Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Improving economy class flights, THC from beer yeast, ancient phallic graffiti and more from around the internet

9 March 2019

1970s Feminist Artists Inspired Many Famous Painters That Followed

Much of the inspiration for the loud and lauded paintings by men from the ’80s comes from feminist artists a decade earlier—by the likes of Joan Semmel, Maria Lassnig, Betty Tompkins and others. The 1960s and ’70s proved to be pivotal eras in privacy law, and the succeeding decade in art showed outward expression of these newly acquired rights—and feminist artists pioneered it for the Neo-Expressionist artists that followed. The concept of “neo” here has been contested and even used ironically, as many believed there was nothing new about it. As Joan Snyder says, “At the height of the Pop and Minimal movements, we [women] were making other art—art that was personal, auto-biographical, expressionistic, narrative, and political… This was called Feminist Art. This was what the art of the 1980s was finally about, appropriated by the most famous male artists of the decade.” Read more at Artsy.

New Study Finds More Positive Impacts of Magic Mushrooms

PhD candidates at Maastricht University have found evidence that a single dose of psilocybin (aka the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) can improve mood, empathy, outlook and creativity—for up to seven days after ingestion. Taking the drug in tea form, the 55 subjects were analyzed three times: “once the evening before ingesting psilocybin, once the morning after ingesting psilocybin, and finally seven days after ingesting psilocybin.” The positive results add to the increasing belief that psilocybin could help treat anxiety, depression and PTSD. Read more at PsyPost.

First All-Women Spacewalk Ever

Since 1998, there have been 213 spacewalks at the International Space Station and only 11% of the more than 500 crew members involved have been women. But on the next walk, scheduled for 29 March, the team will be entirely comprised of women—from the astronauts completing the actual walk (Christina Koch and Anne McClain) to the those giving ground support (Mary Lawrence and Kristen Facciol). “It definitely resonates with women around the agency that we’re at this point,” NASA’s Stephanie Schierholz tells The Guardian. Read more there.

Airbus + LAYER Envision Better Economy Class Flying

For frequent flyers, or anyone who’s sat on a long-haul, it may seem like no effort has gone into improving economy class travel. That’s part of the reason why collaborative efforts between Airbus and London-based design firm LAYER feel very necessary. Together, they’ve proposed a paired app and seating concept. The former, called “Move,” encourages travelers to get up and walk around the cabin every so often—which promotes healthier travel. The latter—composed of aircraft-grade aluminum, carbon fiber and a one-piece digitally knitted polyester wool blend “smart fabric” sling—is adjustable via the app, and offers various tensions, temperatures and so much more. Read all about the proposal at Core77.

Discover Art Scenes in Six Cities with Artsy + BMW’s City Guides

From luxury automaker BMW and Artsy (the platform that has taught many how to navigate the tricky art market) comes a new city guide service that will allow users to find galleries, exhibits and even fairs in art-world hubs. Launching on 25 March in conjunction with Art Basel Hong Kong, the guides will appear as a new feature in the Artsy app. Further, they will contain a level of personalization—taking into consideration artworks, artists and galleries each existing Artsy user has favorited in their profile. Of course, one can also buy or make an offer on the art they see directly through the app. The debut six cities include London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles. Read more about this GPS-based addition to the Artsy iPhone app on Bloomberg.

Scientists Engineer Beer Yeast to Produce THC and CBD

Growing cannabis is a process that requires time, water and ultimately a lot of energy—and there’s plenty of room for error. Because the plant has become exponentially more potent (and popular) over the years, its make-up can often be difficult to understand. Cannabis has many active components, but the main two are THC (which gets you high) and CBD (a non-psychoactive anti-inflammatory). Extracting the two—separately and precisely—from cannabis plants is common, but complicated. Now researchers have genetically modified beer yeast to produce both cannabinoids. They can do so separately (drastically reducing the issue of contamination) and ultimately have the ability to revolutionize the cannabis industry, but at that point is it even cannabis? Read more at Wired.

Ancient Phallic Graffiti Wasn’t For Laughs

A very familiar symbol has been discovered near Hadrian’s Wall (aka Hadrian’s Wall) in Cumbria, England—only this one dates back to 207 AD. The penis-shaped drawing isn’t just juvenile scribbling, however. According to archeologists from Newcastle University, these images are common and used to adorn doorways, walls and jewelry during the Roman Era (753 BC to 476 AD) and symbolized good fortune—and power. “Phallus graffiti, while amusing now perhaps, could have been seen as threatening 1,800 years ago” says Olivia Goldhill at Quartz. Read more there.