Pretty bizarre

Got any hot plans for tomorrow night? L-o-l. Personally I'll be gorging on stale Christmas cookies and watching Netflix's faux-countdown circa 10 p.m. But thanks to the ~glories of modern technology~, no one but me, my dog and the thousands of people on this list need know about that! That's because social media basically exists to make your life look better than it is. And on NYE, of all nights, we should really take advantage.

1. Meet Google's philosopher-king. Since Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling, Google has been forced to maintain a kind of philosophical advisory council overseas. The only actual philosopher on said council is a guy named Luciano Floridi: a besuited, unorthodox academic who's peddling some pretty fascinating ideas re: digital identity.

2. What it's like to work an Amazon warehouse during Christmas. In short: stressful, stupid, unabashedly exploitative, and full of mandatory stretch breaks. Just like Bezos' other holding, basically! Except we don't get yoga breaks.

3. In defense of the AOL email address. AKA, the *ultimate* Slate pitch.

Can't possibly be comfortable.

Pocketable: The problem with nerd entitlement? You think you're part of the Rebel Alliance, when you're actually fighting for the Emperor. (2765 words/11 minutes)

Postscripts: Fat plants. Dead baes. Weird Internet clocks. How late the world stays up for New Year's and how the cosmo got its start. Emoji aren't ruining the English language. Trendy portmanteaus probably are. The year according to Drudge, Twitter and Jaden Smith's Internet teachings, all of them pretty bizarre.

See you tomorrow!
@caitlindewey

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