Synseplaum dulcificum.
The berries contain a protein called “miraculin” (really), which in and of itself also sounds kind of Potter-ish. Miraculin itself is tasteless, but once you eat it, it binds to your tastebuds. For the next fifteen minutes to an hour, the miraculin tricks your tastebuds into thinking that typically sour foods are, in fact, sweet.
‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’.
How Stable Are Democracies?
Relevant: C.S. Lewis on Equality and Our Core Misconception About Democracy.
The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.
“We must learn to look at everything from the point of view of the consumer."
How Humans Became 'Consumers': A History.
AT&T just declared war on an open internet (and us).
(…) AT&T made a dim prophecy official by announcing that its new DirecTV Now streaming service would be zero rated: it won’t count against its customers’ data caps. Zero rating isn’t new — T-Mobile has been writing the manual on how to get away with it — but now it’s finally happening at a scale that matters. And AT&T’s version is much worse than T-Mobile’s.
Poverty Line Prices (via mashable.com).
See how expensive things would feel to you if you were living below the poverty line. #PovertyLinePrices
There may be no worse place for mentally ill people to receive treatment than prison – yet a growing number end up in the ‘new asylums’.
As of December 31, there were 3,012 open mental health cases among county inmates in Massachusetts. But only 216 inmates—7 percent—were Massachusetts Department of Mental Health clients. For every 14 inmates with mental illness, only one had access to a full array of state services.
India’s Rape Problem Isn't Over. These Women Are Taking the Fight to the Next Level.
Until this year, law student Chandni Chawla didn’t take the bus after 10 p.m. Chawla attends school in Pune, a cosmopolitan educational hub, and she and other young women studying in the city have been living under the shadow of old-fashioned-seeming regulations: no shorts, not even in the gym, and curfew hours beginning just after sunset.
She is generatively doing cool stuff!
Liza Daly’s Generative Blackout Poetry.
For NaNoGenMo, @liza made Blackout—a Python script that generates blackout poems in the style of @austinkleon.
Leaving the digital schoolyard.
Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.
If you’re serious about making an impact in the world, power down your smartphone, close your browser tabs, roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Relevant: Social Media Is Killing Discourse Because It’s Too Much Like TV.