The Seattle NHL Expansion Team Name

Sports Illustrated – "The 13 Possible Names for Seattle’s New NHL Team, Ranked"

1. Seattle Sockeyes
2. Seattle Totems
3. Seattle Rainiers
4. Seattle Emeralds
5. Seattle Seals
6. Seattle Evergreens
7. Seattle Sea Lions
8. Seattle Cougars
9. Seattle Eagles
10. Seattle Whales
11. Seattle Renegades
12. Seattle Firebirds
13. Seattle Kraken

Us

March 15, 2019
Written & Directed by Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Starring Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther), Winston Duke (Black Panther), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

What is Glitter?

New York Times – "What Is Glitter?A strange journey to the glitter factory."
By Caity Weaver

"Humans, even humans who don’t like glitter, like glitter. We are drawn to shiny things in the same wild way our ancestors were overcome by a compulsion to forage for honey. A theory that has found favor among research psychologists (supported, in part, by a study that monitored babies’ enthusiasm for licking plates with glossy finishes) is that our attraction to sparkle is derived from an innate need to seek out fresh water."

CBS 60 Minutes – "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch"

Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant and Macaulay Culkin

Facebook and the Internet in 2018

The Ringer – "The Cost of Living in Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet Empire"
By Brian Phillips

A Story of Friendship with Charles Barkley

WBUR – "My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley"

Holmes & Watson Trailer

December 25, 2018
Written & Directed by Etan Cohen
Starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly

The Oral History of FOX and the NFL

The Ringer – "The Great NFL Heist: How Fox Paid for and Changed Football Forever"
By Bryan Curtis

Triple Frontier Trailer

March 2019
Written by Mark Boal, J. C. Chandor
Directed by J. C. Chandor
Starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal

Portland Trail Blazers Game Day Posters

New York Times – "Trail Blazers’ Game-Day Posters Are Often First Shot Against Opponents"

The Return of (Environmentally-Resourceful) Popeye

New York Times – "New Popeye Videos Show What 90 Years of Spinach Can Do for a Guy"

Ariane Grande – "thank u, next"

Vulture – "Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ Video Is Here in All Its 2000s Rom-Com Glory"

The Bjarke Ingels Group Plans for the Oakland Athletics

ABC7 – "Here's what the Oakland Athletics have planned for new ballpark at Howard Terminal"

Chess in Norway

New York Times – "The Magnus Effect: Norway Falls Hard for Chess"

José Andrés Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Washington Post – "José Andrés is nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, congressman confirms"

FC Barcelona x Nike 20th Anniversary Kit

Nike.com – "FC Barcelona and Nike Mark 20th Anniversary in Style"
WorldSoccerShop.com

The Origin of Gritty

Adweek – "How the Flyers Created Gritty, the Internet’s Most Beloved Mascot"

The Chicago Bulls Intro Music

The Ringer – "Aaaand Now … an Oral History of the Greatest Starting Lineup Introduction in Sports History"

"Tommy played us “Sirius” and everyone in the office agreed it matched an introduction of the players beautifully. But we were concerned that it wasn’t a household song, like “Thriller” or the Miami Vice theme. On the other hand, we loved having something unique. When you work in game entertainment, you hope that you find one thing that everyone will remember as being yours. You live for that. The Cubs had it with the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch. The Blackhawks pioneered the use of a foghorn after goals. We were hoping the Bulls had found a similar tradition with the intro."

...

"Michael Jordan once told me Chicago Stadium gave the Bulls a five- to 10-point advantage. Did the intro factor in? Oh, hell yeah! The other team had to stand there and watch: “Now, in this corner, the reigning champion!” It was like ancient Rome, with the Bulls as the lions and the opposing team as the Christians just there to be sacrificed. If you weren’t slightly intimidated by that, knowing what this team was, then you didn’t have emotions. The visitors had to be thinking: “Why isn’t my team’s stadium doing something like this?”"

Brian Tyree Henry Becoming a Movie Star

GQ – "Brian Tyree Henry Is Learning How to Be a Movie Star"

"He's been, basically, marooned on film sets for the past year. “Living with a lot of personalities,” as he puts it."

...

"Henry is often confronted with the suggestion that he has lucked into his current position in Hollywood. “I get irritated, 'cause people are like, ‘Oh, you're having a moment.’ I'm like, ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ ” After graduate school, when Henry moved to New York to do theater, “I was pretty much homeless,” he says. For a while, he couch surfed and survived on food stamps. “But I'm glad I experienced that to be where I am now,” Henry says. “I'm so glad that this shit didn't start happening for me until now, with the TV and film aspect. I'm so glad it wasn't back when I was real tiny and I was, like, a 33 waist and I was in the gym every day, and the agents I had at the time were like, ‘You're still too fat.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ And you believe that stuff, though. I was berated all the time, like: ‘You're too big.’ I was so tiny, man. I have never been more comfortable in the skin I am in now. Because all my life, I was so body dysmorphic. I had all these people telling me how I look. Like: ‘You're not a leading man. You're not small enough.’ ”

But then Henry got The Book of Mormon. “I remember being on Book of Mormon and just sitting there and being like, The fuck? I'm making money. I'm eating whatever the fuck I want. Like, What's that? Pommes frites? Yeah, man. Give me that. I don't know what that cheese is. Give me that cheese. I love myself, man. I love myself. I didn't give a fuck.” He fired his agents, got new ones. “It was so nice to be at some point in my life where I could love every inch of my fucking body, man. And as soon as I did that, I got Atlanta. I got everything. I got everything as soon as I stopped giving a fuck.”"

