billtron

Lady GaGa talks about Marina Abramović (by Filip Lopicic)

thinkanddiethinking:

HOW TO DEAL WITH BEING CALLED OUT

From the January issue of

THINK AND DIE THINKING

www.thinkanddiethinking.com

Dan & Whit’s private cuvée http://instagr.am/p/WaE-GPNbWm/

You may have heard that Amazon is selling a "KEEP CALM AND RAPE A LOT" t-shirt. How did such a thing come to pass? Well, as Pete Ashton explains, this is a weird outcome of an automated algorithm that just tries random variations on "KEEP CALM AND," offering them for sale in Amazon's third-party marketplace and printing them on demand if any of them manage to find a buyer.

The t-shirts are created by an algorithm. The word “algorithm” is a little scary to some people because they don’t know what it means. It’s basically a process automated by a computer programme, sometimes simple, sometimes complex as hell. Amazon’s recommendations are powered by an algorithm. They look at what you’ve been browsing and buying, find patterns in that behaviour and show you things the algorithm things you might like to buy. Amazons algorithms are very complex and powerful, which is why they work. The algorithm that creates these t-shirts is not complex or powerful. This is how I expect it works.

1) Start a sentence with the words KEEP CALM AND.

2) Pick a word from this long list of verbs. Any word will do. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re all fine.

3) Finish the sentence with one of the following: OFF, THEM, IF, THEM or US.

4) Lay these words out in the classic Keep Calm style.

5) Create a mockup jpeg of a t-shirt.

6) Submit the design to Amazon using our boilerplate t-shirt description.

7) Go back to 1 and start again.

There are currently 529,493 Solid Gold Bomb clothing items on Amazon. Assuming they survive this and don’t get shitcanned by Amazon I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they top a million in a few months.

It costs nothing to create the design, nothing to submit it to Amazon and nothing for Amazon to host the product. If no-one buys it then the total cost of the experiment is effectively zero. But if the algorithm stumbles upon something special, something that is both unique and funny and actually sells, then everyone makes money.

Dictionary + algorithm + PoD t-shirt printer + lucrative meme = rape t-shirts on Amazon

Pipe cleaners are fun!!! http://instagr.am/p/WVXFayNbfd/

New York City Subway Stairs (by Dean Peterson)

“

An entire county’s worth of schools were put on secure lockdown yesterday in Pennsylvania when a eye doctor’s receptionist misheard the lyrics to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This actually happened. As the Beaver County Times reports, 19-year-old Travis Clawson had an appointment with his optometrist scheduled for the afternoon, but when the office called he failed to pick up. His voicemail, however, said plenty.

Clawson couldn’t come to the phone because he was “all shooting some b-ball outside of the school.” Pop-culture participants and aficionados of corny ’90s rap music would of course recognize that as a line from the aforementioned made-for-TV DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince collabo. But our dear, easily spooked receptionist heard something along the lines of “shooting some people” and hence called the police, who called the schools.

”

- ‘Fresh Prince’ Theme Causes School Lockdown, Proves Parents Just Don’t Understand | SPIN | Newswire

The bizarre explosion in the skies over in Russia on Feb. 15, 2013 left scientists dumfounded. The asteroid 2012 DA14 was expected to pass some 17K miles over Indonesia, but the Russian impactor wasn't foreseen: it flew from the direction of the sun where telescopes couldn't see it, and surprised everyone hours before the more-publicized asteroid's flyby.

A NASA news item today explains how scientists are piecing together what happened, using infrasound sensors operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Their purpose is to monitor nuclear explosions. Infrasound is a type of very low-frequency sound wave that only elephants and a few other animals can hear. It turns out that meteors entering Earth's atmosphere cause ripples of infrasound to spread through the air of our planet. By analyzing infrasound records, it is possible to learn how long a meteor was in the air, which direction it traveled, and how much energy it unleashed. The Russian meteor's infrasound signal was was the strongest ever detected by the CTBTO network. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound was 15,000km away in Antarctica.

Video above: Listen to the infrasound recording, sped up 135x into the range of human hearing. The video comes from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization's YouTube channel.

Peter Brown, University of Western Ontario Professor of Physics, analyzed the data and determined that the asteroid was about 17 meters in diameter and weighed approximately 10,000 metric tons.

