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.
Any code I’ve written, any glib digital creation, disappears into the infinite feed. But a playground will stubbornly stand for the next twenty years, pointing to big ideas in computer science. It’s something I think about often.
IKEA Catalog from a Near Future
Some design fiction on the " …possible evolutions of home life, consumer trends and needs, and related topics in the categories of domestic life, food, urban life, travel, leisure, and entertainment."
Forums Are Still Alive, Active, And A Treasure Trove Of Information:
Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people.
The networks we use to communicate across fields and distances, to find our friends and learn from people unlike ourselves—and to organize ourselves to respond to acute crises and long, grinding institutional failures—are the same networks that are making so many of us miserable and/or deranged.
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
America’s 7-Elevens to become ‘Japanese style’: “Japan’s 7-Eleven locations – referred to as konbini – have a different vibe. There, they put a focus on “tantalizing food,” according to TODAY. Items found at Japanese 7-Eleven stores include onigiri (rice balls), fried chicken, sushi, egg sandwiches, fresh pastries, mochi and hot bar items”
The internet isn’t for humans anymore. Bots use the internet more than we do; use shapes design.