I quickly learned that fact-checking is a predominantly American phenomenon. The French don’t do much of it, most Russian papers certainly don’t either, and even the Swiss — possibly the most exacting and precise people on the planet — do not make use of fact-checkers in quite the same way as Americans do.

“Fact Check!” By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian (The New Inquiry)

Sei Shonagon and William Hazlitt, two radically different writers from radically different times and places, both were stubborn advocates of hate. Neither defined it in terms of superior races or religions but instead in terms of daily disgust, shameless behavior, spiders, fleas, barking dogs, charmlessness, odiousness, quarrels with friends. Shonagon’s and Hazlitt’s hating is more about disappointment: for Shonagon, in others; for Hazlitt, in himself.

“Grudge Lust” by Elizabeth Greenwood (The New Inquiry)

Jeremy Hutchison sent emails to manufacturers around the world, asking them to produce a fairly simple and common item. He added a special requirement though: the product had to be imperfect, come with an intentional error. Moreover, the worker was in charge of deciding which kind of error, malfunction or fault he would add to the good. The artist reassured the factory that, whatever the result, he would pay for the faulty object…

A conversation with Jeremy Hutchison (We Make Money Not Art)

Five years ago, a relatively unknown (and unhinged) director began one of the wildest experiments in film history. Armed with total creative control, he invaded a Ukrainian city, marshaled a cast of thousands and thousands, and constructed a totalitarian society in which the cameras are always rolling and the actors never go home.

“The Movie Set That Ate Itself” by Michael Idov (GQ)

I’ve been thinking about the emergence of a new type of 21st-century professional. I call them “free radicals” because they take their careers into their own hands and put the world to work for them. The commoditization of once-pricey resources like business management services (now in the cloud) and everything open-source is the wind at their backs.

Free Radicals are resilient, self-reliant, and extremely potent. You’ll find them working solo, in small teams, or within large companies. They’re everywhere, and they’re crafting the future.

“A Manifesto For Free Radicals: Less Paperwork, Less Waiting, More Action” by Scott Belsky (The 99 Percent)

My thinking was something like, “You want to watch me? Fine. But I can watch myself better than you can, and I can get a level of detail that you will never have.”

<…>On my Web site, I compiled various databases that show the airports I’ve been in, food I’ve eaten at home, food I’ve eaten on the road, random hotel beds I’ve slept in, various parking lots off Interstate 80 that I parked in, empty train stations I saw, as well as very specific information like photos of the tacos I ate in Mexico City between July 5 and 7, and the toilets I used.

These images seem empty, and could be anywhere, but they’re not; they are extremely specific records of my exact travels to particular places. There are 46,000 images on my site. I trust that the F.B.I. has seen all of them. Agents know where I’ve bought my duck-flavored paste, or kimchi, laundry detergent and chitlins; because I told them everything. 

“You Want to Track Me? Here You Go, F.B.I.” by Hasan M. Elahi (The New York Times Sunday Review)

Theresa M. Senft spent nearly a decade studying camgirls and camgirl culture, coining the term “micro-celebrity” to describe the practice. Along with the idea that fame was a commodity—or experience—that could be produced on a small scale, camgirl culture left deep marks on web aesthetics and community: the high-angle self portrait, the shared documentation of food and other daily minutiae.

“She Was A Camera” by Melissa Gira Grant (Rhizome)

I spent years feeling unhappy because people were cruel to me. But I realise now that it’s not my face that is the problem but people’s prejudices. We live in a society that says physical difference is bad and beauty is good. But this has resulted in disfigured and disabled people like me being treated like second class citizens because our bodies are different and we are seen as less than human.

“Growing up with cherubism” by Vicky Lucas (BBC)

Creative people have a reputation for eccentricity. It’s not hard to see why when we consider the habits of some well-known creatives.

“Why Creative People Need to Be Eccentric” by Mark McGuinness (The 99 Percent)