"It struck Earth's atmosphere at 40,000 mph and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles above Earth's surface. The energy of the resulting explosion exceeded 470 kilotons of TNT." For comparison, the first atomic bombs produced only 15 to 20 kilotons.

Based on the trajectory of the fireball, analysts have also plotted its orbit. "It came from the asteroid belt, about 2.5 times farther from the sun than Earth."

More: What Exploded over Russia? [NASA Science].

 

• Video of Russian meteor explosion - Boing Boing
• Meteor explodes over Russia - Boing Boing
• Phil "Bad Astronomer" Plait explains the Russian meteor incident ...
• Meteor detection advocates now somewhat less likely to be mocked ...
• Video of asteroid DA14 near Earth last week - Boing Boing
• 50-meter asteroid will come within 17,000 miles of Earth on 2/15 ...
• Watch the DA14 asteroid flyby: live video stream - Boing Boing

Mark Hurst:

The key experiential question of Google Glass isn’t what it’s like to wear them, it’s what it’s like to be around someone else who’s wearing them. I’ll give an easy example. Your one-on-one conversation with someone wearing Google Glass is likely to be annoying, because you’ll suspect that you don’t have their undivided attention. And you can’t comfortably ask them to take the glasses off (especially when, inevitably, the device is integrated into prescription lenses). Finally — here’s where the problems really start — you don’t know if they’re taking a video of you.

My hope is that restaurants and bars will ban them.

 ★ 

The 40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major Label Albums "As a snapshot of the era, here are the 40 weirdest, most uncompromising, riskiest, and most surprising albums that were released on a major label in the wake of Nevermind's explosion, during the mania's time-frame of 1992 until 1996."

If you follow music chart news in Australia at all, you might have heard of a young chap who goes by Flume, born Harley Streten in November '91. Now a mere 21 years old, Flume's self-titled debut knocked One Direction off the #1 spot last November (though the boy band ended up out-ranking the homegrown talent in following charts) and earlier this month bumped Bieber down a notch on the Aussie charts, too. But what is the sound of this Australian chart-topper? There's plenty of the "spectral beats ... 21st-century, post-glitchpop" on his Soundcloud page, including the complete album, or as individual tracks on Grooveshark. Pitchfork was fond of the album scoring it a 7.4/10, warning that many of his songs have a similar structure, but ending on the note that "Flume could easily evolve into a sought-after producer." He got a similar rating from The Guardian, who likened to the album as a modern take on "1980s experimentalists Art of Noise," with clear influences from California wonky beat producer extraordinaire Flying Lotus. If you're looking for more from Flume, his discography is slim at the moment, with the album and a single, plus some remixes. You can find that material (some repeated) on Grooveshark, or you can check out a few of his mixes, from Fader (with an interview), and Streten put up his hour-long Triple J mix to stream or download from Soundcloud. He also put together a 38 minute mix for Oyster Magazine, again streaming and downloadable from Soundcloud. And like every young producer, he's got a bunch of stuff on his YouTube collection.

E aproveitando o encontro de Bowie com Tilda no novo clipe do lorde inglês, o Calbuque desenterrou o tumblr Tilda Stardust, dedicado a mais que a simples apreciação da semelhança física entre estes dois belos espécimes da raça humana, mas a provar que Tilda e Bowie são a mesma pessoa. Veja abaixo:

E lá no tumblr original tem páginas e páginas dessas comparações.

“The other meeting I was at, it was Ab who threw it on the table, right for openers. “Okay, about the levitation.” Ab was adamant that the building was gonna go up 22 feet – because somebody had told him except for fire ladders, you can’t run and get a ladder that’s 22 feet. So 22 feet was it and he was willing to negotiate. There was serious consideration of that because if the building went up 22 feet the foundations were gonna crack and there was discussion about foundations and cracks and how much you could levitate. It was unbelievable. That meeting was like 2 1/2 hours or so and probably 20% of that meeting was devoted to this serious talk about levitating the Pentagon. And this is our military, right? I swear to you, the military finally came around, Ab came down from 22 feet to three feet, they agreed to three feet and sealed it with a handshake.”

