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Remembering MLK in restored NBC video
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1 min read
In some rarely-seen footage from 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the new phase of the Civil Rights movement for “genuine equality.” For 26 minutes, he’s just as eloquent and sincere as you imagined: “It is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps…And…
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Get the cool shoeshine!
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1 min read
“Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of societies: those where you can get a shoe shine and those where you can’t,” wrote Roger Cohen in a 2008 Op-ed. Americans love their shoe shines. The opposite is true of egalitarian societies like France where such a cleaning service “rubs the Gallic egalitarian spirit the wrong way.” But in New…
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My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person doing something unfamous. It’s being in the right place at the wrong time. Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol’s exposures
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Are we selling our souls for ads? Technosociologist Zeynep Tufecki seems to think so. The Cambridge Analytica-Facebook debacle demonstrates the Wild West of data exploitation. Facebook can’t pin the blame on the machine-optimizing algorithms. It’s humans who are responsible for managing the equations and policing validity. A recent study also proved that it is humans,…
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Why great athletes enjoy suffering pain
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1 min read
Author Malcolm Gladwell sits down with Alex Hutchison, author of the new book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance to discuss how great athletes come to enjoy suffering pain. Says Hutchison, “Great athletes don’t necessarily feel pain differently. They reframe pain differently.” Hutchison calls the suffering a type of benign…
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Video: Life is pain
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1 min read
Burnt toast, half-torn tape, uncooperative mobile screen orientations, the torn wine cork–those are just some of the everyday things that drive us crazy. In this animated video, properly entitled Life is Pain, we can all find a small and annoying daily irritation to relate to.
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How to sustain momentum when we’re already on a roll
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1 min read
We all know what it feels like to be on a roll. The enthusiasm synchs up with the effort to produce a feeling of flow. The vibe is right. But what goes up must come down Inspiration ebbs. Motivation falters. Humans are inconsistent. Advises record producer and co-founder of Def Jam Records Rick Rubin:…
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Toward perennial
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1 min read
All we are trying to do is get people to slow down in this fast-paced, dizzying world, and consider our work. First, we have to earn attention. Then, we have to win trust. Then, we have to convince people to come back without a carrot, flash, or a prompt. Standing out in a world of…
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The benefits of walking in nature
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2 min read
One of the main benefits of walking in nature is that trees inspire feelings of awe. According to research done by psychology professor Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley, awe benefits not only the mind and body but also improves our social connections and makes us kinder. Spending time outside is also vital as a de-stressor.…
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In our time
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1 min read
Lost and rediscovered. Cycles of peace trigger concurrent spirals of tyranny. People gravitate to the donut hole, blind to the big picture. History is a gif loop It doesn’t matter what the books reveal about our worst tendencies. People want to experience chaos on their own. In short, men fall casualty to “thinking with their…
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— Thomas Henry Huxley, also known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for supporting the theory of evolution
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‘The right to disconnect’ 📱
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1 min read
Stop working from home and get some rest. Even better, plan some unscheduled time. Sincerely, France Wait, what? On January 1st of this year, France passed the ‘right to disconnect‘ law which enforces a digital diet outside working hours. The rule prohibits employers from calling or emailing employees during personal time. France already imposes 35-hour works…
Writing about life and arts
