internet explorers club | brb getting into black market cheese

This Vogue article about black market cheese is everything I ever wanted, and I want to be clear I would never redact my name from a quote like this (especially in Vogue!)

It is amazing:

Speaking of things only I care about, I’m always up for a long conversation about the New Madrid (that’s MAD-rid) Fault, which caused a series of 3 earthquakes in 1811-12 that ranged from 7.5-8.0 on the Richter Scale. In 1989, a climatologist named Iben Browning predicted that a 6.5-7.5 quake would happen in December 1990… and nothing happened. This (cheekily titled “The Day The Earth Stood Still”) is a look into what life in New Madrid was like during that time, as well as the legacy of the failed prediction.

Dumpling emoji (personified version) by Yiying Lu

So I’m already on board with people suggesting new emojis, and Jennifer Lee’s Kickstarter campaign to create a dumpling emoji scratches that itch, but as this piece points out, it’s about much more. The creation of emoji is by no mean an un-politicized act (as much as the Unicode consortium sometimes pretends it is) so the Kickstarter is not just promoting a new emoji but to get a non-voting membership to the Unicode Consortium so she can enact further change.

I am so mad that these candles aren’t available for purchase:

Today in horrifying / compelling: this story of a celebrity surgeon who scammed an NBC News producer. It has everything, including him saying the Pope had agreed to officiate their wedding and it only fell apart when someone emailed her that the Pope was scheduled to be in South America during their wedding! INSANE.

I believe with all my heart that Pizza Rat is real, so this investigation into all the viral rat videos (can’t believe I typed this sentence) hurts my heart.

Potentially the best end to a New York Times Style section is Henry Kissinger:

Hamilton: In honor of Hamilton’s birthday (mark your calendars for 2017: January 11), Vulture did a week of Hamilton-themed articles, including a long interview with the cast, and it’s just lovely. See also: 18 things that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda in writing Hamilton. How to Name Your Baby after Hamilton. Hamilton Lyrics To Sing To Your Dog, which I 100% endorse.

Etcetera: 4 New Elements added to the Periodic Table. Pizza Hut introduces a new clothing line (I can’t). NASA has uploaded a ton of space sounds!