[SC 2.4.4] A veritable smörgåsbord
Today has been quiet and restful, and I hope your day has been that as well.
I've got a veritable smörgåsbord of links that I've been saving up, perfect for procrastinating on everything that you said you'd circle back to in the new year.
What happens when the internet disappears?
"The result is a highly fragmented, erratic, selective view of what it means to be human, more a testimony of our limitations than of our potential, a reminder that archival work is not neutral, and a powerful case for diversifying the way we preserve information."
About .notdef: the symbol (not emoji!) that is often an “X” inside a tall rectangle
Speaking of the previous link: a nice historical deep dive on a niche typographic consideration, ported over from Quora to preserve it.
Montana supreme court upholds right to ‘stable climate system’ for youngsters
More of this, please.
Kowloon Walled City: Heterotopia in a Space of Disappearance
A historical, spatial, and cultural accounting of the city.
The Artist Who Trained Rats to Trade in Foreign-Exchange Markets
"Rat Traders" sounds like a 1980s Steve Jackson game.
The Ghosts in the Machine
Spotify is kind of objectively terrible.
Torpedo juice: The legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and around the world
":acking consistent access to liquor, opportunistic sailors occasionally drained the torpedoes of their alcohol and mixed it with something to cut the strength."
Broken frames. Navigating imperfect accessibility frameworks for trauma-informed outcomes
An absolutely superb chapter of a book written by my friend Josh!
I discovered one way to fight loneliness: The Germans call it a Stammtisch
I like that there's a non-alcoholic version of this too!
The Frustration Loop
This is fiendishly brilliant.
NASA Open Science Reveals Sounds of Space
These sound incredible.
Living happily ever after? The hidden health risks of Disney princesses
"Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed."
How a French botanist brought famine to Madagascar by weaponizing a parasite
Colonial biological warfare.
Get to Know Your Japanese Bathroom Ghosts
News you can use!
Grand Theft Hamlet
Delivers what it promises.
Headlights seem a lot brighter these days — because they are
I knew it.
Health insurers limit coverage of prosthetic limbs, questioning their medical necessity
Once again, cyberpunk was not an instruction manual.
What I learned about design by helping my grandfather send an email
There's a lot I miss about thoughtbot, and excellent blog posts like this one is one of them.
Microsoft Is Forcing Its AI Assistant on People—And Making Them Pay
The fact that this is getting reported on MSN is, chef's kiss.
Gondwanaland: the search for a land before (human) time
"In fact, in this way Gondwanaland plays a crucial part fueling our current epoch, the Anthropocene: the period when humans started to significantly affect the Earth’s climate and environment."
Nothing Moves
Preach!
Crabs, Creativity, and the Endless Cycle of Imitation
"With an increasing reliance on algorithmic insights, the creative process is oversimplified."
How to Dehumanize Accessibility with AI
"The path to understanding is hiring disabled people and hiring web accessibility experts."
Gar-Type
R-Type, but make it Garfield.
Bill requiring US agencies to share custom source code with each other becomes law
Interesting!
Does current AI represent a dead end?
"When all its techniques are based on testing, AI safety is an intellectually dishonest enterprise."
'Obelisks': Entirely New Class of Life Has Been Found in The Human Digestive System
New living doodad thing just dropped.
The last Inca bridge master
There's something so beautiful and sad about this.
Data Shadows in Government Erase Human Worth
"In many regards, how your many different data shadows are interpreted by machines and strangers is now more important than how you yourself actually feel."
AI Needs So Much Power, It’s Making Yours Worse
Maybe this will be what it takes to actually stop this whole mess.
The California grid ran on 100% renewables with no blackouts or cost rises for a record 98 days
But also consider this!
Your App Should Have Been A Website (And Probably Your Game Too)
Yup!
How was the beverage cart invented? The Match gave us this great answer.
"So yes, you’re hearing this right: You can thank Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra for inventing the beverage cart."