Apologies for the light self-promotion: back in 2016 I published a book with Melville House about internet infrastructure in New York City. The book went out of print, I got the rights back earlier this year, and I'm self-publishing a revised edition for 2026, for release in September. It's available for pre-order now at this link. Happy to share a discount code with subscribers if they want one (or do partial refunds to subscribers who've already pre-ordered), and buyers outside the USA also should message me if they need shipping comped because of tariffs.
Feathers also have a much wider variety of tools to make color.
"Where to Find the Colors Your Screen Can’t Show You", Ryan Moulton on his blog
Runner-up:
When God was designing birds, this was the debugging bird He used to check whether all the parts of the bird were working correctly.
We fill our gardens with the spoils of violence and announce to anyone who will listen that these misbegotten seeds bring us peace.
"Year of the Deadhead", Hannah Kingsley-Ma for The Believer
This essay does not appear to be online yet, but it's in the latest print issue.
I am not comparing an IPO to colonial Burma, but there’s something recognisable in the feeling.
"Whither SpaceX? Who knows", Craig Coben for Financial Times
Actually read last week but I forgot to add it.
Degeneracy can be fun but it’s hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
Submitted by Mark.
It would be wonderful if my body understood my objectives.
Walking Practice, Dolki Min (translated by Victoria Caudle)
Found a copy of this on someone's stoop while walking home. Arguably more perfect in context (the narrator is an extraterrestrial who has to painstakingly contort their body and work against unfamiliar gravity to maintain a human-like physical presence) but it also feels true to the experience of having a body.
Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than to maintain the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance.
Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize speech
Also from last week.
Under this view, someone doing serious work — which is to say is performing seriousness — must have the full textural range of a kazoo and all the intellectual fire of a supermarket aftershave fragrance called Back To Back Meetings.
"The Retweeting Class", Robin Berjon for his blog
Submitted by Hugh.
Emotionally, I feel like someone is holding a gun to the back of my head, and that gun is somehow hooked up to three trillion off-brand diesel engines firing on all cylinders.
"The case for an accessibility designer vibe coding when all his coworkers are also vibe coding", Eric W. Bailey on his blog
Via Ethan's blog.
When someone like Musk is both medium and message, there’s no point expecting a rotting pipe to do anything but spew its bilge all over everything.
"A society that wants to understand itself probably wouldn't act like this", Matt Pearce for his newsletter
Submitted by Kelsey with the comment that "'spew its bilge' is such a concise experience of X, of a near-inevitable end state of Twitter, of being online for information and drowning in waters so contaminated they may as well be a flammable river in Ohio."
Every part of this man looks like it should be peeled off at the end of the movie to reveal a completely different person
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