read | Chris Aldrich

🎧 Season 2 Episode 6 The King of Tears | Revisionist History

Listened to Season 2 Episode 6 The King of Tears by

Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History

Revisionist History goes to Nashville to talk with Bobby Braddock, who has written more sad songs than almost anyone else. What is it about music that makes us cry? And what sets country music apart?

Why country music makes you cry, and rock and roll doesn't: A musical interpretation of divided America.

The big idea in this episode that there is a bigger divide in America that falls along musical lines more than political ones is quite intriguing and fits in with my general experience living in South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, Maryland, Kentucky, and California. Having been raised by a Catholic family with one parent from the city, another from the countryside, and having lived in many blue/red states surrounded by people of various different musical tastes, I do have to wonder if there isn’t a lot of value in this thesis. It could make an interesting information theoretic political-related question for research. This might be the type of thing that could be teased out with some big data sets from Facebook.

Beauty and authenticity can create a mood. They set the stage, but I think the thing that pushes us over the top into tears is details. We cry when melancholy collides with specificity.

—Malcolm Gladwell in The King of Tears

He then goes on into a nice example about the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses:

And specificity is not something that every genre does well.

This reminds me of a great quote in Made to Stick from Mother Theresa about specificity.

Mother Teresa once said, “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

There’s something very interesting about this idea of specificity and its uses in creating both ideas as well as storytelling and creating emotion.

There is one related old country music joke I’m surprised not to have seen mentioned here, possibly for length, tangential appropriateness, or perhaps because it’s so well known most may call it to mind. It plays off of the days of rock and roll when people played records backwards to find hidden (often satanic) messages.

Q: What do you get when you play a country music song backwards?
A: You get your job back, your wife back, your house back, and your dog back.

The episode finally rounds out with:

If you aren’t crying right now I can’t help you…

Thanks Malcolm, I was crying…

👓 “People Get Subpoenas, Shit Gets Real”: What John Edwards Should Teach the Media About Covering Trump | The Hive

Read “People Get Subpoenas, Shit Gets Real”: What John Edwards Should Teach the Media About Covering Trump (The Hive)

If you were in Las Vegas and could win $1 million by placing a simple prop bet on whether Trump enjoyed some pee play with Russian hookers in Moscow in 2013, would you bet yes or no? You know where you’d put your money. Even Mitch McConnell would take that bet.

👓 Certification schemes are holding back true sustainability, says report | Food Navigator

Read Certification schemes are holding back true sustainability, says report (foodnavigator.com)

Many certification schemes are blocking true sustainability by watering down standards in order to get stakeholders on board and even providing 'green cover' for firms that are destroying the environment, according to a report.

I’ve always suspected things in this area weren’t great, but I didn’t know it was likely this horrific.

👓 24,000 Liters of Wine in the Hold: 40 Years of Globalization | Rachel Laudan

Read 24,000 Liters of Wine in the Hold: 40 Years of Globalization by Rachel Laudan (Rachel Laudan)

Remember that song “99 bottles of beer on the wall?” Singing down the numbers helped children endure long car journeys before tablets, even if it drove their parents to distraction. We…

👓 Diet of the Ancient Mariner | Hakai Magazine

Read Diet of the Ancient Mariner | Hakai Magazine (Hakai Magazine)

An unprecedented archaeology experiment is putting historical shipboard food and drink to the test.

👓 Theory: Playboy Model Who Got $1.6 Million Had Affair With Trump, Not Broidy | Daily Intelligencer | New York Magazine

Read Theory: Playboy Model Who Got $1.6 Million Had Affair With Trump, Not Broidy by Paul Campos (Daily Intelligencer)

Michael Cohen arranged a $1.6 million payout to a model allegedly impregnated by GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy. But was Broidy covering for Trump?

Ho-ly Shiiitttt!! This is a major bomb of a theory!!

It’s well reasoned and incredibly well laid out. Having read it, I can’t help but think that the logic is solid and the probabilities are far more in favor of the theory than they are of the previously reported stories holding water.

I literally can’t wait to see how this plays out…

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Hong Kong’s Missing Bookseller | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Hong Kong’s Missing Bookseller by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

When the owner of a thriving bookstore in Hong Kong went missing in October 2015, questions swirled. What happened? And what did the Chinese government have to do with it?

On today’s episode:

• Alex W. Palmer, a Beijing-based writer who has reported on China for The New York Times Magazine.

Background reading:

• As President Xi Jinping consolidates power, owners of Hong Kong bookstores trafficking in banned books find themselves playing a very dangerous game.

• The Chinese authorities routinely coerce detainees into making videotaped confessions that serve as propaganda tools for the government and as warnings to others who would challenge the state.

• Lam Wing-kee, the bookseller profiled in this episode, plans to reopen his bookstore in Taiwan, a self-governing island that is supplanting Hong Kong as Asia’s bastion of free speech.

👓 Save Barnes & Noble! | New York Times

Read Opinion | Save Barnes & Noble! by

David Leonhardt (nytimes.com)

It’s in trouble. And Washington’s flawed antitrust policy is a big reason.

There are some squirrel-ly things that Amazon is managing to get away with, and they’re not all necessarily good.

👓 One space between each sentence, they said. Science just proved them wrong. | Washington Post

Read One space between each sentence, they said. Science just proved them wrong. by Avi Selk (Washington Post)

“Professionals and amateurs in a variety of fields have passionately argued for either one or two spaces following this punctuation mark,” they wrote in a paper published last week in the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

They cite dozens of theories and previous research, arguing for one space or two. A 2005 study that found two spaces reduced lateral interference in the eye and helped reading. A 2015 study that found the opposite. A 1998 experiment that suggested it didn't matter.

“However,” they wrote, “to date, there has been no direct empirical evidence in support of these claims, nor in favor of the one-space convention.”

I love that the permalink for this article has a trailing 2, which indicates to me that it took the editors a second attempt to add the additional space into the headline for their CMS. And if nothing else, this article is interesting for its layout and typesetting.

I’ll circle back to read the full journal article shortly.¹

References

Johnson RL, Bui B, Schmitt LL. Are two spaces better than one? The effect of spacing following periods and commas during reading. Atten Percept Psychophys. April 2018. doi:10.3758/s13414-018-1527-6

🎧 ‘The Daily’: James Comey Opens Up About Ego, Distrust and More | New York Times

Listened to 'The Daily': James Comey Opens Up About Ego, Distrust and More by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, spoke with me for Friday’s episode of “The Daily,” as he wraps up a publicity tour for his book, “A Higher Loyalty.” Our conversation focused on his decision, before his firing, to document his interactions with President Trump in a series of memos — and to eventually share the contents of one of those memos with a journalist, in the hopes of pressuring the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel in the Russia investigation.