- OCTOBER 21, 1967: THE EXORCISM/LEVITATION OF THE PENTAGON (from Arthur No. 13/Nov. 2004) | Arthur Magazine

Westboro Baptist “church” Does The Harlem Shake (by bob StuffingsVille)

“Tanner Galvin’s Noys Toise” is a short documentary about Tanner Galvin, a Portland artist who creates custom musical instruments out of old electronic toys and instruments in a process known as “circuit bending.” The documentary was directed by Craig Mederios. To see more of Galvin’s creations, check out his YouTube page.

photo by Tanner Galvin

video by Tanner Galvin

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

titularhumour:

blech:

Driving directions between two houses in Florida (specifically, a suburb of Orlando) that share a back garden fence: “7.0 mi, 17 mins”. Via Eric C, via Eric Fisher.

Amazing.

“Buckwheat cover crop, August 2012 “CSA” stands for Community Supported Agriculture. If you’re new to the concept, check out What’s a CSA Farm? Sunrise is the oldest and largest all-CSA farm in the Upper Valley; all the food we grow belongs to you, our members. 2013 will be our fourteenth year of growing at Sunrise, and the CSA season is scheduled to run for 23 weeks, starting the week of May May 13th and running through October 17th. The share price for the season is $550. You have a choice between two pickup days, either Mondays or Thursdays, any time between 11 AM and 6 PM. You can always switch days here and there to match your schedule, but I try to have the shares evenly divided at the outset for optimal vegetable harvesting. Nearly everyone at Sunrise buys a full share, which will feed a single, committed vegetarian up to a family of four typical eaters. You have some choice each week in deciding what to take, so you can customize things to meet your needs. A few folks purchase two shares, and a few folks split shares with others. If you want to split a share, it works best if you find someone you know and then come to the farm on alternate weeks. If you don’t have a share partner in mind, let me know and I’ll fix you up. If you know you’re going to be away for a week here or there, you can either send a friend or neighbor in your place or just let me know in advance so that I can divide the veggies among the other members. So what’s new for 2013? The main focus of my winter reading and planning has been around something called Nutrient-Dense Agriculture, a branch of the organic tree that I’ve been meaning to climb for some time. The gist is that we’ll adjust the micro-nutrients and salts in the soil to try to optimize sugar production in the plants. High sugar content means both excellent flavor in the vegetables and robust plant health and vigor in the field. Win-win! Two more changes in the works: I’m planning to expand and improve the pick-your-own flower and herb patch to bring in more variety and quantity, and I’m also going to work with my brother at Picadilly Farm (who provides us with winter shares) to grow some of their potatoes and carrots for us towards the end of the season. Their sandy soils are great for these two crops, so we’ll subcontract them out so that we can focus more on the greens and broccoli-family crops that we grow so well. I’m dipping my toe in the waters of specialization… let’s see what happens. I’ll have Derek and Rachael back again this year to help on the farm, along with Molly Brandt, an aspiring young farmer who is currently working at Pete’s Greens up in Craftsbury. That’s the update from Sunrise. If you have questions about the farm, or know you’re ready to join, send me an email. Let me know if you prefer Mondays or Thursdays as your regular day. And then send a check (either a $300 deposit or the full $550) to Sunrise Farm, 270 Orizzonto Road, WRJ, VT 05001. Thanks for supporting local agriculture! Chuck Wooster Derek O’Toole, farmhand, showing off some of the harvest in July 2012”

- Sunrise Farm | Community-Supported Agriculture for the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont

Laura Mvula - Green Garden (by lauramvulaVEVO)

Прошлой весной мне довелось обсуждать молодую русскую музыку со звуковиком центрального парка Новосибирска — в курилке он рассказывал о том, как нелепо смотрятся юные хип-хоп артисты с первомайки и западного, которые поют об американском гетто, «ниггерах» и тачках.  «Никто из них не знает гетто» говорил звуковик и, с одной стороны, он был прав, а с другой — «русский бедный» стиль, в котором выросли эти ребята, с бомжами, коврами и картинами паблика «Берёзка» и есть то самое русское гетто.

Вчера ночью совместными усилиями DJ Azamat и Глеба Raumskaya вышел великий русский сборник «Russian Ghetto Compilation Vol.1», ворвавшийся в колонки подобно челябинскому метеориту. Как сказала Таня Симакова, автор знаковой для русского джука статьи «Назад к мусору», «… лучшие представители отечественной электроники признаются в любви к поп-музыке». Странно только, что на сборнике нет одного из главных виновников торжества — диджея Винтажнайка (как нам позже сообщили, он скрывается на сборнике сразу под двумя псевдонимами).

