Overrepresented, 11 letters across
+ Denial, Melting Flags, The most beautiful song of the year (#326)
Welcome to the latest issue of the Weekly Filet, the newsletter that brings you the best of the web, every Friday. This week, we have essays, data analysis, music, a cartoon, and more.
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1. Who’s in the Crossword?
We know that certain demographics tend to be marginalised in media. One place where this happens that I didn’t have on my radar: crosswords. Highly popular, subtly shaping readers’ views. A fascinating analysis of clues and answers in crosswords from multiple large newspapers: You encounter more men, more old people, more white people than in the general population. Beautifully designed, as you’d expect from The Pudding. Read it now.
2. The Denialist Playbook
Among many things — *gestures broadly at everything* — 2020 has been the year of science denial. Scientific American’s Denialist Playbook sums up what has been on display for most of the year, and shows how rejection of science has always followed a similar pattern. Read it now.
3. Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals
Ten more years to go until the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are meant to be achieved. Where do we stand on ending hunger, ensuring gender equality, transitioning to affordable clean energy? And how is the COVID-19 pandemic impacting those and the 14 other goals? Tons of great data visualisations are here to help you get the full picture. Explore it now.
4. Privilege blinds us to plight of others who lack it
If you’re reading this newsletter, chances are that you’re privileged. The thing about privilege is that it’s the perceived normal state for those who have it, and it takes conscious effort to see it. Accepting your own privilege comes with discomfort, which is why you often see people deny it. This is a good piece on the psychology of accepting privilege. Key quote: «Asking you to acknowledge your privilege does not minimise your personal hardship and suffering. It does not make your pain any less legitimate if you acknowledge someone else’s pain, which, by chance or birth, you find yourself free of.» Read it now.
5. Balancing Epistemic Humility and Prior Knowledge
«This was a textbook virus. Why didn't we act more like it?», Zeynep Tufekci asks. In her latest article, one of the indispensible voices on this pandemic looks back and ahead. As usual, a clarifying read. «This is not the first, or last, time we needed to balance the unknown with the need to act, the need to warn with the need to allow for release, and the need to use what breaks we get to increase our resilience for what we may yet face.» Read it now.
What else?
Quite possibly the most beautiful song of the year: Breathe In, by Hrishikesh Hirway.
Clever-sad visualisation: What country flags looked like if the white color in them disappeared as quickly as the countries’ glaciers — Meltdown Flags.
Now that a Covid-19 vaccine seems to be around the corner, reposting this from Weekly Filet #300 to illustrate what an enormous feat that is.
The pile of unread books next to your bed isn’t large enough? Have a look at the finalists of the Goodreads 2020 Book Awards.
Last week, I introduced you to the concept of «zozobra». This week, I managed to snap a picture of it.
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