Proxy murmurs
Ukraine fires "longer-range" ballistic missiles into Russia on the 1,000th day of war. / CNN
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country may soon face 100,000 North Korean troops. / The Guardian
How has the Assad government maintained control in Syria despite 13 years of civil war? By becoming a "narco state" dependent on captagon. / The New Yorker
China is moving quickly to ramp up domestic production of semiconductors. / Nikkei Asia
AI-generated police reports are said to be a sign of what's to come. / MIT Technology Review
Related: A leak shows what "Graykey," a phone-unlocking tool used by law enforcement, can get from your iPhone. / 404 Media
"Planet Nine" refers to a potential planet orbiting 10 times farther from the sun than Neptune. / Phys.org
Three trends to explain a supposed decline in scientific innovation—and the answer is "epistemic anarchy?" / City Journal
A Utah forest of 47,000 aspen trees (named Pando) is actually a single interconnected organism. / Nature
See also: Audio recordings from the world's first certified "wilderness quiet park" in Ecuador. / Quiet Parks
Americans aren't just buying more toys for their kids than they used to, "they're also buying them differently." / Vox
Allison Willmore: Men are unwell, but they deserve better than Gladiator II. / Vulture
Unrelated: Pictures of Eric Wareheim's loft apartment. / Domino
Layered photographs of starling murmurations. / Colossal
An explanation for how magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear in 1983. / Open Culture
And now a brief chat with a new Sustaining Member, Debbie S.!
Debbie, hi! For real, this isn’t an auto-reply? Cool!
Lol. Thank you so much for supporting TMN. You found us through the Tournament of Books, is that right? I’m a ToB gal and have been since an online bookclub invited me in 2018 (had to look at my Goodreads shelves to find that). That particular group has whittled down to three very fanatical fans of the ToB.
Can we ask, what do you enjoy about the ToB? We love being forced to read things we may never have even heard of before—and definitely a few that take us out of our comfort zones over the years. And then every day of the tournament we have an online discussion about how wrong some of the judges are. Lol. Thanks for doing this year after year!
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