News

Your weekend reading: The wrong kind of Caucasian, the graduate school question, and how the Internet ruined everything

Posted by:

A weekly round-up of interesting, weird and useful reads from around the interwebs.

In “The wrong kind of Caucasian,” Sarah Kendzior critiques the media for its tendency to demonize an entire country based on the violent acts of a few individuals. [Al Jazeera]

“The Internet: A Warning from History,” or how the Internet ruined everything. Just watch it. [The Poke]

John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!! John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!

Just what are the kids typing and texting these days? How the oblique stroke / became the written word “slash.” [Lingua Franca] To find out more about the new grammar of texting, watch John McWhorter’s talk, “Txtng is killing language. JK!!!” »

Ah, the glory of academia, the life of reading and luxury. Or, the horrors of a life of anxiety and uncertainty? A great read about the impossible question of graduate school. [New Yorker Blog]

Scripps Research Institute scientists accidentally find a way to turn bone marrow stem cells into brain cells. … whoops? [Sci Tech Daily]

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders

Emily Bell responds to Dylan Byers’ criticism of NYTimes Executive Editor Jill Abramson, calling the narrative sexist and a double standard. [Guardian] Watch Sheryl Sandberg’s talk on women leaders »

An independent company hopes to support Kickstarter’s mission by aggregating all the T-shirts listed in Kickstarter rewards, turning the site into a shirt shop. A weekend hack by web company P’unk Avenue. [Kick shirts]

UCLA professor Peter Nonacs taught his students game theory by letting them cheat on an exam. [Pop Sci]

Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea

Kim Hyun-hui was a North Korean spy who blew up a South Korean airliner with an accomplice in 1987, killing 115 people. She gives a rare interview. [BBC] For a very different escape from North Korea, watch Hyeonseo Lee’s talk from TED2013 »

Finally, let Harvard guess your age based on a series of red dots. [Huffington Post]