Interesting critique of Beethoven’s outsized place in the canon of Western musical history:
It’s not Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” but Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven’s “Fountain”:
https://seeallthis.com/blog/the-iconic-fountain-1917-is-not-created-by-marcel-duchamp/
Hierarchies are bad for science. The "Great Man" myth is extraordinarily damaging.
So many questions: why is a tenants’ union in Los Angeles selling bikes? Why are they doing so in euros? And who are the 392 people who liked this ad? #notsuspiciousintheleast #instaspam
For so long we Morrissey fans gave him the benefit of the doubt. Even now, we like to believe it is simply Morrissey who has changed. And that is true to an extent. But the warning signs were always there:
For some reason, Instagram seems to be lousy with very similar dodgy-looking ads, offering trendy brand products at implausible discounts, and posted by unlikely accounts. I’m guessing cybercriminals have harvested a lot of Instagram logins (perhaps via Android malware, or PC malware and the tendency for people to reuse passwords) and are going through them one by one, using them to post scam ads.
Things one finds discarded in Stoke Newington:
Interesting piece about Singlish, the English/Malay/&c. creole spoken in Singapore, and the Singapore government’s attempts to eradicate it:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/singlish-singapore-government-campaign
Honestly, the comparison of this St. George statue restoration to Ecce Homo Monkey Christ is unfair. Sure, they used the wrong type of paint and likely ruined the remaining original pigment, but it probably actually was that garish when it was made. What we think of as classic looking is really hundreds of years of yellowing and fading. People have always loved bright and sometimes tacky colours.
Interesting interview with Keita Takahashi, talking about going from fine arts to video game design, Katamari Damacy and his new game, Wattam: https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/26/wattam-hands-preview-keita-takahashi-interview-wanted-make-things-make-people-happy-7661998/
This was a recommended strategy in 1934. I wonder if there's a way to find out if it worked?
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2018/06/26/hindsight-is-2020/
The idea of calling someone on the phone to talk is nowadays as alien as eating a pint of mayonnaise prawns, or standing when a lady enters the room:
why spend $300 on a vaporwave album when you could buy a warped disco cassette for 50p
On my way to the anti-Brexit protest march from Pall Mall to Parliament Square
myapwe :3c 
if you ever find yourself upset with the "current generation's" slang of saying "feels" or "mood" too much just remember the 19th century had this
A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of Galambosianism:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galambosianism
The National Museum of Scotland’s new exhibition on the history of Scottish pop looks interesting and timely:
Arrived in the post today: a keyring-sized device that plays emulated GameBoy and SNES games (with more systems to come): http://pocketsprite.com
I know most of the debate on #Article13 and #Article11 has been on a pretty abstract level in the past few days, but if you want a deeper analysis of where we are, and how we got here, Julia Reda's interview today is great: http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2018/06/18/julia-reda-discusses-current-proposal-directive-copyright-digital-single-market/
