So What, Who Cares (vol 2, issue 30) Who wants a one-stop monthly digest?
Hello! If you are facing a depressing email backlog, I'm here to help. Blithely delete all the back issues of So What, Who Cares? that you haven't read because this is the end-of-the-month wrap-up! You can use this issue as your briefing for the month that was.
But before we get started, a little reader feedback regarding last night's query viz. your favorite comfort foods. The people have spoken, and as if they were speaking with one voice, the answer was: Carbs, accompanied by a side of carbs and some carbs a la carte, with more carbs for dessert. There was a small contingent devoted to "cheesy" as both a sauce and/or a discrete food group, but mostly carbs stand for comfort.
By the way, researchers say that the notion of "comfort food" is a myth. I think my reaction can be summed up with the contents of vol 2, issue 17:
The owl on the far left is still my very favorite, but the similarly bemused guy who's second from the right is a close number two.
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IN WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY NEWS: Adults no longer get snow days -- great news for company productivity, bad news for workers who are expected to produce a full day's work while their kids are bouncing off the walls and the car still needs to be dug out from under a few feet of snow (vol 2, issue 18).
The same Internet that's responsible for making a whole lot of a great creative culture available to lots and lots of people is also hollowing out the creative class that used to be able to make a living to produce this work (vol 2, issue 19).
A comparison of the paid family leave programs in the three U.S. states that have implemented said programs (California, New Jersey, Rhode Island) found that the newest program (RI) had the highest percentage of male participants and the highest percentage of participants who took caregiving leave for non-baby reasons. This points to two seismic shifts in the workforce: Men who increasingly expect paternity leave, and the beginning of the baby boomers' health decline (vol 2, issue 21).
There are actual, cognitive limits to how much work you can do in a given day. And by honoring those limits and clawing back some of your time for non-work, Wharton researchers contend, you'll actually be in better shape to do better work (vol 2, issue 24)
Amazon's Mechanical Turk program has three side effects that hurt human workers: the wages are always going down; the amount of work available is unpredictable; the labor itself is designed to "teach" computers how to do the work that people are currently doing. It's an encapsulation of the growing observation that the gig economy is really good at driving down wages for its participants while also rendering them obsolete (vol 2, issue 25).
IN RETAIL-TYPE NEWS: The closing of C. Wonder and Kate Spade Saturday happened not because America's rejecting the preppy aesthetic, but because we're all overwhelmed by "lifestyle" retailers and are gravitating to retailers who do only a few things at a time (vol 2, issue 16).
UnderArmour bought two fitness-related apps, part of its play to extend its revenue streams from clothing and fitness gear into software services and data mining. The move will put pressure on standalone fitness app makers (vol 2, issue 19).
Urban Outfitters had an antisemitic throw blanket in stock for a bit, far from the first time it's had merchandise that was problematic. The company's stock price surged on the news, which tells you everything you need to know about the value of free publicity (vol 2, issue 21).
Prestige make-up sales rose 6% last year, and this is worth noting for a few reasons. First, the overall volume of prestige beauty shoppers dropped by an unreported percentage, which means that fewer shoppers are spending more money -- and they did, because product prices rose 2-4% across all categories. Second, because mass-market cosmetic sales are flat, and it's an indicator of uneven post-recession recovery (vol 2, issue 23).
Also, photos of mallgoers from the 1980s are really trippy (vol 2, issue 19).
IN HEALTH NEWS: Doctors have come up with a checklist of eight biological indicators that signal imminent death -- useful for helping loved ones and caregivers plan for patient- and self-care (vol 2, issue 20).
Falling global child mortality was one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDG), a set of ei
ght different public health goals, and it's actually happening: In 2013 approximately 6.3 million children under the age of five died around the world, down 35% from 2000 (vol 2, issue 21).
There is a definite link between family planning and socioeconomic position, a position put forth by Amartya Sen (a Nobel prize-winning economist who contends that civil and political rights are what enable social and economic welfare) and backed by a new study from the World Health Organization (vol 2, issue 24).
Being outdoors is good for mental health for both children and adults, and the Obama administration is trying to make it easier to go commune with nature (vol 2, issue 26).
IN TECH NEWS: A few weeks before the FCC's final ruling on net neutrality, we all learned why it's a big deal -- because the Internet is now considered a public utility like sewer/gas/electric and therefore should be regulated as such (vol 2, issue 16).
