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The latest links
New York's Hottest Steakhouse Was a Fake, Until Saturday Night. How an in-joke amongst an extremely online group of friends became a restaurant/performance art piece for one night. "The menu purported to follow the life cycle of a cow."
In honor of National Pancake Day, may I humbly offer you The World's Best Pancake Recipe.
America's 2023 Covid booster rollout has been slow and uneven because it works like the rest of our health care system now (whereas before it was a single-payer program run by the US government).
Scientists Witnessed The Birth Of A New Accent In Antarctica. "The changes in accent were subtle, but significant enough to be acoustically measured and even predicted by a computational model."
David Frum in 2018: "If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy."
Physicians say transgender sports bans are a health issue. "Physically active youths have improved mental health outcomes, greater self-esteem and social supports, increased school retention rates..."
Painter David Salle has been working with an AI program trained on his work. "Salle had to admit the machine was finally starting to spawn images with true artistic value."
Jesus Chris, Nepo Baby. "I totally understand that people think I got my job because of my dad, but I definitely would have still been the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even if my dad wasn't God."
Taylor Lorenz: The makers of counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags are promoting their wares with live fashion shows on TikTok.
Today is the day: every US household can sign up to receive four free at-home Covid tests delivered right to your residence. All you need to do is put in your name and address — it took me 20 seconds this AM. Pls boost/repost!
A timely message for tech/web workers watching the WGA get what they wanted from the Hollywood studios: Ethan Marcotte's new book You Deserve a Tech Union. "By standing together, we can build a better version of the tech industry."
The Writer's Guild and the Hollywood studios reach a tentative deal after 146 days of striking. WGA's negotiating committee: "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional..." Unions work — form them, join them.
September 23
Biden Will Join Autoworkers on Picket Line in Michigan, a Historic Move. "There is little to no precedent for a sitting president joining striking workers on a picket line."
September 22
How Big Ben Works: A Detailed Look Inside London’s Beloved Victorian Clock Tower. Always down for a clock mechanism explainer.
There's No Such Thing as an Ethical Museum. "At its core, an art museum is essentially a narrative of empire. If, as Napoleon quipped, history is a set of lies agreed upon, a museum is their physical manifestation."
How to identify and pronounce the names of ten common types of clouds, including cirrus, cumulonimbus, and nimbostratus.
The JWST has found carbon on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. It's got water, it's got carbon...it's got life maybe?
Why Scalpers Can Get Olivia Rodrigo Tickets and You Can't. "Ticketmaster's 'Verified Fan' system doesn't help fans. It helps scalpers who have hundreds of accounts, use special internet browsers, and have dozens of credit cards."
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events. Just staggering corruption. As Jamelle Bouie says, this shows Thomas's contempt not only for the American public but the Supreme Court as well.
September 21
Studio Ghibli has sold a controlling stake to Nippon Television and will become a subsidiary of the Japanese broadcaster.
"If AI takes over those mundane projects and tasks that aren't creatively engaging or necessarily important, you free up designers to be creative in the same way the computer first did when it arrived on the scene."
"A tachyonic antitelephone is a hypothetical device in theoretical physics that could be used to send signals into one's own past."
Kinda fascinating piece about TikTokers Mixie and Munchie. "Instagram, I look at it now, is the stage. Pick who you want to play, look how you want to look. Create a character of your own because everyone online is fake, anyway."
Never past your prime! 13 peaks we reach at 40 or later. "Ageing doesn't have to mean slowing down. In fact, you're more likely to win an ultramarathon in midlife, not to mention get happier, wiser and more body confident."
Bentley vs. Train. This is peak internet right here. We will be whispering "tren" in my household for a long time to come.
The US government is restarting their program to send 4 free at-home Covid tests to every household in the country — you can sign up starting Sept 25th.
September 20
People's behaviour at music gigs is getting worse. I have three rules to solve that. "Most of these conventions simply fall under the catch-all rubric of Don't Be a Selfish Idiot. Being a selfish idiot, however, is very on-trend."
An essay on friendship. "Friendship is a form of purposive idleness. The relationship is based on equality, not on power."
The Zeitpyramide is a public art work designed to celebrate the 1200th anniversary of a German town. One block of the pyramid will be laid every 10 years until completion in 3183. The 4th block was just laid about a week ago.
Huh, you can take in-person and live virtual tours of Amazon's warehouses. "The tour shows you how products move through our fulfillment centers, focusing on four main processes: Pick, Pack, SLAM, and Ship."
"B612 is an highly legible open source font family designed and tested to be used on aircraft cockpit screens."
With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways. "We have to be truthful, not neutral. I would make sure that you don't just give a platform ... to those who want to crash down the constitution and democracy."
September 19
Son, You're Old Enough to Know the Truth, There is No Such Thing as the "Invisible Hand of the Market". "The fingers! They're unregulated!"
Close to 2,000 Environmental Activists Killed Over Last Decade. "Violence, intimidation, and harassment are also being inflicted to silence defenders around the world,"
Global adventurer Jan Chipchase just returned from a month-long trip in the Pamir Mountains, including lots of time in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. His travelogues are fascinating — start here and work your way forward.
The Man Who Became Uncle Tom. Clint Smith examines Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and the remarkable, complicated man who helped inspire the title character, Josiah Henson.
Learn how to process your own JWST photos at home, "no technical experience required to start".
Ok wow, they are making Kristen Roupenian's Cat Person into a movie? And if you read the original short story in the New Yorker, you'll find the movie poster very familiar.
September 18
RamenHaus: slowly rotating ramen bowls. This is *extremely* my jam.
How Pontevedra, Spain transformed into a more people-centric city. "It's not my duty as mayor to make sure you have a parking spot. For me, it's the same as if you bought a cow, or a refrigerator, and then asked me where you're going to put them."
If you're liking the NY Times puzzle game Connections, you can try your hand at your own grid for others to solve.
How to Cool Down a City. "Almost every aspect of how we build cities amplifies heat, from the buildings we live in to the cars we drive." But there are ways to design cities to be cooler.
Beyoncé's birthday Renaissance show celebrated the depths of Black womanhood. "The reality is too many Black women don't make it to 42 and too many are not celebrated."
Jamelle Bouie: "The unfortunate truth, as we're beginning to see with the authoritarian turn in the Republican Party, is that our constitutional system doesn't necessarily need democracy, as we understand it, to actually work."
"Adults 18 years and older without health insurance and adults whose health insurance does not cover all COVID-19 vaccine costs can get updated COVID-19 vaccines at no cost through the [CDC's] Bridge Access Program."
Max Alexander is a 7-year-old fashion designer with 1.7 million followers on Insta.
September 15
I was reminded this morning that Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad comes out in less than 2 weeks! Very excited!
"There are reports that laboratory tests to detect abortion drugs have not only been created in Poland but are, in rare cases, also being used there to investigate the outcomes of pregnancies."
The winners of the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize (for unusual and often goofy scientific achievements) include an explanation of why scientists like to lick rocks and "re-animating dead spiders to use as mechanical gripping tools".