In China, companies making fentanyl precursors and analogues can apply for state tax rebates. / NPR

Nearly 200 US colleges and universities hold contracts with Chinese businesses, valued at $2.32 billion. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Argentina experiences a 2,153% increase in Dengue cases. / The Guardian

From February, some good news about recent progress against dengue fever. / Science

If you're an organ donor in the United States, "there's a 25% chance your kidney ends up in the trash." / Statecraft

A researcher who studies American sexual behavior says there's been a rapid rise of "rough sex" among college students, particularly sexual strangulation. / The New York Times [+]

The amount of American adults who've had coffee in the past day has increased by 37% since 2004, a 20-year high. / Sprudge

See also: McDonald's introduces billboards that smell like French fries. / Business Insider

Why are cats getting more screen time in movies recently? Professional cat training for films "has greatly evolved in recent years." / The Hollywood Reporter

Remembering that once upon a time, schools, towns, states and even the Senate passed rules against beepers. / Pessimists Archive

Jessa Crispin: Once again, the intellectual media sends an elite writer on a cruise, only to discover the guy hates everyone. / The Culture We Deserve

Some notes on how a mechanical watch works. Also, how the Berlin Wall worked. / Bartosz Ciechanowski, Open Culture

Three men are rescued after spelling out "help" with palm leaves on a small Pacific island. / BBC News

Related: A former Special Forces soldier explains what he packs in his "go-pouch." / Why Is This Interesting

Following Israel's thwarting of Iran's aerial attack, world leaders urge Netanyahu not to retaliate, and Biden says the US won't support an Israeli counterattack. / AP, Axios

A mission to capture space junk has now rendezvoused with a second-stage rocket that's been orbiting Earth since 2009. / Gizmodo

Tinnitus sufferers are finding relief with a new FDA-approved device that electronically stimulates the tongue—it works by distracting the brain. / NPR

Researchers have identified a link between car exhaust and signs and symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. / University of Technology Sydney

Just as there are people who have an innate sense of navigation, others do not, and GPS appears to diminish people's wayfinding skills. / Ars Technica

See also: "At some point, I'm going to pick up a paper map." What it's like to switch to a circa-2011 BlackBerry in the year 2023. / Stephen's Site

In online chats, Amazon drivers often refer to a dispatcher named "Wayne," an imaginary nemesis who's apparently based on a real person. / 404 Media

"The majority of what we are and who we are is kept private inside." Twenty years of PostSecret. / Hazlitt

John Warner: There are values core to higher education that shouldn't be handed over to generative AI—but that's exactly what's happening now. / Inside Higher Ed

A look back at the rise of the photocopier and its implications for copyright. / NEWART

"It is equally unsustainable to write about music as it is to write and perform music for a living." After Pitchfork, what's next for music criticism? / Boston Review

A pair of music archivists are unearthing lost recordings from major artists, and putting them back in the right hands. / The New York Times [+]

See also: A look inside George Martin's Montserrat recording studio, which is currently crumbling into ruins. / Atlas Obscura

Following Israel's attack on Iran's consulate in Syria, Iranian forces have seized an "Israeli-linked" container ship near the Strait of Hormuz. / Al Jazeera

See also: "The conventional wisdom in Washington and elsewhere has often held that Iran has become contained, even isolated. But this was never true." / Foreign Affairs

Google blocks California news outlets in retaliation over proposed legislation that would force it to pay publishers in the state for content. / Gizmodo

State and city mandates for CO2 reductions are working in the Bay Area, where vehicle emission rates are falling around 2.6% annually. / Berkeley News

"I remember thinking, 'Why did it take them three years to build a three-story building?'" The town that kept its nuclear bunker a secret for three decades. / Smithsonian

OJ Simpson handed over only $133,000 of the $33.5 million he was ordered to pay in the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. / Rolling Stone

US border arrests typically surge in spring; however, for the first time since 2017, March arrests fell, month over month—due to increased immigration enforcement in Mexico. / NPR

AI summaries won't replace social media anytime soon, both because the technology isn't there yet, and because people don't want that. / Read Max

Inside a horror-themed gym in Pittsburgh. / Neatorama

After scanning more than 500 sauropod bones during Covid lockdown, an Australian paleobiologist identified 12 new dinosaurs. / ABC

"For years, I have been telling people that if they love podcasts and want to support podcast creators—especially independent ones—they shouldn't listen to podcasts on Spotify." / Defector

