The End of Food →

Lizzie Widdicombe:

Soylent has been heralded by the press as “the end of food,” which is a somewhat bleak prospect. It conjures up visions of a world devoid of pizza parlors and taco stands—our kitchens stocked with beige powder instead of banana bread, our spaghetti nights and ice-cream socials replaced by evenings sipping sludge. But, Rhinehart says, that’s not exactly his vision. “Most of people’s meals are forgotten,” he told me. He imagines that, in the future, “we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.” Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas.

On the surface, Soylent, at least to me, is Slim-Fast with an Apple product video. I’m intrigued by it, and it makes a ton of sense, but it has the feel of a Malcolm Gladwell article—a thin truth surrounded by a shiny veneer of big words, fancy packaging, and a futuristic appeal.

But.

Soylent, assuming it doesn’t wind up killing anyone, does seem to be the answer to a lot of our modern questions and problems. How can we squeeze more time out of the day? How can we save the food industry from the effects of climate change? How can we reverse the trend of poor eating habits? How can we streamline food aid to millions and millions of people in the U.S. and around the world?

It’s far too early to tell—my wife and I are both interested in trying a Soylent lifestyle. But even then, we’ll have to wait until August to start. Soylent could be a fad, another shooting star in our cultural landscape. Odds are, it probably will be.

But.

If they’ve got this right?

Boy, could it be big.

AMC’s Mad Men-Style ‘For Your Consideration’ Emmy Campaign—For Mad Men

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These are great—Tom & Lorenzo posted the entire set.

Lox, Neon, and Russ and Daughters

Sky Dylan-Robbins:

This year, Russ & Daughters, the acclaimed appetizing institution on the Lower East Side, turns a hundred years old. To celebrate the occasion, the fourth-generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, are giving customers a place to sit.

High quality video of old school neon tube bending and translucent slices of salmon? Just press play.

The Illusion of Life

Cento Lodigiani:

The 12 basic principles of animation were developed by the 'old men' of Walt Disney Studios, amongst them Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, during the 1930s. Of course they weren't old men at the time, but young men who were at the forefront of exciting discoveries that were contributing to the development of a new art form. These principles came as a result of reflection about their practice and through Disney's desire to use animation to express character and personality.

This movie is my personal take on those principles, applied to simple shapes. Like a cube.

Really interesting. I feel like somehow this is adaptable to writing as well.

/via Daring Fireball

The Introduction to ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ (Weekend Reading) →

Thomas Piketty:

Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers. It is of interest to everyone, and that is a good thing. The concrete, physical reality of inequality is visible to the naked eye and naturally inspires sharp but contradictory political judgments. Peasant and noble, worker and factory owner, waiter and banker: each has his or her own unique vantage point and sees important aspects of how other people live and what relations of power and domination exist between social groups, and these observations shape each person’s judgment of what is and is not just. Hence there will always be a fundamentally subjective and psychological dimension to inequality, which inevitably gives rise to political conflict that no purportedly scientific analysis can alleviate. Democracy will never be supplanted by a republic of experts—and that is a very good thing.

A Republic of Experts—if there’s a better way to describe our current state of social and economic affairs, I don’t know what it is.

Anyway, Piketty’s book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” is what all of the cool kids are reading right now (and by ‘reading’ I mean ‘listening to people discuss on podcasts and NPR’) and I’ve been looking for an excuse to convince myself that I need to read it too.

If you’re on the edge, reading the Introduction is the way to go—from what I understand, the book proper is denser, but if you can make heads or tails of the Intro, you should be able to make it through. And if you’re still reading this, you will probably enjoy the Intro. Once I finish Roxane Gay’s new novel, I’m going to take the plunge. Or maybe I’ll save it for vacation, because, you know, what better time to declare that, “Intellectual and political debate about the distribution of wealth has long been based on an abundance of prejudice and a paucity of fact,” than while you’re sitting on the beach with your family.

Red Wings’ Goalie Jimmy Howard Surprises 20 Year-Old Fan Prior to Her Preventative Double-Mastectomy →

Jen Neale:

After losing her mother to breast cancer, Roth underwent testing for the BRCA1 gene mutation. As described by the National Cancer Institute, BRCA1 is "a gene on chromosome 17 that normally helps to suppress cell growth. A person who inherits certain mutations (changes) in a BRCA1 gene has a higher risk of getting breast, ovarian, prostate, and other types of cancer."

