We simply do not know what our writing does.
"There is No Software", Friedrich Kittler
There's noise, so much noise, but there's also signal and the signal was that they were here that they were everywhere.
"What I Need You To Understand, Notes from Chicago in Late October", Dan Sinker for his blog
‘Feisty’ Otters Are Once Again Hijacking Surfboards in Santa Cruz
Headline on Smithsonian Magazine
Submitted by John.
The cardboard box is a minimalist form with maximalist ambitions, an arboreal apparatus made from one of the world’s most abundant renewable resources, then filled with plastic and moved around by copious quantities of oil.
"World in a Box", Shannon Mattern for Places Journal
We explore this question through a playful and poetic experiential dinner theater: a tangible design fiction staged as a 2052 Paris restaurant where diners consume a biohybrid flying robot in place of the banned delicacy of ortolan bunting.
"A Meat-Summer Night's Dream: A Tangible Design Fiction Exploration of Eating Biohybrid Flying Robots", Ziming Wang, Yiqian Wu, Qingxiao Zheng, Shihan Zhang, Ned Barker, Morten Fjeld
Submitted by Mark.
The standardization of words is still very much an unsolved problem.
"Relational Indexing, Part 1", Jason Farradane
Submitted by Andrea a while ago but I forgot to include it because Andrea texts me sentence submissions and I often forget to go back through my texts when I'm compiling sentence submissions.
Now, what initially seemed to be nuisances for a small group of ultrarich people appear to have masked much deeper problems.
"A Tower on Billionaires’ Row Is Full of Cracks. Who’s to Blame?", Dionne Searcey, Stefanos Chen and Urvashi Uberoy for The New York Times
Submitted by Andrea.
There is an unconscionable industry built around making people decide how much less than what they deserve they are willing to accept.
"What Job Is A Guy With A Nazi Tattoo Qualified For?" David Roth for Defector
I choose decadence – however simple – over a mirage of abundance, a false cornucopia
Submitted by v.
“If all of a sudden the executioner would have stopped, and I was on that gurney, and [he] said, ‘Hey, you can work for Mayor Andrew Cuomo,’ I would say: ‘Finish the job."
Curtis Sliwa as quoted in "Give me candidacy or give me death: GOP nominee holds firm in NYC mayoral race", Joe Anuta for Politico
Submitted by Kate.
There is no use pretending, now, that we do not know how to kill one another.
The Word for World is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin
Re-encountered while reading the catalogue for The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin.
At some point, even MC Hammer will be forgotten.
"You Are Insignificant. That's a Good Thing.", JA Westenberg for their newsletter Field Notes on Now
Submitted by Neil.
No one, besides maybe Neil Postman, could have predicted the formation of an international pornography cult.
"The Goon Squad", Daniel Kolitz for Harper's
Submitted by @sbeen.bsky.social. Some runner-ups picked by me:
Certain social systems had failed, certain historical trend lines had converged, and now we had these guys to deal with.
Picture this: you work for a masturbation factory in hell.
Nothing about WristbandGuy shouts at all.
For a commie, that Adam Smith sure had a fine grasp of the business mindset.
Cory Doctorow on his blog Pluralistic
Submitted by Mateusz.
Selling ice-cream soup is 12-year-old behavior, as is smirking when you tell everyone it's not just melted ice cream.
"Tyra Banks Please Explain What The Hell You Mean By 'Hot Ice Cream'", Jaya Saxena for Defector
The resulting metals are said to be electrowon.
Submitted by Sam.
Caked in foundation, manly Fox News hosts have gushed that the tariffs, by supposedly making it possible for Americans to go back to work in mines and factories, could be the “ultimate testosterone boost.”
"The ‘Anti-Woke’ Tax That All Americans Are Paying", Adam Serwer for The Atlantic
Submitted by Natalie.
Celebrations include a parade at the town square and songs written about the attack sung door to door for money by Swiss children.
"Marmite de l’Escalade", Rohini Chaki for Atlas Obscura
Submitted by George.