Video killed the temporal lobe
“As a geopolitical actor, the United States has become a kind of lumbering zombie—a beast that can be startled into reflexive actions but lacks higher functions.” / The New York Times [$]
How Trump’s arch doesn’t fit the intent—architecturally or symbolically—of the bridge he cites that congress approved for construction in 1925. / The Washington Post [$]
An exhaustively researched compendium of studies on the racist policies that have built America’s criminal justice system. / The Watch
What would happen if China hacked the US water supply? Wargaming potential scenarios with 30 insurance execs and no bathroom breaks. / WIRED
“When I began leaving messages for them, one survivor wondered if the phone call was a prank.” The forgotten bombing of LaGuardia Airport. / Slate
Meta may add prediction markets to its social media apps, a combination not entirely unlike “combining alcohol and cocaine.” / Oligarch Watch
“In the men’s game, a player that is just 1% more likely to win the average point is 12.5% more likely to win the match. For women, the figure is about 10.5%.” A statistician’s guide to Wimbledon. / The Economist
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As the Buc-ee’s rest-stop empire spreads across the US, its trademark lawyers have declared open season on competitors’ cartoon animal mascots. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
One of the biggest contributors to the microplastics we ingest is the dust in our houses, and to reduce our exposure we should vacuum more often. / Yale Environment 360
An artist is selling street trash found outside Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Madison Square Garden wedding: “It wasn’t as dirty as I was expecting.” / Hyperallergic
On the scourge of AI-generated flyers and how the pursuit of polish is sucking the charm from small businesses. / 404 Media
John Warner: The danger of physicians offloading the work of writing clinical notes to AI is that writing is thinking. / Inside Higher Ed
The post-literate world is finally here—it’s not just AI, short-form video, and a decline in book reading, but because more people can’t fully comprehend what they do read. / The Atlantic [$]
Unrelated: Read an endless stream of opening pages. / Uncovered
When publishers realize they just bought an AI-generated piece: “The worldbuilding had colourful details that somehow failed to build consistently.” / Bona Books
A brief history of the signature YouTube horror short. / Darker Times