- Gregory Prescott’s portraits
- I practically never hype a book before reading it, much less before it’s been published, but this case deserves an exception. Allie Brosh, author of Hyperbole and a Half—the book and the blog, where two pieces appeared that I’ve written about before because they changed my life (Adventures in Depression and Depression Part Two)—has a new book coming out. This is fantastic news in its own right, but also because it confirms that Allie is out there and still writing, after dropping out of sight for nearly seven years! → Solutions and Other Problems.
- “Each year, some choose to ‘disappear’ and abandon their lives, jobs, homes and families. In Japan, there are companies that can help those looking to escape into thin air.” → The companies that help people vanish ※ Based on this video.
- Van Gogh, Jesus Christ, Napoleon…and Lady Liberty? → bas uterwijk uses AI to create portraits of famous historical figures
- The Oxford English Dictionary labs have released a new tool that takes texts of up to 500 words and visualizes the words’ origins, date of first usage and etymology. Fascinating (and fast)! → OED Text Visualizer Thanks, Reader B!
- Drowning in plastic: Visualising the world’s addiction to plastic bottles
- Never Say Wolf: How taboo language turned the wolf into a monster.
- This week’s curiosity cluster → For the Love of Mail: Letter Writing in a Pandemic ※ WhatsApp is fun, but nothing beats the inky, intimate thrill of a letter ※ We love their books but these letters between writers and editors showcase a dying art form ※ RealSnailMail ※ China combats ‘seven year itch’ with love letter service ※ A Letter Is In Fact the Only Device for Combining Solitude and Good Company | Quote Investigator
- Accumulation and its discontents
- Today in 1916, the first self-service grocery store (in the US, anyway), a Piggly Wiggly, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to being the first true self-service grocery, they were also the first, for obvious reasons, to mark all individual items with prices, and invented shopping carts and checkout stands.