History was made a long time ago, by the people who lived then, but occasionally some of it returns to us in the form of old things. The diary of George Murray Levick, for example, lost on Robert Falcon Scott's fatal 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition, was revealed by last summer's Antarctic snowmelt and restored by New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust. Levick apparently spent the winter of 1911-1912 "in an ice cave on Inexpressible Island" which is my new goal in life. Another old thing is the crew manifest for the whaler Acushnet, which counts among its soon-to-be-regretful number a 21 year old Herman Melville, who would jump ship 18 months later at the Marquesas and have many other adventures before returning to MA to write the greatest book ever. My generation's version of going to sea and being horsewhipped by the bosun's mate was starting an online community, and Kyle Chayka has a great Gizmodo tab on what he calls the Web 1.0 revival, sites like Ello, tilde.club, and Facebook's new Rooms app. Of course the opposite of history is the future, and what says "the future" more strongly than tractor beams? If you need to move tiny specks of dust a fraction of a meter, you're finally in luck.
Why I Unsubscribed From Today in Tabs is the new Why I'm Leaving New York
- Jared Keller (@jaredbkeller) October 27, 2014
Adrian Chen has been gainfully employed lately, going all the way to the Philippines to report on the invisible army of moderators who enforce Facebook's capricious content standards. He also has a followup chat with media scholar Sarah Roberts in The Awl. And he's also been spotted partying with #gamergate at a strip club in Queens. Meritorious service badge for that. Speaking of Jamerjate: Andy Baio captured and analyzed 72 hours of #gamergate tweets. Surprise! He found out it's a flood of sockpuppets harassing women. Ok he was a lot more measured than that, but look at the data, it's pretty obvious. It's certainly not about this, that's for sure. If you're still not convinced, watch The Sarkeesian Effect: A Measured Response. Seriously, watch it. Oh my god. Watch it. The skull.
Today in Dads: Occasional guest-tabber Jessie Guy-Ryan wrote some scary stories to tell Dads in the dark, and they are terrifying.
I really don't give a fuck about your stance on gluten
- Jaya Saxena (@jayasax) October 27, 2014
Yesterday's T.S. Eliot sign-off must have been due subconsciously to that other T.S. who's been inescapable. Fortunately Jennifer Schaffer made the subconscious conscious, in "Who Said It: Taylor Swift Or T. S. Eliot?" which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The Witches of Bushwick are back, this time with herbal remedies! Kim Kardashian shared insights on app success at Re/Code's mobile conference, and before you start with your clever joke, think about how much money she's made from KK:H, and don't even. This tab on Sugar Daddy Dating in San Francisco Magazine somehow manages to be way grosser than I imagined, and I have a really good imagination.
Grenders on eating in the subway. How to stop pooping I guess. A Canadiasplainer on Jian Ghomeshi. This Tesco buttermilkis the balls. Statistically improbably phrases: "…a cartoonish vagina butt." Ghost fashions. Hilarious Halloween hookups ("It's a-me! Mario!")
Experience BIJ!
According to Wikipedia, crowdfunding began as a widespread practice in the early 2000s. It feels like a uniquely internet-based phenomenon, re: ~harnessing the power of the global crowd~, although apparently praenumeration-selling stuff in advance at a discount-has been around since the 18th century. It was usually used for books, but in 1884 the practice raised over $100,000 for the Statue of Liberty in donations of generally less than $1.
Now that we've got Kickstarter et al., the process has become much more streamlined and now moves billions of dollars per year. But what happens when projects never come to fruition? Casey Johnston has a fascinating look at the backers left in the cold, over at Ars Technica. "Why burn out when you can fade away?"
Bijan's second sentence today started out with a parenthetical, two em dashes, and a semicolon. It was somehow only made of dependent clauses? I just want you to know the kind of thing I'm protecting you from here.
Today in Drake: "How 'bout Now?
Today in feat. Drake: Nicki Minaj, "Only (feat. Drake, Lil Wayne, and C**** B****)"
~so thick that every tab in the room is so uncomfortable~
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