Snapzu Life & Personal Interests: June 2016

Thursday, 30 June 2016

Jamaica plans marijuana dispensers for tourists

Jamaica is planning to install marijuana-dispensing kiosks for tourists in order to regulate a growing drug market and to bring in more government revenue. The new Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) is drawing up plans for the kiosks just two months after small amounts of the drug were finally legalized in a country where marijuana has long been part of the culture.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jamaica-proposes-marijuana-dispensers-for-tourists-at-airports-following-legalisation-a7110241.html?source=Snapzu

The Pirate Cemetery of Madagascar is the world’s оnly pirate graveyard

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ile Sainte-Marie (or St. Mary’s Island as it is known in English), a long, thin island off the eastern…
Read more: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/06/22/pirate-cemetery-madagascar-worlds-%D0%BEnly-pirate-graveyard/?source=Snapzu

How Big Can Life Get?

An illustrated trip from smallest to biggest.
Read more: http://nautil.us/issue/37/currents/how-big-can-life-get?source=Snapzu

Catch-22 for workers who are too young to retire, too old to rehire

Are you prepared for the possibility of being too old to hire and too young to retire? Over the past five years, the Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Confidence Survey (to download the survey, click here) has shown that between 45 percent and 50 percent of retirees leave the workforce earlier than planned. The American Society on Aging, meanwhile, found that 45 percent of unemployed 55- to 64-year-olds were reported as unemployed long-term (i.e., 27 weeks or longer) versus 33 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/29/catch-22-too-young-to-retire-too-old-to-rehire.html?source=Snapzu

Seeking paradise: The image and reality of truck art

Raindrops fall from the sky on bare winter trees, their branches spread in the manner of a person wailing with arms spread out. The golden beams of a sun filtering through clouds turn these droplets into prisms that throw up curious combinations of emerald, green and turquoise. Another array of raindrops gleams like small mirrors, suspended to bare boughs running from one end to the other.
Read more: http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153417?source=Snapzu

Summer Book Recommendations from the Smartest People We Know

Introducing a new annual feature on First Round Review: The Summer Reading List. All year, we bring you advice from the best in tech. Here, they recommend the books that expanded their minds in 2016.
Read more: http://firstround.com/review/summer-book-recommendations-from-the-smartest-people-we-know/?source=Snapzu

107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over GMOs

More than 100 Nobel laureates have signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The letter asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice that supporters say could reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/29/more-than-100-nobel-laureates-take-on-greenpeace-over-gmo-stance/?source=Snapzu

Your Favorite Childhood Video Games Are Now Transit Maps

Metroid, Final Fantasy, and Zelda, all mapped out like your neighborhood metro.
Read more: http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/01/your-favorite-childhood-video-games-are-now-transit-maps/425109/?source=Snapzu

What outdated technology are you still forced to use at work?

Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, dies aged 87

Toffler was one of the world’s most famous futurists who foresaw how digital technology would transform the world Alvin Toffler, a guru of the post-industrial age whose books, including Future Shock, anticipated the transformation brought about by the rise of digital technology, has died. He was 87. Toffler died in his sleep at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on Monday, said Yvonne Merkel, a spokeswoman for his Virginia-based consulting firm Toffler Associates.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/30/alvin-toffler-author-of-future-shock-dies-aged-87?source=Snapzu

The only good nation is imagination.

Puerto Rico will default on $1 billion of debt on Friday

Puerto Rico is going to default, again. The governor of the commonwealth, Alejandro García-Padilla, wrote in an article for CNBC on Wednesday that Puerto Rico would not make some $1 billion in bond payments on Friday as it struggles with the long-term implications of its massive deficits. "On July 1, 2016, Puerto Rico will default on more than $1 billion in general obligation bonds, the island's senior credits protected by a constitutional lien on revenues," he said in the article.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-rico-1-billion-default-friday-2016-6?source=Snapzu

Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?

Fears of civilization-wide idleness are based too much on the downsides of being unemployed in a society premised on the concept of employment. People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/would-a-world-without-work-be-so-bad/488711/?source=Snapzu

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

What is your go-to song to get pumped up!?

