[SC 2.4.4] The tyranny of category strikes again
I added a section at the end of this newsletter to collect all the frontend web development stuff. I guess that means the rest of it is just regular stuff. The tyranny of category strikes again.
World’s first 1-step method by US-China team turns plastic into fuel at 95% efficiency
An Ice-nine situation here would be wild.
Semi-Justified Text
I like to consider myself a pretty decent type nerd, but I'd never heard of cogent typesetting before.
The National Design Studio is a Scam
"But let’s be clear: The innovation was never about design, it was about collusion: spend enough to ensure that regulatory enforcement costs more; spin enough to make theft look heroic."
VTV
Weird and bad music videos with a pitch-perfect execution.
‘The Toxic Avenger’ Partners With Undue Medical Debt to Erase at Least $5 Million in Medical Debt
I was already going to see this because I'm a Troma fan, so now, hell yeah I'm going to see this.
Diablo Team Unionizes Over AI, Remote Work, And ‘Passion Tax’ Of Working In Games
More of this, please.
Glow-inducing nanoparticles turn your houseplants into night lights
Delivers what it promises.
The Great Extinction: How AI is Destroying the Internet
"The internet is being filled with a gray mass of beautifully written but empty texts. Like a stagnant swamp where all life has suffocated, and which now serves only as a source of peat."
No Man’s Sky Player Discovers Beautiful Planet Full Of NSFW Aliens Begging To Be Milked (NSFW)
Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.
Reality is evil
"We must start by admitting that the Universe is finite and will eventually end. Moreover, we must accept that the function of the Universe is to hasten this extinction."
The power we use and the power we give
"[X] is owned and directed by a far-right actor who bought it specifically to elevate and amplify right-wing messaging. "
How the ‘live, laugh, love’ font became totally inescapable
Live through the ditches, and laugh through the witches, and love in the back of my dragula.
Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds
oh.
Chatbots can be manipulated through flattery and peer pressure
I mean, honestly, same.
OpenAI Says It's Scanning Users' ChatGPT Conversations and Reporting Content to the Police
Who could have forseen, etc.
Maggot Death is the punk print shop preserving media through shirts that shock (NSFW)
🤘
Understanding Digital Dementia and Cognitive Impact in the Current Era of the Internet: A Review
Uh oh.
Video player looks like a 1-inch TV from the ’60s and is wondrous, pointless fun
I am heartened to see Ars also getting in on the TinyTV love.
PENTAGON PIZZA INDEX
Whoo boy.
Feral Tech
"Feral technology escapes our control and requires us to adapt to its demands, even as we understand that the costs are unjustifiable and existentially threatening."
Low- and Mid-Tier Mobile for the Real World (2025)
I still want to set up craptop duty at work, but I know the effort would be lost on the people who should most be recipients.
More than 1,000 HHS staff call on RFK Jr. to resign
The fact that this monster hasn't been hounded without end by the press breaks me.
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
They do not bury the lede here whatsoever. Wow.
Frontend web nerd zone
Open Source is one person
"Open source, the thing that drives the world, the thing Harvard says has an economic value of 8.8 trillion dollars (also a big number). Most of it is one person."
Whisper it: FFmpeg 8 can now subtitle your videos on the fly
This is very cool.
Designing for Ephemerality
"Designing for ephemerality is not an admission of defeat. It’s an act of maturity. We know it won’t last forever, but while it lasts, let’s make it beautiful, functional, and human."
What Ghosts Taught Me About Design
"Tools and data can be helpful, but without a clear process and the willingness to question your own assumptions, they become noise."
You no longer need JavaScript
I really appreciated both the message, and the fact that the graphics are interactive.
Introducing command and commandfor
This is something that feels like it should have been part of the platform like, two decades ago. I'm really glad to see it rolling out.