Selections From My Virtual Library: December 2014

Well, this is my very last Virtual Library post as it's now December. I've read lots, but never enough. Here's this month's picks.

The Atlantic
For the Love of Stuff
How Sexism Stifles Creativity
When Helping Rape Victims Hurts a College’s Reputation
When Chicago Tortured
What's Tylenol Doing to Our Minds?
Coming to Terms With My Father's Racism
'Shipping' and the Enduring Appeal of Rooting for Love
Adjusting College Rankings for Rape

NPR
Mexican Megafarms Supplying U.S. Market Are Rife With Labor Abuses
5 Interrogation Methods The CIA Used On Terrorism Suspects
WWII By The Books: The Pocket-Size Editions That Kept Soldiers Reading
Bound By A Plantation, Two Georgians Remember A Special Christmas
Serial Host Sarah Koenig Says She Set Out To Report, Not Exonerate
Preserving American Roots Music Begins With Keeping The Lights On
After Year Of Atheism, Former Pastor: 'I Don't Think God Exists'

Rookie
How to Write About Real People
Whatever You Like

McSweeney's
Product Review: The Invisible Backpack of White Privilege From L.L. Bean
A Farewell to Hemnes: Ernest Hemingway Assembles an Ikea Daybed Frame with Three Drawers

The New Yorker
The Unidentified Queen of Torture

The New York Times
Why Colleges Haven't Stopped Binge Drinking

Selections from my Virtual Library: September, October, and November 2014

Since this was quite the busy quarter, I didn't really keep up with my virtual library. Instead, I compiled three months worth of articles here. Per usual, italicized articles are highly recommended. 


NPR
We Don't Finish Anything Anym ...
All Together Now: The Beatles Are (Back) In Mono
Is Atheist Awe A Religious Experience?
Best To Not Sweat The Small Stuff, Because It Could Kill You
The Biology Of Altruism: Good Deeds May Be Rooted In The Brain
For Single Women, An 'Infinite Variety Of Paths'
The Good Listener: When You Need To Concentrate, Which Music Is Best?
Mindy Kaling On Refusing To Be An Outsider And Sexism On Set


The Atlantic
Who Should Decide What High School Kids Are Allowed to Read?
The Afghan Girls Who Live as Boys
Rape Culture in the Alaskan Wilderness
The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious
How Gangs Took Over Prisons
Economists: Your Parents Are More Important Than Ever
The Society of Fugitives
Eric Holder's Expansive Vision of Civil Rights
How Serious Is the Supreme Court About Religious Freedom?
Buy Experiences, Not Things
Irrational Atheism
The Unsafety Net: How Social Media Turned Against Women
Is It Ever Okay to Make Teachers Read Scripted Lessons?
What Happens When Students Control Their Own Education?
The Economic Impact of School Suspensions
Rise of the Feminist Tinder-Creep-Busting Web Vigilante
The New Heroin Epidemic
Inner-City Violence in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Me Against the Music: How Should Fans Behave in the Digital Age?
Why No One Can Design a Better Speculum
A Blog of Myself


McSweeney's
The Canon of Philosophy Student Karaoke Songs
Missed Connection: Boys, Ages 6-12(?), Lived With Me On Nameless Tropical Island In Pacific Ocean At End Of WWII.
This Week on As The World Tinders


The New Yorker
Kicking The Bucket List
We Are A Camera
How Chris McCandless Died


Medium
Beyond the Headlines: Race, the Inner City and Books that Delve Deeper
Take a Tour of The Gigantic, Secretive Market Where France’s Top Chefs Buy Their Food
Taylor Swift’s Giant Middle Finger


Rookie
Crushed Out
Not About Love
I Can Do All These Things: An Interview With FKA Twigs
Strangers in the Dark


Other
Snackwave: A Comprehensive Guide To The Internet's Saltiest Meme
OkCupid founder: “I wish people exercised more humanity” on OkCupid
The Big Sort

Selections from my Virtual Library: August 2014

Lots of heavier topics this month, but it spurred lots of thinking! If you only have time to read some and not all, hit up the italicized ones.

