Chefs, Patents, Hiroshima, Popular Misconceptions , Prison
Fantasies Of A Happier Kitchen
René Redzepi | Lucky Peach | 2nd August 2015
World-beating Noma chef wrestles with restaurant culture. "The public expects more from us now. Is there still room for guys like me, who started before this new era? What about the French armies we trained in, the regiment we still follow? How can we rectify the screaming and shouting and physical abuse we’ve visited on our young cooks? How do we unmake the cultures of machismo and misogyny in our kitchens?" (1,680 words)
Abolish Patents, Support Innovation
The Economist | 6th August 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
The industrial revolution proceeded perfectly well without a patent office. There is little evidence that patents encourage innovation, and lots of evidence that they immobilise knowledge, reward trolls and strengthen incumbents. It is competition that produces innovation; patents come afterwards. Society might well be better off with no patents at all than than with the mess that currently prevails (2,930 words)
Hiroshima
John Hersey | New Yorker | 31st August 1946
The New Yorker republishes John Hersey's epic report. "At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk" (30,000 words)
Fifty Psychological And Psychiatric Terms To Avoid
Scott Lilienfeld et al | Frontiers In Psychology | 3rd August 2015
"In this article, we present a provisional list of 50 commonly used terms in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields that should be avoided, or at most used sparingly and with explicit caveats. For each term, we (a) explain why it is problematic, (b) delineate one or more examples of its misuse, and (c) when pertinent, offer recommendations for preferable terms". Deprecated terms include a gene for, fetish, acting out (9,800 words)
How To Change The Prison System
Only Connect | Demos | 31st July 2015
Advice to the British government from a collective of ex-prisoners on how to reduce crime. "There aren’t really that many people committing crimes in this country. The problem is that it’s the same old faces coming in and going out of prison". Break the cycle of recidivism by giving newly released prisoners a place to live and a crack at some job interviews, so that they have at least the possibility of returning to normal life (2,100 words)
Jonathan Sumption: Brain Of Britain
Wendell Steavenson | Guardian | 6th August 2015
Portrait of Jonathan Sumption, British supreme court judge, former barrister, "often described as the cleverest man in Britain". Valuable both for the glimpses of Sumption in the courtroom, and for his reflections on the British establishment. “There’s no code that tells you what to do. There’s a sense of carrying on and a tradition. It’s a fragile political culture. If we ever lost it, we would find it very difficult to recreate” (5,370 words)
Video of the day: Modern Love: Nikolina From Mostar
What to expect: NYT animation. Childhood sweethearts from Mostar are separated by war and find one another as adults (3'45")
Thought for the day
I am not sincere, even when I say I am not
Jules Renard