Apple and Pinterest are about to turn the app discovery market inside-out -- at least the app-discovery marke
t for the non-Android users of the world (and -- handy reminder -- Android is the world's leading mobile platform). ANYWAY -- Apple's recognized that app discovery is key to driving sales and it's turning to Pinterest to deal with the question "We have 1.4 million apps. How do you get every single one out in front of the user who wants it? (vol 2, issue 22)" Speaking of app discovery, it turns out that getting your app featured on national television will actually boost visibility (vol 2, issue 28).
Apple is building two massive data centers in Denmark and Ireland, a move that will allow it to make nice with European Union privacy regulators. Apple's move suggests it's hedging its bets against the U.S. winning the legal argument that where data is stored matters less than who owns the data center (vol 2, issue 28).
IN FOOD NEWS: California's once-in-a-millennium drought combined with its freaky-warm winter has socked a few industries in the jaw, including stone fruit crops and salmon fishing (vol 2, issue 18).
Your soda could be filled with cancer-causing chemicals, as could your pancake syrup, soy sauce, bread or barbecue sauce. But you can't know for sure! Why? Because the cancer-causing chemical in question, the caramel coloring 4-MEI, is not required by law to be listed separately on food labels, so the only thing health-conscious Americans can really do is just not eat anything that has "caramel coloring" listed among the ingredients (vol 2, issue 25).
Higher consumption of red and processed meats, refined grains, and sugar-sweetened foods and beverages are all killing Americans. The new proposed dietary recommendations are big on vegetables, but also very pro-egg and pro-coffee, and they take the historic step of recommending that dietary considerations extend beyond the nutritional and include environmental impact (vol 2, issue 29).
Big Food -- i.e. Campbells, Con Agra, etc. -- are not adjusting well to the eating habits of Millennials, since most younger adults skew toward fresh-made "whole" foods, preferably with organic and/or local ingredients (vol 2, issue 29).
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AS FOR THE MONTH IN POP CULTURE:
CeCe Bell's El Deafo won a Newberry Honor, a first-ever for a graphic novel, and two other graphic novels for children were recognized with a Caldecott Honor or a Printz Honor (vol 2, 16).
I read God Hates Astronauts Vol. 2, and promptly made a ridiculous error in SW,WC (vol 2, issue 21). Considering the subject matter of God Hates Astronauts (inept superheroes attempt to stop chicken-marrying farmers from launching spaceships), that probably counts as an endorsement.
I made an argument that Aquaman is both a wellspring from which comedy bubbles forth and a surprisingly poignant character (vol 2, issue 28).
The press tour for Fifty Shades of Grey was, perhaps, the number one comedy in the U.S. (vol 2, issue 18).
If you're looking for a great profile of two on-purpose comedians working at the top of their game, read the New Yorker's profile on Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (vol 2, issue 24).
If you're looking for a rollicking autobiography that its subject once described as "faction," read D.V. by Diana Vreeland and learn about a woman who was basically the Steve Jobs of fashion editors (vol 2, issue 20). I also kvelled over the general fabulousness of Brini Maxwell and how her stylish can-do brio informs my favorite DIY blog, Projectophile (vol 2, issue 26). And I hope more of you are reading the CIA-World-Factbook-meets-the-cookbook blog Burgers Here And There (vol 2, issue 29).
We had a few days' dialogue about odious love songs, courtesy of Flavorwire's "25 Love Songs That Need To Be Retired." My flippant reference to Sting's "Fields of Gold" brought about a reader backlash, and @MNInsomniac reminded me of the Eva Cassidy version, which is genuinely lovely.
Professional boxer and new children's book author Hector Camacho had a poignant take on why celebrities write children's books (vol 2, issue 22):
“Maybe we celebrities write these books because kids look up to us and we know this life isn’t what we should be giving them to follow. Especially kids in the ‘hood where I come from. Maybe it’s like a responsibility.”
Speaking of celebrities, it was fun to read Rolling Stone's ranking of all 141 people and/or puppets who had been Saturday Night Live cast members, and I rounded up some other excellent reads about the show (vol 2, issue 23).
Finally, Tumblr gave us darkly funny vignettes about The Great British Baking Show's Mary Berry (vol 2, issue 25).
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