Hot hot hot!
An analysis of fossilized Galápagos corals shows the current Super El Niño is the strongest in 1,000 years. / Ars Technica
“When power is mobilized by an appliance to do work, heat will be shed somewhere.” Keeping a Parisian apartment cool during record heatwaves. / Places Journal
A “guerrilla subway heat operative” finds New York’s subways are getting hotter, with some stations reaching a “real feel” of 132 degrees Fahrenheit. / The Guardian
Vomit, human feces, and pig heads are among the items Waymo workers say they’ve cleaned out of the vehicles. / Bay Area Current
So far, AI has actually created more jobs than it’s destroyed, but companies may yet use it to deskill employees and drive down wages. / Jacobin
See also: Taste isn’t as ineffable as Silicon Valley would have you believe, and history shows it can come down to training. / Asterisk
Kelefa Sanneh finds connections to AI in the 1970s split among musicians over synthesizers, with many loudly proclaiming their refusal to use the new technology. / The New Yorker
A history of the musical stutter, which has probably existed “since the dawn of time,” but at least since Geoffrey O’Hara’s “K-K-K-Katy” in 1918. / Pitchfork
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Visualizing the growing number of satellites orbiting Earth: Of the more than 34,000 objects in low orbit, over 10,000 are part of Starlink. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
The battle over whether Pluto is a planet still rages between astronomers and planetary scientists, the latter still refusing to call it a dwarf planet. / The Guardian
Once a two-week affair, the US Open now stretches into a third week—and the USTA’s CEO may only be half-joking when he says four weeks is the goal. / Associated Press
See also: On the one-handed tennis backhand, and an appreciation of Roger Federer’s mastery of the now-endangered shot. / The New York Times [$]
According to a new study, blue light—such as the kind we’re bombarded with by our phones, computers, and televisions—impairs our ability to distinguish fine detail. / University of Georgia
Citing ideology, the US embassy in the Dominican Republic removes a Kehinde Wiley painting and is looking into whether it can be sold. / Hyperallergic
See also: Our 2008 gallery and interview with Kehinde Wiley. “Why is it that Eurocentrism is still the dominant material means of recognizing what’s culturally valid?” / The Morning News