The Edwards Edition Quarterly | Spring 2017
Hello,
This is our second Quarterly, which means it’s the first to be following up on the previous Quarterly. I was kind of amazed at how many curations there were to summarize for this.
We’ve had some stories this quarter that have really taken off, relatively speaking: lots more recommendations and even replies than we’ve had before. We aren’t anything huge, but it’s good to see I’m not calling out into a void.
Probably the biggest change since the Winter 2017 Quarter is the launch of a new subreddit. Reddit, if you don’t know, is a link sharing platform, with comment and voting functionality. I can’t vouch for the entire site, but our corner of it should be great for you readers. It will be a place where all of the EE content will be linked to: articles, reviews, curations. If you have something to say about EE, or some request you’d like to make about future content, this would be a good place for that too.
This summer should be a good time for EE. Expect a review of Marvel’s Spiderman Homecoming, a review of Sharpie’s line of smear guard highlighters, a look back at the BBC Sherlock TV show, and a piece on the common sandwich bread. See you in September with another recap of the quarter’s content.
Analysis: The Last Jedi Teaser Trailer | Derek Edwards, Film and Television
Review: KLWP and KWGT | Derek Edwards, Technology
Review: rOtring 600 (0.7 mm, silver) | Derek Edwards, Technology
Frogpocalypse Now | Ian Frazier, Outside Magazine
Cane toads (Rhinella marina) are a very large species of toad — they can weigh five pounds or more — native to Central and South America. In this piece for Outside Magazine, Ian Frazier writes of the species’ spread to southern Florida, where residents fight the poisonous creatures, which are a danger to small animals, both pets and in the wild.
How to Clear a Path Through 60 Feet of Snow, Japanese Style | Justin Nobel, Atlas Obscura
Tateyama, a mountain in central Japan, is very, very snowy, receiving an annual accumulation of over one hundred feet of snow. Writing for Atlas Obscura, Justin Nobel tells of the local snow plow drivers which clear away the nearby stretch of road known as “Snow Canyon”.
The War Between the Water and the Road | William Alexander, Lightspeed (Fiction)
Featured in the December 2016 issue of science fiction magazine Lightspeed, this short story by William Alexander tells of Oliver, a young boy with a strong sense of justice, and his adventures in a suburban park which had once been a lake.
“You took so much time to joke me” — two hours trolling a Windows support scammer | Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica (Contains Audio)
In Ars Technica, Sean Gallagher tells his story of delaying a fake Windows tech support agency’s day of deceit.
How the Cookie Crumbles | Ernie Smith, Tedium
Oreos are “milk’s favorite cookie”, and a favorite treat of many people as well. But they were not the original creme-and-chocolate-wafers. In Tedium, Ernie Smith recounts the history of the Hydrox.
Tech’s Wealthy Enclaves Hurt the Country — and Tech Itself | Issie Lapowski, Wired
In this piece for Wired, Issie Lapowski argues that the physical presence of the American tech industry needs to be decentralized out of Silicon Valley and throughout the country.
The Milk that Lasts for Months | Veronique Greenwood | BBC Future
Milk spoils. Quickly. That’s common knowledge. Bacteria love the liquid, sugary environment of a milk carton. But what if milk could be made and kept sterile? Writing for BBC Future, Veronique Greenwood looks at ultra heat treatment, a form of pasteurization used in many countries to extend the un-refrigerated shelf life of milk from mere hours to many weeks.
The Dark Birds | Ursula Vernon, Apex Magazine (Fiction)
My mother had daughters year after year, and one by one, my father devoured us.
There were only three names allowed in the family, and only three children. There was the oldest, who was always Ruth, and the middle child, who was always Susan. The youngest was “the baby” or simply Baby.
When a new daughter was born, she became the baby. The former baby became Susan, and Susan became Ruth — and Ruth vanished.
So begins Ursula Vernon’s story of an ogre’s daughter, featured in Issue 92 of Apex Magazine.
In this rather long-titled piece for Smithsonian, H. W. Brands explores the history of the abrupt end of the illustrious military career of Douglas MacArthur, hero of the WWII Pacific Theater and, at the time, commander over the U.N. forces in Korea. It has long been understood that then-President of the United States Harry S Truman removed MacArthur from his command due to difference of opinion on whether to broaden the Korean War into China, but much of the specific reasoning was, at the time, redacted for national security purposes. Brand discusses much of this reasoning, which was made public in the ’70s, here.
Cartoons are, by their nature, not entirely realistic. But, you may have noticed, they often share specific kinds of unrealism. For the 258th installment of Channel Frederator’s ToonedUp series, host Cade Hiser examines the history of one such caricaturization, the four-fingered hand.
