How ASML took over the world
The strange path to global monopoly [worksinprogress.news]
The Great Memory Panic of 2026
Horace Dediu discusses how surging memory prices could affect Apple’s supply strategy, margins, and bargaining power, and why volatility may ultimately favor larger buyers over smaller competitors. [asymco.com]
Heritability of human lifespan is about 50% when heritability is redefined
Ratios will be ratios. [dynomight.net]
At the edge of a warming world
Cape Cod is already seeing the effects of climate change: faster erosion, stronger storms, rising seas, and homes, beaches, and businesses disappearing inland. Reporting across the Outer Cape follows the people measuring, confronting, and living with that loss. [apps.bostonglobe.
Warmer Waters Bring Great White Sharks to Southern California
Southern California has seen a spike in great white shark sightings during unseasonably warm spring weather. Experts expect more unusual heat — and more sharks — in the months ahead, and say the trend reflects warming waters, abundant prey, and stronger protections for the specie
People of Penn Station, NYC in 1958
Louis Stettner’s black-and-white photographs capture the people moving through Pennsylvania Station in 1958, just before the original Beaux-Arts terminal was demolished. His images focus on the light, motion, and everyday drama of a public space in transition. [flashbak.com]
Is “Good Friction” a Bad Idea?
A reflection on whether “friction” is a useful idea or a vague, potentially misleading way to think about making life harder or better. [thedeletedscenes.com]
The Boring Part of Bell Labs
A conversation with a former Bell Labs employee about the applied side of the company: PBX systems, queueing simulations, inventory control, and practical tools like a slide rule for sales estimates. It also touches on Bell Labs’ One Year On Campus program, management culture, hi
Your Eyes Will Fool You
A photo inside a steel tube column creates an optical illusion: the tube looks oval, but the effect comes from a plate welded through the HSS and the way the interior recedes from view. [oldstructures.com]
Fully Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter
A deep reverse-engineering and preservation writeup covering the Fisher-Price Pixter line, including hardware analysis, ROM dumping, emulation, file formats, and game preservation for nearly the full platform. [dmitry.gr]
The airplane oath
A near-disaster can force a painful clarity about what matters and what isn’t working. Seth Godin reflects on a friend’s airplane emergency and the oath she made to stop living for other people’s approval and commit to work that mattered to her. The larger point: you don’t need a
Chinese AI engineers are Silicon Valley’s new power players
Chinese-born tech workers have long shaped Silicon Valley, but the AI boom has pushed a new generation of researchers, founders, and executives to the center of the industry. [restofworld.org]
New ultra stainless steel could make seawater hydrogen cheaper
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong developed a stainless steel that forms a second protective layer and resists corrosion in high-voltage seawater electrolysis. The alloy could help replace expensive titanium parts in green hydrogen systems and lower costs, though it stil
Search and Rescue and Me
I trained to track down missing people in the wilderness, and the work changed how I see my own life, my children, and what it means to be a mom. [thecut.com]
Wonderful Life
A reflective essay on memory, how songs can unlock the past, and the strange way present moments reshape older ones. A radio tune on the road leads to recollections of a Houston grocery store, a family visit, and the emotional pull of remembering something just out of reach. [the
The vi family
A curated list of vi and vi-inspired editors, from the original vi and early clones like Elvis and STevie to Vim, nvi, BusyBox vi, Neovim, and newer forks and modal editors. [lpar.ath0.com]
Mice Human Speech.Html
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mice-human-speech.html [phys.org]
The Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire was one of the first centralized states, arising in ancient Mesopotamia under Sargon of Akkad. It unified Sumerian city-states, expanded across much of the region, and later collapsed amid rebellions, invasions, and drought. [lflank.wordpress.com]
Chaos Unleashed: When Irrational Makes Perfect Sense
Social trust erodes when fairness and honesty disappear, and anger can turn to chaos when people feel redress is blocked. Charles Hugh Smith argues that what looks irrational in periods of breakdown can follow a deeply human emotional progression, moving from denial to anger and,
They Photographed an Execution in Bosnia. Did They Influence the Killer?
A three-year investigation examines how Reuters photos of a Bosnian war crime were made, why they were published, and the controversy they later provoked. [newlinesmag.com]
Referer reality
On web analytics, email and app traffic often shows up as Direct or Unknown because many apps don’t send a Referrer header. Robin Sloan argues that adding a custom query string to outgoing links can be a useful courtesy, making the source legible for site owners without relying o
These Wild Young People
Asterisks issue page for a culture piece by Tessa Augsberger, Elan Kluger, and Rufus Knuppel. The page currently says “Coming soon,” so there’s no article text yet. [asteriskmag.com]
How to Make Your Text Look Futuristic
A playful typography breakdown of the recurring design tricks used to make movie titles and logos feel futuristic, from slanted sans-serifs and exaggerated kerning to brushed metal, embossing, and star fields. [typesetinthefuture.com]
Saving New Orleans Is Not Optional
A new study suggests we should simply give up on the city's long-term future and begin to relocate the population. This is a morally indefensible proposal. New Orleans can and must be saved. [currentaffairs.org]
The slippery protein problem
How a new class of drugs is beginning to make previously undruggable proteins, including RAS, accessible in pancreatic cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers. [worksinprogress.co]
Tell New York Times, The Atlantic, and USA Today to keep journalists’ work in the…
A petition urging major news outlets to allow the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to keep preserving their reporting, so journalism remains accessible for fact-checking and historical record. [savethearchive.com]
SOM's supertall 175 Park Avenue gets updated permits
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has updated the design for 175 Park Avenue, a 1,581-foot mixed-use tower planned next to Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. The project would replace the Grand Hyatt hotel and include offices, a hotel, stepped setbacks with landscaped terraces
How Kraftwerk’s 1976 track Radioactivity became an anti-nuclear anthem
Kraftwerk’s 1976 single grew from a pioneering electronic track into a later anti-nuclear statement, especially in its 1991 reworking. Fifty years on, it remains one of the band’s most politically charged and influential songs. [bbc.com]
Harrison Ford tells grads to find purpose in a messy world
At Arizona State University’s commencement, Harrison Ford urged graduates to turn their talent and ambition toward meaningful work, especially in response to climate and conservation challenges. He said purpose can come from using your passions to build, lead, and help others. [c
Attending Cornell While Your Father Is in Ice Detention
Klarissa López Guillen’s father was detained by ICE during her second semester at Cornell. She’s had to drop a class, pick up a job, and navigate a complicated financial aid system in order to remain enrolled in the university. [collegetownmagazine.com]
