We come to you today with two major items of good news: there might be an Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, and the political prisoner (and friend-of-the-blog) George Santos will be released from persecution in an American hoosegow. Instead of gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness, it might be a time of rejoicing.
But of course, we are joking. The idea that the tantric orgy of murder that has been going on since October 2023 in Palestine will change is hard to take seriously, but on the other hand, the fact that our GOAT Georgie Santos will get to continue his check-kiting spree of pathological fraud still gives us hope.
As anyone who has been in a tough time in their life, for whatever reason, will tell you, you take it where you can get it.
It has been a week of contrasts. Flying cars are fortunately crashing into each other, and some people seem to be awakening to the reality of the Jenga tower of crypto that is currently bribing the United States government on a massive scale. Los Angeles is still reeling from the decline of TV and movie production, while we lost three absolute boys — Diane Keaton, Jane Goodall, and D’Angelo — whose passings pang the heart. In other news, a pelican in Australia got rescued, which is truly cool.
You’ll see below our editors’ reading recommendations of the week, diligently trawled from across the Internet. As the great leader of the U.S. said recently, “whatever.”
- Jacob Silverman on the insane amount of crypto corruption and influence-peddling going on in the Trump administration (TrueAnon)
- Evolutionary biologist Ella al-Shamahi on her own origin story as a young missionary and creationist (Radiolab)
- L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie (LA Times)
- Family says Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara will be deported Friday (WABE)
- Patrick House is inspired by Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s “What Is Intelligence?” to think about what might constitute the difference between artificial and natural intelligence (LA Review of Books)
- Watching the Dollar in 2025 (Morgan Stanley)
- Flying cars crash into each other at air show in China (BBC)
- This L.A. landmark was hailed as a ‘ribbon of light.’ Scrap metal thieves have made it dark and invisible (LA Times)
- Activist and scholar Cathy J. Cohen on winning power in the midst of a “generational war.” (Boston Review)
- Crypto world, buckle up for the rug-pull of all time (The Hill)
- Night owls versus early birds: who is superior according to science? (Guardian)
- The Nature of Salience: An Experimental Investigation of Pure Coordination Games (American Economic Review)
- Grammy-Winning Neo-Soul singer D’Angelo dead at 51 (MetaFilter)
- The weird idea of Dead Internet Theory (QAA)
- ‘Trout Mask Replica for 2000s indie kids’ — The Fiery Furnaces’ now 21-year-old Blueberry Boat (MetaFilter)
- Will Sommer on the Years of Whatever (Chapo Trap House)
- The autobiography of anticolonial luminary Andrée Blouin captures her era’s euphoric highs as well as its tragic denouement. (Boston Review)
- MAGA darling lawyer who took Biden to Supreme Court now calls Trump ‘way worse’ (The Independent)
- The crackdown on Charlie Kirk critics has ignited a free speech debate. Legal experts say it sets a dangerous precedent. (CBS)
- St. Francis and His Canticle of the Creatures (Franciscan Media)
- Green Gravity secures old coal mine shaft to test gravitational energy storage (ABC)
- Bath professor explains why evolution creates imposter crabs (BBC)
- Friday the pelican captured and washed after three-week chase (ABC)