Around The Web | What We’re Reading
At a time when information is constantly questioned over its sheer authenticity, we realise this crisis in gullibility is affecting everyone, even Trump himself. We’re not sure he even believes the the crap he’s putting out anymore. Whilst everyone is screaming Watergate, Trump is screaming ‘Covfefe’. Frank Ocean isn’t screaming anything…at all. Maybe self-esteem has something to do with it, which by the way is a $10 billion a year industry [see below], built around this promise of a DIY solution to all the world’s problems. Rather than stay put on earth and worry about it all, NASA has announced its first mission to the sun. All the dreams of 13 year-old aspiring astronauts can now be realised. And whilst China still has a long way to go before it heads to the sun, with all its worldly ambitions they have put together the worlds first vertical farm nestled amongst the skyscrapers of Shanghai. Enjoy.
Here’s the best of the web this week:
“Loving Frank Ocean is almost like having a low-key obsession with a deceased, glamorous icon of old Hollywood: the brilliant work is there to be savoured, and we’re thankful for it, but the love feels sadly unrequited.” After Primavera Sound becomes the third in a list of cancellations of his summer festival appearances, Frank Ocean fans are wondering what is behind his notorious flakiness. Should we be pissed?
“The story of the album is the story of a marriage of consumerism, technology, and culture that could only have happened when it did, and it’s one that too few people know.” Vinyl records are now a staple of any hipster’s survival kit, but records were originally the remit of classical music fans. On the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, find out how The Beatles hijacked records for hippies.
“During the 1980s or 1990s just about everyone, from CEOs to welfare recipients, was told – often by psychologists with serious credentials – that improving their self-esteem could unlock the gates to more happiness, better performance, and every kind of success imaginable. The movement, which had its epicentre in California, argued that increasing people’s self-esteem could reduce crime, teen pregnancy and a host of other social ills – even pollution.” Take a look at how the self-esteem craze took over America and now constitutes a $10 billion dollar industry.
“Trump himself has seemed to welcome the analogy, lobbing his own Nixon-era allusions: hinting at the existence of ‘tapes’ recording his ostensibly private meetings with Comey: invoking the ‘silent majority’ and ‘forgotten Americans’ he’s fighting for. Trump’s purpose for doing all this remains, like many of his actions, mysterious.” While everyone wants to draw parallels with the scandal that led to Nixon’s downfall, before we push for Trump’s impeachment (as much as we might want to), here are 5 key reasons why this still isn’t Watergate.
“The project aims to offer a space-saving alternative to traditional land-intensive farming, prompted by high land prices that encourage the development of vertical infrastructure. It will also feature floating greenhouses, algae farms and a vertical seed library.” As cities around the world become ever more populated, check out this video of an amazing vertical farming initiative nestled among the skyscrapers of Shanghai.
“The spacecraft will fly close enough to the Sun to watch the solar wind speed up from subsonic to supersonic, and it will fly through the birthplace of the highest-energy solar particles.” We’ve been to the Moon and to Mars, so the next logical step is the Sun, right? Well, a year from now NASA hopes to make this true with its first ever mission to the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe.
“The average robbery lasts 4.27 minutes and leads to a haul of approximately 16,000 euros. Given that more than half of all bank robberies involve two or more perpetrators, the average haul per criminal is approximately equal to 8,700 euros.” It wasn’t called The Italian Job for no reason. Italy has the highest rate of bank robberies in the world, we find out why.
