@RyanNewYork

Great conversation between Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett,...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:16:51 -0400

Great conversation between Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, from May at Oxford University. Most interesting are the first thirty minutes, that focus on cultural evolution and meme theory.

Congrats to my friends at Read This, Not That on their 6 month...

Wed, 30 May 2012 15:41:32 -0400

Congrats to my friends at Read This, Not That on their 6 month anniversary. Give them a follow and remember you are what you read.

rtnt:

Read This, Not That is 6 Months Old!

Hope everyone here in the states had a pleasant holiday weekend. As of yesterday, we’ve been operating outside the newscycle to curate the finest long reads on the internet for half a year now.

The feedback we’re getting is great, and the follower count continues to grow, so we must be doing something right. And thanks to everyone, for reading and sharing and showing that there is an audience for long form content on the internet—yes, even on Tumblr!

To celebrate the occassion, we’ve updated our So What The Fuck is Read This, Not That? page and gathered our Top 10 Favorite RTNT Posts of all time. Read ‘em, and as always, let us know what you think:

1. Trial By Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
A sloppy investigation and a broken justice system lead to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the alleged murder of his three children.
David Grann, New Yorker, September 2009

2. Speak, Money
How power has shifted away from the electorate in the United States.
Roger D. Hodge, excerpt from The Mendacity of Hope, October 2010

3. Within the Context of No Context
Brilliant exposition on the state of American culture and twentieth-century life.
George Trow, New Yorker, November 1980

4. Debt: The First 5,000 Years
The development of our system of money was neither inevitable nor necessarily beneficial.
Aaron Bady, New Inquiry, February 2012

5. The Science of Why We Don’t Believe in Science
When confronted with evidence that contradicts their views, people have a worrying tendency to ignore the evidence.
Chris Mooney, Mother Jones, June 2011

6. Raise the Crime Rate
Reform isn’t enough—the prison system is a moral catastrophe and must be dismantled.
Christopher Glazek, n+1, January 2012

7. The Elusive Big Idea
We have access to and consume more information than ever before, but it’s not doing us any good.
Neil Gabler, New York Times, August 2011

8. Dumb Like a Fox
Fox News’ agenda isn’t political, but commercial—the network has simply mastered the cable news format better than its competitors.
Terry McDermott, Columbia Journalism Review, April 2010

9. The Way it Was
Stories of what it was like for women before Roe v. Wade.
Eleanor Cooney, Mother Jones, October 2004

10. Generation Why?
We limit our idea of what a person is when we reduce our complexities to the confines of Facebook.
Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books, November 2010

How about you? Has RTNT changed your reading habits? What are some of your favorite pieces you’ve read so far? Share them with us via the submit feature, and we’ll make a readers’ choice list this Friday!

And changes you would like to see to RTNT’s programming or any new features you’d like on the website? We have some ideas in the pipeline, but we want to hear from you!

We hope this audience continues to seek out the long form journalism that is so crucial to the well-being of our society. We also hope that you encourage those close to you—your co-worker who goes on about celebrity headlines, your friend who watches hour after hour of MSNBC, your relative who relays the partisan talking points of the day—-to alter their media diet, abandoning the junk in favor of something more substantial.

Thank you, and always remember, you are what you read.

// Follow Read This, Not That on Tumblr / Facebook / Twitter //

"Albert Camus, a great humanist and existentialist voice, pointed out that to commit to a just cause..."

Wed, 30 May 2012 15:28:06 -0400

“

Albert Camus, a great humanist and existentialist voice, pointed out that to commit to a just cause with no hope of success is absurd. But then he also noted that not committing to a just cause is equally absurd. But only one choice offers the possibility for dignity. And dignity matters. Dignity matters.

Stripped of all platitude and illusion, Camus was saying we still have to fight. So for God’s sake, fight. And get angry if you need to get angry. A little anger is a good thing if it isn’t on your own behalf, if it’s for others deserving of your anger, your empathy. And if you see the wrong around you getting bigger and uglier, then speak up, and call that wrong by its true name. Learn to refuse, to dissent. And in demanding something more from yourself and from your society, you may be surprised to find that you are not entirely alone. That other voices are saying the same things, that others want the same things.

”

- David Simon, Commencement Address at Georgetown University

Great piece by PBS on the dangers of automation for the...

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:53:45 -0400

Great piece by PBS on the dangers of automation for the world’s workforce. I’m not an optimist on the future of human employment, these are very real concerns.

Great video out by the Obama campaign showing how much the...

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:48:00 -0400

Great video out by the Obama campaign showing how much the President has done for the LGBT Community.

“You’re gonna need a strong advocate in The White House. I am that strong advocate.” - President Barack Obama

Join Obama Pride.

atomvincent: This is what it looks like to be on the wrong side...

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:10:13 -0400

atomvincent:

This is what it looks like to be on the wrong side of history.

Bigots were thinner then!

Cory Booker’s bizarre take on Bain Capital on...

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:30:00 -0400

Cory Booker’s bizarre take on Bain Capital on Sunday’s Meet The Press has been talked about lots over the last 48 hours. We now know that Cory took over $500,000 from the financial services industry during his campaign, including at least $40,000 from Bain partners. Not small change for a Newark mayor’s race.

