“Time and again, fires have fast-tracked urban change. London after the Great Fire of 1666 rewrote its safety laws, widened streets and erected new public buildings, like the domed St. Paul’s Cathedral. Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 ... invented the modern American metropolis.” - The New York Times
"In front of Sam’s tool crib, where workers got outfitted with gloves, goggles, hand tools, and helmets, I bumped into Rocio Carlos. ... She said that due to the fires, her classes at ArtCenter College of Design had all been moved online.” - Los Angeles Review of Books
“In modern reality, most media are streamed, digitized, and easily vaporized; not so much owned as leased; pockmarked with ads and often tweaked (or falsified) via AI. In modern fiction, meanwhile, vintage media have emerged as tactile objects that symbolize integrity.” - The Atlantic
Apparently, we’ve been thinking about wholesale termination at least since about 1800 B.C., the date ascribed to the myth of Atrahasis, a Mesopotamian creation story that predates Biblical writings by several hundred years and features a world-cleansing flood. - The New Yorker
A psychologically rich life is one filled with diverse, unusual and interesting experiences that change your perspective; a life with twists and turns; a dramatic, eventful life instead of a simple and straightforward one; a life with multiplicity and complexity. - The Guardian
A traditional story forgoes psychological realism in favor of a universality that can be integrated into the lives of its listeners. The novel, on the other hand, offers vicarious experiences that are often psychologically relatable and even cathartic but bear more on the cultivation of feeling than on the guidance of action. - Hedgehog Review
The term “vibe shift,” which was apparently created by the members of the scene and sort of stolen by journalists and interpreters, is itself telling. It is really a shift not in but to vibes: to mood itself, that is to say, something felt but not fully articulated or articulable. - Unpopular Front
The moments that these photographs recall have no active hold in my memory. Still, upon seeing them—presenting themselves as the definite proof of truth, helpfully supplicated with captions from myself—my narrative of the present shifts to accommodate the information. - Public Books
The cost-benefit calculation is complicated and nuanced, requiring us to find a course between apocalyptic visions of civilizational decline and the naive utopianism of Silicon Valley. - LA Review of Books
There’s nothing like getting caught in a giggle loop, where the desire to laugh builds until it bursts out at a disastrous moment. Only then do we often realize that laughter is a rather strange phenomenon. - Sapiens
The idea of there being something fundamentally stable about an artist, independent of outside forces, makes sense. It’s what allows them to experiment with style and genre and persona and still be legible to their audiences. - The New York Times
Instead of functioning as a means of top-down compliance and control, A.I. can help us understand ourselves, act on our preferences and realize our aspirations. In this way, perfect recall isn’t just a tool for remembering the past. It’s also a compass that provides a clearer understanding of our goals and improves our decision-making. - The New York Times
They climbed no mountains, and were aided directly in getting visas by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. But, to be fair, Maria did arrive from a convent with her guitar. - Slate
