July 5
An enterprise in which convention is disguised as variety
The vast majority of stories we encounter are versions of the monomyth – from King Lear to Jane Austen’s Emma (1816). But to what extent is even that a normative Western construct promoting a narrow range of possible life-arcs – with the attendant Hollywood industry replicating it over and over, like an oppressive storytelling machine? And, to look even further outside the frame, is there something inherently reactionary about narrative itself? from Our narrative prison [Aeon; ungated]
The New Vertigo Years
Over a century ago, the world felt anxious and unsettled much like today. The years between 1900 and 1914 have been called the "vertigo years" by historian Philipp Blom. As this essay walks though, the transformative period had some surprising parallels to our own time. Today as the new vertigo years?
Hey, pal! Remember me?
"Business Insider has learned Meta is training customizable chatbots to be more proactive and message users unprompted to follow up on past conversations. It may not cure what Mark Zuckerberg calls the 'loneliness epidemic,' but Meta hopes it will help keep users coming back to its AI Studio platform, documents obtained by BI reveal. The goal of the training project, known internally to data labeling firm Alignerr as 'Project Omni,' is to 'provide value for users and ultimately help to improve re-engagement and user retention,' the guidelines say."
The logistics of worldwide evil
A remarkable report from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese on how an economy of occupation in Gaza has shifted to an (immensely profitable) economy of genocide. [more inside]
Whale nursery on WA's south coast may hold key to species' future
Whale nursery on WA's south coast may hold key to species' future. Once a hotspot for commercial whaling, a section of Western Australia's coast has become a sanctuary for newborn southern right whale calves. But the population is still struggling to recover.
Don't bore us, get to the...
Torus Sketch is a simple, descriptively-named interactive program for drawing on a square torus.
Things unraveled — slowly at first, and then all of a sudden
The unraveling of the Byju’s empire has come as a shock to many employees. One former employee who led a team for several years until 2024 told me he was proud of the work he and his colleagues had been doing. “I’ve never seen a team that was more dedicated to making sure that teaching was done right,” he said. He’d been surprised, he added, when he first heard the company needed to downsize because some expected investments hadn’t materialized. “Why do we need new investors for us to keep our businesses running?” he remembered wondering. “Have we just been burning investor money to keep up?” from The math tutor and the missing $533 million [Rest of World]
"It's over."
Dr. David Suzuki, noted Canadian scientist, educator, and climate activist, has called the fight. [more inside]
July 4
Florida removes record haul of invasive pythons
Florida removes record haul of invasive pythons in effort to curb population. The increase in Burmese pythons had resulted in loss of animals native to the Everglades.
AI-generated influencers
"Milla Sofia lives in Helsinki, spends weekends on luxury yachts, and recently signed a fashion deal with a Finnish phone accessories store. She also doesn’t exist, not in the real world. She's an AI-generated influencer, a pure creation of software with good lighting, designed to help sell products and generate money for her developer." [more inside]
Security, convenience, organizing, and automation
A few interesting ways to use the encrypted messaging app Signal. "Using Signal groups for activism" by Micah Lee (16 Jun 2025): how to "turn an in-person meeting into a Signal group using QR codes", "manage large semi-public groups while still vetting new members", and "make announcement-only groups" ideal for rapid-response volunteer networks. "A Signal messenger API on your tailnet with Docker Compose" by Parker Higgins (23 April 2025): a setup for sending Signal messages using the command line, following up his "Messaging Signal groups based on Puzzmo webhooks (using Tailscale Funnel)". (Disclaimer: Parker's a friend.)
MOBOTOYS: The Museum Of Battery Operated Toys
Do you like vintage battery operated toys? If so I have a place for you! Weirdly found this from a Reddit thread where the person that runs the museum drives this big truck with cold sparks, smoke, American Flags, etc while towing a Shelby Mustang. People thought it was a MAGA truck, but it ended up being this super great guy who just likes to do this and has nothing to do with MAGA. [more inside]
The Internet is for Extremism
The Internet is for Extremism, by Jeremiah Johnson. "To understand how Donald Trump used the Internet to take over American politics - and why everything else is also going insane - we first need to understand MrBeast. The biggest and probably most knowledgeable content creator on the planet has one philosophy - if you want people to watch, push things to the extreme. And this rule doesn’t just govern youtube videos. It governs everything we do online."
