Looking ahead In some ways, Harris takes a page from Michelle Obama’s sartorial playbook. The former First Lady recognized that her outfits would be closely studied, so she chose to direct observers’ attention to emerging Black designers like Maki Oh and Duro Olowu, along with other designers of color, including Thakoon and Prabal Gurung. At today’s inauguration, Obama also chose to wear an outfit by Hudson: A striking eggplant-colored pantsuit with a gold belt, and a matching coat. … [Read more...] about Decoding the fashion at Biden’s inauguration
A year of design
How Trump gave rise to the aesthetics of hate
The American brand hasn’t always been positive, especially on the international stage. For comparison, look back 17 years to the “America, Fuck Yeah!” mentality of Team America: World Police, which parodied how a George W. Bush-led U.S. looked to the rest of the world: as an obtuse imperial force that believed that an SUV and a few well-placed karate chops could somehow conquer the global war on terror. Under Trump, however, that red, white, and blue bravado has been aimed inward. It began a war to divide “true, conspiracy-decoding patriots” from “brain-washed, science-abiding liberals.” … [Read more...] about How Trump gave rise to the aesthetics of hate
Grocery stores were already in flux. The pandemic could change them forever
Health concerns may also end up affecting a part of the grocery shopping experience that’s been in the midst of its own evolution: the checkout line. In recent years some stores have shifted from the old model of several lines leading to several checkout counters to a centralized approach where there’s one single line, and maybe an express line, and customers all wait for the next available checker. But this may be a short-lived experiment. … [Read more...] about Grocery stores were already in flux. The pandemic could change them forever
How easy will it be to update the COVID vaccine if the virus mutates too much?
So far, new variants of the virus have shown relatively few mutations, so the original vaccines should continue to work. “The spike protein is very big—it’s like 350 amino acids, so that’s big for a protein, and what that means is that there are many, many different sites that antibodies can recognize,” Weissman says. The variant in the U.K. had only a handful of mutations. … [Read more...] about How easy will it be to update the COVID vaccine if the virus mutates too much?
These invisible, edible biological tags help track down the cause of E. coli outbreaks
If you’re unlucky enough to eat a salad contaminated with E. coli, it’s possible that you’ll never know the original source of the bug. After one recent outbreak of illnesses linked to leafy greens that ended in December, the CDC said that its investigation couldn’t identify the specific type or brand that had caused the problem. Even if a farm is flagged as the source, it often takes so long for the investigation to be completed that the lettuce isn’t recalled before consumers eat it. … [Read more...] about These invisible, edible biological tags help track down the cause of E. coli outbreaks
