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What should the media do when campaigns lie? Plus, the best of the web this week.

How journalists should fact-check politicians. What police officers know that the rest of us don't. How the poor, middle class, and rich spend their money. A super-cool new technology coming in December. And more. Enjoy!

Politics and World Affairs

A Not-Very-Truthful Speech In A Not-Very-Truthful Campaign / Ezra Klein / The Washington Post

Klein tries "to bend over backward to be fair, to see it from Ryan's perspective," but finds it hard to be balanced amid Ryan's, and the campaign's, calculated dishonesty.




Obama Needs 80% Of Minority Vote To Win 2012 Election / Ron Brownstein / National Journal

A look at the demographic equations defining this election. The last paragraph suggests some major changes are in store for the Republican party.




Four More Years? / The Economist

The Economist is underwhelmed. "The defence of Mr Obama's record comes down to one phrase: it could all have been a lot worse."




I Am Barack Obama, President Of The United States—AMA / Barack Obama / Reddit

Obama takes (softball) questions from the horde. Interesting to read his writing style, and there's some really funny stuff in here, including someone who corrects his grammar.




Arts and Culture

What It's Like For A Deaf Person To Hear Music For The First Time / Rebecca Rosen / The Atlantic

A 23-year-old gets a new hearing aid, and with the help of friends and the Internet, discovers everything from Mozart to Sigur Rós.




What Have You Learned As A Police Officer About Life And Society That Most People Don't Know Or Underestimate? / Tim Dees / Quora

A fun list, including this: "Although they may not know it, there are people who find [your] hot buttons instinctively, and they live to push them."




52 Suburbs Around The World / Louise Hawson

A photographer takes a year off to travel the world with her daughter, documenting life in the suburbs of great global cities. (via @nickfraser)




Lance Armstrong's Secret Is Out / Christopher Keyes / Outside

A new book from Armstrong's former teammate "isn't just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It's the game ender." Also interesting on the weight of carrying a lie.




It's My Life What Ever I Wanna Do / Vennu Mallesh / YouTube

Oh, man. Prepare yourself for this, um, difficult-to-describe Indian music video. Rebecca Black, you have been eclipsed.




Business and Economics

How The Poor, The Middle Class, And The Rich Spend Their Money / Jacob Goldstein and Lam Vo / NPR

A simple graph. "Both the similarities and differences are striking." The rest of the graphs in the series, "Graphing America," look interesting as well.





How Paperbacks Transformed the Way Americans Read / Andrew Shaffer / Mental Floss

In 1939, a movie cost 20 cents, but a hardcover book cost $2.75. And yet, the idea of a cheap paperback was seen by the publishing industry as crazy. Great example of how incumbents can stifle innovation.





Gimme The Loot / Gavin Mueller / Jacobin

Fascinating take on piracy through the ages, from Blackbeard to Kim Dotcom. I had no idea pirates ran their ships so democratically.





A Hyper Cool (And Controversial) Rebranding For American Airlines / Anna Kovecses / CoDesign

I love this redesign.




Teen Titan / Lizzie Widdicombe / The New Yorker

A profile of Scooter Braun, "the man who made Justin Bieber," and who still manages to come across as surprisingly not terrible.




Science and Technology

The Andreessen Horowitz Effect / Erick Schonfeld / Techonomy

Profile of one of the most successful, and aggressive, venture capital shops in Silicon Valley. The list of companies they back is truly impressive.




In Defence Of TED / Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Kernel

"If we resisted the siren call of feeling smugly superior ... we could perhaps see TED for what it actually is: a media company that has been very successful" at popularizing ideas.




The Most Important Technology Since The Smartphone Arrives December 2012 / Christopher Mims / Technology Review

Short article and really cool demo video for a product called Leap Motion, which its founder promises will be even better than the technology in "Minority Report."




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Community

Facebook group brings people together IRL to make meaningful friendships

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

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friendship
Democracy

This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation .

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise , more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

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money
Family

Woman bakes cheeky curse word pies for her grandma and it becomes a quirky holiday tradition

2023's pie is an homage to her favorite word to use while stuck in traffic.

Canva

You never know where a holiday tradition will come from.

Tried-and-true holiday traditions certainly have their merit, but there’s something quite special, magical even, about discovering personal rituals that commemorate one’s unique life. In my household, for instance, nothing quite rings in the Christmas spirit like sipping my partner’s delicious coquito and putting up a cardboard gingerbread house for my cats .

The beauty of creating customized holiday traditions is that they can be as festive, sentimental, or as silly as you want them to be. And you never know how one small moment can become the catalyst for a tradition that sparks joy year after year.

For Jess Lydon, that tradition is baking expletive-laden pies for Thanksgiving. ( This is your profanity warning—the images below contain swear words. )

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humor
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

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education
Pop Culture

Pianist uses every part of the instrument in this joyous performance of Toto's 'Africa'

"Not sure I can comprehend what just happened! Unbelievable."

via Peter Benace/YouTube

Peter Bence's piano cover of "Africa" by Toto

Peter Bence’s performance of “Africa” by Toto has over 17 million views on YouTube because of his creative reimagining of the song and, well, just about everyone loves “Africa.”

Bence is a Hungarian composer and producer who has become a viral sensation for his Michael Jackson, Queen, Sia, and Beatles covers. He has over 1.1 million followers on YouTube and has toured the globe, playing in more than 40 countries across four continents.

His performance of “Africa'' is unique because it opens with him creating a rhythm track and looping it by strategically tapping the piano and rubbing its strings to create the sound of shakers and congo drums.

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music
Joy

Family posts a very chill note to neighbors explaining why their dog is on the roof

“We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door.."

via Reddit

Meet Huckleberry the dog.

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog's welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, "Uh, I'm not sure if you know...but there's a...dog...on your ROOF."

Well, the family inside is aware that there's often a dog on their roof . It's their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

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dogs
Family

12 hilariously relatable comics about life as a new mom.

Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

All illustrations by Ingebritt ter Veld. Reprinted here with permission.

Some good not so good moments with babies.



Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

Illustrator Ingebritt ter Veld and Corinne de Vries, who works for Hippe-Birth Cards, a webshop for birth announcements, had babies shortly after one another.

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