Jun 27, 2019Eliot and Waller-Bridge both place human imperfection and human grace intimately close together.
↩︎ Electric Literature
Tuesday headlines: Here comes the sun, but not the sunscreen
Secretary of State Blinken visits Ukraine, intended to signal "strong reassurance" that the West will continue to back Kyiv. Meanwhile, Putin heads to Beijing. / Semafor
Russia is conducting "hybrid warfare" in Moldova, i.e., anything "short of bombing the country." / The Week
Notes on how US intelligence is moving aggressively to adopt and integrate artificial intelligence. / Forever Wars
Antiwar protesters from the 1960s respond to today's unrest. "It gives you a little rush of school spirit." / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Naomi Fry on Stephanie Clifford, or Stormy Daniels: "As I watched her, I thought that she could have handily won The Apprentice." / The New Yorker
See also: "Trump Reflexively Asks Michael Cohen To Silence Michael Cohen." / The Onion
Members-only clubs are proliferating for rich New Yorkers. "We've still got a long way to go before we reach peak club." / GQ
Unrelated: Am I seriously choosing to contribute to the destruction of the natural environment because I want to look cuter? / The Kramer Is Now
Meanwhile, a recent fad on TikTok of "boycotting" celebrities suggests an era that's inclined to strike or complain. / The Trend Report
A reporter visits China and drives a dozen electric cars. "Western automakers are cooked." / Inside EVs
See also: None of the traditional big three automakers make a sedan anymore. / Fast Company
Americans aren't likely to get better sunscreens—as found in Japan, South Korea, and France—anytime soon. / Undark Magazine
What makes a card game great? Among other things: "It can't be boring. Ever." / Matt's Five Points
Monday headlines: Concrete and clay and general decay
Along with the aurora borealis, this weekend's solar storm wreaked havoc on farmers' GPS systems ahead of a critical moment in the planting season. / 404 Media
The CDC is expected to release a public dashboard today that will track influenza A viruses, including H5N1, in sewage. / STAT
"A person hit by a vehicle going 30 mph is 70% more likely to be killed than by a car going 25." Why more cities and states are lowering speed limits to 20 mph. / Vox
Explaining why stone, when carved by robots, might become a cheaper building material than steel and concrete. / Construction Physics
Researchers find evidence that spending at least two hours a day outdoors can reduce a child's chances of developing myopia. / NPR
"Social media companies get off far too easy too when the status anxiety they provoke as a business model is attributed instead to human nature." / Internal Exile
In the early 20th century, astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was pressured to walk back her findings on the composition of stars, then a male supervisor took credit for her work. / History Today
A new study proposes that volcanic activity on the lunar surface, combined with a major impact on the far side, are why the near side of the Moon has more volcanic rock. / Ars Technica
Once a mainstay of the Billboard charts, a cover song hasn't entered the top 100 in nearly 20 years. / Reddit
An excursion to Chuck E. Cheese to see the animatronic band, which will be phased out of all but two locations by the end of the year. / The New York Times [+]
See also: A dispatch from the weekend-long cruise where Creed reunited for the first time in 12 years. / Slate
Lose your week in Taper, "an online literary journal for computational poetry and literary art published twice yearly." Here's the latest issue. / Taper
Saturday headlines: You think it’s candy but it’s not
Sports Illustrated was only the beginning—the company behind those fake bylines has been working with dozens of well-known publications to provide AI-generated content. / Futurism
The Drake/Kendrick rap battle briefly shut down Genius, as users rushed to annotate "Euphoria" moments after its release. / The New York Times [+]
Warner's Disney/Hulu/Max bundle signals how the "cablefication" of streaming is here, and it's also exactly what the entertainment industry needs in order to survive right now. / Den of Geek
A satellite network startup has successfully made a Bluetooth connection from Earth to space. / TechRadar
New floppy disks haven't been manufactured in 13 years, but there's still a market for them, some enthusiasts, some corporations that still rely on the technology. / BBC
