Top 5: Refugees in Buffalo
Plus: raw cookie dough, cyborg humans, and David Attenborough
Happy New Year! The Top 5 articles for your week:
“Born Again in Buffalo” (Post Industrial)
Because we love a good Buffalo story, and Buffalo’s been a major recipient city for refugees and this essay shows how the city is learning to welcome and support these communities.
“A Very Radical, Very Delicious Take on Risk Management” (The Atlantic)
Because you wouldn’t catch me (Melissa) eating raw cookie dough, but this little essay on risk management in a pandemic is delightful.
“For me, a hit of raw cookie dough might make me almost as happy as, say, going to a concert. But if I go to a concert these days, I’ll be ratcheting up the risk for myself, the other fans, and everyone I interact with after. When I scrape the side of a bowl and let the resulting dollop melt in my mouth, it’s easier to feel in control, like the risks I take are mine alone. The rules don’t change, either: Today’s raw chocolate-chip cookie dough isn’t likely to be any more or less dangerous than the peanut-butter variant I mix up next Tuesday. I don’t need to plan to eat cookie dough in June, then spend six months fretting over whether or not I will actually be able to eat it when the time comes. It’s instantaneous, a fleeting joy; there’s no time to agonize over what it means. A blink, a swallow, and it’s over.”
“After ALS struck, he became the world’s most advanced cyborg” (Input)
Because Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan may have found a way to live with ALS for decades, but it involves using massive amounts of AI and technology to do so.
“David Attenborough’s Unending Mission to Save Our Planet” (Wired)
Because Sir David Attenborough is essentially a cultural institution (who among us hasn’t watched a document with his narration?) and “Sir David has seen everything. He’s been everywhere in the world many times over; he’s watched pretty much everything the natural world can do, and so what drives us is the desire to bring him something new. The greatest pleasure you get in this job is what happened when I brought him this film—it’s showing some footage to David Attenborough and having him say, ‘I’ve never seen that before, that’s pretty innovative.’”
“The ideas and arguments that will define the next 12 months” (Washington Post)
Because we love crystal ball-type essays that are written at the start of every new year and seeing which major political, cultural, scientific, and economic ideas and problems really catch our imagination and concern each year. I (Melissa) personally think #10 (schools) will be bigger than predicted, and also I still don’t understand NFTs. And no need to send me explainers, I wish to live in ignorance.