Around The Web | What We’re Reading
This week we have been reading about all things bizarre. From corrupted fairytale characters to farms at the International Space Station, the world is full of oddities. We bring you some of the week’s weirdest revelations along with some hot topics including civil rights for robots…not joking.
“Familiar characters, from Little Red Riding Hood to My Little Pony, cavort in carnivalesque sexual fantasies to dark and comedic effect.” Enter the twisted world of claymation, brought to you by Prada-endorsed artists Nathalie Djuberg and Hans Berg.
“The law is based on the simple fact that white parents from Manhattan found out that their daughters were going uptown to Harlem late night to hang out with African American jazz musicians.” Let NYC Dance! Activists are calling for the repeal of the city’s historically racist Cabaret law.
“Recruited by the FBI at the age of 14, through his father who was a confidential informant, a federal narcotics task force turned Rick into a drug dealer.” Meet Richard ‘White Boy Rick’ Wershe, the boy imprisoned for life for helping the FBI.
“What do the Pope, astronauts, and armies at war all have in common?” From space sprouts to landmine legumes, here are the world’s weirdest farms.
“Resignation syndrome, an illness that is said to exist only in Sweden, and only among refugees…It is a form of protection, this coma they are in. They are like Snow White. They just fall away from the world.” Hundreds of refugee children are falling unconscious after being informed that their families will be expelled from the country.
“Jeff Bezos is now the world’s second richest person.” In the ego battle of all ego battles, the Amazon e-commerce giant is rising to the top.
“Bill Gates thinks that, to ease the inequality implied by automation’s displacement effects, ‘robot tax’ should be used to finance something like a universal basic income.” Do robots deserve equal civil rights to humans? From Yanis Varoufakis.
“Can a generation raised to believe that 80-hour workweeks are necessary for success learn something from the lives of the people who laid the foundations of chaos theory and topology or wrote Great Expectations?” Successful historical figures from Charles Darwin to Ingmar Bergman only spent a few hours a day on what we would recognise as their most important work. In today’s always-on world, can we blend work and rest together to make us smarter, more creative and happier?
