We’ll always have Ferris
Hosted by a fractured North America, this year’s World Cup feels like three separate—and competing—events, each with its own message and mascot. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
The coach of Iran’s World Cup team says US officials ordered them to return to their training base in Mexico immediately after their match in California. / Associated Press
See also: A running thread of the many nice World Cup-related stories popping up around North America, especially regarding food. / Bluesky
What happens if US states gerrymander themselves to the fullest extent? Neither party gains much, but swing seats disappear. / The New York Times [$]
Less durable than authoritarianism, hyperfascism is “a shallow sort of fascism, obsessed with outward appearances and completely uninterested in everything else.” / Public Comment
A cost analysis shows Trump’s ballroom will cost $200 million more than he publicly stated, and taxpayers will cover more than half the total cost, which he said they would not. / The Washington Post [$]
When accounting for all taxation—not just federal income tax—“no matter how one looks at it, billionaires pay much less tax than the average American.” / Mother Jones
What the long-debunked marshmallow test gets wrong about gratification—or, why the wonder of a marshmallow is nothing like online shopping. / The Atlantic [$]
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Could prediction markets foretell scientific breakthroughs? Probably not, but they’re a good indicator of people’s anxiety about another pandemic. / Scientific American
Unrelated: It’s unlikely the iPhone reduced US birth rates, any more than a decline in frozen dairy products’ fat content resulted in fewer triplets. / Data for Health
Scientists have developed a method for authenticating artworks that uses texture and topology to identify a painting’s unique “fingerprint.” / ARTnews
An archive of typographic art that predates ASCII by centuries. / Heikki's Garden of Flowers, MetaFilter
A retrospective of 1970s queer magazines from the post-Stonewall era. / Literary Hub
“Persuading the Roses to let the crew shoot in—and drive a car through—their bespoke glass-and-steel home felt like a hard sell.” How the car-plunge scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off happened. / Chicago
How a 1969 camera operators’ strike at Britain’s ITV created today’s Upstairs Downstairs multiverse, where some scenes are in black and white and others in color. / Ironic Sans