Rich Man, Poor Man.
Silias Deane as "secret emissary, he was entrusted with three interrelated duties in Paris: to secure merchandise for commercial trade; to obtain and arrange shipment of arms, clothing, and other supplies for an army of 25,000 troops; and to convince the French government to form an alliance with the colonists against Britain. Deane arrived in Paris on July 6, 1776, unaware that Congress had just declared independence and the war had begun"
'The Undoing of Silas Deane' [more inside]
'The Undoing of Silas Deane' [more inside]
This must be what they call contagious energy
I told her that the idea of power is always the first thing that comes to mind when I think of her roles. It’s clear the femme fatale title that follows her, but in that blend of eroticism and danger, there’s always something inherently strong. A woman who, from Basic Instinct through Casino to Diabolique, doesn’t stand behind men but side by side with them, if not a step ahead, can only be strong. from Sharon Stone exclusively for Vogue Adria on her new projects, why she still believes in a better world, and her shift from acting to art
"Fashion through space and time"
Wedding dress sketches (introduction) in the Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon collection, evening gowns (introduction) in the Bergdorf Goodman Custom Salon collection, Jerry Miller shoe sketches, and an in-depth look at fashion sketches, daywear, and eveningwear associated with A. Beller & Co. are among the collections, exhibits, etc. searchable by color at the FIT Library's Special Collections and College Archives and introduced in an essay by Karen Jamison Trivette in The Routledge History of Fashion and Dress, 1800 to the Present (2024), available free online. The book also has essays on the sewing machine, the role of chemical and textile industries in fashion, Black American fashion designers, Africa Fashion Week Nigeria, sportswear, and secondhand clothes--among many other topics.
Reversal of the Southern Meridional overturning circulation
“We are witnessing a true reversal of ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere—something we’ve never seen before” explains Antonio Turiel of ICM-CSIC. “While the world is debating the potential collapse of the AMOC in the North Atlantic, we’re seeing that the SMOC is not just weakening, but has reversed. This could will have unprecedented global climate impacts.” (PNAS)
The luxurious lifestyle of the world's richest man
Just a guy and his rockets
Bill the bots, it's Independence Day
Instead of being a fair trade, the web is being stripmined by AI crawlers with content creators seeing almost no traffic and therefore almost no value. That changes today, July 1, what we’re calling Content Independence Day. Cloudflare, along with a majority of the world's leading publishers and AI companies, is changing the default to block AI crawlers unless they pay creators for their content. That content is the fuel that powers AI engines, and so it's only fair that content creators are compensated directly for it.
July 3
Political Grief and the Enemy of Action.
Democratic institutions in the US are being dismantled at a frightening pace, masked thugs pull people off the street without identification, warrants or due process. Our government is building concentration camps in the swamps of Florida.
That sickness in the pit of your stomach might be political grief for all we have lost as a society. [more inside]
Farmers wanting to sell tiny dragons' last known holdout left in limbo
Farmers wanting to sell tiny dragons' last known holdout left in limbo. The home of the only wild population of Victorian grassland earless dragons is no longer viable as a private farm, but governments are unwilling to buy the land for conservation. (Australia)
"The story continues with Jón facing off against an evil serpent ..."
"Icelandic Saga Now Available in English for the First Time" (2024): "The Saga of Jón the Player ... is a ... chivalric saga that dates from the later Middle Ages." Introduction. "Here begins the saga ...." Source. See also "Nítíða saga" (2012): "riddarasögur have not always enjoyed acceptance among scholars, despite their immense popularity in Iceland from the late Middle Ages to the early twentieth century." Text & translation of this "maiden-king" saga. Late sagas may be absent from the Icelandic Saga Database and Saga Thing, but for an open access text about an earlier time, see The Norse Sorceress on "the mental and material universes of the people who inhabited Scandinavia and Iceland between the eighth and eleventh centuries AD ... It is ... an up-to-date introduction to ... vǫlur, seiðr, and other forms of ritual behaviour in the Viking world."
US Festival
"The US Generation is an in-depth look at one of the most influential music festivals of all time. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Glenn Aveni. Us Generation blends rare concert footage and insightful interviews with both organizers and performers."
