blog

  • The Oldest Bookstore in the US

    The Andover Bookstore looks like a place I need to visit.

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  • Plastic-eating microbes in The Guardian

    This is fascinating science, and reads like the backstory to a Michael Crichton novel.

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  • Remembering AltaVista

    In the late 90’s, your choice in search engines was like a social marker. Yahoo! was basic, WebCrawler was kind of standard, but real ones used AltaVista. Vice has a history of the first great search engine.

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  • Conspicuous Destruction by Kim Phillips-Fein in NYRB

    Barnburner of an essay from Kim Phillips-Fein in NYRB on the issues with private equity, and also an interview with her about the essay. I read one of the books she talks about — These are the Plunderers — and liked it much more than I expected to. It wasn’t the anti-capitalist rant I thought…

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  • Molly White on Michael Lewis

    The reviews of Going Infinite aren’t great! This one carries more weight for me than most: Molly White (of Web3 is Going Great) thinks he’s been duped. Every review for the Lewis book suggests Number Go Up instead.

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  • TikTok and facial recognition

    From Metafilter: Joseph Cox in 404 Media, about a TikTok account that doxxes random Taylor Swift fans. I ordered the book referenced in the piece (Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill) and expect it Tuesday. Can’t wait to dig in.

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  • Uncle Pete gives a Zoom lecture

    I liked this but I’m very biased: my uncle (and Godfather) Peter Carter was invited to present to the Ottawa Independent Writers Association. This is so genuinely Pete — he’s personal and honest, funny, distracted, scattered and it somehow always comes home.

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  • A good review

    From Patrick McKenzie, in Bits About Money: a review of Number Go Up by Zeke Faux. I like the concept of ‘the anti-book’.

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  • Loneliness Epidemic

    This interactive bit tells a data story in a fantastic way — 24 Hours in an Invisible Epidemic

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  • Taking the Greyhound in 2023

    Taking the Greyhound in 2023

    In The Guardian, Joanna Pocock writes about taking a cross-country trip by Greyhound bus. Our bus showed up, but we were further delayed while passengers on it waited for their luggage. Apparently, its faulty hold had opened and bags had scattered along the highway – or so the story went. You never quite know on…

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