The Champagne of Beers ($3.49)

Thrillist – "'The Champagne of Beers' Now Comes in Actual Champagne Bottles"

"Sports have become videogames"

Wall Street Journal – "The NBA and NFL Have Become Videogames"

" In the actual NBA at the time, 3-pointers accounted for 8% of total points. But on any given “NBA Jam” machine, that number was between 50% and 52%, said Mark Turmell, the game’s creator. It turns out all those people were onto something: 30% of points scored in the NBA now come from 3-pointers, and that rate has steadily increased every single year for the last three decades.

The way the NBA reflects “NBA Jam” is uncanny but not unusual. So many of the innovations that have revolutionized professional sports in recent years are the same intuitive strategies that people have been using for as long as arcades have existed."

The Disappearance of American Charm

The Weekly Standard – "Life’s Little Luxury"
By Joseph Epstein

The Origins of American Athleisure

The Atlantic – "Everything You Wear Is Athleisure"

Burning

November 9, 2018
Based on Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami
Written by OH Jung-mi, Lee Chang-dong
Directed by Lee Chang-dong
Starring Yoo Ah-in ,Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo

The Ringer – "‘Burning’ Is One of the Best Films of the Year"

Timberwolves vs. Warriors Promo

Reddit – "Has anyone seen that dope commercial advertising for the timberwolves warriors game Friday?"

NBA City Edition Jerseys – Year 2

ESPN – "The Timberwolves' cool new uniforms, featuring Prince"
Rolling Stone – "Minnesota Timberwolves Unveil Prince-Inspired Jerseys"

NBA.com – "Thunder Unveils New Turquoise Uniform Honoring Oklahoma's Native American Heritage"

HotNewHipHop – "Sixers "City Edition" Uniforms Inspired By Rocky & Creed: Official Images"

DenverStiffs.com – "MUST SEE: The Denver Nuggets have brought back the Rainbow Skyline jersey!!!"

CREED II

November 21, 2018
Written by Juel Taylor, Sylvester Stallone
Directed by Steven Caple Jr.
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson

Reese's Candy Converter

CNN.com – "Reese's created a machine to swap out all the Halloween treats you hate"

Mandarin Duck in NYC

New York Times – "A Mandarin Duck Mysteriously Appears in Central Park, to Birders’ Delight"

"On Oct. 10, the duck was first spotted near the Pond in Central Park and a video was shared on social media. The city’s avid birders were amazed: These ducks are commonly found in China and Japan — not the United States."

The Greatest Ever?

Packers @ Patriots Sunday 8:20 pm EST on SNF on NBC
Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers play each other for only the second time in their careers.

LeBron's reaction to the ad above:

IM READY!!!! Oh my bad I thought, maybe u were, umm never mind back to my regular schedule program https://t.co/4JmeesffNu

— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 29, 2018

Related,
Netflix is co-producing a 10-hour documentary on Jordan's last Chicago Bulls season with ESPN. Scheduled to be released sometime in 2019.

IT'S HAPPENING. #MichaelJordan #TheLastDance https://t.co/d3EDwt2LKw pic.twitter.com/MapBHmVwSg

— ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) May 15, 2018

National Sword and the Changing Global Landscape of Trash/Recycling

Financial Times – "Why the world’s recycling system stopped working: China’s refusal to become the west’s dumping ground is forcing the world to face up to a waste crisis"

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1983 "Surrounded Islands" in Miami

New York Times – "Pérez Art Museum Miami Recalls Pink Islands"

Previously,
'Over the River'

Diggs The Nonconformist

Star Tribune – "Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs comfortable as a nonconformist"

"The glimpse into Diggs’ wardrobe is also a window into free-spirited ways that greet many of the conventions of his position with a raised eyebrow. The man who made perhaps the most iconic play in franchise history — by turning for the end zone last January to beat the Saints with a playoff touchdown when conventional wisdom said to step out of bounds and set up a game-winning field goal — has little need to contort himself to fit views of who he should be.

Diggs calls himself a homebody who doesn’t like to drink and is content to relax at his house near the Vikings’ facility in Eagan watching “The Office” or “Family Guy” reruns on Netflix — why should he spend his free time at nightclubs with a glass in his hand? He sticks mostly to a close group of friends from the Washington, D.C., area he’s known since he was 15, and quietly sizes up the people who enter his life now that he’s got an ESPY award and a Geico commercial. Why does he need a big crew of newcomers?"

Related,
The Ringer – "Who Wears Short Shorts? Stefon Diggs Wears Short Shorts"

The Rise of Ubiquitous AI

The Atlantic – "Alexa, Should We Trust You?"

