July 10, 2017
Tesla’s Model 3 rolls out of production. Meanwhile, sales in Hong Kong plummet to zero when a tax break vanishes. / The Wall Street Journal
Based on newly discovered DNA in fossils, Africans walked into Europe 270,000 years ago, much earlier than thought. / The New York Times
Inmate escapes South Carolina prison using tools flown in by a drone. / TIME
Politicians from both sides lambast Trump’s plan to collaborate with Russia to fight Russia’s election-tampering. / Politico
“The intelligence captured Putin’s specific instructions on the operation’s audacious objectives—defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump.” In case you missed it: the ever-shocking recent history, published last month by the Washington Post, of Putin’s plan to put Trump in power. / The Washington Post
The oldest federally placed monuments in the United States are the boundary stones of Washington, DC. / Worlds Revealed: Geography & Maps
A map of the territories, languages, and treaties of North American indigenous peoples. / Native-Land.ca
“This fire wasn’t planned alongside a careful adjudication of how the winds were blowing, and it certainly wasn’t a calculus presented by a team of seasoned professionals.” Leigh Cowart weaves the story of a failed marriage into a glancing history of American forest fires. / Hazlitt
A collection of in-store playlists from the Gap in the ’90s and early aughts. / Gap In-Store Playlists
Spotify fosters a “parasitic underbelly” of playlist-gaming artists, even pays producers for nonexistent acts. / Vulture
“Unless you enjoy being pummelled and placed in a choke-hold by panicked passengers, a person could sit there all day tugging on a door handle to his or her heart’s content.” What happens if somebody opens a door during a flight? Can’t happen, thanks to cabin pressure. / Ask the Pilot
Gamers angered by land speculation and gentrification in Final Fantasy servers. / Kotaku
A short, mildly trippy film of friendship: I Knew Jack O’Neill, by Peter Hamblin, a tribute to the recently deceased inventor of the wet suit. / Vimeo
Every Seattle resident gets $100 in vouchers to donate to the political candidate of their choice. / Guardian
“It’s not that I wish Facebook treated its Cs and Ks alike. It’s that by not knowing the rules, we give up some agency to mathematical calculations. Somewhere in the gap between what an algorithm does and doesn’t do, I lost many years with my sister.” The difference between searching for “Chrissy” and “Krissy” turns out to be 14 years. / Wired
A prototype for a battery-free cell phone uses ambient power from radio signals and light. / YouTube
After thorough investigation, it’s almost certain that “dude” derived from “doodle,” as in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” / Lingua Franca
“Most people talk as if Miami and Bangladesh still have a chance of surviving; most of the scientists I spoke with assume we’ll lose them within the century, even if we stop burning fossil fuel in the next decade.” Sobering longform reminder that climate change is already killing people and might very well kill us all. / New York