations to get to facts and truths, along with reputable institutions and government that protect us from deceptive narratives, will be the challenge of the future.

Millennials Are Leaving Religion And Not Coming Back (FiveThirtyEight)

”...[W]e came to see all of this negativity from people who were highly religious and increasingly didn’t want a part in it.” This view is common among young people.

During my waning days practicing Christianity, I would remark that American Christianity would be a better version of itself if two things happened: 1) it dramatically lost political and cultural power, and 2) it liberalized.

I think both things are happening, but not without a bitter fight. See American Evangelicals thoroughly compromising pact with the most un-Christian president ever. Speaking of that...

Trump Should Be Removed from Office (Christianity Today)

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

Better late than never, I guess.

The Claim: Drinking Alcohol With a Meal Prevents Food Poisoning (NY Times)

THE FACTS: Recent studies have found that a little alcohol may help ward off heart disease and slow dementia. But an old wives' tale suggests another reason to indulge in a drink or two with dinner: preventing food poisoning.

A few weeks ago, I cooked and ate pork tenderloin that I worried was undercooked. It could've been the case, or my mind may have taken a hold over my body, but I started to feel mildly ill. The thought came to my mind, “What if I just have a few glasses of whiskey? Wouldn't alcohol kill bacteria that cause food-borne illness?”

And thus, I stumbled upon this article from 2005.

#fridayfinds

What makes dogs so special and successful? Love. (Washington Post)

If you show dogs in MRI scanners objects that remind them of either food or the presence of their owners, you can see how their brains light up. And the reward centers of the brain light up more strongly to signals that say “Your owner is nearby” than to signals that say “You’re going to get a piece of sausage.” That’s really strong evidence inside the brain that the presence of a beloved human is rewarding to a dog in itself.

Everyone who knows me and Amy knows how much we love Louie. It helps that we really believe he loves us back, and that belief is reinforced by his behavior. Dogs are unique among non-human animals because when they look humans in the eyes, oxytocin levels go up. That experience alone makes for a special bond between dogs and humans.

You may have heard us say it before: dogs are way better than humans. Their love is unconditional. Don't take dogs for granted.


Does anyone else find it mind-blowing that much of Christianity went from subversive, anti-imperialist, non-triumphalist, grassroots, and organic to... this? Just me? OK.

These people can legit bust a move, though.

The Great American Eye-Exam Scam (The Atlantic)

When I last went to an eye exam at a storefront optician in the United States, for example, the staff gave me the hard sell on glasses that would have cost hundreds of dollars, as well as on contact lenses that were much more expensive than identical ones sold by online retailers. Thankfully, I knew that two laws, one passed in 1997 and the other in 2003—which had, incidentally, been loudly opposed by the AOA—gave me the right to demand a copy of my prescription. I stood firm, and later went online to order perfectly fine glasses and contact lenses at a fraction of the price. But how many customers give in to heavy-handed sales tactics?

The kicker:

It is little wonder, then, that American optometrists spend a lot of money on lobbying. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, for example, the AOA spent $1.8 million on lobbying and another $1.4 million on campaign contributions in 2016.

C.R.E.A.M.

FBI says FaceApp is a ‘potential counterintelligence threat’ because of its ties to Russia (9to5Mac)

The FBI considers any mobile application or similar product developed in Russia, such as FaceApp, to be a potential counterintelligence threat, based on the data the product collects, its privacy and terms of use policies, and the legal mechanisms available to the government of Russia that permit access to data within Russia’s borders.

Unless app developers in Russia or China expose their app's code for public review, I don't knowingly download apps from those countries. Yes, it's a burden, but a few clicks before downloading apps like this to determine the country of origin is a good practice. As soon as I saw FaceApp show up in the news, the first thought I asked was, “This is perfect fodder for face data collection.”

Crying in H Mart (The New Yorker)

My grief comes in waves and is usually triggered by something arbitrary. I can tell you with a straight face what it was like watching my mom’s hair fall out in the bathtub, or about the five weeks I spent sleeping in hospitals, but catch me at H Mart when some kid runs up double-fisting plastic sleeves of ppeong-twigi and I’ll just lose it. Those little rice-cake Frisbees were my childhood: a happier time, when Mom was there and we’d crunch away on the Styrofoam-like disks after school. Eating them was like splitting a packing peanut that dissolved like sugar on your tongue.

Michelle Zauner is a popular indie rock musician, who goes by the moniker Japanese Breakfast. Ironically, she's half-Korean. I'm a fan and a supporter. This is one of my favorite songs of hers, and it's best played loud. I've followed her emotional and cultural journey after her mom's passing in writing and interviews, and it's endeared me to her and made me more proud of Korean culture. I read her piece last year, but thought I'd share it here again. It's a tearjerker. She has a book coming out (psst Esther) that fleshes this journey out.

#fridayfinds

Every Matt Damon Movie Performance, Ranked (Vulture)

Damon has shown a certain pragmatic efficiency in his choices of roles, valuing respected directors rather than taking huge risks on passion projects himself.

🤷🏻‍♂️ Enjoy.

Facebook and Google’s pervasive surveillance poses an unprecedented danger to human rights (Amnesty International)

The tech giants offer these services to billions without charging users a fee. Instead, individuals pay for the services with their intimate personal data, being constantly tracked across the web and in the physical world as well, for example, through connected devices.

A key reason why I blog, and why I specifically use the Write.as platform, is to express myself through an alternative means where I have to pay for the privilege to do this.

