Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

>Number One<

Sex without Sexy (We Need to Bring Sexy Back)

As a great addition to the ongoing discussion about sex in media the internet, and maybe also the wider culture, is having this piece couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s really hard not to just copy and paste huge amount of quotes out of this article about the changes that media and sex, desire, and bodies have undergone in the past few decades so I will just pick one and move on:

If the body has become irrelevant, if human connection has merely become a kind of mediated digital exchange of symbols, then it stands to reason the appetite for depiction of intensely corporeal experiences that break the viewer from this detached position where the body is suppressed

>Number Two<

The Original Deep Space Nine (joking, I’m joking)

This article is almost like a vanity project because it was just the thing I wanted to see. Recently my SO and I have been talking about the lack of Stargate in the nostalgia zeitgeist of relaunches and reboots which dovetailed nicely into talking about Babylon 5 and its long rumored reboot that lurks in the shadows. The thing is, I don’t want a reboot of either of these properties but I would especially not like one for Babylon 5 because it is a flawed and wonderful object of its time and I believe this article hits at the heart of some of the things that made it great and terrible. I am extremely concerned this article makes no sense if you’ve never seen the series so my apologies up front for that but for people who witnessed all B5’s glory enjoy the absolute nostalgia wormhole thing article sends you down 🙂

>Number Three<

No One Is Funny Anymore

I don’t remember how I found James Woodall‘s YouTube channel but I can say this video pleasantly surprised me. I remember growing up in the era of political correctness and the whinging of comedians that no one wanted to hear the truth / comedy anymore and it’s just as bunk now as it was then. This video teaches you how and why we make jokes and examines how to be better at telling jokes, even line stepping jokes without insulting and damaging your reputation with your audience. I think this is a really interesting video especially paired with a recent video from Wisecrack about if comedians are philosophers as comedians often use “I’m just a truth teller! I’m just making people think!” as the bias for a lot of harmful jokes.

>Number Four<

Local Color

Excuse the fact that this is in Estonian and you may need a little translation help but I absolutely love Risto Vähi’s site which isn’t only dedicated to appreciating and documenting Estonian building but also the histories, and architecture. Also it doesn’t hurt that he photographed the building next to the one we lived in previously (it was an exact copy of the same building). Neat!

>Number Five<

A Game of Telephone

This is probably one of my weirder link but Nick Kapur is a historian who posted just the most interesting thread on Twitter The thread is basically about a Japanese book which illustrates the history of America in 1861 which is full of the kinds of loving misinterpretations of having only vague knowledge of something and having to interpret it without all the pieces. I think what is so interesting about this book for me is that some of the vague ideas are right but they got re-translated back into digestible stories and ideas for its audience leading to actual facts becoming so distorted they aren’t real. It’s amazing and there’s extra context here but it includes George Washington fighting a dragon so you should click thru.

That’s all for this month and hopefully I’ll see you back again next month with some more exciting and cool things!