I traded my lucrative career as a mortgage broker
"planning my getaway"
'Here I Am', Craig Wasson. (slyt)
Wasson relates a story about John Houseman while filming the movie 'Ghost Story'.
"John Houseman would ask me to walk with him from the set back to the hotel. Every day he would say to me [does a flawless John Houseman imitation]:I need to take my constitution. Will you please walk with me?
And I would walk with him."
From: 'A Less Then Perfect Guy'
"John Houseman would ask me to walk with him from the set back to the hotel. Every day he would say to me [does a flawless John Houseman imitation]:I need to take my constitution. Will you please walk with me?
And I would walk with him."
From: 'A Less Then Perfect Guy'
Is it live or is is Memorex?
Five steps to determine if a "Jackson Pollock" really is a Jackson Pollock Forensic scientist Thiago Piwowarczyk and art historian Jeffrey Taylor PhD examine a purported Jackson Pollock painting and use their expertise to determine if the painting is legitimate or a forgery.
via Wired, SLYT
$3.4 trillion debt
Some people could hold both the serious and humorous, some could not
The day before I had been walking out of a coffee shop with my family. I tapped my pockets in panic. Phew! my phone was there. I told them we had reached a level of twitching and compulsion around these devices, and one day we'd need a something to ease the cravings and help us detox. "For 60 years, heroin addicts have been given methadone to do this. For us, maybe it would be something called methaphone." [more inside]
Street Food King
Street Food King is a youtube channel with dozens of hours of well-lit 4K videos of Asian street food with no annoying narration.
Life-changing test developed for people allergic to gluten
Life-changing test developed for people allergic to gluten. Patients have to eat gluten for weeks before the current coeliac disease test, even when it makes them ill, but Australian researchers believe they have found a better method.
Whatever works
Marijuana to Treat Autism? Some Parents Say Yes - "Parents desperate for treatments say cannabis helps, but doctors urge caution." [more inside]
The act of writing always requires a certain ‘sacrifice of intellect'
Poetry ultimately proved too narrow a form to accommodate the scope of his investigations. It was also somewhat corrupted by having to engage the public, with its mandate to instruct and entertain. Valéry’s abandonment of poetry wasn’t so much a choice as a donné, which came to him during a stormy night in Genoa in 1892: “A frightful night…my whole fate being played out in my head…between me and me.” He would later liken the experience to a night Descartes had in 1619, when he had a series of vivid dreams that revealed to him a whole new philosophy of mind. from Head in the Clouds [Commonweal; ungated]
July 2
Is It a Car or a Dolphin?
Aptera Motors announces their production-intent vehicle (code named Artemis) Aptera Motors is a startup whose flagship product is a solar-powered electric vehicle, also called Aptera. The company claims their vehicle has a 400 mile range and the ability to gain 40 miles worth of charge through continued solar exposure (at least in sunny climates like their home base in Carlsbad, California). The Aptera is designed to be incredibly efficient thanks to its eye-catching aerodynamics. [more inside]
AAA game development
The man from Del Monte, he say "bankruptcy"!
Del Monte Foods, a nearly 140 year old company based in California, announced today that is filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. While the company cites a decline in demand for canned fruit and vegetables and a glut of inventory - most of the speculation points to private equity debt games, poor managemen and stock buybacks.
