Mash-Up Round-Up: Blanket Octopus + Cocaine Hippos
The week of February 15, 2020 was living out the rest of our days partying at Soban; the blanket octopus that blew our minds; and sigh. We can never have enough Parasite.
Mash-Ups In The News:
Chasing Colombia’s ‘Cocaine Hippos’
Pablo Escobar started with four hippos amongst his man-made lakes and dinosaur statues. Today, that hippo pop is now at 80 to 100. In a few decades it’ll be thousands. Thousands of violent poop machines with short fuses.
via LA Times
The Case Against Italicizing “Foreign” Words
What words “belong” in our English sentences? Which words are slanted, and marked as “other”? A chance to reflect on a linguistic style we’ve long taken for granted.
via Catapult
This 14-year-old Black teenager invented the dance seen in every TikTok compilation. The dance performed by pep rallies across the country, Lizzo, Stray Kids and the Kardashians. You also wouldn’t know her name without this article.
via New York Times
When Bias Is Coded Into Our Technology
Weekly reminder that technology is never unbiased (just remember who’s coding it). This week, poet of code Joy Buolamwini explains how facial recognition systems are better at recognizing certain faces over others.
via NPR
6 Unsung Black Culinary Heroes Of The Past
“Food is comfort, yes, but food is also political.” This month, remember the names and legacies of the heroes who changed culinary history.
via Huffington Post
You might have a vague idea of synesthesia yourself (i.e. A is reddish, B is bluish), but true grapheme-color synesthetes take it to the next level. Find the color palette of your name.
via Elemental
How ‘Namaste’ Flew Away From Us
You hear it at the end of white people yoga videos. It’s on mugs and t-shirts and water bottles and tote bags. “Nama-stay in bed.” “Namaslay.” What does the word actually mean? Learn from the South Asians who are tired of getting na-may-st’ed.
via NPR
Asian American Writers Are Finally Breaking Out On Their Own Terms
From Joy Luck Club to The Incendiaries, meet the Asian American Mash-Ups who created their own landscape of literature, founded new communities, and reshaped the American canon forever.
via Gen
The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake
David Brooks is, ahem, not always right, but he is correct that the Nuclear Family Experiment meant fragmentation. Generations became broken up and decentralized, getting more fragile with each break. Now it’s time to look back on our family formats, as more Americans are now groping for new kinds of chosen family and better ways to live.
via The Atlantic
Dwyane Wade Reveals 12-Year-Old Child Will Now Go By Zaya
“When our child comes home with a question…it’s our job as parents to listen to that to give them the best information that we can, the best feedback that we can, and that doesn’t change now that sexuality [and gender] is involved.”
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union are setting the standard for parents in 2020.
via Out
