This is not a depressing read (or listen, the author read option was great)!
the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best preparation you can do at the level of an individual life is to boost your local resilience. To become a person of place. To connect with the people and land where you live. This is what we’re built to do.
/via Dense Discovery
Log of the Bay is a LOG of radio traffic received on Marine VHF channels form a basement window in Oakland, California.
Akiya (vacant houses in Japan) “are becoming less like financial assets and more akin to natural resources, available to be harvested by those who wish put in the time and substantial effort to reclaim one from natural decay.”
A far-right attack on a community college reveals a blueprint for destroying higher ed
The problem goes far beyond a three-person majority on the trustee board of a small community college. NIC and many other institutions are in danger because, over the last decade and a half, a core group of extremists has slowly taken over the Idaho Republican Party in the same way that a parasitic wasp slowly takes over its host. This required no astroturfing or Koch-fueled cash infusions, just a regular, everyday indifference to hyperlocal politics. The tactic is underway elsewhere, but Idaho got a head start. This crisis is what happens when insurgency bears fruit.
Emphasis mine. Currently looking for more ways to be involved in my community.
Not Built For This is a 6-part series from 99% Invisible. It explores how climate change is laying bare the vulnerabilities in the American built environment and how communities across the country have been left to bootstrap their own survival.
American suburbs are full of ugly, empty, liminal spaces: spaces you are not meant to linger in or enjoy. They’re the creepy hallways of the built environment, and you can’t feel comfortable traversing them unless you’re zooming past them in a car.
American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists
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.”
I know there has been pushback against The Anxious Generation’s use of research, but I tend to agree with Zoë Schiffer from Platformer. Too much phone time (for kids or adults) just feels bad:
At the same time, we shouldn’t set aside the lived experiences of so many everyday smartphone users. For many of us, constant connectivity feels bad, and doomscrolling can heighten feelings of anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, getting outside and spending time with loved ones face to face can be the antidote to despair. I’m sympathetic to researchers who call attention to that dynamic, even if disputes remain about which claims are grounded in unassailable evidence.
They Didn’t Just Want to Build a Housing Shelter. They Wanted to Shift Public Perception:
Changing the way the public perceives shelters informed the design. From the nearby highway, the first glimpse you get of the structure includes an impressive mural by Australian artist Guido van Helten stretched across its 3,000-square-foot facade. A passerby might think this is an art museum, a shop, or possibly a school.
What I learned from taking a train across the US. “Here’s how US train travel went from excellent to mediocre.” A Vox video.