bi punks, cat grammar, depressing pharmaceutical stuff, black male models making history

"Let's Remember Buzzcocks Frontman Pete Shelley as the Proud Bisexual Punk He Was" by Danny Addice

Buzzcocks’ biggest single, “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” bemoans a guttural feeling all queer people have lived through. Just the song’s opening verse alone hits hard with that bitter despair: “You disturb my natural emotions / You make me feel I’m dirt / And I’m hurt / And if I start a commotion / I’ll only end up losin’ you / And that’s worse.” Simple yet raw — a common theme in Buzzcocks songs.

Even Pete Shelley’s more open-ended love songs remained queer in the sense that almost every single track was genderless, swapping out “he” and “she” with “you” and “I.”

"Mark Twain and his cats [10 pictures]" by Abraham Piper

Includes several of his quotes about cats...but not my favorite:

You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does -- but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get to pulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you'll hear grammar that will give you the lockjaw. Ignorant people think it's the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it's the sickening grammar they use. --Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad

"Opioid Nation" by Marcia Angell

Discusses the history of opiate use and the current situation in the context of four books about it. Thanks jesse_the_k!

"Alton Mason Makes History As First Black Male Model To Walk In Chanel Show In 109 Years" by Sabrina Barr

This is one of those historical firsts where you aren't sure whether to celebrate or feel grumpy because really, it took until 2018 for this to happen?

"Investigation of generic ‘cartel’ expands to 300 drugs" by Christopher Rowland

It used to be that once a prescription drug went off patent, you could rely on an inexpensive generic version becoming available. No longer. Also, prices are being raised astronomically on some formerly inexpensive generics.

Neural networks name kittens

Neural networks + Kittens = !!! JanelleCShane trains a neural network to produce kitten names for AFK Cat Rescue of Huntsville, AL

In mid-production drama, it turned out the neural network had accidentally been contaminated with "another dataset, a list of character names from Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, C. S. Lewis, Robert E Howard, and Terry Pratchett". Kitten names accepted by the cat rescue included Parihen the Thawk, Snox Boops, and Big Wiggy Bool.