The test came up positive; she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation. In her case, the likelihood of her developing breast cancer is at 87-percent. Which is why she decided to undergo the procedure to have both breasts removed.

Here’s the video of the surprise meeting:

Give ‘em hell, Kelly.

/via Puck Daddy

Your Weekly Mad Men HW: Season 7, Ep. 4

There is always—and should always be—room for personal interpretation in art. Sure, there’s usually, although not always, a “correct” answer as to what a scene or a shot or a wardrobe choice”means,” but what we make of the combination of all of those individual choices is uniquely our own.

I get nervous any time an episode of Mad Men (or any cultural object, for that matter) is universally praised or panned. A variety of reactions—some panning, some praise, some right in the middle—is what usually signifies that something went right because it means we were given the tools and left to build on our own. Be wary of anything two dimensional that you can wrap a bow around.

I say all this because, “The Monolith,” this week’s episode of Mad Men, seems to have touched everyone differently. Some didn’t care for the at-times overt symbolism. (It’s a monolith! It’s literally taking over the space the creatives used to occupy!) Some didn’t believe the character choices. (A partner! Taking orders! C’mon!) Personally, the biggest weakness for me was Elizabeth Rice’s acting during the admittedly heavy scene when she finally lets her hypocrite father have it with all of Mother Earth’s soldiers looking on. While I don’t necessarily disagree with her reaction from a character choice perspective, those in-need-of-an-exorcism Daddy’s were way, way overdone, especially in an episode that featured Jon Hamm boring two holes in the back of Elizabeth Moss’ head without a sound, using nothing but cheekbones and eyeballs.

As usual, people more practiced in the ways of critiquing have better things to say than me. I’ve included more than usual this week; remember: that’s a good thing. There’s Alan Sepinwall, of course; and Tom & Lorenzo’s “Mad Style,” as well as their day-after recap; and Ashley Fetters and Chris Heller from The Atlantic (they tend to be pretty Peggy-heavy on a week-to-week basis; this week it was actually warranted); and Molly Lambert, who weaves this week’s story lines together better than the actual show did; and in the power position for the first time (it isn’t a coincidence that this was the first time I remembered how to spell his name), Matt Zoller Seitz, whose analysis knocked it clear out of the park. Of course, I’m biased; he went heavy into the Kubrick parallels.

New York City Photographed With the Game Boy Camera in 2000 →

David Friedman:

Back in 2000, I was playing around with a Game Boy Camera, trying to use it to take color photos. (I finally got that to work.) When I first got the camera, I took a walk through midtown taking pictures. I just came across the images and thought I’d share them here for posterity (scaled up to 200% for visibility on our fancy modern displays).

Way of the future.

/via Daring Fireball

American Scholar’s “Ten Best Sentences”—and Why They Work →

Roy Peter Clark:

The editors of American Scholar have chosen “Ten Best Sentences” from literature, and readers have suggested many more. They threw in an eleventh for good measure. This lovely feature caught me in the middle of a new book project, “Art of X-ray Reading,” in which I take classic passages such as these and look beneath the surface of the text. If I can see the machinery working down there, I can reveal it to writers, who can then add to their toolboxes.

With respect and gratitude to American Scholar, I offer brief interpretations below on how and why these sentences work.

Pretty standard stuff here, and while I think Clark’s “explanations” rely a bit too much on the context of the novel, he does dip into some actual craft talk.

/via kottke.org

“We have a saying in Arabic: When you want everything, you lose everything.” →

Dexter Filkins:

Essawi’s story is one of dozens I heard in Iraq and neighboring countries about corrupt members of Maliki’s government, ranging from a circle around the Prime Minister to the lowest functionary. Most of the allegations are unproved, but they are persistent; Iraqi and U.S. officials, both current and former, tell tales of extortion, bribery, kickbacks, and theft. Many involve the siphoning of Iraq’s oil revenues, which last year exceeded ninety billion dollars. Others describe the corrupt use of Iraqi banks to tap the black market in dollars. In the past few years, several government contracts have turned out to be entirely fake. In 2011, the government cancelled a $1.2-billion contract to build ten power plants, and announced that the Canadian company hired to do the work existed only on paper. “The corruption is Olympian,” the former senior C.I.A. official told me.

This massive piece is confusing, frustrating, eye-opening—all of the gerunds, basically. Iraq is a mess. And from what it sounds like here, the current administration is partially to blame. As a supporter of the President, I feel like it’s important to make mention of that.