But I'm not in the clear. I'm half-committed. While I have fully disconnected myself from all of Facebook's grasp, Google still has me captured. I love YouTube. And while I've flirted with the idea of paying for an email account (with the likes of ProtonMail or Fastmail), Gmail still houses all my emails from the last 15 years. I collaborate with Amy using Google Docs and Sheets. I know what's happening in my life with Google Calendar. And Google's search is just way better than the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo.

Marias Massacre (Wikipedia)

...the U.S. Army raid was a massacre of mostly women, children, and elderly men[...]

While Amy and I were vacationing in beautiful Montana earlier this year, I lay awake one night unable to sleep. So I opened up the Wikipedia app (I fucking love Wikipedia) and read about the history of Montana.

After 30 minutes my heart was heavy, full of anger and sadness. What a way to try to sleep.

This country was founded and expanded on the blood of many innocents. The only appropriate response to anyone who claims America is a Christian nation is to laugh in their face.

21 Restaurants to Try Along Atlanta’s Buford Highway (Atlanta Eater)

Buford Highway is a gourmand’s paradise featuring foods from nations like Vietnam and Korea to Mexico and Colombia

Sorry to the non-Atlantans this listicle doesn't apply to (unless you plan to file this away for when you visit 🙂). Being close to Buford Highway is one of the best perks of living in Brookhaven. Looks like there are a bunch of places I still need to check out.

#fridayfinds

I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb (Vice)

The bad news, which went unstated, was that I had unknowingly stumbled into a nationwide web of deception that appeared to span eight cities and nearly 100 property listings—an undetected scam created by some person or organization that had figured out just how easy it is to exploit Airbnb’s poorly written rules in order to collect thousands of dollars through phony listings, fake reviews, and, when necessary, intimidation.

Be careful out there, folks. Do your due diligence. I've used Airbnb enough times, and have had an overall satisfactory experience. I won't stop using it when appropriate. But it's still an “adolescent” service with a lot of variables that the company can't seem to account for. The good ol' hotel room removes a lot of the uncertainty, that's for sure.

10 Tips to Avoid Leaving Tracks Around the Internet (NY Times)

“Oh yeah — and don’t use Facebook.”

Microsoft Japan’s 4-day workweek experiment sees productivity jump 40% (CNBC)

The experiment, which also incorporated self-development and family wellness schemes, recorded largely positive feedback from employees, too, with 92.1% saying they liked the four-day workweek, according to the firm.

I had a short stint of randomly asking people at the office if they'd be open to a 4-day 10-hours-a-day work week. I got more “yes” than “no” because the perk was the 3-day weekend. But why did I expect that we'd have to have a 40-hour workweek? Why didn't I suggest sticking to 8 hours? 40 hours was a labor movement innovation. Maybe, in this day and age, a new labor movement needs to promote an even healthier work-life balance.

4-day, 8-hours-a-day work week then.

Math Looks The Same In The Brains Of Boys And Girls, Study Finds (NPR)

Using an international database on adolescent achievement in science, mathematics and reading, they found that in two-thirds of all countries, female students performed at least as well as males in science.

Yet paradoxically, females in wealthier countries with more gender equality, including the U.S., were less likely than females in other countries to get degrees in fields like math and computer science.

TL;DR: it has less to do with biology, and more to do with societal structures, expectations, and genderizing interests.

The Billionaires Are Getting Nervous (NY Times)

The wealthiest Americans are paying a much smaller share of income in taxes than they did a half-century ago. In 1961, Americans with the highest incomes paid an average of 51.5 percent of that income in federal, state and local taxes. Half a century later, in 2011, Americans with the highest incomes paid just 33.2 percent of their income in taxes...

And now Michael Bloomberg has decided to enter the race. There was a point in the past where I would've gladly entertained his candidacy. However, I've come to believe very strongly that the greater our income inequality is, the higher the chance for societal instability becomes. The last thing we need is for obscenely wealthy men to tell us they can fix our problems—or buy their way into the White House.

#fridayfinds

The Secret Ingredient That Improves Meat Every Time (NY Times)

At this point, I suspect that half of you are salivating subconsciously while the other half are quite consciously suppressing a gag reflex.

The former. I'm going to try this ASAP. Sounds delicious.

Code Switch Twitter Thread (Twitter)

This has to be one of the most fun uses of Apple's Animoji I've ever seen. Black and brown folks talking about how they have to “code switch”: change the way they talk depending on who they're with.

Amy and I really enjoyed the Marché one (the third post)—and not just because she's from Atlanta.

Beautiful Phone Wallpapers (Heroscreen)

I really like these wallpapers. Hope you do too.

Running Is My Therapy and My Nutritionist Is Kale (The New Yorker)

My nutritionist is a single leaf of kale that whispers affirmations to me. My dentist? A toothbrush. His partner? Dr. Listerine.

My Google Maps is the direction that moss grows on trees. My Waze is the orientation of the stars. My Apple Maps is tasting the wind.

My maid’s name is Roomba; my other maid’s name is Broom. My barber is a hand mirror and some rusty shears. My gardener is Mother Nature and the fucking rain.

This was... interesting.

If You Rest, You Rust? Study Finds Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline (StudyFinds)

Benjamin Franklin, some rando dude from like thousands of years ago, said, “Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the key often used is always bright.”

But also:

“For cognition among the elderly, it looks like the negative effect on social engagement far outweighed the positive effect of the program on nutrition and sleep,” Nikolov theorizes. “Or alternatively, the kinds of things that matter and determine better health might simply be very different than the kinds of things that matter for better cognition among the elderly. Social engagement and connectedness may simply be the single most powerful factors for cognitive performance in old age.”

There was a very popular New York Times article in 2012 about the elderly on a Greek island that live unusually longer and are healthier than expected. One critical factor? Social bonding.

#fridayfinds