The ship waited. The cars waited. The starfish and sea cucumbers waited, but in the meantime, they explored the smooth surfaces of the ship and the cars. They crawled over the charred flanks and squeezed into the seams of doors and trunks and hoods. An octopus took refuge in the underbelly of a Bentley. The metal and fiberglass and plastic, the wires and buttons and glass belonged to the sea creatures now. from Felicity Ace Falls Over & Sinks, Tuesday, 9am by Shena McAuliffe [Speculative Nonfiction]

Felicity Ace, previously

I took how fast everything was moving for granted. Like, I guess this happens for everybody; this is what happens when you get famous. So I took all of that for granted but I was never like, "I'm the [expletive]." There's no higher blessing: You make people laugh, that's more than anything. That's more than making them dance, making them feel drama. To look around and see that all the good things that came in my life all came from making somebody laugh? That's a beautiful feeling, man. from Eddie Murphy is Ready to Look Back [NYT; ungated]

Who dresses better? Alpha males or little dogs? [by Derek Guy, on X (Threadreader) (previously)]

So the aftermath of the Internet exploding is inevitably going to come with ambivalent, and even bittersweet, feelings. Many of us are probably going to miss the amazing sense of connection we have with people all around the globe and the book recommendations, free recipes and gardening tips, but, to no less an extent, are probably going to be extremely relieved to no longer be quite so pressured by corporations to be rampantly interested in our own surfaces or be beset by the constant lingering sense that we are arguing with people we've never met about a version of ourselves that doesn't exist. Yes, having go into the city to our bank to transfer some money, just like we did during the 20th Century, will be a pain. But I am looking forward to being able to relax while eating some salty snacks without worrying about the way their residue sticks to my thumb and makes my online banking app impossible to open. It's a case of swings and roundabouts. from What Will Life Really Be Like After The Internet Gets Incinerated? by Tom Cox [The Villager]

In these few short years, America's newly opening landscapes—residential, rural, and the fastest routes between them—were given a visual identity by the federal government. If olive drab and its ilk were the colors of Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation, then the hues of the first revision were those of America's well-branded internal expansion. Every mailbox, park sign, and highway mile-marker was another tiny flag planted by a growing nation, proclaiming its new success with the same methods and military sensibility that had recently secured it a starring role on the international stage. Though they're brighter and friendlier, the colors and rules that dictated the look of American infrastructure's mid-century boom are every bit as ordered as a dispatch from the Quartermaster Corps. from Americhrome [The Morning News]

AMS Standard 595

Some things might be classics because they're just plain good. There was a lot of crap published around the same time, and most of it has rightly been forgotten, but some was great even by the standards of today. Like, maybe if you published Pride and Prejudice today, it would be received as "ah yes, this is an excellent entry in the niche genre of Regency-era romance. The few hundred committed fans of that genre will be very excited, and people who dabble in it will be well-advised to pick this one out". But as I said above, I don't think the Iliad meets that bar. from Book review: the Iliad [A Reasonable Approximation]

I have chosen to shape this personal collection with a few criteria given the availability of various carabiner models. My primary interest and expertise is in tree climbing, which uses locking carabiners almost exclusively. As such, I primarily focus on the acquisition of locking carabiners, but non-lockers have been produced in far greater numbers, for much longer. Non-lockers tend to highlight changes or dead-ends of carabiner design and seem to keep showing up in my collection... plus I'm not one to toss aside a carabiner even if it's a little boring.

Terminology Guide Categories: Triple-Action Twist Lock; Twist Lock; Slide Lock; Screw Lock; Other Locking; Multi-Gate; Non-Locking; Gated-Hook; Accessory; All Carabiners Virtual Exhibits Other Thoughts

When I first told friends about the latest turn my reading had taken, I got a lot of blank stares at first but soon fell into a delightful text exchange with a friend who has a Ph.D. and who also read Morning Glory Milking Farm. She sent me a link to Hermione Granger–Draco Malfoy fanfic that she said had taught her a lot about BDSM. I started to realize that, though many of us may be out here walking around with the latest literary fiction from Riverhead or Pantheon in our tote bags, our phones runneth over with stories of men with tails and two dicks. from Falling for a Minotaur [The Cut; ungated] [Text is probably NSFW]

One of a swelling series in The Cut's Summer of Smut

"Within a week of actual research, we just threw out the term information literacy," says Yasmin Green, Jigsaw's CEO. Gen Zers, it turns out, are "not on a linear journey to evaluate the veracity of anything." Instead, they're engaged in what the researchers call "information sensibility" — a "socially informed" practice that relies on "folk heuristics of credibility." In other words, Gen Zers know the difference between rock-solid news and AI-generated memes. They just don't care. from Google studied Gen Z. What they found is alarming. [Business Insider; ungated]

Includes: 13 slang words Gen Zers are using in 2024 and what they really mean

Maybe you want to know where William Duffy's Farm is? Or the Indian River? Or perhaps Xanadu? Or where The Garden lies? Or MANAHATTA? No matter what poetic place you're seeking, The Poetry Atlas knows the way.

