Video killed the temporal lobe

Video killed the temporal lobe “As a geopolitical actor, the United States has become a kind of lumbering zombie—a beast that can be startled into reflexive actions but lacks higher functions.” / The New York Times [$] How Trump’s arch doesn’t fit the intent—architecturally or symbolically—of the bridge he cites that congress approved for construction in 1925. / The Washington Post [$] An exhaustively researched compendium of studies on the racist policies that have built America’s criminal justice system. / The Watch What would happen if China hacked the US water supply? Wargaming potential scenarios with 30 insurance execs and no bathroom breaks. / WIRED “When I began leaving messages for them, one survivor wondered if the phone call was a prank.” The forgotten bombing of LaGuardia Airport. / Slate Meta may add prediction markets to its social media apps, a combination not entirely unlike “combining alcohol and cocaine.” / Oligarch Watch “In the men’s game, a player that is just 1% more likely to win the average point is 12.5% more likely to win the match. For women, the figure is about 10.5%.” A statistician’s guide to Wimbledon. / The Economist If you enjoy these headlines, please join us as a Sustaining Member to support what we do and unlock access to paywalled links. As the Buc-ee’s rest-stop empire spreads across the US, its trademark lawyers have declared open season on competitors’ cartoon animal mascots. / The Wall Street Journal [$] One of the biggest contributors to the microplastics we ingest is the dust in our houses, and to reduce our exposure we should vacuum more often. / Yale Environment 360 An artist is selling street trash found outside Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Madison Square Garden wedding: “It wasn’t as dirty as I was expecting.” / Hyperallergic On the scourge of AI-generated flyers and how the pursuit of polish is sucking the charm from small businesses. / 404 Media John Warner: The danger of physicians offloading the work of writing clinical notes to AI is that writing is thinking. / Inside Higher Ed The post-literate world is finally here—it’s not just AI, short-form video, and a decline in book reading, but because more people can’t fully comprehend what they do read. / The Atlantic [$] Unrelated: Read an endless stream of opening pages. / Uncovered When publishers realize they just bought an AI-generated piece: “The worldbuilding had colourful details that somehow failed to build consistently.” / Bona Books A brief history of the signature YouTube horror short. / Darker Times