Accidental Therapists | Eric Boodman, STAT
Insects are a part of the daily life of even the most urban person. Some of these insects can cause health problems, which is where a certain class of entomologists come in. But, as Eric Boodman writes in STAT, sometimes the hardest bugs to get rid of are those which exist only in the mind of the patient.
Guerrilla Drive-Ins | Kurt Kohlstedt, 99% Invisible (Contains Audio)
In this article for design site 99% Invisible, Kurt Kohlstedt writes about the emergence of sponteneous drive in theaters which project movies on the sides of empty buildings.
Ivan Ivanovich and the Persistent Lost Cosmonaut Conspiracy | Thomas Ellis, writing for the National Air and Space Museum
In this editorial for the National Air and Space Museum’s website, Smithsonian Fellow Thomas Ellis tells of Ivan Ivanovich, a Soviet test flight mannequin which became attached to conspiracies about the Russian space program.
Rehab: A Short Story | Marcus Bryan, Futura Magazine (Fiction)
Marcus Bryan’s story of a high-tech criminal rehabilitation facility, as featured in sci-fi and fantasy publication Futura Magazine.
Sticky Toffee Pudding: Decoding NHS Jargon | Gary Nunn, OxfordWords
Guardian language columnist Gary Nunn writes in this guest post for the Oxford Dictionaries OxfordWords blog about the British National Health Service’s problem with indecipherable in-speak.
The History of Baseball Stadium Nachos | K. Annabelle Smith, Smithsonian
Tracing the dish’s path from Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border to Eagle Pass, Texas, to the stadium of the Texas Rangers in Arlington, and to such stadiums across the country, this feature in Smithsonian, by K. Annabelle Smith, recounts the history of…well, it’s all in the title.
Lickety Split| Ernie Smith, Tedium
Even with the plethora of options for paperless, instantaneous written communications in the modern era, we still sometimes need an envelope to send physical mail. And needing an envelope means needing to lick the flap to seal it. In this piece for Tedium, Ernie Smith explores the lickable adhesive’s place in world.
How 1,600 People Went Missing from Our Public Lands Without a Trace | Jon Billman, Outside
The United States has an extensive network of public lands, so it’s not surprising that sometimes people might lose the way back to civilization. What is surprising is that, as Jon Billman writes for Outside, so many stay lost, and that there doesn’t even seem to be a clear answer on exactly how many such missing people there are.
Somewhere between toy and actual gun lies the potato cannon, a usually air-driven pneumatic launcher for potatoes or items of similar size. They are popular with a certain sort of hobbyist, but the idea of using them as a proper weapon would seem rather odd. But, as William Gurstelle writes for Popular Mechanics, when the real guns were all grabbed up by the military, British merchant ships turned to the devices to throw grenades at hostile aircraft.
The New Art Mediums | Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, OZY
Writing for OZY’s “Fast Forward”, Leslie Nguyen-Okwu reports on the use of electronic components in artworks.
For Ars Technica, Cathleen O’Grady writes of Brian Wansink, a nutritional scientist whose popular eating advice has come under doubt after his research advice was condemned as unscientific.
How United Turned the Friendly Skies Into a Flying Hellscape | Tim Wu, Wired
You might have forgotten by now (if you’re reading this while going through the old quarterlies, you almost certainly have) but back in April, United Airlines attracted some very bad press for their rather violent removal of a customer from one of their flights to make way for some of their own employees. Writing about the incident for Wired, Tim Wu examines United’s shift from flyers of, as their slogan put it, “The Friendly Skies”, to just another fleet of flying cattle cars.
This piece for The Economist (which does not attach author credit to stories) tells of the difficulties of storing unused cars in urban environments, arguing against free parking and allowing parking on the side of streets, giving examples of parking schemes from metropolises around the world.
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond | Edward Jay Epstein, The Atlantic
This article is not current; it is from The Atlantic’s February 1982 issue. In this lengthy piece, Edward Jay Epstein recounts the history of the De Beers diamond cartel, which used aggressive advertising strategies to keep the demand for diamonds strong in the face of explosion of supply.
Going Underground | Brendan Borrell, The Guardian
In this feature for The Guardian’s “The Long Read”, Brendan Borrell tells of the lives of British mole-catchers.
Why Should a Melon Cost as Much as a Car? | Bianca Bosker, Roads & Kingdoms
Bianca Bosker writes for Roads & Kingdoms and Slate, jointly, on the phenomenon of high-grade, hyper-expensive fruit available in Tokyo, in particular the well-bred muskmelons that can go for over $10,000.
