The United States is experiencing institutional collapse at a speed and scale that are difficult to understand, especially through feeds and updates designed to atomize our attention. ... In our work at Unbreaking, we’ll help orient and ground our fellow Americans in clear and rigorously cited breakdowns of what’s happening to our government and why it matters.
Very well done site for my American friends and others curious about what's going on in the US: Unbreaking. Of the three topics they're currently focusing on I'm most informed on Trans Healthcare (the other two are Equality At Work and Medicaid) and can say that Unbreaking's coverage is top-notch.
Jim Hill's a Chicago-based photographer who specializes in night images. These are from his series Broken Silence, taken during the pandemic (2021 / 22). Wonderful work.
Though I have a First Edition of Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod, he recently published a very different edition via Random House. I believe this is Mod’s first non-self-published work. It came out the day after my birthday so I picked one up at Flying Books on release day as a self-gift. It’s truly wonderful and I suspect word of mouth will make it a huge success.
More on the title on Mod’s site. Should be available anywhere good books are sold. Even if you’ve also got a first edition, this is practically a different book.
The Internet Phone Book has been talked about for a while now and it has finally come into being. For those of you who remember the White or Yellow Pages, TIP is like that but for web people: a physical volume listing the names of bloggers or web creators and their associated sites. I've ordered a copy and am curious to see my listing. Get yours at TheInternetPhonebook.net.
I love the use of color in these paintings by Jim Musil. His work makes me want to travel, probably because he paints what I like to photograph: boxes and bushes and bodies of water.
The past few days I've been using Particle, a news app for Apple devices. I must say it seems impossibly good so far. It uses AI to serve up news in categories you select and you're able to dial up or dial down your interests in each category or even turn them off entirely (goodbye Sports and Celebrities!). Though this isn't completely unique, it also summarizes content via multiple sources, and determines the bias of the publications serving you the articles.
In the past, I've tried Apple News, Google News, Flipboard, and countless other apps. This one seems the most in tune with my thinking regarding how news should be served.
For instance, here's a screngrab of the front page of their politics section as I write this:
If I click on the first article, about the arrested Ukrainians, it tells me there are 8 stories about this topic so far. It then gives me an overview of the articles and tells me what the people who are sharing these articles are saying about them. The column on the right shows me photos from the articles and I can click through them or click View All. Further down, there are links to the actual 8 articles and clicking on them takes me directly to them on the publisher's websites.
In the App, I can also specify how I want that Overview, with options for Explain Like I'm 5; Opposite Sides (presents right and left takes); The 5 Ws; and others.
The above is possible on Particle's website as well as in the App. However, in the app I can also tap the area between the headline and the Overview and see this, which breaks down the biases of the sources:
I can also hit that Political Spectrum dropdown and re-sort by Publish Date or Article Length.
You can also Ask Questions regarding the articles and the AI will answer them based on the source articles. For instance, about this article, I asked, "How do authorities determine connections to Russian state agencies?" and was given an answer. I also asked if these were Ukrainians living in Russia or living in Ukraine and was told places of residence were not specified. Questions are public, so other people can click them and see the answers.
You can also listen to any article by hitting the Play button. Great for dog walking or longform articles.
We spoke to Gavesh and five other workers from inside the scam industry, as well as anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. Their testimony reveals how global companies, including American social media and dating apps and international cryptocurrency and messaging platforms, have given the fraud business the means to become industrialized. By the same token, it is Big Tech that may hold the key to breaking up the scam syndicates—if only these companies can be persuaded or compelled to act.
