Cowl at the moon

Chicagoans are still dealing with the trauma from Operation Midway Blitz, where only 3% of detainees were the kinds of criminals Trump said they targeted. / The New York Times [$]

“The world’s first border wall failed. It now lies buried beneath Iraq’s desert sands.” On the futility of borders. / The Guardian

The Trump administration wants to bankrupt the Southern Poverty Law Center—already, Fidelity is blocking account holders from donating stock to the charity. / A Whole Lotta Nothing

Nilay Patel explains “software brain,” where everything looks like a database, a view that frequently doesn’t match reality. / The Verge

See also: A venture capitalist vibe-coded a browser plugin that adds typos to AI-generated emails. / Futurism

“Once upon a time I thought of myself as a writer with a side hustle. Now I think of myself as a fire lookout whose income subsidizes a dilettante’s interest in scribbling.” How writers get by. / The Baffler

Outraged over a planned data center, a St. Louis suburb has removed four council members who supported the project, and now wants to recall the mayor. / The Wall Street Journal [$]

See also: Maine’s governor vetoes a state moratorium on new data center builds, citing the Town of Jay’s support of a new project in the region. / Gizmodo

“We broke the fabric down by washing, scrubbing and even greasing the material to give it a well-worn look.” The complicated history of the coat from Withnail and I. / On the Row

A South Korean man could face up to five years in prison for posting an AI-generated image that misled authorities trying to capture a wolf that escaped from a zoo. / Ars Technica

See also: Chernobyl’s wolf population has grown seven-fold since the 1986 nuclear disaster, likely from mutations that have made them more resistant to cancer. / ScienceAlert

Unrelated: In 1692, a man in Latvia testified that locals’ suspicions were correct, and that he was a werewolf, only he was working to protect the town. / Amusing Planet

In an experiment, seeds appear to emerge from dormancy at the sound of rain. / MIT News

An illustrated visit to the American Museum of Natural History, and the crushing realization of human time, by Elena Megalos. / Longreads

Coyote v. Acme was only the latest in Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s killing spree of movies for tax writeoffs. / The Verge [$]

“Clicking ‘SoundCloud rap’ currently redirects to the page for ‘mumble rap,’ which he thinks is a ‘crime against humanity.’” The Wikipedians chronicling today’s music microgenres. / Pitchfork

In the members area, unlocked links from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Verge ↓