Karen & Lough Hyne

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Working Black Friday in the Rich Part of Town

Electric Literature • 21 Nov 2024 • ~6700 words

To be a service worker is to be in constant deference to Karens, but in retail, a Karen can be anyone.

The richer you were, the more you wanted from us, the thinking went. But what I quickly noticed was that I acted the same no matter who the customer was. As long as they were buying something, they were also buying me. To be a service worker is to be in constant deference to Karens, yes. But in retail, a Karen can be anyone**.** Karen is a mindset born less of class, gender, or skin color than of the relationship between employee and customer, which is not unlike the relationship between product and customer.

For the Love of a Little Sea

Hakai Magazine • 21 Nov 2024 • ~6000 words

The birthplace of experimental marine biology is in decline. Will Ireland rally to save it?

Once, though, the lough was so flush with living things that renowned Irish naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger described it as “a gigantic marine aquarium”—an ocean within the ocean. Created 4,000 years ago when the Atlantic breached a freshwater lake, the lough remains connected to the wider ocean through a narrow, roaring channel called “the rapids,” and contains a surprising array of habitats in its less than one-square-kilometer area. Among these are tidal marshes, rocky shores, seagrass meadows, beaches, and steep underwater cliffs. These have supported a huge variety of species, some rare in Irish waters, including a red-mouthed goby fish; sponges painted in a dizzying array of saffron, terracotta, and tangerine hues; and a cup coral, in vibrant peach, found nowhere else in Ireland. More common life forms, including three-quarters of the marine algae species recorded in Ireland, have also been found here.

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What is decolonisation?

Aeon • 21 Nov 2024 • ~3500 words

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?

In contrast to the seeming clarity of colonialism (however much it elides that process’s own complications), current discussions of decolonisation can seem amorphous and slippery. This is not surprising since so many different people and groups are using the concept, at times at cross purposes. There are many forms of decolonisation talk drawn from the realms of culture, education, economics, politics, ideology, psychology, business, religion and more. They include postimperial (related to places that used to be empires or to institutions that used to facilitate empire) and postcolonial (related to places that used to be colonies, or to dependent power relationships created by colonialism) institutions and nations.

Does this banana scare you? The harsh reality of life with an unusual phobia

the Guardian • 21 Nov 2024 • ~2500 words

The news that a Swedish politician has rooms swept for the fruit prompted online mockery last week. But for those who face bizarre and irrational fears – from buttons to crumpets – the everyday struggle is far from amusing.

For those of us who have never interacted with a banana negatively, it can be hard to understand, which Sarah accepts. As a teenager, it was embarrassing, “because it’s a bit more of a comedy fruit”. At university, her housemates would prank her: “They’d hide them in my bed and leave little notes.” She laughs – she is able to see the funny side, even while barely disguising her disgust. “They were my friends; it’s gentle teasing.” At least the bananas were not unpeeled. If it had been a naked banana? “Oh my God,” she says, voice rising. “I can’t even imagine. I’d make them change the sheets.”

The Fantasy of Cozy Tech

The New Yorker • 20 Nov 2024 • ~2200 words • Archive Link

From the “cozy gaming” trend to a new generation of A.I. companions, our devices are trying to swath us in a digital and physical cocoon.

Within the cozy games and the footage of people playing them, though, there seems to be a desire for something beyond the screen, the sorts of physical experiences hinted at by the games’ analog subject matter—farming, potion-mixing, construction. Similarly, A.I. products answer a yearning for social interaction and the comfort of community with a simulacrum thereof, a machine friend who never needs anything from you in return.

How Johnny Canales Shaped the Rise of Música Mexicana

Texas Monthly • 20 Nov 2024 • ~5050 words • Archive Link

A vibrant musical movement is taking over the world. The late tejano icon is its unsung hero.

In recent years, there’s been an explosion of música mexicana within the global pop culture ecosystem. The movement—whose name is an evolution of “regional mexicano” or “regional Mexican music”—has atomized into micromovements, sounds, and subgenres representing distinct parts of Mexico and the U.S., including Texas and California. It did not emerge overnight. From 1983 to 2005, The Johnny Canales Show provided a consistent spotlight for musicians who hailed from the borderlands and played conjunto, cumbia, tejano, and other styles. Known for his puckish razzing of guests and audience members alike, its host was more than just an endearing TV personality. Canales means “channels,” and Johnny was a conduit of community and culture. His show bonded factions of Latino Americans in Texas and beyond. “He was social media before social media,” Miroslava says. Nora nods again in agreement. “If you wanted your new song to be heard everywhere, you’d just come to The Johnny Canales Show,” she says. “It was The Voice, America’s Got Talent, American Idol.”

Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport

MIT Technology Review • 18 Nov 2024 • ~5400 words

The company that has helped millions of people cut security lines wants to give you a frictionless future—in exchange for your face.

. . . having a single private company “disintermediating” our biometric data—especially facial data—is the wrong “architecture” to manage identity. “It seems they are trying to create a system like login with Google, but for everything in real life,” Young warns. While the single sign-on option that Google (or Facebook or Apple) provides for websites and apps may make life easy, it also poses greater security and privacy risks by putting both our personal data and the keys to it in the hands of a single profit-driven entity: “We’re basically selling our identity soul to a private company, who’s then going to be the gatekeeper … everywhere one goes.”

Racing's Deadliest Day

Esses • 15 Nov 2024 • ~4050 words

How the 1955 Le Mans disaster changed motorsport forever

It took hours for the full scale of the disaster to become known. Life mostly went on as usual outside the area that now resembled a warzone, and jaunty accordion music continued to play over the PA system as panicked spectators fled and gendarmes and volunteers entered the carnage, using advertising boards as stretchers. Doctors attended to the dead and wounded; priests administered last rites in French and German.