That's Not How They Roll

The Jivebiscuit Skate Family Reunion and other news...

Did you know that Atlanta is known for a distinct type of roller skating and that the style is currently under threat of being diluted by skaters from around the country who roll into town on a regular basis? Me neither. NYT (Gift Article with some pretty rad photos): A ‘Skate Migration’ Is Changing How Atlanta Rolls. "It was the warm-up party for the Jivebiscuit Skate Family Reunion, one of the longest-running national gatherings of Black roller skaters. The 17-year-old event, held in February, is one of several annual parties that have made Atlanta a skating hub, bolstered by a steady, decades-long influx of Black residents from other cities ... That commingling has Atlanta’s stalwart skaters concerned about keeping their distinctly energetic and percussive style alive. They say Atlanta’s newer skaters, who have wide access to regional variants, increasingly practice a hybridized type of skating that’s not rooted in any one tradition." (You ever have one of those epiphanic moments when you realize you've wasted your whole adult life sitting in front of a laptop, reading and regurgitating news stories, when you could have been strapping on pair of roller skates and attending events with names like the Jivebiscuit Skate Family Reunion?)

2

Gender Reveal

In many ways, young voters were the key to the 2020 election, and the same could be true in 2024. This time around, key issues among this cohort could be an "opposition to the intensity of the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza and frustration with an economy many see as stacked against them." It's safe to say that, "the closeness of the contest between Trump and Biden puts especially heavy pressure on Biden to negotiate a cease-fire, if not a conclusion to hostilities in Gaza." (This is true even though every piece of evidence we have suggests Trump would be worse on this—and every other— issue.) But there's something else emerging in this group: a gender divide that one researcher describes like this: "Something more significant is going on than just new demographic patterns, such as rising rates of education or declining adherence to a religion — the change points to some kind of cataclysmal event." This is not your father's gender divide, or your mothers. Like every other divide in America today, the one between young men and women is historically stark. Lots of interesting datapoints in this overview from Thomas Edsall in the NYT (Gift Article): A Huge Gender Gap Is Emerging Among Young Voters.

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Commands Performance

"Agents are not only going to change how everyone interacts with computers. They're also going to upend the software industry, bringing about the biggest revolution in computing since we went from typing commands to tapping on icons." That was Bill Gates in a memo shared with Microsoft execs back in 2017. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft "forged a partnership with a then relatively unknown startup called OpenAI." One lesson of this article is pretty obvious: If you get a memo from Bill Gates, read it. But is another lesson that Bill Gates is still pulling the strings at Microsoft? Maybe ask ChatGPT?

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Fast Break

"Pop quiz: What two traits do the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Lakers have in common? The first commonality is obvious: All five teams have either already been eliminated from the 2023-24 NBA playoffs or are one loss away from elimination ... The second shared trait might be related to the first: These are the five oldest teams in the playoffs." For a few years, we've been watching the rise of the new, young NBA superstars that would eventually take over the league from the household names we've come to know and love (or hate). The moment seems to have arrived during the first round of the 2024 playoffs. The Ringer: No Playoffs for Old Men. (FWIW, this trend comes for newsletter writers, too.)

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Extra, Extra

Trouble is Bruin: So you're a college president and all your training has been focused on managing academics. Now you're confronted with campus protests being covered nonstop by the media. You celebrate free speech. You hate violence. You also need your school, ultimately, to run (classes, exams, graduation ceremonies). Students are raging, professors are chiming in, donors are writing open letters. So what do you do? It turns out, almost every answer to this test has been wrong. NYT (Gift Article): Before the Violence, U.C.L.A. Thought a Tolerant Approach Would Work.

+ Sinwar Monger: For political, geopolitical, and humanitarian reasons, a lot of leaders around the world want a ceasefire in Gaza. Bibi isn't one of them. And neither is Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, orchestrator of the Oct 7 attacks. Sinwar views latest hostage deal as trap, exiled Hamas leaders don’t represent terror group. (He's currently hiding in tunnels under civilians, likely surrounded by hostages he's using as human shields.)

+ You've Got Some Balls: It's often been said that consumer tech companies are in the business of aggregating eyeballs. The key is monetizing them. In the US v Google monopoly trial, we've learned just how valuable our eyeballs can be. "Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to be the default search engine on phones and web browsers ... Apple, which had the most lucrative deal, was paid around $18 billion in 2021."

+ Is Louis Pasteur Prime? "The results confirmed findings of earlier testing of a more limited number of samples and add weight to the FDA’s conclusion that pasteurized milk products are safe for consumption despite a widespread outbreak of cows infected with H5N1." Pasteurization inactivates H5N1 bird flu in milk. That's a relief. Unless you hate science and have a raw milk fetish. It is 2024 America, after all. Let's reflect back on one of the the craziest of our political divides. Fraught Milk? Everything is part of the culture wars, even milk cultures.

+ What the Frocked: "Dr. Kansfield grew up to be a professor of theology, the denomination’s most esteemed rank, and president of the school that trains its ministers, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, which is the oldest seminary in the United States ... So when his daughter, Ann Kansfield, was considering coming out of the closet to him, she was nervous. After she did, Dr. Kansfield went beyond responding with warm acceptance. Years later, in June 2004, he insisted that he officiate at her wedding." Norman Kansfield, 83, Dies; Defrocked for His Daughter’s Same-Sex Wedding. (Not crazy enough to exclude someone because of the partner they love? Let's exclude people for loving their child.)

+ Holding Food Court: The kids are shopping online. But they're still hitting the mall. A big reason is the food. It's a different lineup than the old days, and there's a lot more of it. "The amount of space dedicated to food in malls has grown from 5% in the 1990s to 15 to 20% today."

+ Chatty GPT: "After the first test roasting and blind testing, Kaffa’s coffee experts agreed, however, that the tech-assisted blend was perfect, and there was no need for human adjustments." A coffee roastery in Finland has launched an AI-generated blend.

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Bottom of the News

"The Georgia Department of Natural Resources confirmed that someone in the Brunswick area reported a nuisance alligator on April 21 — the day Henney said Wally went missing — and that a licensed trapper was dispatched to capture it. The agency said in a statement that the gator was 'released in a remote location,' but stressed that it doesn’t know if the reptile was Wally." Man says his emotional support alligator, known for its big social media audience, has gone missing.

+ "American Greetings, which offers half-birthday cards, says its research shows that 63% of consumers are celebrating less conventional occasions, such as gender-reveal parties, Galentine’s Day and half birthdays." Half-Birthday Parties for Adults Are Now a Reason to Spend Big. (I'd laugh, but when people ask me how old I am, I answer in months.)

+ GQ: Just a Long List of Stuff That Brian Cox Hates.