Browser Daily Newsletter 1311T
This Thing For Which We Have No Name
Rory Sutherland | Edge | 13th May 2014
Wide-ranging conversation centred on the uses of behavioural economics, especially in marketing. "Don't give people 24 white pills. If you want them to finish their antibiotics, give them 18 white pills and six blue ones and say, 'When you finish the white pills, take the blue ones'. The pills can be identical. People will be more likely to finish a course of treatment if it comes in two sequential colours" (10,500 words)
AIDS In America: Why So Much Death?
Michael Hobbes | New Republic | 12th May 2014
AIDS has taken more lives in New York City than in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined. Even now, AIDS kills 15,000 in the US each year; in Germany and the UK, fewer than 800. America's greater suffering is due to the cost of healthcare; the clustering of high-risk populations; the stigmas attaching to AIDS and to drug abuse. “We’re a much bigger, much more complex, and much more unjust country” (3,700 words)
The Hard Truth About Boiled Eggs
J. Kenji López-Alt | Serious Eats | 12th May 2014
Exhaustive experimentation shows that the simplest way is best for cooking perfectly boiled eggs with clean-peeling shells. Put the eggs straight from the fridge into already-boiling water; lower the heat and simmer for 6 minutes (soft) to 11 minutes (hard); chill and serve. No pricking, no pressure cookers. Bonus advice: "Serve them in the shell so that if they don't peel well, it's your guests who will feel inadequate" (3,450 words)
West Wing Uncensored
Lacey Rose & Marc Bernardin & Michael O'Connell | Hollywood Reporter | 12th May 2014
Oral history of the TV series, with Aaron Sorkin and others. "Because our characters lived in a parallel universe, as opposed to the characters on Mad Men who live in historical fiction, our characters were the only ones not affected by 9/11, and that was a problem. The show managed to go on for five or six years, but nothing was the same after that". Sidney Poitier was first choice to play President Bartlet (6,900 words)
Meat Atlas
Daniel Vaughn | TMBBQ | 12th May 2014
Assorted facts and figures from Friends of the Earth Europe's report on meat consumption around the world, Meat Atlas. Brazil's JBS, the world's largest food processing company, has capacity to slaughter 85,000 head of cattle, 70,000 pigs, and 12 million birds every day. In 2011 America ate 9 billion animals; China, 11.5 billion. It takes 1,850 gallons of water to produce one 16-ounce steak. Crickets are 80% edible (550 words)
The Unbearable Whiteness Of Liberal Media
Gabriel Arana | American Prospect | 12th May 2014
Why do liberal publishers employ so few non-white staff, while urging diversity on everybody else? Non-whites make up 40% of the US population, but rarely more than 10% of editorial staffs. The problem is that the hiring happens through networks, which tend to be homogeneous; and nobody is keeping a public count. VIDA's campaign for gender balance shows that naming and shaming does work (2,100 words)
Video of the day: John Oliver's Climate Change Debate
What to expect: TV show excerpt. Clever and wickedly funny. Some profanity
Thought for the day:
"Time is how you spend your love"" — Zadie Smith