Kickoff For February 4, 2019
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Another month down, another month starts. And we’re into a strange one — a month that’s shorter than the rest, and which is usually one of the coldest (for those in the northern hemisphere) or one of the hottest (for those of us below the equator). February is also a month during which strange and interesting things happen. It should be fascinating to watch how the month unfolds.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Arts and Literature
Mistress of a New World: Early Science Fiction in Europe’s “Age of Discovery”, wherein we explore the novel The Blazing World in which its author, Margaret Cavendish, laid down the basic template for future works of speculative fiction.
Remember Me on This Computer, wherein A. S. Hamrah recounts his career as a film critic, and examines what’s wrong with today’s world of film criticism.
James Baldwin and the Lost Giovanni’s Room Screenplay, wherein we learn about the decades-long struggle to bring James Baldwin’s nove to the screen, a struggle that continues to this day.
Crime
Blood Cries Out, wherein we learn the story of a murder in 1990 that still divides a town in Missouri and the efforts to free the man wrongly accused of committing that murder.
The unbelievable tale of a fake hitman, a kill list, a darknet vigilante… and a murder, wherein we hear the tale of how a technologist took down a scamming murder-for-hire site on the so-called dark web, and what happened after that.
The Man Who Cracked the Lottery, wherein we discover how, via a network of friends and acquaintances, how Eddie Tipton managed to defraud the Hot Lotto lottery of millions.
Productivity
A More Deliberate Way of Living, wherein Leo Babauta shares nine tips, all of them simple and effective, that can help us maneuver through the chaos and demands of everyday life.
Attention is not a resource but a way of being alive to the world, wherein we discover that the concept of attention goes far deeper than what the merchants of the so-called attention economy are peddling.
How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation, wherein we learn how a skewed work ethic, a glorification of hyper productivity, and a radically-changed job market is ruining a generation.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.