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No Coincidence, No Story!
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions!
Head in the Cloud | Megan Marz
If the internet is “coextensive with all our mental acts,” how can it be captured in a single memoir?
The Paris Review - Please Fire Jia Tolentino - The Paris Review
The author of ‘Trick Mirror’ discusses her writing process, her favorite Houston rappers, and how she maintains a healthy sense of self in the internet age.
This a cappella group is scarily good at imitating Windows sound effects - The Verge
The Windows Vista song is spot-on.
Byte, Vine’s successor, has been purchased by another TikTok clone - The Verge
The app is being taken over by Clash Video, from a former Vine star.
Dark Souls: The Mystery of the Dragons and why Gwyn killed them | by Ununtrium | Jan, 2021 | Medium
The Ringed City, while a beautiful way to conclude Dark Souls, mostly left us with nothing but questions. As time went on, more and more…
Write.as Version 2? — Matt
I'm slowly, quietly mulling over the idea of a Write.as "version 2" that takes the past six years of lessons and starts from scratch, in ...
Apple removes Parler from the App Store
You can’t download it anymore.
Summer Announcements
FRIENDS, HELLO! We got a very simple, very straightforward email today. You can read it quickly, w/ v. little emotional investment if emotions are something...
Opinion | Can Kara Swisher Be Vulnerable? - The New York Times
Brené Brown tries her best.
How Discord (somewhat accidentally) invented the future of the internet
Discord's founders just wanted to create a way to talk to their gamer friends. They created something much bigger.
For Heaven’s Sake | Adam Willems
A new history of Christian communism glosses over the tradition’s complications in the interest of a statist conclusion.
The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet | WIRED
At 22, Marcus Hutchins put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.
The Whimsical Web
A curated list of sites with an extra bit of fun.
Inside the spectacular startup failure of Oomba - The Verge
Strip clubs, board games, sugar babies, an office coup — and a whole lot of money
Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism - Columbia Journalism Review
“This is a work of criticism. If it were literary criticism, everyone would immediately understand the underlying purpose is positive. A critic of literature examines a work, analyzing its features, evaluating its qualities, seeking a deeper appreciation that might be useful to other readers of the same text. In a similar way, critics of music, […]
A Review of: The Pornographer's Poem by Michael Turner - Believer Magazine
Why Are American and British English Different? | Word Matters
This week is all about spelling. Some attempts to reform it have succeeded. (You've probably noticed that words are spelled differently in the US than in British English.) Others have failed hilariously. (You'll see.) But we're burying the lede; our first topic is that word itself: 'lede.' How did it find its current form? Then, we'll discuss the godfather of American English himself, Noah Webster. (Yes, that's where we got half our name.)
Not Your Mother’s Morals: How the New Sincerity is Changing Pop Culture for the Better | Jonathan D. Fitzgerald
In Not Your Mother’s Morals: How the New Sincerity is Changing Pop Culture for the Better, Jonathan D. Fitzgerald argues that today’s popular music, movies, TV shows, and books are making the world a better place. For all the hand-wringing about the decline of morals and the cheapening of culture in our time, contemporary media brims with examples of fascinating and innovative art that promote positive and uplifting moral messages—without coming across as “preachy.”
Emails With Intercept Editors Showing Censorship of My Joe Biden Article | Glenn Greenwald
Given The Intercept's vehement denials, readers are entitled to see for themselves what the truth is: transparency journalism with integrity requires.
Inside Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin
The two-year charade that upended people’s lives
My Word for the Year | Kevin McGillivray
The joy of the free-diver, the peace of the loon, the patience of the turtle, and a touch of the ingenuity and panache of the great sea explorers (a Jacques Cousteau or a Captain Nemo).
Tending my depths, plunging into seas uncharted, dipping into mysterious pools and emerging to share the treasures and tales I find there (and perhaps hiding a few treasure maps of my own).
Twitter at 10: a people’s history - The Verge
More than any other tech company, Twitter was invented by its users. That’s no slight against the engineers and designers who actually built the thing. It’s just to say that what we think of as...
The Web We Lost
Update: A few months after this piece was published, I was invited by Harvard’s Berkman Center to speak about this topic in more detail. Though the final talk is an hour long, it offers much more insight into the topic, and I hope you’ll give it a look.
My Three Fathers
My problems were never ones of scarcity. I suffered from abundance.
Where Deer Stroll Peacefully Past Computers
Moments of social mobilization enliven and expand our political imagination. Among the things that sorely need reimagining is our technology.
Casey Newton on Leaving ‘The Verge’ for Substack and the Future of Tech Journalism
Sarah Jeong talks to Newton about the details of his deal, subscription journalism, and what makes email such a good media format
#166 Country of Liars | Reply All
This week, PJ looks into a theory circling the internet about who might be behind QAnon. The investigation takes him back to the beginning of the QAnon scam, and to the message board trolls who started it.
Making Internet Things, Part 3: Storytelling
This is the third installment of a multi-part series designed to help you familiarize yourself with the tools used to make visual, data-driven essays.