Kickoff For October 19, 2020
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.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Online Life
Someone is Wrong on the Internet: A Study in Pandemic Distraction, wherein Irina Dumitrescu recounts how easy it is to succumb to the many distractions available online, ones which not only puncture your productivity but also do you no good personally.
A plan to redesign the internet could make apps that no one controls, wherein we’re introduced to efforts to create a truly decentralized internet, one that’s out of the hands of the tech giants.
The rise and fall of Adobe Flash, wherein Richard Moss charts the birth, growth, and decline of a technology that, in some ways, brought the web to life but which also has its share of detractors (and for good reason).
Arts and Literature
How to cheat the bestseller list, wherein we learn how writers have, and continue to, buy large numbers of their own books to ensure that those books crack the top 10 of some bestseller list or the other.
El Topo: The weirdest western ever made, wherein we learn about Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult acid western, and a bit about the auteur himself.
Remember Reading in Public?, wherein Nick Ripatrazone longs for the opportunity to once again read books in public spaces, an opportunity denied many by COVID-19.
History
The record-breaking jet which still haunts a country, wherein we learn about the Avro Arrow, Canada’s attempt to develope a supersonic interceptor, and how its high cost killed the project.
A short history of door handles, we learn a little about the evolution of an object that we use every day and probably don’t think too much (if anything) about.
The Dr. Strange of the American Revolution, wherein we learn a little about Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of America’s Declaration of Independence and who was a pioneer in several areas and disciplines.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.