1. “It’s mind-boggling in the totality of ambition to so deeply undermine what’s so vitally important to the public.” → Inside the Fall of the CDC
2. “From the unvarnished to the salacious, Amelia Tait dips into a private world where people trade the diaries of strangers.” → The secret world of diary hunters
3. A new (to me) publication that hopes to “help us all — as citizens, scientists, policymakers, and human beings — to deal more wisely and more creatively with both the burdens and the blessings of modern science and technology.” → The New Atlantis
4. An interesting way to navigate a series of photos over time. → 12 Sunsets: Exploring Ed Ruscha’s Archive
5. Paroxysm Periwinkle, Gender Reveal Fire Yellow, and many more. → United Colors of the Apocalypse: A Pantone series for 2020
6. A surprise to no one who knows any police. → Police killings more likely in agencies that get military gear, data shows
7. Can long form discussion find a way to thrive on the brave new web through “a platform for thoughtful conversation via an exchange of written letters?” I guess we’ll see. → Letter ※ Speaking of letters: Letters of Woe and Curses Returned with Stolen Pieces of the Petrified Forest
8. This is a thing. → The Plastic Bag Museum
9. The eyes have it: Mark Harvey’s photos of birds in flight // 2020 Drone Photo Awards // Arinze Stanley’s incredible, photo-realistic b&w drawings // Keegan Hall’s photo-realistic pencil drawings // 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year images // Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020 winners // Lito’s Tree Leaf Kirigami (picture cuttings) // Tomoko Sato’s unreal fruit carvings
10. Today in 1854, Lord Cardigan leads approximately 670 soldiers in a Crimean War mission to prevent Russians from recapturing some lightly-defended won guns, an action that would come to be known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. Due to a miscommunication whose details are debated to this day, the lightly-armored Light Brigade instead ended up in a frontal assault on a powerful, fully-prepared gum emplacement. Within minutes, more than 160 soldiers were killed and another 150 wounded for naught. The ill-fated battle would be immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” which includes the famous lines:

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.