This is wonderful: 15 notes played at 0.2 bpm time differences. / YouTube

Spend a minute at a park. / One Minute Park

Bird flu outbreaks typically go away after culling poultry, but over the past three years the virus hasn't died down, and in fact is increasing. / WIRED

Moira Donegan: How society's failure to help an obvious victim of domestic violence led to Nicole Brown's death. / The Guardian

Traffic data on the day of eclipse shows how people flocked to the path of totality. / The New York Times [+]

An advocacy group in Mexico is using deepfakes of missing people in efforts to coerce the government to help locate the individuals. / The Daily Beast

This week, Apple notified iPhone users in 92 countries that they were "being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack," at first calling the attack "state-sponsored." / TechCrunch

The only thing Humane's AI Pin does reliably is tell the time; two years later, the crank-based Playdate gaming console has only grown in relevance. / The Verge, Engadget

A new excavation at Pompeii has unearthed stunning frescos as well as a mosaic floor with more than a million white tiles. / BBC

Jessa Crispin: "You are having a midlife crisis. It's fine." / The Culture We Deserve

Setting the retirement age at 65 was politically motivated—it was a way to get Social Security legislation passed when life expectancy was far lower. / Money

"In an attempt to banish Western cultural influences, authorities in the Republic of Chechnya are banning music they deem too fast or too slow." / Hyperallergic

How attitudes toward "selling out" have changed among musicians over the past two decades—as to why, the answer has a lot to do with Napster. / Can't Get Much Higher

"Pelicans will eat anything they can fit into their mouths." / Boing Boing

The February heatwave in West Africa was made 10 times more likely by climate change. / CarbonBrief

British farmers say this year's record rainfall suggests an ongoing emergency. / The Guardian

A round-up of superlatives, senior yearbook style, for "the most surprising, actionable, and fun solutions" to the climate crisis. / Grist

Lionel Barber: We already live in a "Trump 1.5" world, but Japan is more worried than most about Trump 2.0. / Politico Magazine

See also: Fake pictures of Donald Trump with historical figures. / X

Despite a decade of federal oversight, Albuquerque cops kill people at a higher rate than any other police force in the United States. / Searchlight New Mexico

Can America's abandoned malls be turned into housing? Zoning rules say probably not. / Vox

Consumer Reports asks the USDA to take Lunchables off school lunch menus due to high amounts of sodium and heavy metals. / NPR

A French court says veggie burgers can be called "steaks." / Le Monde

Indie food brands cry foul over Trader Joe's executives' "blatant and aggressive" copycat tactics. / Taste

Biohackers go all in on so-called cellular-health treatments, despite science not exactly supporting them. / GQ

"'The most basic questions about sleep still lack definite answers." Increasing evidence finds sleep disorders to have a genetic component. / The London Review of Books

"If the global south exists, then who leads it?" From 2000 to 2021, China funded more than 20,000 infrastructure projects across 165 countries. / The Economist

Ed Conway: Elon Musk isn't going to be the Henry Ford of the electric car—China is. / Material World

Jon Lee Anderson embeds with a Brazilian special-forces unit that fights illegal miners in the Amazon. / The New Yorker

Researchers estimate that the best land for growing coffee will shrink by more than half by 2050. / Grist

Swapping red meat for forage fish—e.g., herring and sardines—could prevent 750,000 deaths a year. / The Guardian

In Michigan, two parents are convicted over the deaths caused by their child in a mass shooting. / The New York Times [+]

Abortions will soon be outlawed in Arizona except in cases where a pregnant person's life is at risk. / NPR

Eclipse travelers spent an estimated $1.6 billion on lodging, activities, food, and gas. / Business Insider

For $20 million, you can buy Kelly Slater's Hawaiian compound. / Uncrate

"Mark Twain should not erase Stendhal." Europe fears artificial intelligence will erase its languages. / Politico EU

The physics community mourns Peter Higgs, who proposed the Higgs boson. / Metafilter

Mattel debuts a less competitive version of Scrabble for Gen Z, or anybody who finds word games intimidating. / BBC News

See also: Tracking several hundred teenagers over 24 years. / The Pudding

A social history of New York City told through its restaurants. "At midnight, Taylor emerged." / Grub Street

Over the weekend, ​​Iran appeared to float a way to stop the Gaza genocide and a regional war. / Forever Wars

From February: Gaza and the dilemmas of genocide scholars. / Al Jazeera

The Moscow terror attack causes a backlash against labor migrants in Russia. / Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

See also: Republican lawmakers warn that their colleagues are repeating Moscow's propaganda "on the House floor." / Semafor