The Atlantic

Can The Female Condom Go Mainstream?
The Future of Iced Coffee
The Secret to a Tattoo's Permanence: The Immune System
What Will a Liberal Arts Education Look Like in 50 Years?
How to Talk About Climate Change So People Will Listen
Meghalaya: The Wettest Place on Earth
Who Watches America's Executions?
The Elusiveness of Stolen Art

NPR

The Good Listener: Why Do Band Photos Look Like That, Anyway?
Turnitin And The Debate Over Anti-Plagiarism Software
Hip-Hop In Print: Brooklyn Publisher Looks To 'Reverse Gentrify' Literature

The New Yorker

What Makes a Family of Artists
Selfie
The Pleasure of Reading to Impress Yourself

Medium

Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future
Slaying The Protein Myth
The Aftershocks

BBC

Colombian anti-groping squad goes to work
US schools to have non-white majority

McSweeney's

A Post Gender Normative Man Tries To Pick Up a Woman At A Bar
Classic Movie Changed Not To Be Sexist

Selections From My Virtual Library: June/July 2014

I am officially a slacker. During finals in June, I completely fell off my reading schedule. And once I began teaching again with Golden Apple, life was made of lesson plans and excessive carb consumption. But, I have still cultivated plenty to read even if it is heavy on the July side. Again, italicized articles are my top recommendations.

NPR

Life After 'Life': Aging Inmates Struggle For Redemption
The One Thing Obama Didn't Say About Student Loan Repayment
Why NYC Is Afraid Of Free Lunch For All
A Campus Dilemma: Sure, 'No' Means 'No,' But Exactly What Means 'Yes'?
Is Collecting Animals For Science A Noble Mission Or A Threat?
Tackling Sexual Assault On Campus With Comedy
What We Talk About When We Talk About Violence In Chicago
The Good Listener: Has The Term 'Indie Rock' Lost All Meaning?

The New Yorker

The Teen Whisperer
Ghosts in the Stacks
Literature and Life
The Black Market for Dinosaurs
Why Students Aren't Fighting Forever 21
Wrong Answer
Lisa Elmaleh’s Folk Portraits

The Atlantic

The Morbid Fascination With the Death of the Humanities
The Elusive Specificity of Reparations
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Not Knowing How Much You Don't Know
On Teen Sexting: Same Sexism, Different Technology
How Cities Use Design to Drive Homeless People Away
The Sociology of Sorry
Why Kids Care More About Achievement Than Helping Others
Millennials' Political Views Don't Make Any Sense
What's in a Name? Everything.
Where Confiscated Wildlife Ends Up
Don't Write for the Barbarians

Medium

We Killed the Music Industry
Wikipedia Mining Algorithm Reveals The Most Influential People In 35 Centuries Of Human History
Creative People Say No

BBC

The many faces of British poverty in France
Pablo Escobar’s hippos: A growing problem

The New York Times

What Writers Can Learn From ‘Goodnight Moon’

McSweeney's

Lost Scenes From Generic Hipster Indie Romance Films Found in 2076 During a Museum Restoration of an Old Macbook Air And Subsequently Adapted For the Stage During Heritage Week at a Camp for 7th and 8th Graders Later That Summer.

Words To Make Your Poetry Legit

Selections from my Virtual Library: March 2014

This is the third installment of my virtual library, a year-long project to expand my personal literacy and knowledge base. This past month I haven't been as disciplined with my reading, so there is a slight lessening of sources.

Rookie:

The Art of Waiting: A great piece on why we all need stop fearing the artistic process.

The Atlantic:

Redlining for the 21st Century: Though redlining seems like a thing of the past, the age of the Internet has brought it back. A warning to all apartment shoppers.

International Women's Day: Mothers and Daughters: A great photo essay that looks at educational desires of mothers and daughters.

In Grief, Try Personal Rituals: All I have to say about this piece is that it's important.

The Toxins That Threaten Our Brain: Absolutely terrifying. Even though it's a very lengthy read, it's very much worth it because we are exposed to so many neurotoxins every day.

The Over-Protected Kid: Essentially, we need to let kids mess around more and this crazy, awesome playground accomplishes that in a safe, constructive manner.

Another Bloomberg Editor Explains Why He Has Resigned, Over Its China Coverage: If, in fact, Bloomberg is avoiding certain stories because of fear of losing sales in China, it would be a huge strike against them. This is an incredibly messy issue that should have some interesting developments to watch.

Star Wars and the 4 Ways Science Fiction Handles Race: I haven't read very much about this issue, but it's definitely something to look at in the coming years of new releases.

New York Times:

Casting Shadows on a Fanciful World: My token Wes Anderson article of the month. I love the photo slideshow of the miniatures in this and the quotes from Dafoe and Fiennes.