Искренние юношеские эмоции берут верх — любовь к «Иванушкам» и «Руки Вверх» прорастает ремиксами на Доминика Джокера, Софию Ротару, Михея и многих других. Сборник Берёзы подтверждает, что, пускай даже в прошлом, но у нас есть отличная поп-культура, к которой можно обращаться, и мощные молодые музыканты, которым хватает смелости это сделать. Кстати, где бы взять аэрмаксы тыщи за три?

Скачать «Russian Ghetto Compilation Vol​.​1».

They just don’t make ‘em like they used to, at least when it comes to Nigerian highlife. Whether that’s good or bad is up for debate. Whatever the case, people get riled up when they’re talking about the issue. As for me, give me Victor Uwaifo or give me Wizkid – I dig them both. 

Celestine Ukwu — Ilu Abu Chi (1974). Nominally highlife, but Celestine Ukwu’s 1974 album with his Philosophers Band Ilu Abu Chi deserves its own analytic category. Rarely, if ever, has more spiritual guitar music been made.

Tunde Nightingale — Unknown (Early 1970s). With one of the highest registers you’ll ever hear, Tunde Nightingale, the “man with the golden voice,” made some of the most sublime highlife of the early independence era. Supposedly he kept a Nightingale in his home. This cut is from the early 1970s – let us know if you have any more info on it.

Rex Lawson — Sawale (late 1960s). Socially engaged highlife from one of the Igboland’s fiercest advocates. Upon being detained by the Nigerian military during the Biafra War, he defended the politics of his music, saying he wrote his songs to “uplift the rebels.” No doubt about that — one of his albums was titled “Hail Biafra.”

Dr. Orlando Owoh & His Omimah Band — Yabomisa Jawale/Wa Jo (1970). Originally a carpenter, Orlando Owoh thankfully decided to pick up a guitar at some point. This side, with its gradual inclusion of Yoruba talking drums, feels like a bridge between highlife and juju, but with a raucousness that sometimes gets lost in even the best juju. For those of you in the middle of the winter blues, let these harmonies ease your soul.

Fela Kuti — Just Like That (1989). Okay, this ain’t highlife, and it ain’t from the early independence era, but too often our Fela worship is limited to his high-period output from Shakara (1972) to Zombie (1977). This, one of his last releases, makes it clear his genius never waned even as his output slowed.

* This post is the first in what will be a series of nostalgia trips through West Africa. Next time we’ll run through some Ga cultural highlife from southern Ghana.

This mountain retreat designed by DeForest Architects was designed to bridge two worlds with natural ease. The property is located in the Wenatchee national forest, WA, US.

Read more:

arquitectr.com/north-lake-wenatchee-cabin-by-deforest-architects/

Fantastic Giveaway – Be in with the Chance of being a Lucky Winner to get Your Hands on a Personalised Set of StickyGrams!

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Australian photographer Bill Gekas creates elaborate portraits of his five-year old daughter that are inspired by classic paintings. Gekas talks about his photography process in this interview with Digital Photography School.

via Digital Photography School

“Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive.”

- Hafiz (via suckerforanything-acoustic)

Composer John Stump (1944 - 2006) created brilliant pieces of unplayable music marked by hilarious annotations - including “Like a dirigible!” “Gong duet.” “Rigatoni” and “Apply brown liquid now.”

His best known piece, “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’)” was composed in 1980. Here’s an attempted performance presented by the Colorado State Music Teachers’ Association.

“Remove cattle now.” “Light explosives now… and now.” “Play ball!”

Stump also wrote “String Quartet No. 556(b) for Strings In A Minor (Motoring Accident)” (1997):

“Shock therapy may be necessary to finish.” “If you can’t play this, why don’t you call your Mommy.”

Here’s one more Stump masterpiece - “Prelude and the Last Hope in C and C# Minor” (1971). This composition is a bit more subtle and predates his absurdist works, although it’s obviously impossible by the end.

Inspired by Stump, Japanese composer Yamasaki Atusi created “Atushi Ojisama and Ijigen Waltz (from “A Tribute to Yamasaki Atushi”)” in 2007 - going so far as to include a picture of himself within the music.

“Avoid lumping” and “If you can’t play this, why don’t you call Atushi” were included as tributes to Stump a year after his passing.

