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I was interested to read about a recent study of genetic connections between ancient and modern inhabitants of the Levant.

A number of interesting posts concerning privacy showed up today, which made good reading together. In particular, these articles concern privacy, in this case, the control that people have about data concerning themselves.

An enduring theme in design is the relation between form and function. For example, is there an ideal form that corresponds to a given function? How do form and function relate and develop over time?

John Metcalfe of CityLab points out an interesting video shot on a street in New York City recently. The video is a time-lapse recording of activity at a City Bike dock featuring rentable bicycles and curbside parking across the street. Voilà!

The point, says videogrpaher Luke Ohlson, is that the bike dock is much busier than the car parking.

Rich Haridy points to a new item on Kickstarter called "Nakefit". Rather than wear flop-flips on the beach or at the pool, wouldn't you prefer foot-shaped stickers for the bottom of your feet? The makers of Nakefit think so.

As Rich points out, this idea seems to be in tension between "why?" and "of course!".

Dr. Rahul Parikh has written an interesting piece on the "Uberization" of medicine. By this expression, Dr. Parikh refers to app services that some start-ups have created to allow doctors to perform freelance medical consultations over the Internet.

An interesting piece by Adele Peters of FastCompany describes shoes made partly from a funky kind of plastic derived from algae.

The Ultra III shoes, made by a company called Vivobarefoot, are partly made with algae skimmed from freshwater lakes. This algae is turned into a foam that is blended with a standard plastic, ethylene-vinyl acetate, to form the material for the shoes.

An NGO called United for Iran has undertaken a project called IranCubator. The purpose of IranCubator is the development of apps that provide Iranians with relevant information that they may otherwise find hard to get given government censorship.

IranCubator takes the form of an ongoing contest in which app developers consider suggestions for app designs and implement the ones that they like best. The effort has resulted in several recent app releases.

A piece by Mark Scott in the New York Times states that efforts by the American alt-right to support Marine Le Pen's campaign for President of France have fallen flat. Tactics that worked in the American campaign for Donald Trump do not "translate."

One tactic has been to spread memes, that is, posters featuring a picture, often of Emmanuel Macron, Ms. Le Pen's rival, and a clever caption. Such efforts have encountered two problems.

In a Wired article, Sam Lubell describes a building that incorporates emojis into its exterior. Dutch architect Changiz Tehrani decided to enliven the facade of an apartment building in Vathorst by having emojis molded in relief in intersections of its surface elements.

No particular message was intended, says Tehrani: "Because the building is very strong, even severe, we wanted some funniness to lighten it up."

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Genes and polities

Privacy and control of personal information

What is a hockey arena?

Is parking unjust?

Stickers for the bottom of your feet?

Uberizing medicine?

Will shoes made of algae fight pollution?

Guerilla apps from IranCubator

Political campaigning and culture

Emoji architecture :) or :(