Organized by Poet, Poems by title, or Poems by first line, or search for a location. [Unfortunately, the full text of the poems is usually not available right there on the site; most can be found at the Poetry Foundation or Poets.org] Here are the poems mention above: Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota Indian River Kubla Khan A Bird, came down the walk MANNAHATTA

To mark Pride month, Pornhub collaborated with the LGBTQ+ culture site pride.com to round up data on what kinds of gay porn have amassed popularity with viewers, although they didn't release exact information about their data collection or sample sizes. As we've noted before, yassified masturbation surveillance isn't exactly the most ideal scenario, but it's here and it's certainly queer. from Vintage Cowboys and Cruising: What Gay Porn Viewers Are Searching For by State [Them] [CW: PornHub, Big Data]

Arash Missaghi seemed immune from consequence. His voluminous court records show no convictions, no jail time and no successful lawsuits against him in Canada, while providing few – if any – indications why criminal charges against him were withdrawn on multiple occasions. from Businessman killed in Toronto triple shooting defrauded hundreds of victims, netted at least $100-million, records show [CW: suicide, murder, fraud]

'He was everywhere and nowhere all at once': The elaborate web of triple shooting victim Arash Missaghi [The Star; ungated] Arash Missaghi and Canada's Largest Abandoned Mansion [Freaktography] Paradise Lost [Toronto Life, 2018] Law Society of Ontario v. Mehta, 2019 ONLSTH 154 [CanLII] This post sponsored by seanmpuckett's #LinkMe

For writers, the stakes are do or die: A debut sets the bar for each of their subsequent books, so their debut advance and sales performance can follow them for the rest of their career. For editors, if a writer's first book doesn't perform, it's hard to make a financial case for acquiring that writer's second book. And for you, a reader interested in great fiction, the fallout from this challenging climate can limit your access to exciting new voices in fiction. Unless you diligently shop at independent bookstores where booksellers highlight different types of books, you might only ever encounter the big, splashy debuts that publishers, book clubs, social-media algorithms, and big-box retailers have determined you should see. from Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch? [Esquire; ungated]

The idea had come to Queneau on a visit to Greece in the early 1930s. There he learned about the dispute between adherents of the two rival forms of the Greek language: the archaic, revivalist Katharevousa, harking back to classical Greek, and the modern, vernacular Demotic. Queneau recognised a similar gulf between literary French and the contemporary spoken language: 'I came to realise that modern, written French must free itself from the conventions that still hem it in.' What was needed was an overhaul, an attentiveness to everyday speech, which would bring about a new written language, a 'néo-français', corresponding to the language as it was actually spoken. from How to Speak Zazie [London Review of Books; ungated]

The article is eventually a review of Queneau's The Skin of Dreams Queneau, previously

Military contractor Erik Prince started a private WhatsApp group for his close associates that includes a menagerie of right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists. We got their messages. from Off Leash: Inside the Secret, Global, Far-Right Group Chat [The New Republic; ungated] [CW: the quiet part, out loud]

Among the group's hottest topics: • The "Biden Regime," which a consensus of Off Leash participants who weighed in view as an ally of Islamic terrorists and other anti-American forces that needs to be crushed along with them and its partners in the deep state, such as former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who "deserves to burn in hell," Lara Logan shared with the group chat. • The shortcomings of democracy that invariably resulted from extending the franchise to ordinary citizens, who are easily manipulated by Marxists and populists. "The West is at best a beautiful cemetery," lamented Sven von Storch, whose aristocratic German family fled the country after World War II to Chile, where their son was raised before returning to the land of his ancestors, where he married the granddaughter of the Third Reich's last de facto head of state, who was convicted at Nuremberg. • Israel-Palestine, a problem that Michael Yudelson, Prince's business partner at Unplugged, which markets an allegedly supersecure smartphone, said should be handled by napalming Hamas's tunnel network. "I would burn all those bastards, and have everything above ground, everything left of Gaza, collapse into this fiery hell pit and burn!" he wrote. • The Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom Yoav Goldhorn, who was an Israeli intelligence officer until last year and now works for a Tel Aviv–based security contractor headed by former senior national security veterans, thinks should be "dealt with" as soon as possible to ensure they don't grow from "an inconvenience to a festering mess [that] will eventually require an entire limb to be amputated." • And most of all, Iran, which participants agreed, with a few exceptions, also needed to be wiped out. Saghar Erica Kasraie, a former staffer for Republican Representative Trent Franks when he served on the House Armed Services Committee and whom, according to her LinkedIn profile, she advised on Middle East issues, urged that the Islamic Republic's clerical leaders be targeted by weaponized drones that "take them out like flys ."

