Welcome to the Wednesday Walk Around the Web, where we weave & wind through weblinks weekly. Hopefully you will find the links on offer amusing, interesting, or, occasionally, profound. Views expressed in the Wednesday Walk do not necessarily reflect those of anyone but the writer. Do you have a link you want to see featured in next week’s Walk? Comment on the Walk post at the Place to Be Nation Facebook page, or find Glenn on the social media platform of your choice!
- I don’t even know what to say any more. Alton Sterling is dead, murdered by cops. Philando Castile is dead, murdered by cops. Alva Braziel is dead, murdered by cops. Tamir Rice should’ve turned 14 a couple of weeks ago. Michael Brown should be getting ready for another year of college. Protestors are beaten, gassed, kidnapped, and abused in every way, forcefully told that their lives don’t matter and condescended to (or much, much worse) when they say they do. Video of abuse and murder is crucial to getting attention, but airing murder videos over and over again quickly becomes lurid. Cops get to strategically claim to be fearful creatures, while the communities they terrorize have no recourse. So. I don’t know. Read Imani Gandy on what could, possibly, be done. And now, the rest of the linky-loo.
- Artist Motoi Yamamoto created an incredible salt labyrinth in an ancient French castle. One photo really does not do this justice; it’s amazing.
- This Week in Friendly People on YouTube: this man wants you to know all you need to know about how not to get rashes from poison ivy. Wash up, kids!
- Also in instructional videos: learn a little about how to handle your knives and foods, and start cooking fresher and better. (File this under Things the Ol’ Wednesday Walker Needs to Do More.)
- Let’s all look forward to stem-cell tooth fillings that will hopefully eliminate most root canals.
- I’m glad to be able to present to you every TED talk ever.
- This Week in Trademarks: Citigroup has apparently trademarked THANKYOU and is now suing AT&T for thanking customers.
- Come to the great state of Connecticut to see the real-world version of the haunted doll from The Conjuring. It’s just a few towns away from me — I could go every weekend! I know a fun new thing to do with the sweetums…
- It turns out that an “underground sperm donation” ring isn’t the most trustworthy business venture. They say to start your own business, but it really stinks when some scumbag comes along and busts up your market.
- There’s a lot of Sturm und Drang over the so-called right to repair, in spite of warranties that void themselves if you open up your phone or other device. It turns out those warranties are in violation of federal law. Now, someone go sue Sony or Apple over it.
- In Atlanta, as-yet-unapprehended thieves made off with thousands of cases of beer. I know we here at PTB have some operatives in the Hotlanta area, so…good job guys.
- This Week in Good Works: Shower to the People provides bath products and a nice shower to homeless people for the sake of health and dignity.
- This Week in Poetry: this place could be beautiful.
- The source code for the Apollo 11 flight computer, which was literally printed out and is literally as tall as Margaret Hamilton, director of software engineering, is on Github. What a time this is.
- As I like to say from time to time, I’m not here to judge. You do you. But husbands flying first-class while leaving their wives in economy really seems like an unforgivably unequal arrangement, and the interviews where the wives pragmatically talk about paying for tickets while their husbands rave about being “treated very well” don’t exactly help. I mean, it’s not technically outside the realm of imagination that one spouse has less of a problem with the various inconveniences and nobody feels taken advantage of, hypothetically, possibly…but come on.
- Serena Williams is awesome, and probably the greatest athlete in the US. Let’s watch her pelt a heckler using some of the most tired talking points against her.
- Also in athletic excellence: LeeAnn Hewitt makes record-breaking squatting look easy.
- This Week in Faking it ‘Till You Make It: tell yourself how excited you are about your anxieties and they’ll turn right around. I’m generally in favor of faking it ’till you make it, but color me skeptical — well, skeptical of the sort of hyperbolic phrasing people get out of psychological studies, I suppose. Otherwise, maybe it’s just CBT reframed for self-help types. Y’all, I’m just so excited to see how many ways I’ll fail at basic tasks today!