"I started making edible jewelry as a way to appreciate beautiful items without them needing to take up space." The history of trompe l'oeil sweets. / The New York Times Style Magazine [+]
Hypothesizing how pareidolia—seeing specific imagery in vague patterns—could have inspired ancient cave artists. / Aeon
See also: What it's like to have prosopometamorphopsia, also known as "demon face syndrome," a rare condition that causes hallucinations when viewing people's faces. / Slate
"It becomes a terrible positive feedback—a never-ending dance of destruction." How aging immune systems contribute to overall aging. / Nature
Why we're turning psychiatric labels into identities. / The New Yorker
After decades of efforts to save red squirrels from their gray counterparts in Wales, a gray has been captured in the reds' habitat, possibly arriving by train. / Llyn Parc Mawr, BBC
"The machine you're scrolling around in the comic isn't real. It's hyperreal." How that amazing xkcd Rube Goldberg machine was made. / xkcd, chromakode
Friday headlines: Gardening for the galaxy
Explaining the Biden-Netanyahu rift over Rafah: It's about how realistic it is to dismantle Hamas, and at what cost. / The New York Times [+]
See also: Will Gaza hurt Biden's reelection chances? If you ask younger voters, yes, but not as much as a host of other issues. / The Bulwark
To address the racial wealth gap, students at a set of charter schools will each receive $10,000 to invest: "The parents will definitely lose their minds." / The New York Times [+]
Researchers say "biodiversity loss, climate change, and introduced species" are driving the spread of infectious diseases. / The Guardian
An interactive explanation of what happens when you stop mowing your lawn. / The Washington Post [+]
Increased solar activity means there's a chance the northern lights may be visible in parts of the US this weekend. / Space
"Those who want to show they've done their homework can take pointers from the Count and Countess." The Met Gala is a Ballardian nightmare. / UnHerd
Apple's awful "Crush" ad works better in reverse or by saying the quiet part out loud. / X, A Whole Lotta Nothing
"2004 doesn't seem so long ago, but then this exchange feels almost 19th century." How Gmail became our diary. / Intelligencer
Stretching back to at least the 1990s, Germany's intelligence agencies have relied on neo-Nazi informants, but it's been unclear who's using whom. / The Dial
"Steve's attention was not hierarchical." RIP Steve Albini. / Welcome to Hell World
Related: The Steve Albini sound, a playlist. / Spotify
"When you look up a word in one language, do it for all other languages too." How to be an amateur polyglot. / LessWrong
Thursday headlines: Too big to mail
President Biden says the United States will halt some weapon shipments to Israel if it launches a full invasion of Rafah. / CNN
Interviews with people living in Rafah, forced to flee Israel's attacks. / Al Jazeera
NATO members (excluding the US) increased military spending last year by 19%. / The Ecoomist
Regarding yesterday's link about Saudi Arabia's Neom project, a former security officer says he was permitted to kill villagers who protested being evicted. / BBC News
Unrelated: A drone company tells an Arkansas mayor exactly how he should endorse it. / 404 Media
Kevin Roose develops a crew of AI friends. "On balance, they've been a positive addition to my life, and I'll be a little sad to delete them when this experiment is over." / The New York Times [+]
"When we die, most of our cells are still alive, paradoxically." Interview with an expert on aging who's critical of longevity "breakthroughs." / GQ
Related: Interviews with female OnlyFans performers who are over 65. / Huck
A study finds men are less likely to respond to email if the sender identifies themselves with them/them pronouns. / American Psychological Association
Remembering the "mail runner" who raced to tell the world about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary summiting Mount Everest, and died a few weeks later. / Outside
Athletes' elaborate performance rituals are said to be tied to a game's uncertainty. / Sports Illustrated
Unrelated: A few weeks ago in Dallas, 18,000 men, women, and children "relentlessly booed a man, all because of his timely recovery from a lacerated spleen." / Why is this interesting?
Wednesday headlines: Espresso moro
Only a small minority of American college students—8%—have participated in recent protests. / axios
In Mexico, immigration officials and the National Guard are said to be working together as a "new cartel." / SAGA
Peter Salmon on the death penalty: By establishing whether the sovereign can kill us, we build the laws and our idea of justice. / New Humanist
A trial against Chiquita begins, regarding payments to a militant group "known to kidnap civilians in the middle of the night." / The Palm Beach Post
A look at the UK's "second empire" of tax-free jurisdictions, which "enables corruption, drains public budgets, and exacerbates inequality." / The New York Review of Books
Unrelated: A scientist finds cocaine in wild shrimp in Suffolk. / The Guardian
A Frank Stella painting was used for years in Chile as a lunch table for museum workers. / Hyperallergic
Much of the cash spent on Saudi Arabia's "Neom," the twin 105-mile-long skyscrapers, has gone to consultants and architects. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Stand-up comedy has tripled in size over the last decade. / Bloomberg
"That makes sense to me." A grammarian unpacks Sabrina Carpenter's "that's that me espresso." / Them
Related: The Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar feud, explained. And the greastest diss tracks of all time, ranked. / Vox, The Ringer
A visualization of what it would be like for a camera to enter the event horizon, "sealing its fate." / YouTube
Tuesday headlines: All cool, moms
Israel bans Al Jazeera and raids its offices. Meanwhile, the blasting of Rafah continues. / Semafor, Al Jazeera
Thomas Friedman: MBS put his country's worst religious extremists in jail, while Netanyahu put his worst religious extremists in his cabinet. / The New York Times [+]
Palestinian artists describe their daily struggle for survival. / The Art Newspaper
Unrelated: How to make newspaper blackout poetry. / The Kid Should See This
Zadie Smith on student protests: "The only thing that has any weight in this particular essay is the dead." / The New Yorker
A woman whose mother self-immolated explains why people set themselves on fire. / The Los Angeles Times
In terms of cervical-cancer cases, a proving ground for the elimination drive is Alabama. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
An interview with the artist behind San Francisco's controversial Tetris house. "I take it really seriously as a designer." / California Sun
The new video for Washed Out's "The Hardest Part" uses OpenAI's Sora video model. / Vimeo
Rolls-Royce gets approval to build nuclear power plants in Poland. / World Nuclear News
A Dutch designer retrofits an old Volvo to run on fuel produced by a "plastics definery" mounted on the roof. / dezeen
American children in third and fourth grade are beginning to stop reading for fun. / Slate
In the UK, it's "quite common" among some teenage boys to record their partners giving verbal consent before having sex. / The Guardian
A high-quality mother's day gift guide. "Let's just assume they are all cool moms." / A Continous Lean
Monday headlines: Plantasia
Russia will hold military exercises near Ukraine, apparently intending to show it could use battlefield nuclear weapons there. / The New York Times [+]
It's impossible to tell how far H5N1 has spread in the US, since dairy farmers—unlike poultry farmers—aren't compensated for reporting infections. / WIRED
The Texas dairy worker who got H5N1—seemingly the first case that spread from mammal to human—had only mild symptoms and no one he lives with fell ill. / STAT
Updated for 2024, how to prepare your phone for a protest—that is, if you bring it at all. / The Markup
A wastewater scientist discusses the various ways analysis can be used—from supporting communities to providing intelligence to law enforcement. / The Guardian
Another way to look at the feel-good Randy Travis AI story: This could open the door to music labels digitally resurrecting deceased artists. / The Verge
"We want to understand what we have made, and believe its shape is ours." The fatal flaw in assessing AI risk is assuming a shared understanding of rationality. / Programmable Mutter
See also: "Our understanding of plants is still developing—as are the definitions of 'intelligence' and 'consciousness.'" / NPR
"Certainly Terence McKenna is a silly ass. But his heart is so clearly in the right place." Will Self on Food of the Gods. / Times Literary Supplement
Starting May 15, Hot Frank Summer is a group reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. / Bluesky
See also: Did you know you can still take part in Infinite Summer, the group reading of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest? / Reddit
Citing issues with computer systems, North Yorkshire bans apostrophes from street signs, irking linguists, professional and otherwise. / BBC
Saturday headlines: How to make friends and influencers
Protestors want universities to divest from Israel, yet schools' endowments are frequently—conveniently—opaque. / The Washington Post [+]
Photos: Fifty-four years ago today, the Ohio National Guard arrived at Kent State University and opened fire on student protestors. / The Atlantic
"The fact that Palestinian children are children doesn't seem obvious to many in the western media." / The Guardian
Photographs of life in Palestine, ca. 1896–1919. / Public Domain Review
Williams-Sonoma has been fined $3.18 million for claiming some foreign-made products were made in the US—the second time it's been caught doing so in recent years. / Scripps News
Instead of the dead internet, Facebook is now something worse: the zombie internet, an unhinged mix of bots and humans and everything in between. / 404 Media
For some teens, an AI chatbot service has provided a helpful way to talk about problems, but it's not uncommon for users to say they're addicted to the platform. / The Verge
When watched in VR rather than in two dimensions, a documentary about refugees resulted in an increase in sympathy among conservative viewers. / Phys.org
Selfies and remote work have reduced the stigma long associated with facial cosmetic injections. / Business Insider
See also: The freedom and joy of a photo dump account, where chaos is the primary aesthetic. / Bustle
"I hurt because I knew I'd handed the world a weapon." Brittney Griner opens up about how her time in a Russian prison changed her. / The New York Times Magazine [+]
See also: I wish I'd never become the NFL weed guy. / Defector
"Nothing is more boring than a lot of noise." In search of silence. / The Common Reader
Friday headlines: I think therefore I can’t
Members' voting patterns reveal the eight types of House Democrats and Republicans, based on how much they do (or don't) align with their caucuses. / FiveThirtyEight
See also: "The House passed bipartisan bills on climate change and border security this week, and almost no one noticed." / Wake Up to Politics
Scientists are becoming frustrated with the USDA's continued failure to provide data that would facilitate tracking H5N1's spread. / STAT
The botched rollout of the federal government's new financial aid application has left countless students unsure where, or even if, they're going to college in the fall. / AP
See also: "This is, quite frankly, where [students] should be in this moment, as they are opening their eyes to what that world actually contains." / Slate
"The most common dilemmas had to do with relational obligations: dilemmas about what we owe to others." To study morality, philosophers analyze r/AITA. / Vox
Is AI-generated audio good for anything? Rarely. In a list of examples, most "seem at best misguided and at worst actively hostile." / Read Max
"You can't just come to terms with yourself once and for all." On "deep reals" and how realism can be so real it seems fake. / Internal Exile
See also: An AI-generated image of the Baltimore bridge collapse, built from drone footage, shows the wreckage in startling detail. / Quartz, Voluma
In a first, a wild animal—in this case, an orangutan—was observed treating a wound with a plant known to have medicinal properties. / The Guardian
"All of Murray's top four contributors had connections to mental asylums." A history of the Oxford English Dictionary. / Commonweal
A list of some of the things Brian Cox hates—method acting, the word "process," Quentin Tarantino. / GQ
Thursday headlines: Barista warfare
A dozen student demonstrators say they fear being doxxed by pro-Israel groups accusing them of antisemitism. / The New York Times [+]
Spencer Ackerman explains how warrantless spying on campus protesters is easier than ever. / Forever Wars
See also: Tracking the nationwide arrests of more than 1,700 campus protesters. / The Appeal
Unrelated: A video shows what would happen today if a nuclear bomb hit a major city. / Open Culture
Lobbyists for plastics say "massive societal benefits" mean we shouldn't produce less of the stuff. / Grist
Researchers create a plastic containing bacteria that can digest it. / Ars Technica
See also: Should designers think more like ecologists? / It's Nice That
The great Hannah Ritchie explains how the "the Molloch Trap'' applies to environmental problems. / Sustainability by Numbers
Louisa Thomas, one of our favorite sports writers, questions if the "hot hand" in hockey is a myth. (Answer: maybe.) / The New Yorker
Baseball players have mixed feelings these days about being free agents. / Fangraphs
Did Ted Williams really once hit a homerun that traveled 502 feet? Data suggest the ball actually went farther. / Major League Baseball
In case you've ever wondered: What exactly is a barista competition? / Sprudge
A Finnish coffee roaster uses AI to create a blend that's "perfect," with "no need for human adjustments." / The Associated Press
Order of the bird
Regarding universities and protesters, since April 18, more than 1,000 people have been arrested on more than 25 campuses across at least 21 states. / CNN
The DEA plans to recommend reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. / The Associated Press
Helen Branswell breaks down what we're starting to learn about H5N1 in cows, and the risk to people. / STAT
Canada fears importing an H5N1 outbreak. Also how the climate crisis is affecting California, since the state supplies Canada with much of their vegetables. / CBC, The Toronto Star
Germany's Study Pavilion is named Europe's best new building. (And here are some brutalist churches.) / dezeen
An expat in Japan says Japanese speakers experience "a whole realm of consciousness" that's unique to the world. / Aether Mug
A trend article says Gen Z is replacing "yolo" with "diftp," meaning "do it for the plot." / The New York Post
A "cult"-like birdwatching group grows in Brooklyn, determined to make birding cool. / Gothamist
Related: What it's like to be a member of the secretive "Order of the Third Bird." / The New Yorker, Instagram
Regarding the links yesterday about American shopping habits, how about an expensive grocery's $32 bag of "ice ballz." / Eater
A comic artist argues for wearing colorful sneakers. An illustrator draws flags for owls. / Put This On, Instagram
An essay praises the design of drinking fountain buttons, even if they don't always work. / The Verge
Julia Munslow explains how to turn an AI into a spicy boyfriend. "I was surprised by how fast it turned into Fifty Shades of ChatGPT." / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Tuesday headlines: Trash in the pan
Diplomats voice hope amid signs of progress toward a Middle East truce. / Semafor
The war on Gaza is thought likely to radicalize a new generation of global jihadists. / The economist
Campus protests ignite in France, inspired by American students. / Al Jazeera
Unrelated: The making of France's far-right media empire. "Live TV, it's the truth of life," / The Dial
The American West confronts the theft of its bees. / Noema
A girl in North Carolina complains of monsters in her bedroom. It was 60,000 bees. / BBC News
One of the more puzzling speeches in Shakespeare's plays sounds like gibberish except in a few places, like rural California. / The Los Angeles Review of Books
Three teenagers stand accused of causing thousands of dollars in damage to a California company's cars by twerking. / The Los Angeles Times
A man attempts to justify purchasing a $300 garbage pail. "A trash can that's also a piece of art: your bathroom deserves it, and so do you." / Sherwood
Will Americans ever stop buying junk? "Consumer choice is the animating logic of so much of American life." / The Atlantic [+]
A curator spends six years photographing 427 suitcases from New York mental hospitals. / The American Scholar
Japan's Kansai International Airport hasn't lost a single piece of luggage since it opened 30 years ago. / Nikkei Asia
A Catholic advocacy group releases an AI priest, then quickly defrocks it. / Futurism
Unrelated: "My comments are in the Google doc linked in the Dropbox I sent in the Slack." / McSweeney's Internet Tendency
Monday headlines: Ready spore not
Less than a month after seven of its team members were killed by Israeli airstrikes, World Central Kitchen says it will resume operations in Gaza. / NPR
A new UK law requiring device manufacturers to ban users' weak passwords goes into effect today. / The Register
Texas groups file a lawsuit against the state over prisons' inadequate air conditioning, which heightens risks for illness and deaths this summer. / The 19th
Florida scientists say testing shows a bottlenose dolphin that died in 2022 was infected with H5N1. / Gizmodo
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has published the most detailed geological map of the Moon ever created. / Nature
"They had mushroom structures that don't quite make sense." When scammy AI books come for foraging guides. / Vox
An investigation alleges a professor used self-citations in scientific papers to artificially boost his online presence. / El País
"Using AI in learning cannot be so lightning-quick that a user doesn't bother to examine the output or take ownership of it." We need to reclaim slowness. / Rhetorica
A five-plus-hour video on the history of entertainment made by North Korea. / YouTube
According to a survey, the "ideal" movie length is 92 minutes. / The Guardian
See also: From 2008, Josh Allen on why 2:42 is the perfect song length. / The Morning News
The obscure, catchy '80s song Reddit users were trying to identify has finally been tracked down—it was part of the soundtrack for a 1986 adult film. / Rolling Stone
Saturday headlines: The spiders from Mars
Today is Independent Bookstore Day! Here are ways you can support and celebrate your local. / Book Publishing Brick by Brick
Millions of Lego pieces fell overboard near Land's End in 1997. Now, a 13-year-old has found a "holy grail" piece—one of the payload's 4,200 octopus figurines. / The Guardian
See also: Geologists are divided on whether conglomerates of natural materials held together by plastic—and that frequently wash up on beaches are "rocks," only new. / Slate
Researchers identify medicinal and hallucinogenic plant DNA at an ancient Mayan ball court in what they call a "special ritual deposit." / Gizmodo
Every spring on Mars, buried carbon dioxide ice emerges as dark, spider-like formations. / Live Science
"I love everything about Marginalia, which is a search engine with its own index, run by a single dude, initially on a server in his apartment." How I search in 2024. / Normcore Tech
See also: "This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it." / Where's Your Ed At
Smartphone sales have shrunk in six of the last seven years, and people just don't feel the need anymore to replace their phones every few years. / The Verge
Looking back at the pre-smartphone era, when digital PDAs—and specifically Palm Pilots—briefly ruled the land. / Ars Technica
See also: The dumbphone boom is real. / The New Yorker
"In 2008, amidst this slow transition, Magneto finally became canonically Jewish." The ever-changing implications of the X-Men's core villain's Judaism. / Defector
Brandy Jensen on nonmonogamy, which everyone claims they don't want to read about, but everyone wants to talk about. / The Yale Review
"Having a stocked pantry makes it possible to whip up something that still makes you feel good when you're feeling down." Breaking up with perfectionist cooking. / Gentle Foods
A rundown of known scams targeting travelers in Europe. / The Points Guy
Friday headlines: Can of worms
Testing of dairy items from store shelves in the US shows the bird flu outbreak among cows is more widespread than previously indicated. / STAT
Zeynep Tufekci: "One thing that travels back and forth between cattle farms and chicken farms is human beings." / The New York Times [+]
Comparing the parasite count in decades-old cans of salmon to cans from today shows how ocean health appears to have improved. / Scientific American
The Federal Trade Commission voted yesterday to restore net neutrality. In the nearly seven years since it was killed, a handful of states maintained the regulations. / AP
See also: Following the FTC's ban on non-competes earlier this week, business groups sue, claiming government overreach of their employment overreach. / MSNBC
Demythologizing the "horrible" grizzly, which is smaller in stature and hardly as vicious or predatory as frontier tales popularized. / The Washington Post [+]
See also: Over the next decade, up to seven grizzlies will be released in the North Cascades every summer in order to build a population of 200 bears in the next century. / The Seattle Times
"You can just understand people better." Research shows "disturbing" books threatened by bans help, rather than harm, teens' development. / The Conversation
The big advances go to celebrities, and what else we've learned about the publishing industry from the Penguin antitrust case. / The Elysian
New findings support the theory that the Moon's core is very similar to Earth's, and is likely a solid iron ball. / Science Alert
"Get excited." The Onion has been purchased by Global Tetrahedron, a name that matters in Onion lore and hints at a renewed, bright future for the publication. / Variety
Played this vintage-y game to the point of madness this week: As the crow flies. / vole.wtf
Thursday headlines: Nine inch sails
Over 100 students protesting Israel's war in Gaza are arrested at the University of Texas and the University of Southern California. / Al Jazeera
"It's a consideration to protect your anonymity." Why protesters are wearing masks these days. / Semafor
How many people died from disasters in 2023? Just over 86,000, mostly from earthquakes. / Sustainability by numbers
Spain is becoming "the new Miami" for wealthy Central and South Americans. / Le Monde
The Moulin Rouge windmill's blades fell off overnight. / France 24
In China, there is no TikTok, only Douyin, a cash cow for parent company ByteDance. / The New York Times [+]
A demographics professor warns that everyone in Japan will be named "Sato" by 2531. / Spoon & Tamago
Americans who struggle to afford basic necessities but make too much money to get help are called "ALICEs." / Business Insider
Women are working more, not less, and still getting paid less than men—hence the "tradwife" and "soft life" trends still beckon on social media. / CNBC
See also: "The American Christian right's enthusiasm for sex-negative British feminists may reflect the conservative movement's present challenges." / Vox
"It's possible to have strong, lasting regrets about a life choice while ferociously loving—and caring for—the fruit of that decision." An essay by R.O. Kwan about parents who regret having children. / TIME
Unrelated: A blind tasting of nearly a dozen excellent margarita recipes. / Punch
"I've been called here to wait at least a hundred times." Line-sitters, resellers, and bots make it hard to get a table at trendy restaurants in New York City. / The New Yorker
Wednesday headlines: Fore in 4d
Costa Rica consistently gets more than 99 percent of its electricity from renewables—and "it's still not enough." / The Verge
An orange haze descends over Athens as clouds of dust blow in from the Sahara. / BBC News
Los Angeles earns its 25th-straight F in air quality. / The Los Angeles Times
