CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

One of our favorite TV critics Alexis Madrigal writes an intersting article in The Atlantic about one of our favorite TV series, The Sacrifical Landscape of True Detective: "True Detective is a compelling show. People love the acting and are thrilled by the mystery. No arguments there. But two recent interviews with people who worked on it highlight another reason the show works: the petrochemical landscape of Louisiana." Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 8' 

Illustration via The New Yorker.

Ben Yagoda very accurately asserts in The New Yorker that "hack" is the word of the moment. "A psychologist wants to tell us how to “hack the happiness molecule.” The Web site Lifehacker offers tips on “how to install a laundry chute,” “make a DIY rapid-fire mouse button,” and “how to stop giving a f*ck what people think.” Online marketers desperately want to “growth hack.” The venture capitalist Paul Graham constantly talks about how tech entrepreneurs must have “hacker eyes”; his startup incubator, Y Combinator, runs an online news aggregator called Hacker News. A technology company recently recalled “a disastrous hack,” while in recent months Target, Neiman Marcus, Richard Engel, and the University of Maryland have all been “hacked.” Find out how the meaning of the word has evolved in his article: A Short History of 'Hack'. E.T.P. 6'

Finally, also in The Atlantic Uri Friedman decided to go in defense of the selfies from Crimea and Ukraine, and this is what he says: "Putting aside one of the explanations for this stream of selfies—a substantial pro-Moscow, ethnic Russian population on the peninsula—it's actually quite fitting that amateur and professional photographers are experimenting with new technology this week to document Russia's occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula. A century and a half ago, Crimea served as the breeding ground for modern war photography . . . Now, photographers are once again mediating our experience of a conflict in Crimea. And they're choosing Instagram, which launched in 2010, for specific reasons." Quite interesting position. Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 8'