Kendrick Lamar Sends a Big Message at the Grammys
He didn’t take any of the four "big” Grammys he was nominated for Monday night (although he did win five awards), but if the White House’s Tweet and the standing ovation he received is any indication, Kendrick Lamar did steal the show for best performance.
Lamar stepped on stage draped in chains and prison gear to the tune of "Alright" and "The Blacker the Berry" from his latest, politically-charged album, "To Pimp A Butterfly." The performance peaked with an African dancing routine, with a blazing fire in the background. Lamar ended it with a fierce rapping verse, orchestral music and the map of Africa with his hometown of Compton labeled in the middle. [The Verge]
What Happens Next With the Supreme Court
With the death of Antonin Scalia on Saturday, a potential nomination fight was added to the insanity of an already wild election year. Republicans are vowing to oppose anyone Obama nominates! Obama promises to nominate someone! If you’re as confused and bewildered as the rest of us, check out this handy explainer for what happens next. [BuzzFeed]
John Oliver Exposes Hypocrisy of Voter ID Laws
Comedian John Oliver used his show Last Week Tonight to unpack the claims from conservative legislators that laws requiring voters to use photo IDs are to aimed prevent voter fraud. He peels through the research, revealing how rare cases of voter fraud actually are.
Pope John Paul II Letters Reveal Deep Friendship With Married Woman
Pope John Paul II maintained a close friendship with a married woman that lasted more than 30 years, recently revealed letters and photographs show. The future pope met the woman, Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, in 1973, after she contacted him about a book he had written. The letters do not contain any suggestion that the pope disobeyed his vow of celibacy, but they do show emotional tension and a deep level of affection, according to published reports. [BBC]
The Black Incarceration Rate Is Dropping Fast, Government Stats Show
The number of black people put into prison, particularly black women, has dropped significantly over the past six years, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics crunched by a Stanford University professor for the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. And perhaps most surprising: as the black incarceration rate goes down, the white rate is going up, the data shows. [Washington Post]
Debunking the Myth of Winter Blues
Think the snowy, cold, grey weather has you down? Turns out feeling sluggish may not really be the weather’s fault — and your brain may actually work better in the winter. [New York Magazine]
Lin-Manuel Miranda Rapped His Grammy Acceptance Speech
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator behind the smash Broadway musical “Hamilton,” scored a Grammy for the show Monday night — and accepted it in a truly appropo fashion: with a rhyming thank you speech. We’re sure this win will make “Hamilton” tickets even harder to get. [Vulture]
Sshh, @Lin_Manuel is speaking. #Grammys #Gram4Ham pic.twitter.com/xYTAIh7nTe
— Vulture (@vulture) February 16, 2016
Saying You Have Minority Friends May Make You Seem Less Racist
This Washington Post article dives into a research paper about perceived racism. In one of the experiments researchers showed people a Facebook profile of a white man surrounded with white friends and one of the same man surrounded with Asian friends. While the photo of Asian friends did not completely eliminate perceived racism, having those friends made him seem less racist than the man with only white friends. But beware, it only helps so much. [Washington Post]
"TMZ" Was Almost Called BuzzFeed
The creator of TMZ was educated at one of the top law schools in the country, started a gun control campaign as a high school student and kills stories that have to do with children or that he deems “bedroom policing.” This New Yorker profile of Harvey Levin is teeming with bits of information that together, while providing remarkable insight into the man-made machine that churns out celebrity gossip, raise a lot of questions about media consumption and the internet generally. [New Yorker]
A 3-D Printer Can Now Produce Viable Body Parts
Instead of printing with plastic or metal, researchers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina are printing 3-D objects made of human cells. And unlike other attempts to print human tissues, these can take in oxygen and nutrients, and survive. A part of an ear, for example, was successfully implanted in mice and did not die. The printed body parts aren’t ready to be implanted in humans yet, the researchers said, but that’s not too far off. [Quartz]
Whole Foods Wants to Attract More Hipsters with In-Store Tattoo Parlors
Whole Foods, thinking of ways to attract Millennials, thinks it’s a good idea to bring in tattoo parlors, record shops and body-care specialists to their stores with a new program called “Friends of 365.” The company wants to make 365 locations “reach more communities,” according to Bloomberg Business. [Bloomberg]
Part of India is Trying to Reclassify Peacocks as Vermin
Peacocks may be beautiful, but that is not helping their popularity in India, where the state of Goa has proposed reclassifying the animal as vermin. Goa’s agricultural minister said the peacocks are creating a problem for farmers, but animal rights groups are worried that the move is just meant as a way to make it easy for people to hunt and kill the birds. [The Guardian]
This column was compiled by DNAinfo reporters Jeanmarie Evelly, Emily Frost, Gwynne Hogan, Noah Hurowitz, Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, Carolina Pichardo, Irene Plagianos, Eddie Small, Rachel Holliday Smith, Gustavo Solis, Danielle Tcholakian and Shaye Weaver.