Sanctuary | Allen Steele, Tor [Fiction]
Allen Steele writes a piece of original fiction for Tor, centering around the discovery and exploration of a new world by human spacefarers. Tor’s description:
An edge of your seat hard SF adventure as colonists on a new world find that nothing is what they expected and that travelling to a distant star is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined…
What Will Become of Scotland’s Moors | Cathy Newman, National Geographic
In the May 2017 issue of National Geographic, Cathy Newman writes of the struggles facing managers of the northern British heaths. Jim Richardson’s photographic illustration of the piece are reason alone to give it a look.
For Atlas Obscura, Eric Grundhauser presents the story of when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis went to see Walt Disney’s first animated feature film, Snow White. They didn’t like it.
The Man who Builds LEGO for a Living | CNN [Video]
CNN brings a brief look at Duncan Titmarsh, the United Kingdom’s only certified LEGO builder, who makes huge, detailed sculptures out of the Danish building toy.
Stop Saying the Brain Learns by Rewiring Itself | C. R. Gallister, Nautilus
Neuroscience professor C. R. Gallister writes for Nautilus’s “Facts So Romantic” blog, pleading for a better understanding of the physical means of memory.
The Itch | Atul Gawande, The New Yorker
From the June 2008 issue of The New Yorker, Atul Gawande writes of the case of “M.”, who suffered from extreme, inexplicable itching on her scalp. The piece integrates other itchers’ stories, and a discussion of the nature of itching itself. By its nature, not a comfortable read, but a fascinating one nonetheless.
The Secret Life of the Aluminum Can | Jonathan Waldman, Wired
Aluminum cans, filled with beverages, juice, and preserved food, are mundane objects. But they are very precisely engineered for the kind of contents they will contain. Here, Wired features an excerpt from Jonathan Waldman’s book Rust: The Longest War, on the world of can manufacturing.
Building Blocks, Literally | Ernie Smith, Tedium
For Tedium, Smith writes of the history of alphabet blocks, a mainstay of kindergarten play going back hundreds of years.
How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All | Jerry Useem, The Atlantic
If you go to a store, a physical, brick and mortar store, products will have a single, consistent price, marked on the shelf. But, as Jerry Useem writes for The Atlantic, online shopping sites often change their prices depending on who’s buying.
What Role do Values Play in Scientific Inquiry? | Daniel J. McKaughan, Big Questions Online
Philosophy professor Daniel J. McKaughan writes for BQO, arguing that science cannot be entirely decoupled from the values espoused by the scientists performing it, and that this may not be a bad thing.
The Greatest Fake-Art Scam in History? | Joshua Hammer, Vanity Fair
For Vanity Fair, Joshua Hammer writes of Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi, husband-and-wife art forgers whose works found their way past inspection by experts and into art collections around the world.
Farming the World: China’s Epic Race to Avoid a Food Crisis | Bloomberg
Contributors to Bloomberg News report on China’s work to ensure that its population, and the world’s, will continue to have enough food to eat. It won’t be easy. From the article:
It takes about 1 acre (half a hectare) to feed the average U.S. consumer. China only has about 0.2 acres of arable land per citizen, including fields degraded by pollution.
A Plane Crash, a Glacier, and an Entrepeneur | Michael Thomas, Fast Company
For Fast Company’s “Most Creative People”, Michael Thomas outlines the growth of Icelandair, the airline that leveraged a salvaged cargo plane to bring cheap transatlantic travel to the world.
Meet King Tut’s Father, Egypt’s First Revolutionary | Peter Hessler, National Geographic
Tutankhamen has gained a lot of fame in death, because his tomb was found intact by archaeologists. In life, though, he wasn’t a particularly notable pharaoh. The same could not be said about his father, Akhenaten, as Peter Hessler writes in the May 2017 issue of National Geographic.
The (Re)selling of Maria Sharapova | Sarah Nicolle Prickett, Longreads
In this piece, co-published by Longreads and Racquet Magazine, Sarah Nicolle Prickett profiles the non-tennis career of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova.
Inside the Hunt for Russia’s Most Notorious Hacker | Garrett M. Graff, Wired
Garrett M. Graff writes a feature for Wired on the investigation into and hunt for Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, who, under the name “Slavik” or some other alias, ran the gold-standard Trojan malware “Zeus”.
Polar Expressed | Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker
In the April 24, 2017 issue of The New Yorker, Kathryn Schulz writes of the phenomenon of setting works in the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Universal Themes | Ernie Smith, Tedium
Again writing for Tedium, Smith tells the story of the universal remote, an essential late-20th century device that was never perfect, but good enough.
