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Quickies
Quickies: SNL’s Depictions of Women Who Support Trump, Michael Lewis’s New Book, and Farming in Space
What happened to all of the drugs the media panicked about? – “The introduction of the internet decades later helped spread a new kind of drug craze. Like memes, stories about weird drug phenoms caught like wildfire on message boards. In the mid-2000s, a phony story about kids huffing human shit, nicknamed ‘jenkem,’ fooled local news anchors into filing stone-faced…
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Quickies
Quickies: Trevor Noah Matters, Chap Records, and Trump’s Treasury Pick
Trevor Noah didn’t “destroy” Tomi Lahren on The Daily Show. What he did was much better. – “But three weeks after Trump’s win, Noah has started to move on to the ‘what next?’ stage of grief. Opening his November 29 show with another exasperated sigh, he offered a solution for those wanting to reason with Trump, whom Noah insists conducts…
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Quickies
Quickies: MST3K, Ghost Testimony, and Women’s Healthcare Under Trump
Mystery Science Theater 3000: our 15 favorite moments – “This year’s offerings will be hosted by Hodgson and Jonah Ray, host of the upcoming season 11, with the film selections decided by popular vote. But as any MST3K fan knows, many of the best parts of the series weren’t just the terrible movies themselves, but the skits, the songs, and…
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Quickies
Quickies: Delicious Pi, The Hygge Conspiracy, and Disgusting Food Advertisements
Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919 – “By studying the effects of cold weather on molasses, the researchers determined that the disaster was more fatal in the winter than it would have been during a warmer season. The syrup moved quickly enough to cover several blocks within seconds and thickened into a harder goo as…
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Quickies
Quickies: How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist, Draining the Swamp, and the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
The Futuristic Walkman of 1938 Wasn’t Very Portable – “Radio miniaturization was happening at a quick pace in the 1920s, and this was far from the only portable radio of the 1930s. But it’s a decent reminder that portability is and always has been relative. I, for one, think that the strap-radio actually looks pretty cool, even if it’s a…
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Quickies
Quickies: Giving Nyarlathotep a Chance, Worst Sex Writing of the Year, and the History of Double Dare
How Alchemy Has Been Depicted in Art Through the Ages – “Some of the symbols shown relate to Venus (linked to copper), Mercury (linked to quicksilver), along with ‘primary catalysts’ like sulfur. Their design is almost mystical, akin to the hidden codes of a secret order. It’s a fascinating example of how alchemy has been depicted over the centuries, which…
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Quickies
Quickies: Lobbying Congress, Homeopathic Treatments, and the Working Class
Obscure punk & fuzz by all-girl bands from the 1970s – These pictures are gorgeous and the songs are awesome. From Alex. How to Effectively Lobby Your Congressperson – “I worked for Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Congressman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) from 2009 to 2014 as a state office-staffer. My full-time job was to listen to constituents and make sure…
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Quickies
Quickies: Very Specific Museums, the Electoral College, and How to Spot Fake Data
The real reason we have an Electoral College: to protect slave states – “There are several standard stories that I learned in school, and then there’s an emerging story that I find more explanatory. I learned in school that it was a balance between big and small states. But the real divisions in America have never been big and small…
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