Joan of snark
Scientists worry about the politicization of vital statistics. / Undark Magazine
Connecting the dots between Vice President Vance's recent "Nazi apologia" and his artificial-intelligence boosterism. / Forever Wars
See also: Thanks to under-moderated social platforms, anyone can write their own Mein Kampf now. / Garbage Day
"What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba." Mexico threatens to sue Google. / axios
President Trump's assault on DEI is also an assault on rights for the disabled. / The New Yorker
Unrelated: Paintings by the artist Bianca Raffaela, who is registered as blind. / artsy
Art handlers explain how they dealt with Southern California's recent fires. / The Art Newspaper
Twenty-four hours of aerial firefighting in Los Angeles, animated. / LinkedIn
For people who view the late Angeleno thinker Mike Davis as "a prophet of doom," they're reading him wrong. / The Los Angeles Times
The top of Yelp's annual list of the best US restaurants is an LA seafood counter. / Yelp
Related: When the Michelin star becomes a restaurant's curse. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Dr. Bronner's is dropping its B Corp certification, saying its standards are too weak. / FastCompany
People in smaller towns are forming nonprofits to save their local movie theaters. / The New York Times [+]
A new proof solves "the moving sofa problem." / Quanta Magazine
For your weekly wanderlust, a report and some beautiful pictures from a bike tour of the Turkish Highlands. / The Radavist
Jon Krakauer is once again defending his mountaineering book Into Thin Air, this time from a YouTuber. / Slate
See also: Some tips from a very experienced traveler. / KK
Confessions of a former online hater. "I do feel like the snark sub-Reddits aren't helping anybody." / The Cut
And now a brief chat with a new Sustaining Member, Sara B.!
Sara, hi! What brings you here? Good afternoon! I see those little mini supporter messages at the boot of TMN and I like reading about the other supporters.
What can you tell us about your connection to TMN? I've been following the Tournament of Books since 2011. I followed TMN soon afterwards. I get TMN every day about 10am here in Milwaukee, and I look forward to my reading break.
We love that—thank you! What keeps you coming back? I keep coming back for the new books. I love surprise winners in the tournament. I also won a T-shirt and the Field Notes notebooks one year for picking the spread on the final judgement. Some year I hope to read all the books before the tournament begins.
Is there any particular reason you decided to support today? With all the uncertainty in the world I want to keep something certain, so I decided to become a supporter. And thanks for the real email. I'm glad I'm finally a financial supporter, not just a share-with-everyone-I-know supporter.
🪴 It's thanks to generous, fantastic supporters like Sara that we're here, sending our little emails, doing our little things. 🪴🪴
If you enjoy this newsletter, please become a Sustaining Member today!
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Your headlines are sourced and composed by Rosecrans Baldwin (☜) and Andrew Womack, Monday through Friday. View this edition and the latest headlines at TMN.