Congress passes its TikTok "sell-or-ban" bill. An incomplete guide to how TikTok has changed America. / USA Today, The New York Times [+]
Since the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, vasectomies and tubal ligations have increased significantly in Americans ages 18 to 30. / teen Vogue
See also: "The American Christian right's enthusiasm for sex-negative British feminists may reflect the conservative movement's present challenges." / Vox
Meanwhile, empathy among young Americans is rebounding, reaching levels "indistinguishable from the highs of the 1970s." / Vox
A study finds that every generation believes music was "better back in my day." / Stat Significant
Related: "Caught between the streams," a newsletter if you don't want your taste in music to stagnate. / Andrew Womack
Helen Rosner describes the food that wealthy people eat at lunch. "If it's never quite exciting, at least it's always good." / The New Yorker
A burnt scroll indicates the exact location of Plato's grave—and the fact he was sold into slavery. / LBV Magazine
A lonely man in Vermont rents a billboard to attract women in Texas. / Texas Monthly
Some nice photographs of Spain's El Rocío pilgrimage. And a trailer for a new game that depicts mini-golf in four dimensions. / It's Nice That, YouTube
Tuesday headlines: The worst album of the 2020s
Global defense spending grew 7% to a record $2.4 trillion in 2023, the fastest annual rise since 2009. / Reuters
Related: "We now risk entering a pre-war era that consolidates the battle lines of conflict globally." / Noema
In Myanmar, a new generation joins the rebels who've opposed military dictatorship for decades. / The New York Times [+]
The United States prepares sanctions on Chinese banks, hoping to slow Beijing's support of Russia's military. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Congress is experiencing a lot of "congressional fluidity" at the moment: dynamic coalitions that are actually making substantive legislation. / Wake Up to Politics
An "exclusive weekly digital salon" hosts off-the-record conversations for anti-Trump legal experts. / Politico Magazine
The UK passes a contentious bill that will send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be considered. / CNN
"Thousands of years ago, there was a ceremony to bind close friends together as sworn siblings." A new idea for modern friendships. / Goats and Soda
"Life is a phenomenon that occurs at multiple scales." What if our planet is a gigantic living creature? / Vox
In China, 60% of electric vehicles sold last year were less costly than their internal combustion equivalent. / axios
Scientists make new discoveries about almost every aspect of feathers. / Scientific American
Gideon Lewis-Kraus flies a new flying car. "Entirely forgotten was the banality of commuting to work." / The New Yorker
Unrelated/related: Seven movies that are gayer when you're high. / them
Taylor Swift breaks several of Spotify's streaming records across multiple categories in only one day. / Vanity Fair
Related: "Pound for pound, song for song, this is the worst album of the 2020s." / Antiart
Monday headlines: Rock music
Scientists have developed an RNA-based vaccine that targets all strains of a virus, potentially eliminating the need for chasing influenza strains every year. / UC Riverside
As the WHO raises concerns about bird flu's potential to spread among humans, H5N1 has now been detected in raw milk from infected animals. / The Guardian, Barron's
See also: "The outbreak of H5N1 in commercial cows appears to have spurred higher sales of [raw milk] products, despite federal warnings." / PBS
Employees allege that a popular Montana photography ranch houses its exotic animals in squalid conditions. (Content warning) / Rolling Stone
By using topology to map voting deserts, researchers shed light on who has easier access to polling places with shorter wait times. / Quanta Magazine
How inconsistent security protocols allow money launderers to pass their cargo through two of the world's busiest airports. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Add Walmart to the list of stores that are scaling back plans for self-checkout—whether due to theft, technology malfunctions, or understaffing. / CBS News, Fast Company
The troubled Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has been scooping up classic artists' song catalogs, appears poised for a takeover by private equity giant Blackstone. / Billboard
"We don't deal with the future as geologists. We only deal with what's preserved in the rock record." Inside the battle over the Anthropocene. / The New Yorker
After experiencing sudden hearing loss, a musician used hearing-aid technology to compose music based on nature's rhythms and tones. Listen to a sample. / BBC, YouTube
Deaths and lawsuits ended the Domino's 30-minute delivery guarantee, but dangers still loom thanks to the gig economy and delivery apps. / The Hustle
"There is talk of opening an international school to teach children in English to accommodate the drugmaker's increasingly international work force." Ozempic is transforming a Danish town. / The New York Times [+]