It is seeking a full sale of the company to continue in operation under new ownership [more inside]
Train in Souterrain
As any new homeowner will know, there are always unknown things to be found in a new place. From a kitchen cupboard that never seems to close properly, a curiously painted over area or the real performance of an air-conditioning unit, discoveries abound. But after Daniel Xu and his wife finalised the purchase of their house in Melbourne's northern suburbs, he found what can only be described as a train enthusiast's dream beneath their feet. from 'I was shocked': Melbourne man's 'unbelievable' find after buying house
Paradise Lost
In 2009, the artist Raqib Shaw began work on a painting that depicts, in allegory form, the violence in his native Kashmir. Sixteen years and one hundred linear feet later, he finished Paradise Lost. [more inside]
"People while bathing in onsen have suddenly disappeared"
Hot Spring Shark Attack had its world premiere last year at the Tokyo International Shark Film Festival and its US premiere recently at the Chattanooga Film Festival. Early reviews from Letterboxd, Bloody Disgusting, and Spooky Sarah Says. Evidently, it's back for this year's Tokyo festival too, along with the Odekake Kozame / "Little Shark's Outings" movie (Wikipedia; ~2 minute episode), plus Game of Shark, the third installment of the Ouija Shark franchise, and others. Low budget shark movies previously.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has confirmed there will be another
BBC link Ending years of speculation, His Holiness has now formally declared the continuation of the Dalai Lama and explicitly re-states the Tibetan mechanism by which the next incarnation will be determined. [more inside]
Miss Rheingold
Beauty and the Beer is a personal documentary produced by Anne Newman Bacal about the iconic Miss Rheingold contest. Begun in 1941 and ending in 1964, the contest was probably the most successful marketing campaign in American history. [more inside]
LA Chinatown tenants successful in rent strike
This rent strike lasted almost 5 years. The tenants banded together, and formed the Hillside Villa Tenants Association (HSVTA) to battle the landlord and the local city council to advocate for their needs.
MotherJones goes deeper.
To make out of apparently haphazard circumstances a plotted circle
The biography of today recoils from stuffing its subject into a straitjacket of interpretation, with all contradictions smoothly reconciled into a unified self. Instead we find an emphasis on the fragility and provisionality of identity, on performance, on motive being mysterious and many-tentacled. from Can You Ever Really Know a Person? Biographers Keep Trying. [NYT Magazine; ungated]
July 1
Green Lanterns of the US Federal Government
Five hundred eighty six current and former employees of the EPA have posted a signed declaration on the Stand up for Science website shining a light on the pattern of lies and potential violations of the Hatch Act of EPA Director Lee Zeldin.
Thy gown was of the grossie green, thy sleeues of Satten hanging by:
The Greensleeves Project "is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a team of established historians and practitioners to look at one of the most famous English historical songs, the Elizabethan ballad of Greensleeves... The earliest surviving text of Greensleeves dates from 1584. It’s a long song, with 18 verses, written in a somewhat stalker-like fashion, by a man who showers his would-be beloved with gifts, including a lot of clothes. Put together, these gifts provide us with a rich resource of information on clothing, fabrics, embroidery, and other aspects of material culture." [more inside]
Electric cars for USD20k? That's the plan
Slate Auto is an American startup company that is developing electric vehicles, scheduled for release to the market in late 2026. Nothing startling there. What is unusual about their offering is, in large part, the price point - with government rebates the base vehicle starts at USD20k (those rebates have to be at risk, of course because *waves around*). The base vehicle, dubbed the 'Blank Slate' is an all-electric rear-wheel-drive two-door utility with two seats and a 120 mile (193 km) range.
youtube channel Rich Rebuilds take a close look at the vehicle here (42:57 youtube video). [more inside]
Milky Way may crash into another galaxy in 2 billion years
Milky Way may crash into another galaxy in 2 billion years. It's not Andromeda. A new study challenges predictions our home galaxy the Milky Way will crash into the Andromeda galaxy in 5 billion years.
Seymour Britchky
"You will note, upon inspection of the menus, that the lobsters served here are identified either as medium or large. When you receive your 'medium' lobster, you will understand at once why nothing could be found to fit the bill of 'small'. This lobster must have been caught with a mosquito net, for he could have slipped the bars of any trap. But when you put on your reading glasses and commence to eat, your dismay is instantly magnified, for what you are not getting enough of is a perfectly broiled lobster, the meat so rich it seems buttery, its flavor vivid enough to make you heady." [more inside]
Beyond a threshold of similarity, our brain stops making distinctions
The article introduces the concept of “semantic pareidolia” - our tendency to attribute consciousness, intelligence, and emotions to AI systems that lack these qualities. It examines how this psychological phenomenon leads us to perceive meaning and intentionality in statistical pattern-matching systems, similar to seeing faces in clouds. from AI and Semantic Pareidolia: When We See Consciousness Where There Is None by Luciano Floridi [SSRN]
*cry*
Jimmy Swaggart, best known for famously crying on television because HE HAD SINNED, has died. WaPo obituary. Did you know that he also released an album with his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis?