Dear friends,

I wish I had some reassuring things to say about the state of the world, but all I have is a set of links. The fact that people are trying to deliberately withhold information—whether it's about the racist past and present of the United States, or safe and essential medical procedures, or about police violence—fills me with incoherent rage. (I keep going back to a tagline from the essential Today in Tabs newsletter from last week: "The five stages of grief are denial, anger, spouting off in the group chat, exercise, and Googling Molotov cocktail recipes." Google those recipes while you can.

Also, maybe you should consider updating your passport:

Also, is it COVID or is it Ulysses' syndrome? ("many individuals often develop symptoms such as irritability, nervousness, migraine, tension headache, insomnia, tiredness, fear, loss of appetite and generalized ill-defined discomfort").

Long live "namecore, AKA the internet’s insatiable appetite for naming things." (Also notable: that article includes a mention of enregisterment, which is the first time I've seen that term outside of sociolinguistics—although tbf I haven't been looking very hard.)

People who study marmots are known as marmoteers. Hyperaccumulators are probably not what you think.

Should I try to run weird art/ads in (now-mostly-empty) office building elevators? It's extremely tempting (and very cheap).

Stay well, stay safe—

Your friend,

Erin