{"id":2582,"date":"2014-01-03T13:53:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T19:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2014-01-03T13:53:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T19:53:55","slug":"good-reads-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/2014\/01\/03\/good-reads-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Good reads, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The following are some of the best stories, articles, essays, blog posts, etc, that I read during 2013. They weren&#8217;t necessarily written in 2013. I&#8217;m including them in roughly the order I encountered them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.schneier.com\/blog\/archives\/2013\/01\/power_and_the_i.html\">Power and the Internet<\/a><br \/>\nBruce Schneier, awesome as always<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/people.duke.edu\/~hpgavin\/cee421\/citicorp1.htm\">THE FIFTY-NINE-STORY CRISIS<\/a><br \/>\nThe story of how an architectural disaster was averted with Citicorp Center. Seriously, everyone should read this<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/exurbe.com\/?p=1429\">The Machiavelli series at Ex Urbe<\/a><br \/>\nThis is a 4-ish part series of blog posts. I&#8217;m just linking to the first here, but read them all. Fantastic writing about history.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowledgeplex.org\/kp\/text_document_summary\/article\/relfiles\/hff_0104_fishman.html\">The American Metropolis at Century&#8217;s End: Past and Future Influences<\/a><br \/>\nPast and future influences on American cities<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.psmag.com\/culture\/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507\/\">Triumph of the Cyborg Composer<\/a><br \/>\nWhat if emotionally moving music can just be reduced to algorithms? What does that say about us?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2013\/apr\/09\/russell-brand-margaret-thatcher?CMP=twt_gu\">Russell Brand on Margaret Thatcher: &#8216;I always felt sorry for her children&#8217;<\/a><br \/>\nA condemnation of conservatism in the 80s in general.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/1993\/04\/05\/1993_04_05_054_TNY_CARDS_000362341?currentPage=all\">Secrets of the Magus<\/a><br \/>\nA portrait of Ricky Jay<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmcomment.com\/entry\/steven-soderbergh-state-of-cinema-address\">Overheard: Steven Soderbergh<\/a><br \/>\nSteven Soderbergh on the film industry. Introduced me to the useful phrase &#8220;mayhem porn.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.idlewords.com\/2005\/08\/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm\">A Rocket To Nowhere<\/a><br \/>\nWhy the Space Shuttle was broken as designed. Everything on this website is worth reading, really. It doesn&#8217;t belong on my 2013 list, but as long as I&#8217;m linking to Idle Words, I recommend <a href=\"http:\/\/idlewords.com\/2010\/03\/scott_and_scurvy.htm\">Scott and Scurvy<\/a> too.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.psmag.com\/magazines\/magazine-feature-story-magazines\/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135\/\">Why Americans are the weirdest people in the world<\/a><br \/>\nAmerican social scientists assume their worldview is universal. It ain&#8217;t.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/2011\/11\/07\/eyal-ophir-on-the-science-of-multitasking.html\">Eyal Ophir on the Science of Multitasking<\/a><br \/>\nTL;DR: It doesn&#8217;t work.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/linuxmafia.com\/faq\/Essays\/marriage.html\">Kudzu and the California Marriage Amendment<\/a><br \/>\nHow the variety of intersex conditions make it literally impossible to ban same-sex marriage.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/edge.org\/conversation\/how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think\">How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think? <\/a><br \/>\nThat old Sapir-Worf hypothesis<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/susanelizabethshepard\/wildcatting-a-strippers-guide-to-the-modern-american-boomtow\">Wildcatting: A Stripper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guide to the Modern American Boomtown<\/a><br \/>\nA slice of life that is completely foreign to me.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/6089\/the-art-of-fiction-no-211-william-gibson\">William Gibson, The Art of Fiction No. 211<\/a><br \/>\nLong interview. Lots of interesting observations<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2011\/07\/the-brain-on-trial\/308520\/?single_page=true\">The Brain on Trial<\/a><br \/>\nThe limits of rationality and free will as it relates to the law.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/reporting\/2013\/08\/12\/130812fa_fact_stillman\">Taken<\/a><br \/>\nThe abuse of &#8220;civil forfeiture,&#8221; especially in small Texas towns<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/geek-empire-1\/a1ebd2b4a0e5\">The Ecuadorian Library<\/a><br \/>\nChairman Bruce on the clay-footed heroes of modern-day whistleblowing<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heracliteanriver.com\/?p=324\">Why two spaces after a period isn&#8217;t wrong (or, the lies typographers tell about history)<\/a><br \/>\nExhaustive treatment of this controversial issue<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonmonthly.com\/magazine\/septemberoctober_2011\/features\/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php\">Administrators ate my tuition<\/a><br \/>\nI&#8217;ve been wondering for a while why college tuition has gotten so outrageously expensive. Apparently rampant administrative overhead has something to do with it.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/archives\/2013\/nov\/07\/physics-what-we-do-and-dont-know\/?pagination=false\">Physics: What We Do and Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Know<\/a><br \/>\nA very dense wrap-up of the state of subatomic particles and cosmology.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/p\/892b57499e77\">Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future<\/a><br \/>\nThe most sobering thing I&#8217;ve read in a long, long time.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2013\/12\/13\/5207640\/the-shadow-genome-why-dna-isnt-destiny-epigenetics\">The shadow genome: why DNA isn&#8217;t destiny<\/a><br \/>\nEpigenetics is changing the way scientists look at genetic inheritance<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/history\/2013\/12\/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html\">The Welfare Queen<\/a><br \/>\nWelfare fraud was the least of her crimes. Just an insane story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are some of the best stories, articles, essays, blog posts, etc, that I read during 2013. They weren&#8217;t necessarily written in 2013. I&#8217;m including them in roughly the order I encountered them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tidbit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}