Ken Schafer

September 5, 2021

Bookmark

The animals changed by proximity to humans

“It’s not just domestication that has changed animals – simply sharing their environment with humans has radically altered the behaviour of some species. A…”
Bookmark

Flora, Fauna, and … Funga? The Case for a Third ‘F.’

“I n 1999, Giuliana Furci developed a profound interest in fungi. They were everywhere, and the 20-year-old took particular joy in the multiformity of mushrooms:…”
Bookmark

The Art of Pondering Earth’s Distant Future

“Credit: Getty Images The word has been out for decades: We were born on a damaged planet careening toward environmental collapse. Yet our intellects are poorly…”

Bookmark

The Most Unread Book Ever Acclaimed

“Like the holy books, long novels are more often maligned than read. Critics complain that they’re exasperating or impossible or not worth the time. But in the…”
Bookmark

Billie, Lorde, Lizzo: has being a female pop star in 2021 become unbearable?

“T he mechanisms of pop stardom have never been subject to as much scrutiny as they are now. Britney Spears’ conservatorship struggle exposed their potential for…”

Bookmark

An accidental discovery hints at a hidden population of cosmic objects

“This mosaic shows the entire sky imaged by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Infrared light refers to wavelengths that are longer than those…”
Bookmark

Starting Tomorrow, ‘Roe v. Wade’ Will Functionally Cease to Exist in Texas

“An exam room at a Whole Woman’s Health clinic. (Scott Olson / Getty Images) I feel like people are waiting for the headline “Roe v. Wade Overturned” to appear…”

Bookmark

The reasons humans started kissing

“Lip-on-lip kissing is not nearly as universal as we might think it is, so can the diverse number of ways that humans kiss reveal what it is about this intimate…”

Bookmark

A Big Study About Honesty Turns Out To Be Based On Fake Data

“Renowned psychologist Dan Ariely literally wrote the book on dishonesty. Now some are questioning whether the scientist himself is being dishonest. BuzzFeed…”

Bookmark

On Getting Help

“TOKYO, JAPAN – JULY 27: Naomi Osaka of Team Japan reacts after a point during her Women’s Singles Third Round match against Marketa Vondrousova of Team Czech…”

Bookmark

The Best Sites, Apps, and YouTube Channels to Learn Music

“Modern technology makes studying to play a new instrument easier than ever. And the best part? Most of these tools are free or affordable. Two decades ago, my…”

Bookmark

‘The White Lotus’ Finale Didn’t Need a Dead Body—But It Picked the Perfect One

“HBO/Getty Images/Ringer illustration Mike White is well aware The White Lotus is not a murder mystery at heart. “You know, it’s such a trope at this point. All…”
Bookmark

Mike White Accepts the Criticism

“Photo: TODD MIDLER/The New York Times/Redux The White Lotus is a show born out of necessity, an HBO series that creator Mike White could produce quickly and…”

Bookmark

How Data Science Pinpointed the Creepiest Word in “Macbeth”

“It’s not the word you’d expect — and it appears in this very sentence Clive Thompson 21 hours ago · 7 min read “Shakespeare”, by Ungry Young Man Macbeth is a…”
Bookmark

TV’s White Guys Are in Crisis

“Steve Zahn in The White Lotus . Photo: Courtesy of HBO This summer, television became preoccupied with a question: What should happen to men? Not all men — TV…”

Bookmark

Hit songs rely on increasing “harmonic surprise” to hook listeners, study finds

“Enlarge / A study of “harmonic surprise”—points where the music deviates from listener expectations—in popular music over several decades found that Childish…”
Bookmark

What’s the Point of Apple TV Hardware?

“Speaking of Mark Gurman , his Power On newsletter continues to be an excellent read. His main topic this week argues that Apple TV (hardware) is “mostly…”

Bookmark

A Framework for the Metaverse — MatthewBall.vc

“TeamLab Art Collective Email Email Close I first wrote about the Metaverse in 2018 , and overhauled my thinking in a January 2020 update: The Metaverse: What It…”
Bookmark

Clubhouse Is The Big Stinker That Nobody Wants To Talk About

“Clubhouse, the voice app that lets you hear other people attempt to hold a conversation, is no longer invite-only , which one would imagine would have given the…”
Bookmark

The Best Time Travel Movies of … All Time

“From Groundhog Day to Interstellar , filmmakers love messing with timelines. Thankfully, that makes for mind-bending entertainment. Time—ravager of youth;…”
Bookmark

Opinion | We Can Thank Drug Users for a Key Approach to Fighting Covid

“Guest Essay We Can Thank Drug Users for a Key Approach to Fighting Covid July 23, 2021, 3:00 p.m. ET Credit… Jo Zixuan Zhou By Ms. Szalavitz is a writer…”
Bookmark

The Customer Is Often Wrong

“I n May, I stood in the rear galley of an airplane and watched as a line formed to berate the flight attendant next to me. We were at a gate at LaGuardia, our…”

Bookmark

How TV Went From David Brent to Ted Lasso

“Critic’s Notebook Two decades ago, TV’s most distinctive stories were defined by a tone of ironic detachment. Today, they’re more often sincere and direct. How…”
Bookmark

“I Think You Should Leave” Is a Love Language

“The other night, I ran into my old friend, the comedian and writer Josh Gondelman. It was the first time in a while that we had seen each other in person, but…”
Bookmark

The Return-to-Office Existential Crisis

“In 2019, Steven Spielberg called for a ban on Oscar eligibility for streaming films , claiming that “movie theaters need to be around forever” and that…”
Bookmark

You Anon

“For Context Reconsidering pseudonymity and what it means to “be yourself” online. By July 31, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET In early July, when England’s soccer team lost…”
Bookmark

The push for a “PBS for the internet”

“The concept of a new media ecosystem that’s non-profit, publicly funded and tech-infused is drawing interest in policy circles as a way to shift the power…”

Bookmark

What drives belief in conspiracy theories, a lack of religion or too much?

“Jul 27th 2021 AMERICANS WHO believe in the conspiracy theories collectively packaged as “QAnon” have grown quiet in recent months. They gained international…”
Bookmark

Transmutex | Union Square Ventures

“Electrification of transportation, heating, and various industrial processes is crucial to fighting the climate crisis. Of course that’s only true if we wind up…”
Bookmark

short lease in a slick machine: a personal essay about apartments

“Jul 31, 2021 1,990 notes Hi Everyone, you may have wondered where I’ve been for the last few months. The truth is, I, like most people must at some point in…”