Vloggers! Pokemon! Kardashians!

Today was a good day for bad odds. A 16-year-old survived a 2,300-mile flight riding in a plane’s wheel well. An American won the Boston marathon. And Colonel Sanders -- you know, of KFC fame -- turns out to be a veritable colonel! (If not, regrettably, in the actual armed forces.) With news like this, you might as well buy a lottery ticket! Just not, you know, this lottery ticket. Let’s go to the links:
1. I have only heard of five of these allegedly famous Internet people. But I am sure I will hear from many, many more of them in the future. New York magazine’s huge package on Internet fame is as fascinating and it is confounding: there are vloggers! Pokemon! Kardashians! And needling, meta questions about the nature of celebrity.
2. On Instagram she posted pretty landscapes, winter sunsets, smiling selfies. In real life, her mother neared death. On the way we grieve -- or don’t -- in the age of social media, where every communication is literally and figuratively cropped.
3. Are we fact-checking pop culture to death? After all, the cool thing about movies (etc) is that they are … works of fiction. If they were not fiction, they would be documentaries. And only your smuggest dinner-party guests would watch them.

Ugh squee I can't even.
Pocketables: In the past four years, Apple has ramped up its renewable energy use from 35 percent to more than 94. If you care about technology or the environment, this is kind of a big deal. If you don’t, well, here’s a list of cats in food comas. (2,901 words/12 minutes)
Postscripts: Google frecking. Bunnies being bunnies. Juggalos vs. polar bears. This is why I hate your study abroad pictures and this is why you shouldn’t text in front of your kids. The grammar of clickbait. The economics of bots. Today, in crazy Japanese shit: tomato-flavored ice cream and anime cheaters. Don’t fuck up the culture? We already did!
Until tomorrow, @caitlindewey
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