Articles & Podcasts of Note (Week of 06/22/2020)

Every Friday I highlight the most interesting or entertaining items from my media diet from the past week.

Articles:

• Are Universities Going the Way of CDs and Cable TV? (theatlantic.com): Is a $75,000/year college tuition worth it when classes are live-streamed to your bedroom?
• The Cave Kingpin Buying America’s Underground (outsideonline.com): Can private ownership and preservation can work in tandem? Cave-collector John Ackerman thinks so, but his critics aren’t so sure.
• ‘Crush this Lady.’ Inside eBay’s Bizarre Campaign Against a Blog Critic (wsj.com): Crazy story: “Security employees allegedly orchestrated deliveries of live cockroaches, pornographic videos and a mask of a bloody pig’s head.”
• Do the Real Thing (scotthyoung.com): Sometimes the best strategy is the simplest strategy. Want to get better at writing? Write.
• The End of OS X (stratechery.com): Ben Thompson considers how we came to OS X (the child of Classic Mac OS and NeXTSTEP/Unix) and where the next generation, OS 11, is headed (driven by iOS).
• Free Programming Books (github.io): Directory of useful learning resources for a wide range of programming languages and frameworks.
• Google Blew a Ten-Year Lead (secondbreakfast.co): A bloggers lament about the lack of product focus and innovation from the tech giant.
• Perceptions of Musical Octaves are Learned not Wired in the Brain (quantamagazine.com): Singing experiments with residents of the Bolivian rainforest demonstrate how biology and experience shape the way we hear music.
• Surgical Reading: How to Read 12 Books at Once (substack.com): I cannot imagine juggling a dozen books at once, but it is an interesting approach. Useful reading tactics even one-at-a-time readers like me can learn from.
• Teach Yourself Computer Science (teachyourselfcs.com): A guide on how to achieve a world-class CS education for free.
• This $35 Keyboard for Children Transformed Me into a Novelist (medium.com): The discontinued AlphaSmart portable word processor has a cult following as a distraction-free tool for writing.
• Text Only Websites (sjmulder.nl): If you collect text-only websites, this is a great resource. There’s also a related thread on Hacker News that has some interesting links.
• You Might as Well Be a Great Copy Editor (regehr.org): Some recommendations on improving your editing skills: practice (natch) as well as two books—“Copy Editing for Professionals” and “Line by Line.”

Podcasts:

• American Scandal: Boston College Gambling Scheme (apple.com): In 1978 players on the Boston College basketball team get involved in a point-shaving scheme with the mafia.
• Behind the Police (iheart.com): Robert Evans’ mini-series on the history and origins of modern-day policing in the USA.
• Truth vs. Hollywood: Goodfellas (audioboom.com): New podcast that explores the real story behind popular films. The first two episodes look at the story of Henry Hill–famously chronicled in the Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.