A quote from the Freakonomics podcast “How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War”:
[Peter Timmer]: I used to ask my class, I’m talking 1985, “Where is the world’s largest supercomputer?” And the correct answer was, “It’s at the Pentagon.” Okay. “Where is the world’s second largest supercomputer?” Bentonville, Ark. Home of Walmart. They used that computer to track every single item on every single Walmart shelf. That information technology is what revolutionized food marketing. And it was pretty much invented by Walmart.
The episode is terrific if you are interested in the history of food production, the creation of supermarkets and the use of science and technology to create an abundance of food.
Paul Elie writes at The New Yorker on the uses of metaphors in relation the the Covid-19 virus. Based on the work of Susan Sontag he reminds us to be careful on our use of language when thinking and writing about the virus. He also makes an interesting point on how we use metaphors for illness for phenomena in society:
Rather than applying societal metaphors to illness, we’ve applied illness metaphors to society, stripping them of their malign associations in the process. It may be that our fondness for virus as metaphor has made it difficult for us to see viruses as potentially dangerous, even lethal, biological phenomena. In turn, our disinclination to see viruses as literal may have kept us from insisting on and observing the standards and practices that would prevent their spread. Enthralled with virus as metaphor and the terms associated with it—spread, growth, reach, connectedness—we ceased to be vigilant. Jetting around the world, we stopped washing our hands.
The Washington Post published a video that shows “How Fox News has shifted its coronavirus rhetoric”.
For weeks, some of Fox News’s most popular hosts downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, characterizing it as a conspiracy by media organizations and Democrats to undermine President Trump.
In all, it has been a complicated dance for a network whose hosts are among Trump’s most ardent boosters and defenders — an increasingly challenging position to take as the crisis grew in magnitude. Trump, meanwhile, has long looked to Fox News and its personalities for guidance and approval, a dynamic that may have been pivotal this week after host Tucker Carlson reportedly visited with the president in person to urge him to take the coronavirus seriously.
DW Documentary made available the fantastic documentary “Soyalism”. I can recommend it if you are interested in the otherwise hidden and dark side of industrial food production. See the full documentary here. Or watch it on Youtube.
Industrial agriculture is increasingly dominating the world market. It’s forcing small farmers to quit and taking over vast swathes of land. This documentary shows how destructive the lucrative agribusiness is.
Listened to two great podcasts from the BCC series “In Our Time” related to political economic theory from the late 18th century:
Both episodes are interesting to understand the historical context and moral elements in their theories. Crudely summarised I would say that both of their theories are dealing with the abrupt transformation of economies during the Industrial Revolution. And both authors bringing their moral philosophy of what should be done in that tumultuous time.
Watch the following great short film “The Neighbors’ Window”, which won an Oscar award. The film is based on a real story that was told on Love + Radio podcast. I listened to that story a long time ago, so watching the film gave me a strange déjà-vu experience.
An anthropology perspective on the spread of Covid-19 virus in Hong Kong:
Tracing the spread of the Covid-19 virus requires following many kinds of transmissions and contagions, from infectious numbers to populist mobilizations, viral rumors to affective atmospheres. These forces course along multiple material-semiotic networks at different speeds and intensities, unsettling and transforming the city as they circulate. And yet, as literary scholar Priscilla Wald (2008) has shown, such complexities are often distilled and fixed into a familiar narrative of outbreak–spread–containment. Ethnographic, interdisciplinary, and publicly-engaged scholarship all have a crucial role to play in complicating such reductive narratives and bringing other stories to light. As the everyday experiences of Hongkongers reveals, the form and significance of this epidemic is still anything but settled. The virulent transmissions of Covid-19 may yet remake this city—and the world—in profound and unforeseeable ways.
Read the full article here.
The artist Simon Weckert made a fantastic art project using a guerrilla tactic to disrupt Google Maps algorithms. See more information about the project here.
99 smartphones are transported in a handcart to generate virtual traffic jam in Google Maps.Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route to avoid being stuck in traffic.
A striking photography essay from Jo Tuckman with photography by Diana Bagnoli at The Guardian about an area in Mexico where “Coke has become a key part of indigenous ceremonies as well as a staple source of hydration”. Read the full essay here
The story of how Coca-Cola became so deeply embedded in this verdant land of age-old traditions and minimal disposable income goes back to the 1960s when local indigenous leaders, with state backing, began accumulating power in religious, social and economic spheres. This included taking control of the concessions for the distribution of Coca-Cola and, initially, Pepsi too.
(Via Kottke)
Zoey Poll writes at Eye On Design how “For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps”. She argues that these hidden drawings are a kind resistance of Swiss cartographers and their mission to draw as accurate as possible:
These barely-perceptible apparitions aren’t mistakes, but rather illustrations hidden by the official cartographers at Swisstopo in defiance of their mandate “to reconstitute reality.” Maps published by Swisstopo undergo a rigorous proofreading process, so to find an illicit drawing means that the cartographer has outsmarted his colleagues.
(Via Kottke)