Another diverse and interesting mix of articles this week, which take you on short journeys into the physical and digital worlds. I hope you enjoy them!

With that out of the way, let's get Monday started with these links:

Haikyo, and the Urban Explorers of Japan — A brief wade into the world of a particular kind of adventurer, a person who brings a Japanese twist to the act of not only finding abandoned places but appreciating them before they disappear.

From the article:

“Haikyo and Western urbex represent fundamentally different approaches,” says Meow. “I think of Japanese haikyo as a warm ember glowing in an old fireplace, while Western urbex is like nuclear reactors spitting flames.”

How the Easy-Bake Oven, an Appliance That Allowed Kids to Heat Treats With a Light Bulb, Revolutionized the Toy Industry — A look at a toy which, while popular, reinforced more than a few gender stereotypes and assumed gender roles. That said, even at a young age I thought using a light bulb as a heat source was a clever (though dangerous) idea.

From the article:

Kenner’s use of light bulbs as a heating source that set the Easy-Bake Oven apart. “By using conventional light bulbs, something kids were around every day, they were able to convince parents the toy was safe—even though it got up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit inside the oven, which is a pretty standard baking temperature,” he told Gizmodo in 2014. “Kenner wanted to call it the Safety-Bake Oven, but one of the regulatory bodies in charge of print and radio advertising told them, ‘No, you can’t do that, because it implies a safety track record you haven’t achieved yet.’”

The End of Mail in Denmark — Some thoughts about the tensions between the analog and digital worlds, and what we're losing by embracing the latter in many areas.

From the article:

In Denmark, we’ve been talking a lot in recent years about the rise of a digital underclass in our otherwise flawless welfare state. It’s made up not just of older people and those living on the social margins, as one might expect, but also of people who work manual jobs, for example, and therefore haven’t previously needed to upload their entire lives into the digital space.

The Last Days of Social Media — Thoughts about how mainstream social media platforms are being further pushed to the brink of ruin by junk generated by AI. As if those platforms weren't bad enough already ...

From the article:

People aren’t connecting or conversing on social media like they used to; they’re just wading through slop, that is, low-effort, low-quality content produced at scale, often with AI, for engagement.