quoted.news: Quick Hits Friday; Drones; Middle East policy; Rights; Ada Lovelace
This is the October 16, 2015 edition of the quoted.news newsletter. Sign up here.
“Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination” (762 shares) — from the Intercept regarding recently leaked documents covering the U.S. usage of drones. More on this story on Monday.
Obama has stopped the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. “It is not the first time the administration has revised the withdrawal plans” (13 shares).
“I do not send you into harm’s way lightly” (103 shares) — President Obama.
“Pakistan has mastered the art of pretending to help the U.S while actually supporting its most deadly foes” (93 shares).
Photographer Eric Pickersgill is having people remain still as he removes cell phones and tablets to demonstrate how technology “promotes the splitting of attention between those who are physically with you and those who are not” (1 share).
“Whether it was in a plane or a coffin, I knew I had to get out of Jamaica” (11 shares) — novelist Marlon James, who just won the Man Booker prize. If you don’t have time to read his book, you can read this New York Times Magazine piece he published in March. His own writing was inspired by reading, “it made me realize that the present was something I could write my way out of” (4).
The Oatmeal wrote that Christopher Columbus “discovered the new world much like a meteorite discovered the dinosaurs” (49 shares).
Did you celebrate Ada Lovelace Day this week? “People easily say, ‘I’m terrible at maths,’ or ‘I’m awful at numbers.’ … ‘It’s like saying, ‘Oh, I can’t read,’ and being proud of that fact’” (9).
“Women are likely to be treated less aggressively until they prove that they are as sick as male patients” (24 shares).
From this weeks Time cover story: “Millennials have a new challenge that has shifted their focus: raising kids of their own” (64 shares).
“Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude” (31 shares). But they still want to be edgy. “The difference between us and Vice is that we’re going after the guy with a job” (71).
“If it sounds too new, then tomorrow, it will sound like yesterday” (79 shares) — Rick Rubin.
“In Texas, dildo rights have long lagged behind gun rights” (84 shares).
“At Texas A&M… Nerf guns are expressly forbidden from students’ dorm rooms — but real handguns will be allowed” (37 shares).
“The basis of democracy is the willingness to assume well about other people” (345 shares).
“No defensible moral framework regards foreigners as less deserving of rights” (59 shares).
“Being culturally educated about video games is as important as going to museums or learning about opera” (24 shares).
In case you need more convincing, take a look at this season’s schedule of your closest symphony. You’re likely to see a video game soundtrack in there. “You can no longer just sit there and play Beethoven” (23 shares), said Andrew Litton, music director of the Colorado Symphony and the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
“SeaWorld can no longer say this is work of activists…It was a spanking coming from a much higher level” (13 shares) — Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite commenting on the decision by the California Coastal Commission to ban the captive breeding of killer whales.
Down where the New York Times keeps their picture archive, “there is abundant evidence of past water damage” (10 shares). Spoiler Alert: Shit hit the proverbial fan.
“On the Internet in 2015 it’s tacitly understood that we can trace most memes back to black people” (5 shares).
“It feels like I’m desperately homesick, but I’m home” (30 shares), wrote Sarah Silverman about her battle with depression. “The tough times, the days when you’re just a ball on the floor — they’ll pass” (15).
“I’ve suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life, I still suffer with it every single day” (172) — Lady Gaga.
Thanks for reading, please share.
Originally published at tinyletter.com.