Veterinarians warn that private equity's entry into their industry may increase prices and slash services. / Iowa Capital Dispatch

A study finds about half of cancer drugs that win accelerated approvals don't improve patient survival or quality of life. / STAT

One in five new colorectal cancer patients in the United States is under 55, nearly twice the rate in 1995. / Vox

Why are new shows often deliberately blurry? Welcome to streaming's "era of the anamorphic lens." / The Ringer

Related: "Critics can't decide if Andrew Scott's Ripley is mesmerizing or charmless." / The Conversation 

Pencils are the new status symbol in elementary schools. Also, examples from a year of making one unique "woven drawing" each day. / The Wall Street Journal [+], Jessie Mordine Young

Virginia Woolf describes a solar eclipse in 1927: "There was no colour. The earth was dead." / The Rest Is Noise

Unrelated: How a 19th-century poet linked a row of candles together so he could write all night long. / Futility Closet

Israel regroups its army to move into Rafah. A round-up of statistics from a devastating six months. / The Associated Press, Al Jazeera

Pankaj Mishra: The more remote the Shoah has grown, the more fiercely its memory has been possessed by Jewish Americans. / The London Review of Books

Who is Portugal for? Possibly "your retired, your landlords, your slouching techies yearning to feel free." / Palladium Magazine

Martin Gurri: The mafia in Cuba is indistinguishable from the regime itself. / Discourse

During today's solar eclipse, the Purkinje effect explains why colors may look different. (Here are some vintage eclipse glasses.) / CNN, Kottke

In women's basketball, South Carolina defeats Iowa to cap its perfect season. / ESPN

Mac Crane on what it's like to play basketball with men. "It's the queerness of yearning, of loving a sport that doesn't always love me back." / The Sun 

"It was a romanticized journey of self-destruction." What it's like to operate a bookstore in Kuwait. / Lithub 

See also: What it's like to fail on a climbing expedition in Greeland. / The Clean Line

Giving up on something can be thought of as a gift—"to wonder exactly what has been given up, to whom, and for what." / The Baffler

An AI-enabled compass of sorts will guide you on walks without your phone. / dezeen

A new social media app will generate fake likes from your real friends. / Engadget

Hi. Due to the work required this month to produce the Tournament of Books, we're going to take a week off and nap. See you April 8. 

With the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich now detained in Russia for a year, other journalists explain how they survived imprisonment. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

A Kremlin spokesman says talks for a deal to release Gershkovich "must be carried out in absolute silence." / Reuters

Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison for conspiracy and fraud. / The Verge

A Michigan nuclear power station will be the first in the United States to reopen after being fully closed. / Semafor

"Wi-Fi" turns out not to be an abbreviated version of wireless fidelity—it's a name invented by the same marketing company that came up with "Prozac." / Gizmodo

Why do identical businesses open side by side in African cities? Because it generates an informal welfare system. / The Conversation

A quarter of Paris residents live in government housing—an aggressive effort "to keep middle- and lower-income residents and small-business owners in the heart of the city." / The New York Times [+]

Hotels are shifting away from providing room service to providing easier ways to receive takeout. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

"Higher thread counts mean higher tensile strength." One reason to buy expensive sheets? In case you need to escape. / The Art of Manliness

A round-up of contemporary painters reviving Impressionism. / artsy

A review of rejection letters written by Toni Morrison when she was a book editor. "It simply wasn't interesting enough." / The Los Angeles Review of Books

See also: Publishers put fake Van Goghs on their book covers. The Donald Judd Foundation sues Kim Kardashian for "false endorsement." / The Art Newspaper, dezeen

Today's the championship match in the Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes—find out who took home the Rooster! / Field Notes, The ToB

At least 32,490 Palestinians have been killed and 74,889 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. / Al Jazeera

Right-wing Israelis question whether the country relies too much on the United States. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Dominic Tierney: Israelis are likely to look back on the war as a costly campaign and a missed opportunity—and perhaps as a major defeat. / Foreign Affairs

China donates 1,500 tons of drinking water from Tibetan glaciers to help the Maldives with a water crisis. / The Economic Times

Pictures of signs in Hong Kong warning people about falling fruit. / CCA

A woman names herself after a London train station after falling in love with it. / Metro

Homeowners in California can hire a "squatter hunter" to move in and make life unbearable for people on their property. / CBS News

The Arabic word "shaheed," which translates roughly to "martyr," is responsible for more content removals than any other single word on Facebook. / rest of world

