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| Kimchi Blue Elastic Cross-Strap Flat |
▪ One of my favorite pairs of flats, the Kimchi Blue Elastic Cross-Strap Flat, is currently 61% off online in three colorways (no code needed; extra 20% off discount applies at checkout). Some other UO sale picks: Out From Under Fleece Lined Full Tight, Super High Faux Thigh High Tight, Reebok X FACE Stockholm Freestyle Hi Sneaker, Pola Suede Chelsea Boot, Puma Basket Suede Platform Sneaker, Out From Under Ribbed Bodysuit, and Puma Basket Heart DE Leather Sneaker.
▪ How the Elderly Lose Their Rights (The New Yorker): “In the United States, a million and a half adults are under the care of guardians, either family members or professionals, who control some two hundred and seventy-three billion dollars in assets … Little is known about the outcome of these arrangements, because states do not keep complete figures on guardianship cases … in most jurisdictions, the court records are sealed … guardianship is generally permanent, leaving no way out.”
▪ Why Google Needs Gadgets (Wired): “… the best products come from companies that make both hardware and software, each working to optimize and improve the other. Samsung knows it; Apple knows it. As we enter the next phase of tech, where smartphones give way to smart watches and smart speakers and smart lightbulbs and smart cars, there’s no room for too-big parts or inefficient software. The winners will be the companies who figure out how to do everything right: hardware, software, marketing, everything.”
▪ The Coming Software Apocalypse (The Atlantic): “Software failures are failures of understanding, and of imagination … This is the trouble with making things out of code, as opposed to something physical. ‘The complexity,” as Leveson puts it, ‘is invisible to the eye.’ … The problem is that programmers are having a hard time keeping up with their own creations … Computers had doubled in power every 18 months for the last 40 years. Why hadn’t programming changed?”
▪ (Video link) A really beautiful short (~20 minutes) film about crippling anxiety: Hold On (on Vimeo)
▪ Saks is running its 25% off Friends & Family sale this week (sale ends 10/8; prices as marked), and I wasted no time reordering the Alice + Olivia Andreas Houndstooth Jacket and Arminda Ruffled Blouse. Most premier designers are excluded from this event, but it’s still a good sale if you have your eye on something specific. Neiman Marcus is running a comparable sale (use code CHICWEEK at checkout), so you can likely find the same items there if your size has already sold out at Saks.
▪ Why Trying to Resell Your Clothes Is Always So Damn Embarrassing (Racked): “Resale stores … promise a curated version of your typical thrift shop. You get all the moral superiority (No waste! Go green!) of buying your clothes secondhand while maintaining a middle- to upper-class shopping experience. No rifling through bins of old bras. No holes or odors or anything too stretched out. Their shoppers are not the ones who ‘need’ to buy secondhand. But that curation, and the assumption that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, sets up a chasm between who wants to buy versus who gets to sell that leaves nearly everyone frustrated.”
▪ The Limits of “Diversity” (The New Yorker): “In the nineteen-sixties and seventies, affirmative action was presented as a form of redistribution in recompense for past discrimination: a transfer of opportunities from the dominant majority to the marginalized minority. But the ideology of diversity suggested that every group had something to learn, and something to gain; no trade-offs would be required … in most stories about diversification, there comes a point at which the arguments switch sides. Minorities, having previously argued for color-blind treatment, come to oppose those putatively color-blind policies which effectively disadvantage them. The majority, meanwhile, argues that compensatory policies amount to discrimination … It is possible that ‘diversity’ will ultimately prove too weak a term to do all that is asked of it. Contemporary advocates sometimes emphasize, instead, ‘inclusion,’ a less neutral concept, and one that gestures at the political agendas that inevitably shape these debates.”
▪ In Six Seconds, Giphy Could Make Billions (Fast Company): “Not only does hyper-abbreviated video allow for more nuance and emotion than a smiley-face emoji ever could, but the limitless nature of GIFs (Giphy reports that it adds millions of moving images daily) also means that picking the right one has become more than just a means of conveying a particular sentiment … Giphy’s goal, then is to ‘own’ the six-second ad format and create ads (or convince brands to create ads) that exude that genuine spirit … While working toward this goal, Giphy believes it has something critically valuable to brands: Access to the private feelings of hundreds of millions of consumers.”
▪ What Would Flying From New York to Shanghai in 39 Minutes Feel Like? (The Atlantic): “To make a half-hour trip, the BFR (‘big fucking rocket’) would have to travel thousands of miles per hour, with a maximum speed of about 16,700 miles per hour, according to SpaceX. The flight would expose passengers to sensations they don’t usually encounter while traveling, like intense gravitational forces and weightlessness. The spaceship would definitely need to stock barf bags. Musk explained in a tweet that travelers would experience g-forces between 2 and 3, which means twice or three times their body weight. ‘Will feel like a mild to moderate amusement park ride on ascent and then smooth, peaceful, and silent in zero gravity for most of the trip until landing,’ he said.”
▪ Random online sale finds: Barefoot Dreams Trimmed Throw (50% off!), Uniqlo Women Cashmere Crew Neck Sweater, endless rose Embroidered Lace Top, Free People Little Bit Of Love Top, Halogen Waffle Knit Cashmere Wrap, Tory Burch Alexa Leather Crossbody Camera Bag, Michael Kors Anabelle Leather Tote, H&M High Waist Denim Shorts, Diane von Furstenberg Short Sleeve Collared Shirt Dress, and Tory Burch Harper Slouchy Leather Satchel.
▪ How Science Saved Me from Pretending to Love Wine (The New Yorker): “Marks had been trained as a cognitive psychologist, and he cautioned me to remember that biology is not the sole determinant of taste preferences. Experience matters, too … if a child grows up in Mexico and starts eating chili peppers as a toddler, she’ll get used to them, and probably even learn to enjoy them, whether or not she was initially sensitive to capsaicin. But he had no doubt that my sensitivity to bitterness was responsible for my dislike of wines with high tannin levels—the more tannins, the more I’d balk.“
▪ (Video Link) The Federalist Society’s VP Of String-Pulling (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on YouTube)
▪ A Weird Buyer’s Market Is Brewing for Hurricane Cars (Bloomberg): “… a relatively new national database called National Motor Vehicle Title Information System … shows whether a car or truck has been written off by an insurer. The National Insurance Crime Bureau has a similar database called VINcheck, though it relies on reporting from participating underwriters. The databases aren’t perfect. Six states and the District of Columbia still don’t feed data into the NMVTIS … A ‘total loss,’ however, is not exactly what it sounds like. It typically means a car will wind up on one or several of the required databases. In many cases, a vehicle is refurbished and resold on the assumption would-be buyers are able to see its checkered past. And that’s just in the legitimate market. Vehicles that were uninsured during the storm won’t be caught up in the web of consumer protections. Others will be routed to states with lax regulations about tracking a car’s history.”
▪ Recently ordered: Veronica Beard Jude Leg of Mutton Sleeve Sweater, Express Puff Sleeve Belted Sheath Dress, Forever 21 Mock Neck Puff Sleeve Top, Free People Structured Puff Sleeve Blazer, J. Crew Tippi Turtleneck Sweater with Ruffles, and Ann Taylor Tipped Tweed Newbury Blazer.
Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!
