Toward a Universal Theory of ‘Cool’ – Derek Thompson – The Atlantic “Cool means departing from norms that we consider unnecessary, illegitimate, or repressive—but also doing so in ways that are bounded. The 1984 Apple ad that said, essentially, “you have a choice; don’t buy IBM!” was considered one of the coolest commercials of all time, because it was, in the researchers words, “autonomous in an appropriate way.” But a 1984 Apple ad saying “you have a choice; don’t pay federal income taxes!” wouldn’t be cool, because taxes are legitimate; and a 1984 Apple ad saying “burn IBM’s headquarters to the ground!” wouldn’t be cool, because that’s just overdoing it. Cool requires a bit of Goldilocks. “ tags: sociology thoughtvectors society weekly Ralph Waldo Emerson Writes a Job Recommendation for Walt Whitman (1863) – | Open Culture “of strong original genius, combining, with marked eccentricities, great powers & valuable traits of character: a self-relying large-hearted man, much beloved by his friends; entirely patriotic & benevolent in his theory, tastes, & practice. “ tags: job recommendation ralph walt whitman weekly english Nobel Prize in physics: Andre Geim went from levitating frogs to science’s highest honor. “The Friday Night Experiments (FNEs) are often so outlandish that they try to limit how long someone works on them—usually just a few months, so as not […]

Add an expiration date to your tweets using a simple hashtag | The Verge Besides keeping your digital detritus to a minimum, there may be practical uses for the app. One meteorologist has already found a neat use for it: preventing storm warnings from being retweeted once they’re no longer in place. Spirit follows Efemr, another app with the same functionality. Add an expiration date to your tweets using a simple hashtag | The Verge Besides keeping your digital detritu… http://t.co/E6jKZiPZdE — Tom Woodward (@twoodwar) April 25, 2014 tags: IFTTT twitter expire expiration tweet weekly Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner Is Real Food – James Hamblin – The Atlantic “”It’s not just linguistic, I really at times feel like crying, when I think about that we’re paying for ignorance with human lives,” he told me. “At times, I hate the people with alphabet soup after their names who are promising the moon and the stars with certainty. I hate knowing that the next person is already rubbing his or her hands together with the next fad to make it on the bestseller list.” “The evidence that with knowledge already at our disposal, we could eliminate 80 percent of chronic disease is the basis for everything I do,” Katz said. Just as he was finishing his residency in internal […]