Here’s Andrew Fielding’s 1992 “Lament of the Introspective Turnbuckle” created as the supposed “Theme of the 1979 Miss Albequerque, New Mexico Swimsuit and Short Fiction Writing Competition”.

“Quasi intellectuo.” “Unannounced layoff.” “You mf!!” “Take coda except Tue. 7-9 A:W Street Cleaning.” “Also on laser disc.”

Before there was Stump, the Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti (1931-)  created pieces such as "Pieces de chair II for piano, baryton viola, female voice and instruments" (1960) without the assistance of a musical typewriter.

In 1969, Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer (1933-) also got into creating satirical sheet music by hand with pieces such as "Divan I Shams I Tabriz" (1969)

Carrying the tradition over to recent times, in 2007, SNL and Portlandia’s Fred Armisen released “Jens Hanneman: Complicated Drumming Technique”.

The instructional video showcases Armisen taking himself very seriously as a Scandinavian master of ridiculous time signatures such as 29/2. The DVD, of course, came with 8 pages of impossible sheet music:

Finally, here’s a song called “Bad Dudes”. This has been in my files since around 2008, and I have no idea of its origins. It’s definitely possible to play this one, but I figured I should throw it in either way for all the bad dudes out there.

"Bad song. I’m a bad dude, yes sir, I am! Why not let the world crumble to pieces. I live in a bad place. I’m a bad dude!"

Single malt whisky is made from barley, just like Calvados is made from apples and Cognac from grapes. While my journeys to France have taught me much about the importance of agriculture in distillation, Scotland's distillers have never given much glory to their golden grain. Just how important is the barley to the ultimate flavor of a whisky, you ask? It all depends on how much the distillery allows the barley to speak. Is the quality of the apples important to the flavor of a Calvados? Do different types of apples have different flavors? The answer to both questions is "yes" and the more you visit different Calvados distillers, the more you'll see proof of this affirmation. However, the longer that the brandy spends time in a barrel, the more the Calvados becomes about the wood and less about the fruit. Single malt whisky works the same way, but while I've heard single malt producers call a whisky overly-wooded, it was never because the maturation was compromising the natural flavors of the barley.

When single malt whisky is aged in fresh Sherry barrels the richness of that sweet wine usually coats the inherent flavors of the white barley spirit. When it's aged in used Bourbon casks, however, or even refill Sherry butts, we can taste more of the barley itself. That being said, almost every distillery in Scotland is buying their barley from the exact same commercial maltsters, which means that every one of them is using the same base materials (like winemakers all starting from the same grapes). As a distillery, why focus on how unique or fantastic your barley is when it's really no different from everyone else's? Are there even superior types of barley anyway? Barley that, while more expensive to farm, malt, and mill, would result in a far tastier whisky?

Have you ever actually tasted a piece of malted barley? It's sweet, grainy, and mealy, but I never really think that translates over clearly into a whisky. There are a few whiskies that really taste like malted barley, Glen Garioch being one of them. However, where as eau-de-vie producers spend a lifetime trying to capture the essence of a pear, distilling the essential flavors out of barley is a conversation I've never once heard at a distillery. I've never heard Dr. Bill Lumsden say, "You know, David, we were really just trying to pay homage to that great Scottish barley we had at Glenmorangie last year." Single malt whisky has always been about the wood - the vanilla, the sweet sherry, the oak, and the richness that it provides to mellow the alcohol. The barley provides the creamier mouthfeel and texture. Bourbon is the same way. Who's really talking about that awesome crop of corn that came in last Fall and how you can taste it in Buffalo Trace's newest release? It's more of a canvass for the toasted wood.

Barley-specific whiskies are starting to gain notoriety in Scotland, but there have been local barley releases in the past. For the last few decades, Springbank distillery has been making limited releases of whisky using barley from local farmers. They've always been celebrated for their collectability, however, rather than their superior quality. Kilchoman has been releasing "100% Islay" single malt whiskies made from barley grown right next door to the distillery. The result has been exciting and quite different, but no one ever really told us why they tasted the way they did (and maybe we didn't really even care to know!). It was more of a novelty, about being able to say it's entirely Islay, through and through. Bruichladdich has also dabbled in the regional barley experiment with several micro-releases of localized barley expressions. They've been fun, educational, and even tasty and their organic barley whisky has been stabilized into a full-time item.

