2024
Heat Death of the Internet
Enumerating all the ways the internet currently sucks. Example:
You buy a microwave and receive ads for microwaves. You buy a mattress and receive ads for mattresses.
No one wants this.
The article does end on a positive note:
You read the Wikipedia entry and there is a lot of useful information supplied by a community. One of the sources cited is a non-fiction book. You go to your local library’s website and although they don’t have the exact book, they do have others by the same author. You place a hold on two of them, then go get your shoes on.
Heat Death of the Internet - takahē
You want to order from a local restaurant, but you need to download a third-party delivery app, even though you plan to pick it up yourself. The prices and menu on the app are different to what you saw in the window. When you download a second app the prices are different again. You ring
How a Connecticut middle school won the battle against cellphones (🎁 link)
Gabe Silver, another eighth-grader, echoed that sentiment. When the pouches first arrived, “everyone was miserable and no one was talking to each other,” he said. Now he can hear the difference at lunch and in the hallways. It’s louder. Students are chatting more “face to face, in person,” Gabe said. “And that’s a crucial part of growing up.”
Sacred Modernity showcases "unique beauty" of brutalist churches
Jamie McGregor Smith has spent the last five years capturing brutalist and modernist churches across Europe for his book Sacred Modernity.
Guardabosques' Meticulous Paper Portraits Celebrate Diverse Bat Species in 'Little Friends of Darkness' — Colossal
For Guardabosques, the mind-boggling variety of bats inspires ‘Amiguitos de la Oscuridad,’ or “little friends of darkness.”
“Sightings” by Artist Cable Griffith
A selection of paintings by Cable Griffith from his latest exhibition, “Sightings.”
Seven Minute Demos:
People do demos of something they’ve built, or give a lightning talk on whatever topic they like. The demo/talk just has be less than 7 minutes long. There’s no minimum time limit. People can talk for 1 minute, 3 minutes, or take the whole 7. The time limit also lowers the barrier to entry and makes it less intimidating for people to sign up and speak.
Yeah, 7 minutes feels about right!
Some things for week 16 of 2024.
Anyone else enjoy looking at the tracking details of a package. Watching an item wend it’s way through a system of warehouses, trucks / trains, and multiple states. Maybe I’m the only shipping infrastructure nerd out here.
“And yet, making observations is a good starting point for giving feedback. The trouble arises when we assume that those observations are both the start and the end, that we’re walking along a very short track.” From What you see by Mandy Brown. Can I say how much I appreciate everything changes? Lot’s of thoughtful writing!