It may seem like people aren't swearing more than they used to, but they're probably not. Instead, "they are swearing differently than they used to." / Vox

Richard Serra, known for his large-scale steel artworks, dies from pneumonia at 85. / artsy

From February, instructions on how to send fan mail—on paper—to "the Mona Lisa." / Bohemizm

Anna Kornbluh: We have lost the future and instead of playing with the past, our dominant aesthetic style magnifies the present. / Jacobin

Joanna Kavenna: I've always loved salmon because salmon jump and no one knows why. / The Paris Review

Ukraine says a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea have been sunk or disabled. / Semafor

The ship that hit the Baltimore Key Bridge yesterday was also involved in a collision while leaving Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016. / The Guardian

See also: "The Baltimore bridge collapse is only the latest—and least—of global shipping's problems." / Vox

Switzerland becomes a model for "a highly effective, evidence-based policy response to a drug epidemic" by making methadone easy to obtain. / STAT

Donald Trump begins selling "God Bless the USA Bibles" as he faces four criminal indictments plus a series of civil charges. / The Associated Press

Unrelated: North Korea censors a BBC gardening presenter's trousers. / BBC News

A deep dive into the contradictions between the public and private lives of Andrew Huberman, "the world's biggest pop neuroscientist." / New York Magazine 

Why does the New York Times "Connections" game make people angry? Because its editor's job "is to trick you." / Vox

Social media challenges inspire thousands of teenagers to "take over" California malls. / Patch

See also: Sharon Olds's poem "My Son the Man." / Poetry Magazine 

Your Wednesday long read is about how the threat of divine punishment shaped human civilization. / The Garden of Forking Paths

Watch: Person after person tries to fly over a set of 25 stairs in France. / YouTube

"Bach decides to win every which way." Some praise for Bach's cello suites with examples of what makes them great. / A Year of Bach

A bridge in Baltimore collapses after being hit by a large container ship. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

The rate at which Gaza has reached its depth of food insecurity is "practically unheard of" in the 21st century. / Vox

Despite some 667,000 people experiencing "catastrophic" levels of hunger in Gaza, officials explain why it's not yet a "famine." / NPR

Donald Trump's first criminal trial is now set for tax day, April 15. / Politico

Fareed Zakaria: Biden's policies have disproportionately helped people in rural areas without college degrees—likely Trump voters, in other words. / CNN

Vaughan Gething, the first minister of Wales, becomes the first Black person to lead a national government in Europe. / The New York Times [+]

Jasmin Paris becomes the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee; only 20 people have finished since 1989. / BBC News

In Denver, e-bike vouchers are helping to eliminate 170,000 vehicle miles traveled per week. / Grist

Rural homelessness is rising six times faster than homelessness overall. / High Country News

Dutch farms use only a half-gallon of water to grow a pound of tomatoes, while the global average is more than 28 gallons. / The Washington Post [+]

What it's like to experience the "very tame dread" of riding in a "paternoster," aka, a cyclic elevator. / Why is this interesting

Scenes from daily life in Tokyo in 1968. / Japanese Nostalgic

See also: Rain Szeto's densely detailed ink and watercolor illustrations. / Colossal

Russia marks a national day of mourning for victims of the concert hall attack. / NPR

Vladimir Putin is said to have brushed off American warnings about the attack as "blackmail." / The Economist

Images of Emmanuel Macron punching a boxing bag are linked to France's increasingly tougher stance against Russia. / CNN

Some of the children recently taken in Nigeria's mass abductioms have been freed. / BBC News

Women who cut sugar cane in India are getting unnecessary hysterectomies, often as a way to keep working. / The Fuller Project, The New York Times [+]

Unrelated/related: "I am the New York Times' paywall, and if I let any non-subscribers in, they'll kill my family." / McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Benjamin Schneider: More than any other American city, Los Angeles is trying to address its problems by transforming its built environment. / The Urban Condition

Designers in Dallas propose public infrastructure to address loneliness. / Bloomberg City Lab

Your weekly white paper: Investigating touchscreen ergonomics to improve tablet-based enrichment for parrots. / Northeastern University

Most Gen Alphas have yet to graduate elementary school, "yet they are widely being called 'feral,' 'illiterate' and 'doomed' on YouTube and TikTok." / The Los Angeles Times

"You are more like a plant than you realize." A thirty-something woman gives 101 pieces of advice to her twenty-something self. / Approach with Alacrity

Interview with a professional dating-app user (on other people's behalf). / CBS News