The shockingly beeflike veggie burger that’s not aimed at vegetarians

In Seth Goldman’s vision of the supermarket meat case of the future, he doesn’t see a meat case at all. He sees a protein case. And only some of the proteins in it will come from animals. “I want to see chicken protein, plant protein, beef protein,” he says. “Just like what has happened in the dairy case.” Goldman, who founded Honest Tea, last year became executive chairman of the board of Beyond Meat, the California company whose high-tech approach to plant-based meat substitutes has attracted such investors as Biz Stone and Bill Gates.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-shockingly-beeflike-veggie-burger-thats-not-aimed-at-vegetarians/2016/06/27/e483a9fa-3c6a-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html?source=Snapzu

Girls are going through puberty earlier than ever before, with long-term health risks

For many girls in the developed world, puberty is coming earlier than ever before, with studies showing that, on average, puberty is now starting for girls at around 10 years old - at least five years earlier than a century ago. There are several...
Read more: http://www.sciencealert.com/girls-are-going-through-puberty-earlier-than-ever-before-with-long-term-effects?source=Snapzu

IKEA recalls 36 million chests, dressers after six deaths

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA Group is recalling almost 36 million chests and dressers in the United States and Canada that have been linked to the deaths of six children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday. The furnishings can topple over if they are not anchored securely to walls, posing a threat to children, the commission said in a statement.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-recall-ikea-ab-idUSKCN0ZE2CB?source=Snapzu

Why you shouldn’t share links on Facebook

Recently, security researchers at Checkpoint discovered a vulnerability that would have allowed attackers to change messages and links sent through Facebook Messenger. Facebook quickly patched the bug … but did you know links sent privately through Messenger can be read by anyone? Moreover, Facebook knows about this and has no plans to fix the issue.
Read more: http://qz.com/715019/why-you-shouldnt-share-links-on-facebook/?source=Snapzu

Saying publishers’ anti-adblock tactics are illegal, a European privacy advocate plans his attack

Privacy advocate Alexander Hanff knew he had touched a nerve when the angry tweets from publishers and ad tech execs started pouring in.
Read more: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/06/saying-publishers-anti-adblock-tactics-are-illegal-a-european-privacy-advocate-plans-his-attack/?source=Snapzu

Little to no association between butter consumption, chronic disease or total mortality

An epidemiological study analyzing the association of butter consumption with chronic disease and mortality finds that butter was only weakly associated with total mortality, not associated with heart disease, and slightly inversely associated (protective) with diabetes.
Read more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160629145200.htm?source=Snapzu

5,300 U.S. water systems are in violation of lead rules

Eighteen million Americans live in communities where the water systems are in violation of the law. Moreover, the federal agency in charge of making sure those systems are safe not only knows the issues exist, but it's done very little to stop them, according to a new report and information provided to CNN by multiple sources and water experts. "Imagine a cop sitting, watching people run stop signs, and speed at 90 miles per hour in small communities and still doing absolutely nothing about it...
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/28/us/epa-lead-in-u-s-water-systems/index.html?source=Snapzu

State Supreme Court Finds Dogs Are "Sentient Beings," Not Mere Property, In Landmark Ruling

This is a MAJOR victory for animals.
Read more: http://barkpost.com/oregon-court-finds-dogs-are-sentient-beings/?source=Snapzu

How to Stop Robocalls … or at Least Fight Back

As intrusive pre-recorded calls to your home phone and smartphone reach record highs, Joanna Stern looks at how you can try to fight back with services like Nomorobo and Hiya
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-stop-robocalls-or-at-least-fight-back-1467138771?tesla=y?source=Snapzu

In Pentagon bomb squad, an investigation and a fight to stave off financial ruin

The Pentagon bomb squad's pay was effectively cut 25 percent. By Dan Lamothe.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/06/28/in-pentagon-bomb-squad-an-investigation-and-a-fight-to-stave-off-financial-ruin/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_bombsquad-8a-stream:homepage/story?source=Snapzu

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

This rainbow corn actually exists. Here's how

Glass Gem corn, a unique variety of rainbow-coloured corn, became an Internet sensation in 2012 when a photo of the sparkling cob was posted to Facebook. Shortly after, the company that sells the rare seeds, Native Seeds/SEARCH, began ramping up...
Read more: http://www.sciencealert.com/this-rainbow-corn-is-the-coolest-way-to-eat-your-veggies?source=Snapzu

Who got rich off the student debt crisis

A generation ago, Congress privatized a student loan program intended to give more Americans access to higher education. In its place, lawmakers created another profit center for Wall Street and a system of college finance that has fed the nation’s cycle of inequality. Step by step, Congress has enacted one law after another to make student debt the worst kind of debt for Americans – and the best kind for banks and debt collectors. Today, just about everyone involved in the student loan industry makes money off students – the banks, private investors, even the federal government.
Read more: https://www.revealnews.org/article/who-got-rich-off-the-student-debt-crisis/?source=Snapzu

Introducing Project Bloks

Project Bloks is a research project with the aim of creating an open hardware platform to help developers, designers, and researchers build the next generation of tangible programming experiences for kids.
Read more: http://snapzu.com/rti9/introducing-project-bloks?source=Snapzu

Legendary Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt Dies at 64

Pat Summitt won more games than any men's or women's coach in college basketball history.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaw/2016/06/28/pat-summitt-dies-age-64-tennessee-coach-obit-alzheimers/86406296/?source=Snapzu

Ghost Boxes: Reusing Abandoned Big-Box Superstores Across America

Big-box stores promise convenience and jobs for suburbs and small towns, but have a mixed reputation with designers and citizens. Many see big boxes as icons of unsustainable sprawl, reinforcing car culture with highway-oriented access and expansive parking lots. These boxy buildings not only take up vast amounts of land but often also require infrastructure around them to be overhauled. Later, when their super-sized occupants leave: a giant empty structure is left in their wake, which can be difficult to reuse unless a similar retailer takes its place.
Read more: http://99percentinvisible.org/article/ghost-boxes-reusing-abandoned-big-box-superstores-across-america/?source=Snapzu

Edmund de Waal on a revolutionary teapot

Russian artist Kazimir Malevich broke the whole idea of a teapot apart, whitewashed it, and put it back together in a new way. He took a tea cup and cut it in half. The result is a bugle-cry of revolution. It’s combatant porcelain – a manifesto.
Read more: https://www.1843magazine.com/design/i-wish-i-had-done-that/edmund-de-waal-on-a-revolutionary-teapot?source=Snapzu

This List of Ways People Are Dying at Work [in the U.S.] Will Make Your Stomach Churn

Be thankful you have a job. Be thankful you’re alive. By Luke O’Neil. (May 9, 2016)
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a44620/dying-at-work/?source=Snapzu

Meet the Moringa Tree, an Overqualified, Underachieving Superfood

The plant is highly nutritious and thrives in hot, dry conditions. Could it be a solution to the food crisis brought on by climate change?
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/meet-the-moringa-tree-an-overqualified-underachieving-superfood?source=Snapzu

Caltech glassblower's retirement has scientists sighing

Hunkered down in the sub-basement of the Norman W. Church Laboratory for Chemical Biology, underneath a campus humming with quantum teleportation devices, gravity wave detectors and neural prosthetics, Rick Gerhart chipped away at a broken flask. Blowtorch in hand, he pulled the softened glass apart like taffy, tweezing out glass shards with a flick of his wrist. Peering into the dancing flames, he examined his work for wrinkles — imperfections invisible to the untrained eye.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassblower-20160613-snap-story.html?source=Snapzu

Sister Wife

Alex Winston
Read more: http://snapzu.com/AdelleChattre/sister-wife?source=Snapzu

The pirate queen of County Mayo

The amazing tale of Grace O'Malley, sailor, captain, plunderer, mercenary, rebel, pirate – as well as wife and mother.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160615-the-pirate-queen-of-county-mayo?source=Snapzu

Why does philosophy hold clothes in such low regard?

Clothes can be forms of thought as articulate as a poem or equation. Why then does philosophy like to dress them down? By Shahidha Bari. (May 19, 2016)
Read more: https://aeon.co/essays/why-does-philosophy-hold-clothes-in-such-low-regard?source=Snapzu

The Strange History of Microfilm, Which Will Be With Us for Centuries

Do me a favor while you read these opening lines. Pick up your phone, and open up your photos app. Scroll through the many pictures of you, your dumb friends, and your crazy family. Pick a photo—it can be any photo, really—and blow it up so it fills the whole screen. Still with me? Good.
Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-strange-history-of-microfilm-which-will-be-with-us-for-centuries?source=Snapzu

Monday, 27 June 2016

Booze & books! Barnes & Noble to serve beer & wine

Take that, Amazon! Barnes & Noble hopes that booze will lure book lovers back to its stores. Barnes & Noble announced Thursday that it planned to open four new concept stores this fiscal year that will have an expanded food menu -- and also serve beer and wine. But no vodka. Sorry, Chelsea Handler. The first store will open in Eastchester, NY in October. Three more are set to open at the Edina Galleria in Edina, MN, the Palladio in Folsom, CA, and at One Loudon in Loudon, VA.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/24/investing/barnes-and-noble-beer-wine-alcohol-booze/?source=Snapzu

What are the 3 things your country (or state if in USA) is known for?

Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Crazy Cheap in Chinatown

Last week, while shopping at a tiny produce market on Mott Street, Giselle Isaac found a crazy bargain: fresh ginger for 50 cents a pound. She promptly stuffed a plastic bag to bursting with the pungent root. “I’m West Indian and we make a lot of ginger beer,” she explained. “This is the cheapest I’ve seen ginger in years.”
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-fruits-and-veggies-are-so-crazy-cheap-in-chinatown-1466762400?source=Snapzu

Human or Machine: Can You Tell Who Wrote These Poems?

Can a computer write a sonnet that's indistinguishable from what a person can produce? A contest at Dartmouth attempted to find out. With our online quiz, you too can give it a try.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/27/480639265/human-or-machine-can-you-tell-who-wrote-these-poems?source=Snapzu

The Aftertaste of Empire: Food and Decolonization

The process by which curry became one of the most popular dishes in modern Britain is a complicated one of imperial appropriation, invention, and transformation. In the same way that writing history is an act of interpretation, so too is the art of cooking an act of historical interpretation. Whether it’s preparing a family meal or competing on a national baking show, issues of assimilation and national identity are all up for contestation and negotiation in the culinary arena.
Read more: http://blog.historians.org/2016/06/the-aftertaste-of-empire-food-and-decolonization/?source=Snapzu

US Customs and Border Protection wants to ask for your "online presence" at the border

“Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier.” It will be an optional data field, but of course, CBP screeners may subject travellers who decline to reveal their online names for additional scrutiny.
Read more: http://boingboing.net/2016/06/25/us-customs-and-border-patrol-w.html?source=Snapzu

California's Deadly Erskine Fire in Pictures

A deceased dog at a burned down residence after the Erskine Fire burned through South Lake.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/californias-deadly-erskine-fire?articleId=USRTX2IG8W?source=Snapzu

The Year Britain Bought Up All The Tea In The World

No one example captures how deeply tea drinking was embedded in the fabric of British everyday life than the decision of the government in 1942 to buy up every available pound of tea from every country in the world except Japan. One estimate is that the largest government purchases in 1942 were, in order of weight, bullets, tea, artillery shells, bombs and explosives.
Read more: https://www.teabox.com/blog/year-britain-bought-tea-world?source=Snapzu

The Mysterious Origins of a Food That's Always Been Funny: The Sausage

Across civilizations and cultures, encased meat has been a human staple.
Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-mysterious-origins-of-a-food-thats-always-been-funny-the-sausage?source=Snapzu

Diet Pepsi Is About to Taste Different

PepsiCo is bringing back a popular ingredient
Read more: http://time.com/4384080/diet-pepsi-aspartame-back/?source=Snapzu