Greetings from North Brooklyn, where our office air conditioning has us buying space heaters despite the fact that it’s the middle of June and it’s messing up our productivity.
We have a full house this week at HQ! Some of our out-of-town team members are here, and Charles is excited about the new humans who might not see through his begging tactics yet. And while our office may be freezing cold, they did schedule an in-office visit from a vital flow energy healer last week so we can’t complain too much.
On to the #content:
Turn that off right meow
A regional minister in Pakistan live-streamed a briefing on social media, and things got a little hairy.
A filter that gives users cat ears, noses, and whiskers was left on for a few minutes during the recording, turning officials into cat people. The very modern-day human error is a pretty endearingly hilarious one, and the internet is having a field day with it.
We hear plenty of complaints about how Snapchat and Instagram filters are distorting realistic beauty images. Kylie Jenner has an Instagram filter (of course she does), that fixes the user up with digitized versions of her cosmetics line. The “Paris” Instagram story filter and “pretty” Snapchat filter automatically make selfie-takers’ skin look uber clear and a little blurry, and there’s the anime filter that makes users’ eyes bigger to look like the comic style.
Concerns about filtered beauty perceptions are valid, especially as some people are even altering their real-life faces to look more like social filters. And social media most of the time feels basically designed to make people feel bad about themselves. But the Pakistani cat-tastrophe (don’t @ us) is an example of what these filters should really be about -- whimsy and goofiness that’s especially delightful when it’s hilariously misused by the unsuspecting olds.
Things are happening
Instead of gravestones, this California start-up wants to plant trees for the dead. “We have to come up with a better name than ‘death care.’ Maybe it’s legacy care. Maybe it’s eternity management.”
Gen X is feeling extremely Gen X these days.
Our friends at Contently have a great piece about how brands can respectfully and appropriately participate in Pride campaigns.
Influencers taking tone-deaf Instagram photos at Chernobyl are receiving backlash on social media. Tourism to the site has risen after the successful HBO series (and we’re left wondering–they do realize it’s still radioactive, right?)
Speaking of, Russia is making a counter Chernobyl TV show that explains why the whole thing was actually the American CIA’s fault, in their eyes. Because of course it was, and of course they are.
Sweden has McDonald’s for bees, kind of.
Artist Scott Wade turns incredibly dirty cars into works of art. Watch him in action here.
What We're Listening To
Part Americana, part folk, part old-time, Shovels & Rope’s latest album, By Blood, is full of stomp ‘n holler anthems, emotional ballads, and tunes you just have to tap your feet to. Every song is a bit of a surprise — none sound like the one that came before, but they’re individually a delight and the album is a great one to listen to in full. Shake up your week with it here.