Some brief reflections on stillness and therapy. "I've never felt so tapped-in and alive." / Meditations in an Emergency

At least 133 people are dead after an attack on a crowded concert hall outside Moscow. An ISIL affiliate claimed the assault. / BBC News, Al Jazeera

The United States warned Russia weeks ago of an impending attack. / The New York Times [+]

Negotiators at the UN are working to recognize and add "gender apartheid" as a crime against humanity. / Interruptrr

See also: If "female" is a reproductive category in biological animals, and robots and AIs are machines, "what exactly makes one of them 'female?'" / My Apophenic Haze

A study of 34 years in internet speech finds consistent patterns "irrespective of the platform, topic, or time." / Nature

How to tell if Chat GPT has been used to author a scientific paper? Look for the phrase "as of my last knowledge update." / 404 Media

An archivist worries about the emergence of AI-generated "vintage" photos. / The Colour of Time with Marina Amaral

Related: Robot baristas are asking for tips and "we aren't exactly sure how to feel about it." / Sprudge

A list of things believed to "work"—e.g., multivitamins—that may not work. / Dynomight

A "down jacket" that contains no feathers converts infrared light to heat. / dezeen 

New research explains why fluffy clouds dissipate during a solar eclipse. / Atlas Obscura

Confessions of a former architectural illustrator. "This drawing is bad. I can say that, becasue I did it." / KIOSK

The United States drafts a new security council resolution calling for Israel to commence an immediate ceasefire. / Al Jazeera

China and Russia veto the measure, partly due to the US linking the ceasefire to a condemnation of Hamas. / axios

See also: A round-up of things to know about ongoing efforts to feed people in Gaza. / NPR

China is said to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. / Semafor

China and the US are using security relationships—internal and external, respectively—to compete for influence. / Foreign Affairs

Five takeaways from the big antitrust lawsuit against Apple. / The Verge

Five themes to understand trends in the new Whitney Biennial. / The Art Newspaper

First there were "status blow dryers" and "status toilets," now there are "status showerheads." / The Wall Street Journal [+]

An article from 1897 suggests "tens of thousands of men" were tattooed at that time in London. / Public Domain Review

A study finds instability to be a determinant of rock bands' success. / Journal of Cultural Economics

"This synergy can blur the line between life and art." In praise of taking a long time to write a book. / The Millions

Unrelated: An oral history of mid-2000s internet favorite "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!" / The Ringer

MacKenzie Scott's latest round of giving sends $640 million to 361 small nonprofits, more than double what she pledged. / The Associated Press

A list of the organizations that received grants. / Yield Giving

Meanwhile, a study finds only a small fraction of Amazon's plastic packaging ever makes it to a material recovery facility. / Grist

Toyota is working on building "a utopian sustainable city" at the foot of an active Japanese volcano. / Metro

"Climate cafes" are popping up across the United States, where people can discuss their emotions related to the crisis. / The New York Times [+]

See also: "My computer is a home that my friends can visit." / makeyour.computer

Photographers choose pictures from their archives for scenes that capture happiness and well-being. / NPR

The United States is no longer among the 20 happiest countries in the world, according to new data from Gallup. / CBS News

Niger ends an agreement allowing American troops to operate in the country, following a regional trend of aligning with Russia. / Semafor

See also: How to run a CIA base in Afghanistan. / Statecraft

Accounting for why a seven-day weather forecast in a rich country can be more accurate than a one-day forecast in a low-income one. / Our World in Data

Accounting for why 7-11s are so much better outside the US. / The Los Angeles Times

Photographer Irina Werner celebrates the long hair of women and girls in Latin America. "Your hair is important; that's your connection to the land." / Colossal, Vogue

Children across Europe, encouraged by TikTok, are turning to anti-ageing products in pursuit of more "youthful" skin. / The Guardian

A study says 71 percent of the world's population now lives in autocracies, up from 48 percent just a decade ago. / The Washington Post [+]

All but one of the 100 cities with the world's worst air pollution last year were in Asia; 83 were in India. / CNN

Photographs of gig workers in São Paulo, Lagos, Dhaka, and Jakarta while they take a break between orders. / rest of world

Russia's backdoor methods of accessing the global banking system are closing. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Israeli air strikes are said to target aid distribution workers in Gaza City, killing at least 23 people. / Al Jazeera

Alon Pinkas:  Israel's "lingering, aimless war" Is a one-way ticket to international isolation. / Haaretz

Meanwhile: Jared Kushner praises the "very valuable" potential of Gaza's "waterfront property." / The Guardian 