"Privacy concerns have not stopped the march of these devices into our homes, however. Amazon doesn’t disclose exact figures, but when I asked how many Echo devices have been sold, a spokeswoman said “tens of millions.” By the end of last year, more than 40 million smart speakers had been installed worldwide, according to Canalys, a technology-research firm. Based on current sales, Canalys estimates that this figure will reach 100 million by the end of this year. According to a 2018 report by National Public Radio and Edison Research, 8 million Americans own three or more smart speakers, suggesting that they feel the need to always have one within earshot. By 2021, according to another research firm, Ovum, there will be almost as many voice-activated assistants on the planet as people. It took about 30 years for mobile phones to outnumber humans. Alexa and her ilk may get there in less than half that time."

...

"The power of the voice is at its uncanniest when we can’t locate its owner—when it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There’s a reason God speaks to Adam and Moses. In the beginning was the Word, not the Scroll. In her chilling allegory of charismatic totalitarianism, A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle conjures a demonic version of an all-pervasive voice. IT, the supernatural leader of a North Korea–like state, can insert its voice inside people’s heads and force them to say whatever it tells them to say. Disembodied voices accrue yet more influence from the primal yearning they awaken. A fetus recognizes his mother’s voice while still in the womb. Before we’re even born, we have already associated an unseen voice with nourishment and comfort.

A 2017 study published in American Psychologist makes the case that when people talk without seeing each other, they’re better at recognizing each other’s feelings. They’re more empathetic. Freud understood this long before empirical research demonstrated it. That’s why he had his patients lie on a couch, facing away from him. He could listen all the harder for the nuggets of truth in their ramblings, while they, undistracted by scowls or smiles, slipped into that twilight state in which they could unburden themselves of stifled feelings."

Recycling Baseball Bats Into Chopsticks

New York Times – "A Baseball Bat Dies, and Chopsticks Are Born"

"Aodamo wood — durable, light, flexible and resistant to splintering — was once used to make most of the professional bats here. But baseball officials, sporting goods companies and conservationists say aodamo is no longer considered economically feasible to log on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, considered the sweet spot for bat production."

...

"But it can take 50 to 70 years for an aodamo tree to grow to a height and thickness needed to make bats. Even then, only four to six bats can be made from one tree. Lumber companies no longer feel it is cost effective to cut the trees just to make bats, Mr. Naito said."

Luca Guadagnino's Lake Como Home

New York Times – "From the Director of ‘Call Me by Your Name,’ a New Project: A House"

The California Law Origin of Silicon Valley

New Yorker – "Did Uber Steal Google’s Intellectual Property?"

"At the time of the Shockley betrayals (1957), other regions were much better positioned than Silicon Valley to become the tech industry’s breadbasket. Route 128, a beltway around Boston, was home to so many universities and pioneering computer firms that it soon became known as America’s Technology Highway. But by the nineteen-seventies Route 128 had been overshadowed by Northern California. Economists later suggested that the Valley’s culture of betrayal was a major reason for its success. Massachusetts’ laws made it difficult for employees to join rival companies or create new businesses. Engineers in Boston were typically forced to sign non-compete agreements that required them, if they quit, to wait at least a year before joining a competitor or creating their own firms. But in California non-compete agreements were illegal. That prohibition had been inserted into the state’s commercial code almost by accident, in the eighteen-seventies, when California lawmakers—seeking to save time—virtually copied a set of statutes that had been proposed (and then rejected) by New York’s legislature. When California’s early legislators outlawed “every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession,” none of them could have foreseen that, a century later, their decision would transform the global economy."

The Toronto Raptors Original Dinosaur

Slam Online – "The Making of the GOAT Jersey: An Oral History of the Raptors Throwback 🔥"

Kit Kat in Japan

New York Times – "The story of how Kit Kats, once a British chocolate export, became a booming business from Hokkaido to Tokyo — and changed expectations about what a candy bar could be."
By Tejal Rao

Game 7 of the 1991 World Series

The Athletic – "An oral history of Game 7 of the 1991 World Series: The night Jack Morris was unbeatable"

The Greatest Video Game of All Time

The Ringer – "Why ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ Will Always Be the “Best Game Ever”"

The Making of Red Dead Redemption II

New York Magazine – "How the West Was Digitized: The making of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2."
By Harold Goldberg

"The final script for Red Dead Redemption 2’s main story was about 2,000 pages. But if he were to include all the side missions and additional dialogue, and stack the pages, Dan estimates the pile “would be eight feet high.” Bringing the script to life meant 2,200 days of motion-capture work — compared with just five for Grand Theft Auto III — requiring 1,200 actors, all SAG-AFTRA, 700 of them with dialogue. “We’re the biggest employers of actors in terms of numbers of anyone in New York, by miles,” says Dan. Before a motion-capture shoot that would last two or three weeks, there were meetings “four hours each day for four days. We want it as tight as possible for motion-capture because we’re burning a lot of money very quickly [at those sessions].”"

Cocktail or Dive Bars?

The Daily Beast – "Cocktail Bars vs. Dive Bars:A plea to end this spirited feud among modern drinkers."
By David Wondrich

Adam Thielen's Custom Mighty Ducks Cleats (by Mache)

@Mache275