How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America | Jesse Singal, New York Magazine
Writing for New York Magazine’s “The Science of Us”, Jesse Singal gives the history of, and the problems with, the American Self-Esteem movement of the ’70s and later.
The Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire | Charles Sonnenburg, SF Debris [Video Series]
Comic books, for their arguably lowly status in the literary scene, have had a great impact on modern culture. Even for non-comic-readers, a world without superhero stories is hard to imagine. But, as Charles “Chuck” Sonnenburg tells in this series for SF Debris, business decisions in the late ’80s and through the ’90s nearly destroyed the industry. The production value is low: little more than a narrated slideshow, but the content is well worth the time.
Roughly four hours long in total, broken into 10–20 minute chapters.
Your Robot Car Should Ignore You | Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman, Nautilus
As the tech industry and the auto industry rush to meet each other in the rapidly oncoming field of autonomous vehicles, questions about how much control to leave to people. In their piece for Nautilus’s 48th issue, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman argue that people are bad drivers and our wishes on the matter should be ignored by fully self-driving cars sooner rather than later.
Tongue Tied | Stephanie Hughes, Ryerson Review of Journalism
Stephanie Hughes writes for the Ryerson Review of Journalism on the different approaches websites are taking to comment moderation, from returning to the days of “Letters to the Editor”, to crowdsourcing moderation out to the commenters themselves, to simply not having comments. (We here at The Edwards Edition have no comments. We have commenting functionality, it’s just that no one uses it.)
(*sigh*)
Urban Dreams | Rollo Romig, The California Sunday Magazine
Some cities, like London, Detroit, or Lagos, were built slowly from humble beginnings as a fort or a village until they became the gleaming metropolises we know today. Others, like Washington D.C. or Istanbul were built big and grand from the beginning to be the capitol city of their region. Writing in The California Sunday Magazine, Rollo Romig tells of plans to build Amaravati, a futuristic megacity that will stand on what is now an expanse of farmland in the eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Rise and Fall of Toronto’s Classiest Con Man | Michael Lista, The Walrus
Michael Lista writes of the life of James Regan for The Walrus. From the article:
When we think of classic con men, we often think of charmers, smooth talkers who can fleece us with a phrase. Regan isn’t that. He doesn’t work his marks with a light touch, but with discipline and sang-froid. When he bothers to make a show of paying for something, he writes a cheque, then stops payment. If he doesn’t get what he wants, he lashes out, then rides out the repercussions.
A Brief History of ICEE | Michelle Delgado, Scavenger
Scavenger is a newsletter put together by Michelle Delgado, “With an affection for the mundane”. In this issue, she recounts the history of the ICEE, and tells us the difference between it and the Slurpee.
For Bloomberg Businessweek, in our second piece this quarter about weird old British professions, Simon Akam tells of the lives of the clerks, working-class intermediaries between London’s advisory and courtroom lawyers.
Monetary Design Mystery | Kurt Kohlstedt, 99% Invisible
The sign for the British pound sterling looks somewhat like an L, deriving from the Latin “libra”, which is also the background of the abbreviation “lb.” for a weight pound. The sign for the Japanese yen looks like a “Y”. Why then does the sign for the American dollar look like an S? Writing for 99% Invisible, Kurt Kohlstedt examines the obscure origins of $.
Grasping at Straws | Ernie Smith, Tedium
In Tedium, Ernie Smith writes of the simple plastic drinking straw, its history of replacing natural grass straws and paper straws, its overlooked environmental impact, the possibility that society will return to grass and paper straws, and how Ted Turner fits in to all this.
In this episode of his podcast Freakonomics Radio, economist Stephen J. Dubner takes a look at the ubiquity of turfgrass in American landscaping. Cheap and easy to put down, expensive and hard to keep in place, grass may be on its way out if the various guests have any say in the matter.
The Crisis of Expertise | Tom Nichols, Aeon
National security professor Tom Nichols writes of how confidence in experts of all fields has been challenged by the democratization of the media and the accompanying public awareness of the fallibility of specialist thinkers, arguing that in order for the necessary trust in experts to endure, the public must understand that one mistake does not invalidate a lifetime of knowledge. Aeon Essays republishes this excerpt from Nichols’s book, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.
The Edwards Edition is a free-to-read publication about American culture and current affairs. It features commentary on recent U.S. and world events, culture, and science, as well as reviews of American television, film, books, games, and technology products.
In addition, the Edwards Edition is the home of Commercial Commentaries, a regular column by our editor, Derek Edwards, which takes a humorous look at the world of advertising.
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