"Sexy water" refers to young people mixing water with "fun and functional" ingredients like electrolyte powders. / Women's Wear Daily

Thinking about grocery stores' in-house products: "Brands are everything precisely when they are nothing." / Internal exile

Teenagers share videos of themselves attempting to hijack and drive out-of-service subway trains. / Curbed

Spam-and-scam campaigns like "Shrimp Jesus" are yet another reason to avoid Facebook. / 404 Media

An oral history of Pitchfork. "I'm in a laundry room, man." / Slate

The EPA announces a comprehensive ban on asbestos, which is still used in bleach and brake pads. / STAT

As China and India grow richer, they may decide "that the costs of asbestos have come to outweigh its benefits." / Works in Progress

What do American households use electricity for? Cooling, heating, and a few hot tubs. / Sustainability by numbers

In conservation, "environmental DNA" is being used to monitor endangered species and track invasive ones. / Undark Magazine

Across the United States, hotter months are "kitten season," which the Humane Society likens to a natural disaster. / Grist

See also: Some birth months are much more common than others. / Scientific Discovery

Visitor numbers at the largest art museums have returned to their pre-pandemic levels. / The Art Newspaper

The US women's national soccer team has fallen to its lowest ranking ever. / Just Women's Sports

Unrelated: Ninety-four percent of elevators at Stanford University have expired permits. / The Stanford Daily

Some thoughts on why humanity turned whales into margarine in the mid 20th century. "People genuinely needed something, anything, to put on toast." / Scope of Work

The reason the label on Angostura bitters is so large? A failure to communicate. / Futility Closet

Recommendations on things to purchase second-hand (jeans, watches). A recommendation from Christopher Nolan to watch the Fast and the Furious franchise. / Valet Mag, kottke


An account of what it's like for divorced celebrities to host a thrift sale—complete with a yerba mate sponsor. / The New Yorker

Vladimir Putin wins a fifth term in Russia, partly because the Kremlin made sure he didn't have real opponents. / BBC News

Thousands of Russian voters silently protested Putin by showing up to the polls at noon. / Reuters

Berlin's techno scene is now registered as part of Germany's "Intangible Cultural Heritage." / euronews

See also: "If there's a specific skill that needs to be mastered, Japanese have a strong desire to have it formally recognized." Explaining a surge in Japan of "wine masters." / The Japan Times

The new normal in Washington DC is said to be "functional dysfunction." / Wake Up to Politics

One potential key to solving homelessness in the States? Bringing back SROs and boarding houses. / Cornerstone

Related: If you don't know, Andrew Callaghan/Channel 5 (aka All Gas No Brakes) are back and doing terrific reporting. / YouTube

Since the start of the artificial intelligence boom, the combined market capitalization of Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft has increased by $2.5 trillion. / The Economist

The astrolabe, an eleventh-century invention, is said to be the world's first smartphone. / Open Culture

A round-up of "breakout artists" from this year's Whitney Biennial. / artsy

It seems a stretch to say young people in Britain are back to smoking pipes? / The Guardian

See also: "We are getting closer and closer to a movement where 'straight' women and 'gay' men start dating." / The Trend Report

Week three begins in this year's Rooster event/madness/conversation. Jump right in! / The Tournament of Books

More than 300 people are believed to have been kidnapped this week in northern Nigeria. / CBS News

"I started dragging myself like a snake." An account of a 17-year-old boy who got away. / BBC News

A round-up of recent events in Haiti. / Interruptrr

France and Germany's relationship is in bad shape over support for Ukraine. / Responsible Statecraft

Related: Thinking through what contribution (if any) should Switzerland make to Europe's security. / Brookings Institute

A new survey finds 6.8% of American adults experiencing long Covid symptoms. / The Guardian

In December, the United States grew by roughly 386,000 square miles, via an "extended continental shelf." / Atlas Obscura 

See also: Homeowners in a Massachusettes beach town spent $600,000 on sand to protect their properties from future storms. Then a storm came. / The New York Times [+]

Unpacking how the House of Representatives revived the TikTok ban without the public really noticing. / The Verge

Four unpersuasive arguments against TikTok. / Read Max

"Email apnea" describes people's tendency to hold their breath while reading or writing messages. / GQ

A mathematician finds pi day lame—because it doesn't connect to why math is beautiful. / Logging the World

Also beautiful: From February, a pair of dancers remake the "Moses Supposes" sequence from Singing in the Rain. / YouTube