The vision is as ideological as it is practical. Prospective shareholders purchase a plot and commit to live a self-sufficient lifestyle — growing your own crops, pumping your own water, building your own house. Each resident has his own reason for joining. Some, Gleason says, are drawn for health reasons — they want to grow their own clean food. Others seek safety, "away from the craziness." Gleason reasons that most people are drawn by some combination of the two. "They just want a safe place to raise family and food," he said. The "craziness," Gleason admits, was a major factor for his own move. "We seem to be undergoing a cultural revolution in the U.S.," he said. "When we first came out here, we thought it might be too far away." He shifted his truck into park, turning his face to meet my eyes. "Now, with everything that's happening, we wonder if it's far enough." from Sick of politics? Move off the grid [The Deseret News] [CW: Mormons, homophobia, home-schooling]

Climate Zones [The Pudding]

"There's something really dangerous happening to us out there," he told the audience. "We're slowly getting split up into two Americas. Things are getting taken away from the people that need them and given to people that don't need them." from Red, White, and Misused: How "Born in the U.S.A." Became an Anthem for Everything That It Wasn't [The Ringer]

Includes An Incomplete Guide to the Most Misused Songs in Modern Music

Modernity refers, for Barba-Kay, chiefly if not exclusively to the unfolding of technological progress culminating in the digital. Whereas in the ancient world technē was seen to imitate and aid nature in the realization of its ends, as the physician uses his art to nurse the body to health, early modern thinkers wondered whether art could overcome natural limitations altogether. Medicine might vastly extend human life; the modern state, properly designed, might never die; the bomb, through the threat of mutually assured destruction, might obviate war. Digital technology is not just one more attempt to resist, artificially, the indifference of nature to human happiness. Instead, "the digital is a 'natural' technology, that is, a technology so useful as to serve as a paradigm for usefulness itself, a technology that achieves the goal implicit in technology as such." from This Irresistible Revolution [The Point; ungated]

A review of Antón Barba-Kay's A Web of Our Own Making by Daniel Schillinger Antón Barba-Kay gives the keynote speech during the 2024 Student Conference on Core Texts and Classes at American University's School of Public Affairs.

The recruitment cycle is slow and methodical, and the core step is the development of a Subject, which can last months or years. There are specific milestones a "developmental" must meet before moving to the next stage. At first, the acceptance of an expensive meal may be an indicator but over time, these financial benefits increase. A timepiece, whether luxury or affordable, is an ideal gift. It's immediately recognizable, and it's something that the agent can wear as a constant reminder of the friendship with the Case Officer and thus the greater relationship with the US Government. Further, the soon-to-be agent's acceptance of an expensive gift from an American official is a strong indication that the individual is willing to move in the direction of a clandestine relationship. from Bribes & Operational Gifts - The Role Of Timepieces In Clandestine Operations [Watches of Espionage via The Morning News]

*This article has been reviewed by the CIA's Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

A surreal but entirely real photograph called 'Flamingone' by Miles Astray (real name, I kid you not) impressed judges of the prestigious 1839 photo contest to be awarded bronze and claim the people's vote award, which comes with a cash prize. Trouble for the contest organizers is that Astray's winning image was entered into a newly formed AI category.

As he began observing and talking to the inmates, he realised that he had it all wrong. The teenagers joked and played around with each other, as millions around the world at that age do, and Oshagan found their demeanours instantly relatable. from Fragile, intimate portraits of California's imprisoned youth [Huck]

Christ may be able to live on cheeseburgers and Cokes, but Salinger wanted something more. This is his power and his downfall—his vampiric need to drain the potential of the young. Whether through his bohemian characters or the very real women in his own life, he was always ready to give a lecture and take power. Cute as Salinger's characters are, they live under his thumb. They're playthings, like dolls. We enjoy judging their powerlessness, but his fetish for purity was often what he tried to use to get off the hook for his ghoulish behavior. Marrying young women until they were no longer ingenues, feeding on the genre of YA as a source for so-called serious literary fiction, devouring Eastern prayers without regard for their context or specificity. YA is his Trojan horse. This is a grim realization. from Hagiography of a Narcissist: On J. D. Salinger's "Hapworth 16, 1924" by Grace Byron [LARB; ungated]

On any reasonably sunny day, the pool would by then be echoing with the names of well-known people being called to the phone, as well as with the names of unknown people being called to the phone by themselves in the forlorn hope that one day this would help them become well known, too. From his vantage in front of his cabana, Irving could not only watch the parade go by but get the parade to sit down with him and play cards. from The Man Who Spent Forty-two Years at the Beverly Hills Hotel Pool [The New Yorker, 1993; ungated]

Irving Link, 90210 [LA Times, 1996] Irving Link obituary [Legacy, 2007] The Beverly Hills Hotel [Wikipedia]