A Short History Of Door Handles
Edwin Heathcote | Apollo Magazine | 10th June 2020
Useful and overdue. Doors generally are under-designed. “We have all become more aware of when we cannot avoid touching elements of buildings. The door handle is a critical interface with the structure and the material of the building. Yet it is often reduced to the most generic, cheaply-made piece of bent metal which is, in its way, a potent critique of the value we place on architecture and our acceptance of its reduction to a commodified envelope rather than an expression of culture and craft” (1,600 words)
Interview: Marc Andreessen
Sriram Krishan | Observer Effect | 15th June 2020
Interesting throughout. Topics include: Time management, productivity, poker, reading, conversation, thinking, building. “We’ve worked with executives who schedule to the Nth degree. Three things you tend to notice with executives like that: One, they just never have any time to actually think, and that turns out to be a fairly important thing; two, they have a hard time adjusting to changes in circumstances; three, managers who are regimented to that degree end up being micro managers” (6,100 words)
The Slow Road To Sudden Change
Rebecca Solnit | Literary Hub | 17th June 2020
The tipping-point, updated and amplified. “You can think of it as a bonfire. Or a waterfall. The metaphor of the river of time is used to suggest that history flows at a steady pace — but real rivers have rapids and shallows, eddies and droughts. Sometimes the river comes to the precipice and we’re all in the waterfall. Time accelerates, things change faster than expected, water clear as glass becomes churning whitewater, what was thought to be impossible or the work of years is accomplished in a flash” (2,900 words)
News By The Ton
Benedict Evans | 15th June 2020
On the microeconomics of the newspaper industry. Per capita newspaper circulation has been falling since the 1950s in developed markets; so has the newspaper industry’s share of total advertising spend. People say of Google and Facebook that “if you’re not paying, you’re the product’. But it was the same with print newspapers. “If you read old accounts for, say the New York Times Company, you can see that they were giving the product away at close to cost and making the money from selling your attention” (1,660 words)
Nine Rules For The Black Birdwatcher
J. Drew Lanham | Orion | 25th October 2013
Classic satire. This piece has since been updated by the author, in the light of recent birding news from Central Park. But I suggest that the original is unequalled. Rule number one: “Be prepared to be confused with the other black birder. Yes, there are only two of you at the bird festival. Yes, you’re wearing a name tag and are six inches taller than he is. Yes, you will be called by his name at least half a dozen times by supposedly observant people who can distinguish gull molts in a blizzard” (580 words)
Video Of The Week: World-Famous Portraits Transformed Into Living People Denis Shirayev. Exactly what the title suggests (with a one-minute preamble). Mona Lisa and other iconic figures reanimated (8m 30s)
Poem Of The Week: Migrating Birds, by Monica de la Torre, at Poetry Foundation
Victor gets a real sense of power
from making his own raisins. He buys
pounds and pounds of grapes
and leaves them to dry
on the kitchen table
Word Of The Week: juneteenth. “This Friday, June 19th, our nation will formally observe Juneteenth, long celebrated in the African American community as a commemoration of the day, 155 years ago, on which enslaved African Americans in Texas learned of their freedom from bondage”
Discussion Of The Week: Browser subscribers on policing
