This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.
Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.
Polyvore – A fashion shopper's playground, where users get to clip their favourite products from across the web and present them to others. There's a page as well where you can drag and drop separates to form the ensemble of your (momentary) dreams. This is perhaps the consumer's equivalent of Scrooge McDuck's bathing in currency. The bag is Prada.
MIT Technology Review (India) – The Mystery Behind Anesthesia – Courtney Humphries – "Mapping how our neural circuits change under the influence of anesthesia could shed light on one of neuroscience's most perplexing riddles: consciousness."
BBC News Magazine – Arctic Canada caught on 1919 silent film – Hudson Bay Company – This silent film, "The Romance of the Far Fur Country," made to mark the 250th anniversary of the Hudson Bay Company (in 1919) has been restored and digitized.
New York Times – The World's Most Exclusive Condominium – Frank Jacobs – And by condominium I mean a piece of territory shared, as it were, between two sovereign nations. The article talks about Pheasant Island between France and Spain, and then goes on to tell Canada how it and Denmark should solve their problem over Hans Island. Thanks.
Charlie Rose – The Brain Series – Charlie Rose – In more than a dozen hour-long videos, this TV interviewer leads panels of experts in an exploration of your favourite organ. Highly recommended.
Slate Magazine – Pearl clutching: how the phrase became a feminist blog cliché – Torie Bosch – "The phrase pearl clutching, which means being shocked by something once-salacious that should now be seen as commonplace, like sex, is ubiquitous on blog posts, especially in media geared towards women." I hadn't known.
The Inky Fool – The Fifty Most Quoted Lines of Poetry – M.H. Forsyth – #49: Full fathom five thy father lies. Which makes you wonder what a piece of work is man. If nothing else, this list will propel you out of your own pat rote rimes and into something… better.
YouTube – How Money is Made (1920) – (posted by Brain Pickings) – Another silent film from Canada, this one about the Royal Canadian Mint. "Do you remember biting that alleged half-dollar you took in change from the banana-man? Or dropping it on the table?"
McSweeney's – In Which I Fix
My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed as a Conquering Hero – Mike Lacher – A winter fable in which the Warrior takes on the Router and (very unlike me in similar circumstances) wins.
NPR – Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter … and Umami – Robert Krulwich – Listen to the tale of the discovery—and re-discovery—of umami, the fifth taste.
