Israel Discovers that Bombing Hospitals is a War Crime — Novara Media
5 Books that Dive into the Drug-Fueled Darkness of the Club Scene — Ivy Pochoda for CrimeReads
Dark Retreats: several days alone in a room in complete darkness and silence. Participants are delivered three meals through a hatch that maintains the darkness in their dwellings, which also each contain a bed, bath, and flushing toilet. They can leave simply by opening the door, and they can also break their silence to chat with the facilitators at two intervals throughout the day when they come to the door to check on them and bring the food. Electronic items like phones or tablets are not allowed inside dark rooms, making it perhaps the ultimate dopamine fast. — Wired
radar
Smearing Writers and Artists with a Red Stain — The Daily Heller
A Writer For Our Time: Why John Le Carre's Work Remains More Essential Than Ever — Rav Grewal Kok for CrimeReads
Israel Tells Airlines Not To Let Israeli Citizens Leave — Haaretz
Ottmar Leibert on culture and its fringes.
Warren Ellis on Jesse Armstrong's MOUNTAINHEAD
“Hollywood assignments had already kept him from new fiction for nearly a year and a half. Since then, Leonard had devoted himself exclusively to screenwriting, considering penning a film’s companion novel—or 'novelization'—only if the money was right. As a result, Leonard had little time to experiment with his fiction, to apply the lessons learned from his year and a half toiling with The Big Bounce. He expressed his growing concerns on the matter to Swanson. Leonard later recalled, '[Swanson] called to ask if I’d read a recently published novel called The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I told him I hadn’t heard of it and he said, ‘This is your kind of stuff, kiddo, run out and get it before you write another word.’ Leonard took Swanson’s recommendation and breezed through George V. Higgins’s critically acclaimed 1970 debut in one sitting, later claiming '[I] felt as if I’d been set free, [thinking] so this was how you do it.'” — COOLER THAN COOL: The Life And Times of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins at CrimeReads.
Live TV Wall: Live TV from across the globe, all on one screen.
Marginalia Search: Discover surprising, content-rich websites from the less commercial, obscure corners of the internet.
Ya Old Blogroll: Curated list of active blogs (where I just discovered Ganzeer.Today just so happens to be listed).
Why Soviet cities are insanely well designed – SovietBorn on Youtube: Not quite actually, she goes off to list many of the cons towards the last third of the video. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater though, there are ways to address the cons without abandoning everything that ever went into Soviet architecture.
China's City of the Future: Utopia or Dystopia – TechAltar on Youtube: Looks like Shenzhen is kind of out of this world.
Namibia Watering Hole – 24/7 lives stream of a watering hole in the Namibian desert, where a variety of animals come to quench their thirst. First time I popped in, I caught what I think is a hyena (it was night time) taking a little sip. You also catch much delightful out-of-frame wildlife sounds.
Decade of Danger – “the United States expended almost 10 million tonnes of ammunition during the Vietnam War, doing so at a pace of nearly two million tonnes per year during peak efforts in 1968 and 1969.[5] The roughly four million 155mm artillery shells the U.S. and EU have supplied to Ukraine over nearly three years of war would altogether weigh only about 180,000 tonnes. The American defense industrial base is still far from ready for sustained industrial war, and with history suggesting 12-to-24-month lead times being the norm for scaling up production even under emergency conditions, prudence counsels for accelerating the process (Figure 1). Billions of dollars spent on extra stockpiles during the Decade of Danger pales in comparison to the humanitarian costs and trillions of dollars in losses that conflict could bring.” They're calling this the “Decade of Danger” now?
Switch-Lit – Collaborative story-writing app for the collective imagination.
Via Dense Discovery #333:
WE HAVE NEVER BEEN WOKE: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi
“Musa al-Gharbi argues that the rise and influence of ‘wokeness’ in contemporary discourse is often overstated and misunderstood. With data and historical context, al-Gharbi challenges common assumptions about social progress, activism and political identity, offering a nuanced perspective on the limits and contradictions of what he calls ‘symbolic capitalists’. 'In education, media, nonprofits, and beyond, members of this elite work primarily with words, ideas, images, and data, and are very likely to identify as allies of antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, and other progressive causes. Their dominant ideology is ‘wokeness’ and, while their commitment to equality is sincere, they actively benefit from and perpetuate the inequalities they decry.'”
Adding to my tbr, because it sounds spot on.
Digital Degrowth: Technology in the Age of Survival by Michael Kwet
RUIN ME, new single from Max Fractal.
Papeer – Curate a media feed from RSS, websites, and substacks and sync with your e-reader!
Bruce Sterling's Shelfie, in Ibiza!