#HTE

Do We Really Need All Our Products to Be “Smart” and What’s Behind America’s Ongoing Fascination With Political Yard Signs?

Core77’s editors spend time combing through the news so you don’t have to. Here’s a weekly roundup of our favorite stories from the World Wide Web.

The Weird Logic Behind Yard Signs in Politics

From local to national elections, America shows an unfortunate obsession with political yard signs that doesn’t quite add up.

—Molly Millette, editorial intern

Maybe Everything Doesn’t Need to be Smart

The spread of “smart” technology in our culture is a real Catch-22. As the New York Times reports, consumers see this digitization of almost any product we could possibly own (yes ladies, there are even smart tampons) as a chance for ultimate efficiency while sometimes failing to see the darker side of this phenomena. Apps and smart devices may make your life more streamlined, but we musn’t forget that they also are able to collect incredibly valuable data for companies that can end up making them very financially successful. So ultimately, the questions surrounding the expansion of smart devices are thorny ones to answer: does this technology exist more to make our lives better, or rather to make the lives of those inventing and controlling them wildly rich?

—Allison Fonder, community manager

Words Are Hard

Recommended to me in a Slack group, of course, (thanks, Alicia!), this piece offered some quick thoughts into how Slack is approaching building a style guide, alongside the voice and tone of the company as a whole. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this.

—Carly Ayres, columnist, In the Details

My Body in Words and Images

This week I’m reading Zanzu,  a website put up by the German Federal Centre for Health Education. The website is intended to teach people (I believe incoming immigrants) about sexual mores in Germany, and thus discusses topics like The Body and Sex, Sexual Pleasure, Virginity, First-Time-With-a-New-Partner Sex, et cetera. It is freaking fascinating and the icons are pretty awesome. Here’s an excerpt, loosely translated:

Pornography showing sexual behavior in pictures, films, drawings or texts. People use pornography to be arousing sexually. It is okay if you like pornography. Many people like them, some do not.

Pornography is not the same as sex in reality. The following points are noticeable in pornographic material:
• People always slender body, large penises or large breasts (often these are technically processed).
• People want and at any time to have sex.
• People show no emotion.

—Rain Noe, senior editor