Silicon Valley Bank reportedly paid out annual bonuses to eligible US employees on Friday, just hours before the bank was seized by the US government. / Axios

Noah Smith: This was a very normal bank run on a very unusual bank. / Noahpinion

SVB is the largest lender to fail since Washington Mutual went down during the 2008 global financial crisis. / Politico

The rise of small towns is blurring the distinction between rural and urban Africa. / The Economist

There are more city dwellers in Kenya today than there were in all of Africa in 1950. / Twitter 

A landfill in Alabama has been on fire for three months. / NPR

A fascinating article on the amount of transistors in most people's lives. "Fingers crossed that all this helps with avoiding World War Three." / The London Review of Books 

Newsstand magazine sales fell from a high 35% in the late 1970s to less than 10% in the early 2000s to a mere 3% of the total circulation today. / Poynter

Tyler Cowen: The role and influence of nonprofits in the United States owes a lot to the nation's history of religion. / Comment

Skier Mikaela Shiffrin sets the outright World Cup record for career victories. / Deadspin

A round-up of posters depicting Switzerland by Emil Cardinaux. / Flashbak

Appreciations of Fan Ho's photography. "The puff of smoke is almost too perfect." / The Map Is Mostly Water

Reviews of some of this year's Oscar contenders by A.S. Hamrah: "If this is Baz Luhrmann's best film, it's because Elvis Presley forced him to become a better director." / The Baffler 

A correction: We wrote Pablo Pascal in Saturday's newsletter, not Pedro. Oof! Thanks to reader Daniel for watching out.