My colleague Evan Moody performed sentiment analysis on Twitter to see what users of the social network thought about Booker’s statements. The results show that overwhelmingly, Twitter users thought Cory was wrong on Bain and support the President’s view that it’s fair game during the campaign. The big red spike is bad news.

I clearly agree with the vast majority of Twitter users and hope Mr. Booker comes around.

Hey Gay Community: No need to amplify every single crazy anti-gay thing some podunk pastor says. You're giving them a voice, they don't have.

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:11:00 -0400

"Ignorance of crowds overrides the occasional wisdom of them."

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:33:31 -0400

“Ignorance of crowds overrides the occasional wisdom of them.”

- Ryan J. Davis

"I know I’m supposed to say that there’s this great contrast and Obama hasn’t done..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:46:09 -0400

“

I know I’m supposed to say that there’s this great contrast and Obama hasn’t done enough, but I feel Obama was faced with some real problems that we hardly remember anymore: the extent of the financial crisis. I happen to think he has made great strides.

You know, people find a lot wrong with health care legislation, Fareed, as do I, the bill that’s passed. But I keep remembering something that Lyndon Johnson said. Once we pass it, we can always go back and amend it. And I feel it was an accomplishment to get a health care bill.

”

- Historian Robert Caro, appearing on Fareed Zakaria’s show, on what LBJ could teach Washington today.

Watch and read the full interview here.

Watch this video for a terrific example of a Tunisian integrated...

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:16:23 -0400

Watch this video for a terrific example of a Tunisian integrated campaign designed to spur voter participation. The video doesn’t spend too much time on the digital component, but the offline stunt was absolutely brilliant and inspiring.

"I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:39:03 -0400

“I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.”

- Virginia Woolf, The Letters: Volume Three, 1923 - 1928

I’m with you Virginia.

(H/t Adam T)

Pretty hilarious and spot-on satirical video by Tom Scott on...

Sun, 20 May 2012 20:21:49 -0400

Pretty hilarious and spot-on satirical video by Tom Scott on what mind uploading will look like in 2050, after corporations and government regulators get ahold of it.

The Singularity won’t be ad free.

You’ve got to listen to this terrific Radiolab podcast on...

Sun, 20 May 2012 16:25:00 -0400

You’ve got to listen to this terrific Radiolab podcast on Alan Turing, one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century, who was prosecuted for being gay and eventually took his own life in 1954. He’d turn 100 in June.

Turing is the father of artificial intelligence and the modern computer. He also was responsible for cracking the Nazi Engima code, helping to end World War II.

Turing’s story reaffirms how far we’ve come on gay rights since the movement began. Just over fifty years ago, a war hero’s life was destroyed just for being gay in England. Now gays serve openly in militaries around the world and countries that criminalize homosexuality are theocratic outliers. That’s progress.

Andrew Hodges’s Alan Turing: The Enigma is on my bookshelf to read this summer.

Listen below or click here to listen at Radiolab.

More information on the slate statue of Alan Turing pictured above.

Hope you’ll join me at The Deconstructive Theatre...

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:06:11 -0400

Hope you’ll join me at The Deconstructive Theatre Project’s summer rooftop gala on June 2nd. Should be a great event and at $35, you won’t find a better deal to start your Saturday.

adamjthompson:

Click here to purchase tickets.

Click here for more information.

The Deconstructive Theatre Project’s summer rooftop celebration is coming up on June 2.
Please join me for the sunset, drinks, food, live music, and a silent auction. I’d love to have you New Yorkers there to celebrate with us.

All contributions are tax-deductible and support The Deconstructive Theatre Project’s production, education, and outreach programming.

http://www.deconstructivetheatreproject.org/time_passes/

barackobama: Mitt Romney being Mitt Romney.

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:56:31 -0400

barackobama:

Mitt Romney being Mitt Romney.

A remarkably beautiful story of a lesbian couple, one who serves...

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:23:00 -0400

A remarkably beautiful story of a lesbian couple, one who serves in the military, told via a familiar social network. Kudos to Freedom To Marry and all involved in producing this, it’s powerful and deserves an audience.

To learn what you can do to help repeal DOMA, click here.

FACT: The number of students who have to go into debt to get a bachelor’s degree has risen from 45% in 1993 to 94% today.

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:38:10 -0400

FACT: The number of students who have to go into debt to get a bachelor’s degree has risen from 45% in 1993 to 94% today.

"I’ve always thought it was something that was still holding the country back. What people do in..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:22:00 -0400

“

I’ve always thought it was something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple… I think it’s the right thing to do, so whether it costs him votes or not – again, it’s not about votes. It’s about people.

It’s the right thing to do as a human being.

”

- Jay Z, endorsing marriage equality.

Watch the video here.

"It’s also worth pointing out, as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has, that as a Yale sophomore in 1965,..."

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:04 -0400

“It’s also worth pointing out, as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has, that as a Yale sophomore in 1965, George W. Bush reportedly stuck up for a reputedly gay student. Bush heard the student being called “queer,” told the taunters to shut up, and apparently also said, “Why don’t you try walking in his shoes for a while?” That’s the kind of instinctive compassion Mitt Romney failed to show when he was a few years younger than Bush was.”

-

I guess GWB wasn’t always such a bad guy.

——————

Romney’s bullying: How bad was the “vicious” incident reported by the Washington Post? - Slate Magazine