What totally blew my mind today, however, is the new "Bere" barley release from Bruichladdich - a 2006 vintage, six year old whisky aged in ex-Bourbon wood that has a creamy, full-bodied graininess unlike any other young single malt I have tasted. I sampled it along side the 2006 Islay Barley "Donlossit Farm" release (made and matured in the exact same way) and it was fascinating. Both were delicious, but the Bere barley was simply better in every way. It had an instant charm, a flavor that all whiskies should have, but making it wasn't easy from what I've heard. According to Bruichladdich, Bere barley is an ancient strain that was brought to Islay by Norse vikings back in the 9th century. It's a denser and thicker grain that flourishes in sandy, island soil, but results in crops less than half the size of what's being grown now in Scotland (hence, why no one is using it $$$$$). However, they also claim that Bere barley was used to make the early whiskies from Scotland's origin. They claim it gave their mill one hell of a beating, as well.

The Bere Barley from Bruichladdich will be coming into stock tomorrow (Friday) and we'll be getting every bottle we can get - about 150 total. It is something I think every whisky fan should consider investing in. It will be $70 and I'm going to limit it to one bottle per person so that we make them available to as many people as possible. Not only is this whisky freaking delicious (I'm serious, this is really good single malt whisky that anyone would enjoy), it's an example of what agriculture brings to our beloved booze. While I've waxed poetic about orchards and vineyards when it comes to brandy making, I've never tasted what quality barley can do to a whisky. The question is, however: is the Bere whisky so tasty because of the Bere barley, or was it simply a great batch by Jim McEwan? I want to know more. If this whisky tastes the way it does because of the grain, then I'm all for paying extra in the future to make it this way.

More Bere barley whisky please. I'll front you some cash to get it started.

-David Driscoll

whatps2:

aww shit get it Wednesday

Reader was my favorite social network, hands down. I was incredibly sad to see it go. When I found out theoldreader.com existed, I was giddy all day.

I wrote the team to thank them (hello at theoldreader dot com) and to also trouble shoot a bug. They were incredibly kind and prompt in response. After they fixed the glitch my massive address book was causing, I asked the following:

Next dreams:
What are privacy settings? Can only people I follow see my posts, only the friends of people I post comments to see those comments?
Multi-shares in same social network list people who shared rather than showing the post repeatedly.
But these are again, dreams, not issues.
Are we going to be able to pay the team a nominal amount to keep the project going? I would like to be able to support a group to do continued support rather than having this thing we all love die again.

Their response:

As per our privacy policy, all shared posts are currently public. We do have ‘private accounts’ feature in our roadmap that will allow users to expose their shared items only to a limited number of accounts they choose. However, this has very low priority for us; most users only read public RSS feeds that are available to everyone in the first place, so hiding them makes little sense. We have discussed the mechanics of multi-sharing before and decided to stick to the current implementation to avoid mixing comments to two different shares into a single thread. Sometimes people discuss not the shared article itself, but rather the sharer’s comment to it – so, each shared post becomes unique in a way and deserves a separate comment thread. At the moment The Old Reader is not backed up by any company, and we are still looking for the best way to allow our users to support the project. We will definitely update our blog when we decide on something, so make sure you are subscribed to it

Here is what I have sent them. I hope you’ll join me in politely, lovingly, requesting the same. I would also like you to be willing to throw in to support the team if that is the route they go.

I’d like to lobby that privacy get moved up the list. A few reasons, personal, individual, and communal. First, I work in humanitarian and disaster response, with volunteer technical communities and military alike. I also have an incredibly dark sense of humor. The people I work with tend to check out who I am and what I like – having another public space on which to express myself doesn’t really allow me to express myself. Those same working conditions also make it incredibly important that I be able to have a safe space to talk and connect.
On an individual level, I saw friends discover themselves because Reader was a safe space. Things like gender, sexuality, and approach in life are not things which can be held without care. People with very public lives have been able to go through self-discovery with a small group of trusted friends.
And finally, communal – while with privacy my own shares are only to those who I have approved, my comments on a friend’s share are visible to their friends. *This is essential* – there is at least one pairing from our previous ShareBro network which happened because of this serendipity in safe space. They are now married.

As it is now, it’s more like a Tumblr than it is like Reader. I hope you’ll institute the privacy and sharing layers sooner rather than later. Again, I’m happy to contribute what I can towards this being a sustainable effort.

All my best, and thanks again,

Willow