“There’s no attempt to whitewash the city anymore”
Report from Santa Ana, "the face of the new California," which once was at the heart of white bread Orange County, and now is 78 percent Latino.
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Report from Santa Ana, "the face of the new California," which once was at the heart of white bread Orange County, and now is 78 percent Latino.
Friday headlines: Hell caesar
The limited nature of Israel's counterattack on Iran suggests both sides want to avoid escalation. / The New York Times [+]
Most of the US military aid approved for Ukraine is being spent in the US—and specifically in these congressional districts. / The Washington Post [+]
Tracking AI-generated election content around the world. / Rest of World
GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are resulting in pregnancies, leading some doctors to use the medications to treat PCOS, but without the data to back it up. / National Post
Wastewater testing has proved essential for tracking and isolating Covid outbreaks, and could expand to other health threats. / Nature
"What this means is that there may be lots more hominin bones in people's floors and showers." On discovering a human-like mandible in travertine tile. / John Hawks
For the first time, archaeologists have evidence humans lived in lava tubes; tunnels below the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia were inhabited for thousands of years. / NewScientist
"We are living through an age of unchecked Caesar-salad fraud." / MSN
See also: Why don't rich people eat anymore? / Dazed
Responding to Germany considering limiting hunting trophy imports, Botswana's president threatens to send 20,000 elephants, citing overpopulation concerns. / The Guardian
"How ethical can forced identification be?" Current-day surveillance tech has roots in a 19th-century system of measuring bodies for criminal identification. / Eurozine
The NFL is the only North American sports organization that isn't open to institutional investment, but that may change next month—and private equity is gearing up. / Financial Times [+]
See also: Backed by private equity, a group has been buying up Minor League Baseball teams, and now owns a quarter of the league. / InsideHook
Thursday headlines: Poet common denominator
The amount of homicides in major American cities is falling at its quickest rate in decades. / axios
Mass shootings in the United States are said to be down 30% from this time last year. / X
Funding for US-based "creator" startups more than doubled in the first three months of 2024. / The Information
A new spy service scrapes more than ten thousand Discord servers and sells the data for as little as $5. / 404 Media
See also: Hand-embroidered surveillance footage. / designboom
The era of big data and now artificial intelligence has led to an entrenched, maturing partnership between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley. / Forever Wars
"Delve" is overused by ChatGPT because it's popular in Nigeria—and that's where the AI was trained. / The Guardian
Meanwhile: "It takes 20 times more water to have a ChatGPT conversation than to run a Google search." / The South China Morning Post
Nearly 300 gems were stolen from the British Museum over a 25-year period. / The Art Newspaper
A study finds Arabica coffee developed more than 600,000 years ago. / Phys.org
The "Mariko Aoki phenomenon" is when you enter a cafe or bookstore and immediately want to use the toilet. / Sprudge
Actual poets weigh in on Taylor Swift's new Tortured Poets Department. "I think a part of writing poetry is observing things and being honest. Can you do that if you have billions of dollars?" / The Cut
Love, all my friends
Photographs from four days in a Ukrainian trench with soldiers from an international legion. / The New York Times [+]
"Be honest and vulnerable." Activists explain how they keep calm in a world full of crises. / Goats and Soda
Spencer Ackerman: A world with exceptions to international law is one in which the least powerful suffer the most. / The New York Times [+]
Caitlin Clark's base salary in the WNBA will be $76,535. Why the pay gap with the NBA? Partly because of a much worse bargaining agreement. / Vox, Just Women's Sports
Gen Z is richer at this stage in their lives than Millenials or Baby Boomers were at their age. / The Economist
Profiles of people who work from "secretive" ships, repairing deep-sea internet infrastructure. / The Verge
"Resurrecting" the dead is a popular use of generative AI in China. / rest of world
Meta thinks it'll be a good idea for teachers and students to wear its headsets in class. / axios
"Rewilding is a positive vision for the networks we want to live inside." A manifesto for rewilding the web? / Noema
To combat overtourism, locals in Barcelona get a favorite bus route removed from Google and Apple maps. /
See also: Some maps from the 18th century that were a "picture of time itself." / Humanities
Handsome photographs of specialized tools used by contemporary artisans. / The Rake
Young straight men who tell their guy friends "I love you" find they sometimes receive weird looks in public. / Inside Hook
Tavi Gevinson goes long and meta in a zine of sorts about Taylor Swift. / mirrorball
Tuesday headlines: Go pouch, go
In China, companies making fentanyl precursors and analogues can apply for state tax rebates. / NPR
Nearly 200 US colleges and universities hold contracts with Chinese businesses, valued at $2.32 billion. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Argentina experiences a 2,153% increase in Dengue cases. / The Guardian
From February, some good news about recent progress against dengue fever. / Science
If you're an organ donor in the United States, "there's a 25% chance your kidney ends up in the trash." / Statecraft
A researcher who studies American sexual behavior says there's been a rapid rise of "rough sex" among college students, particularly sexual strangulation. / The New York Times [+]
The amount of American adults who've had coffee in the past day has increased by 37% since 2004, a 20-year high. / Sprudge
See also: McDonald's introduces billboards that smell like French fries. / Business Insider
Why are cats getting more screen time in movies recently? Professional cat training for films "has greatly evolved in recent years." / The Hollywood Reporter
Remembering that once upon a time, schools, towns, states and even the Senate passed rules against beepers. / Pessimists Archive
Jessa Crispin: Once again, the intellectual media sends an elite writer on a cruise, only to discover the guy hates everyone. / The Culture We Deserve
Some notes on how a mechanical watch works. Also, how the Berlin Wall worked. / Bartosz Ciechanowski, Open Culture
Three men are rescued after spelling out "help" with palm leaves on a small Pacific island. / BBC News
Related: A former Special Forces soldier explains what he packs in his "go-pouch." / Why Is This Interesting
Monday headlines: Keep it like a secret
Following Israel's thwarting of Iran's aerial attack, world leaders urge Netanyahu not to retaliate, and Biden says the US won't support an Israeli counterattack. / AP, Axios
A mission to capture space junk has now rendezvoused with a second-stage rocket that's been orbiting Earth since 2009. / Gizmodo
Tinnitus sufferers are finding relief with a new FDA-approved device that electronically stimulates the tongue—it works by distracting the brain. / NPR
Researchers have identified a link between car exhaust and signs and symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. / University of Technology Sydney
Just as there are people who have an innate sense of navigation, others do not, and GPS appears to diminish people's wayfinding skills. / Ars Technica
See also: "At some point, I'm going to pick up a paper map." What it's like to switch to a circa-2011 BlackBerry in the year 2023. / Stephen's Site
In online chats, Amazon drivers often refer to a dispatcher named "Wayne," an imaginary nemesis who's apparently based on a real person. / 404 Media
"The majority of what we are and who we are is kept private inside." Twenty years of PostSecret. / Hazlitt
John Warner: There are values core to higher education that shouldn't be handed over to generative AI—but that's exactly what's happening now. / Inside Higher Ed
A look back at the rise of the photocopier and its implications for copyright. / NEWART
"It is equally unsustainable to write about music as it is to write and perform music for a living." After Pitchfork, what's next for music criticism? / Boston Review
A pair of music archivists are unearthing lost recordings from major artists, and putting them back in the right hands. / The New York Times [+]
See also: A look inside George Martin's Montserrat recording studio, which is currently crumbling into ruins. / Atlas Obscura
Saturday headlines: Don’t look in the basement
Following Israel's attack on Iran's consulate in Syria, Iranian forces have seized an "Israeli-linked" container ship near the Strait of Hormuz. / Al Jazeera
See also: "The conventional wisdom in Washington and elsewhere has often held that Iran has become contained, even isolated. But this was never true." / Foreign Affairs
Google blocks California news outlets in retaliation over proposed legislation that would force it to pay publishers in the state for content. / Gizmodo
State and city mandates for CO2 reductions are working in the Bay Area, where vehicle emission rates are falling around 2.6% annually. / Berkeley News
"I remember thinking, 'Why did it take them three years to build a three-story building?'" The town that kept its nuclear bunker a secret for three decades. / Smithsonian
OJ Simpson handed over only $133,000 of the $33.5 million he was ordered to pay in the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. / Rolling Stone
US border arrests typically surge in spring; however, for the first time since 2017, March arrests fell, month over month—due to increased immigration enforcement in Mexico. / NPR
AI summaries won't replace social media anytime soon, both because the technology isn't there yet, and because people don't want that. / Read Max
Inside a horror-themed gym in Pittsburgh. / Neatorama
After scanning more than 500 sauropod bones during Covid lockdown, an Australian paleobiologist identified 12 new dinosaurs. / ABC
"For years, I have been telling people that if they love podcasts and want to support podcast creators—especially independent ones—they shouldn't listen to podcasts on Spotify." / Defector
This is wonderful: 15 notes played at 0.2 bpm time differences. / YouTube
Spend a minute at a park. / One Minute Park
Friday headlines: What’s new is old again
Bird flu outbreaks typically go away after culling poultry, but over the past three years the virus hasn't died down, and in fact is increasing. / WIRED
Moira Donegan: How society's failure to help an obvious victim of domestic violence led to Nicole Brown's death. / The Guardian
Traffic data on the day of eclipse shows how people flocked to the path of totality. / The New York Times [+]
An advocacy group in Mexico is using deepfakes of missing people in efforts to coerce the government to help locate the individuals. / The Daily Beast
This week, Apple notified iPhone users in 92 countries that they were "being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack," at first calling the attack "state-sponsored." / TechCrunch
The only thing Humane's AI Pin does reliably is tell the time; two years later, the crank-based Playdate gaming console has only grown in relevance. / The Verge, Engadget
A new excavation at Pompeii has unearthed stunning frescos as well as a mosaic floor with more than a million white tiles. / BBC
Jessa Crispin: "You are having a midlife crisis. It's fine." / The Culture We Deserve
Setting the retirement age at 65 was politically motivated—it was a way to get Social Security legislation passed when life expectancy was far lower. / Money
"In an attempt to banish Western cultural influences, authorities in the Republic of Chechnya are banning music they deem too fast or too slow." / Hyperallergic
How attitudes toward "selling out" have changed among musicians over the past two decades—as to why, the answer has a lot to do with Napster. / Can't Get Much Higher
"Pelicans will eat anything they can fit into their mouths." / Boing Boing
Thursday headlines: Expungables
The February heatwave in West Africa was made 10 times more likely by climate change. / CarbonBrief
British farmers say this year's record rainfall suggests an ongoing emergency. / The Guardian
A round-up of superlatives, senior yearbook style, for "the most surprising, actionable, and fun solutions" to the climate crisis. / Grist
Lionel Barber: We already live in a "Trump 1.5" world, but Japan is more worried than most about Trump 2.0. / Politico Magazine
See also: Fake pictures of Donald Trump with historical figures. / X
Despite a decade of federal oversight, Albuquerque cops kill people at a higher rate than any other police force in the United States. / Searchlight New Mexico
Can America's abandoned malls be turned into housing? Zoning rules say probably not. / Vox
Consumer Reports asks the USDA to take Lunchables off school lunch menus due to high amounts of sodium and heavy metals. / NPR
A French court says veggie burgers can be called "steaks." / Le Monde
Indie food brands cry foul over Trader Joe's executives' "blatant and aggressive" copycat tactics. / Taste
Biohackers go all in on so-called cellular-health treatments, despite science not exactly supporting them. / GQ
"'The most basic questions about sleep still lack definite answers." Increasing evidence finds sleep disorders to have a genetic component. / The London Review of Books
Wednesday headlines: Greeks’ herring gifts
Tuesday headlines: Candle me this
Monday headlines: Real friends, fake likes
Friday headlines: Nobel rejections
Thursday headlines: Pachabel’s salmon
Wednesday headlines: StairDisaster
Tuesday headlines; Tame, very tame
Monday headlines: Plantlife
Saturday headlines: Carbon coffee
Friday headlines: The Juggernaut, I was
Thursday headlines: Give it away, give it away now
Wednesday headlines: Joy riders