Million-dollar rot

Remember this?

No? It's the Million-dollar homepage. Matt of Mefi asked someone to see which links were still live, and this Quartz story says that 22% of the links are dead,. Random clicking around leads to lots of parked domains. Looks more like 50% are 404d for all practical purposes. Some of the URLs make you wonder what someone was thinking:

http://www.zobius.com/I_AM_BETTER_THAN_YOU_AND_I_AM_FILTHY_RICH--I_AM_A_JERK/

We'll take your word for it. The Quartz piece examines the problem of link rot, which I suspect will be less of a problem once every link to GeoCities pages finally goes offline.

TWENTY PERCENT Says this story: Tips go up if there's an option in the app, or the merchant's Square payment screen has a tip option. This leads to a "digital tip trap," in which individual judgment and personal choice are wiped out by relentless mind-control beams streaming out of the electronic device, or something.

Wasn't that an annoying sentence? I'm disappointed I wrote it. But that's how you disagree with something without taking the arguments on their merits and refuting them one-by-one: mischaracterize with exaggeration, then say "or something" to indicate you kinda nailed it. Lazy

So you should read the story. I tip at the coffee shop, but I don't tip when I pick up the pizza. Delivery, yes. Handing it to me from the hot shelf? No. But there's a line on the receipt that says TIP and I always feel a twinge of guilt when I leave nothing. It's not a digital trap, but it nudges you, and for many that's all it takes.

Just kidding. The Atlantic article reminds you that . . .

It's always spices with these guys. And silks. Seems like that was the bulk of economic activity for hundreds of years: moving pepper and saffron around. Well, no, not just spices. Rugs. The Wall Street Journal has a review of a new show in New York that looks at Oriental rugs in European paintings. "From Rugs to Riches. This illustrates a poignant feature of the exhibition, a clash of civilizations: The paintings are eloquent of individual, identifiable lives, while the carpets stand mute, abstract, narrative-free.

I like narrative-free carpets, but that's just me.

The WSJ also has a look at the new film about Vivian Maier, the incredible photographer who worked as a nanny for decades, never showed anyone her work - even when she worked for Phil Donahue. A fellow bought a box of her negatives at a flea market a few years ago, and brought her work to light. The film raises the question of whether it's right to show the work of someone who obviously didn't want anyone to see it - and apparently the answer is yes, since interest in her work hasn't abated since it was discovered. This line was remarkable:

What curator in his or her right mind would turn this down? In favor of what?

"Say sorry"

"Sorry sir, I will never paint the base of police again"

"Now get out before i change my idea."

You suspect the crime was not spraying graffiti, but spraying it on something related to the police.

Finally, here's something that's almost impossible to resist!