The New Yorker:

Sacred and Profane: I have mixed feelings about Malcolm Gladwell, but I am fascinated with religious radicals, especially in contemporary society.

Yes, Book Editors Edit: In short, editors deserve respect and are an important part of the writing and publishing processes.

A.V. Club:

The Bleak State of American Fiction: This is directly connected to the above link as it delves more into the actually contents of the argument. Yes, fiction is still valuable, but as the public we need to voice that opinion. 

NPR:

The '60s Are Gone, But Psychedelic Research Trip Continues: Ah yes, the opening scenes of Pineapple Express continue.

How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-High: Any college student or soon-to-be college student should be required to read this. 

What Do Jay Z And Shakespeare Have In Common? Swagger: I love any and all modern connections to my main man Shakes.

In The Face Of Disaster, Pritzker Winner Shigeru Ban Designs Solutions: I think architecture is fascinating, and this piece would interest anyone that likes art, design, structure, or problem-solving.

Listening To The Echoes Of Creation: This is so over my head, but it is something I hope I can understand at some point in the near future.

In Arizona, Citizens Keep Close Eye On Immigration Checkpoint: Citizens monitoring their own government, very interesting.

Slate:

This Is What Finding Love Online Looks Like: Another photo essay that captures more than one generation's use of online dating sites.

What’s the Best Way to Execute Someone?: There are so many issues with the death penalty, but this is one of the most alarming.

McSweeney's:

Kafka's Joke Book: Kafka is my homeboy.

Medium:

Two Approaches to Watch in Remedial Education Innovation: Remedial courses in the college world are important and Florida's law is somewhat terrifying whereas California's law makes much more sense in my mind.

Palm Reading For Millenials: A fun little cartoon that a lot of my friends and I can relate to.

How to never forget anything ever again: I still really want to be someone that can recite a bunch of quotes offhand, general statistics, even just specific names. This seems like an easy and fun way to start on that goal.

BBC:

Why climate change is bad news for India tea producers: As an avid tea drinker, this upsets me.

Black Death skeletons unearthed by Crossrail project: Wouldn't be so cool if these were the bones that have the original strain?!

The radical readers of San Francisco: The Beat Generation is one of my favorite literary movements, and I think it is so great that City Lights has expanded so much.

Selections From My Virtual Library: January 2014

Last year I decided to cultivate a library of Thought Catalog articles because it would give me an excuse to check the addictive, and now relatively mediocre, site on a regular basis because I had a purpose. This year, I have applied the same idea with a different purpose: create a library of online articles from various sources that can expose me to more rhetoric and literature overall. 

Now, I attempt to check The Atlantic, The New Yorker, BBC, McSweeney's, and NPR on a daily basis. Often times there are no articles that warrant a bookmark in the folder entitled "Virtual Library 2014" on my computer, but at least once or twice a week I find myself really loving a work. As I continue to expand my library, I hope to create a monthly post about the current best in my library. Here are January's picks:

Nobody's Son - I always associate The New Yorker with my Grandpa Pietz and early mornings spent in the farmhouse living room looking only at the cartoons embedded within the text. If only I could go back and read everything I skimmed as kid. Maybe I could have read something just as beautiful as this multiple part piece on the death of a father. I can't wait to read more from the magazine this upcoming year to make up for all the lost time. 

Edit Your Novel With Math - At this point it's redundant to tell you that McSweeney's is hilarious, but this in particular was just ridiculous to imagine as a real practice. 

The Danger of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility - Thought-provoking and urgent, all college students know that at this point, college is not really leading us to tons of success and/or money. It may after five years of graduation, but it certainly won't create the sums of money that flash before our eyes as we eat yet another crappy cafeteria meal waiting for the future. Intellectual curiosity needs to be at the forefront of college education for every class of citizen and not just those that can afford college.

"Life Keeps Changing": Why Stories, Not Science, Explain the World - This article reaffirms my complete infatuation with words. Science can explain so many things, but many of the nuances in life can be found with even the scrutiny of a microscope. This article is part of a great series of interviews with authors about their favorite passages of literature and I think the conversational tone of all of them add to their reaffirmation that words may be the only thing that can capture the enduring beauty of life.

4 Ways To Hear More In Music - As someone who used to be a musician and considers themselves relatively well-versed, I first thought that what the author discusses was sort of an elementary way at deconstructing music. And while my observation is true to an extent, I also think that Tsioulcas chooses wonderful examples for her points of instruction. NPR does a great job once again.