I think I’d heard the term “k-shaped economy” somewhere before but didn’t really know what it meant until I watched this video : American Airlines is changing the layout of some of their aircraft to add 31 first class and premium seats while cutting out 73 economy seats. This
The best work in the Bronx Museum’s biennial indicates aspirations beyond this time and place.
Why AI Writing Is So Generic, Boring, and Dangerous: Semantic Ablation . “The AI identifies high-entropy clusters — the precise points where unique insights…reside — and systematically replaces them with the most probable, generic token sequences.”
"The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms."
Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street in 1971 doing a call-and-response with the kids of the poem I Am - Somebody .
The 19 richest Americans hold more than 2% of the total US holdhold wealth. That figure has roughly doubled in the past 5-6 years. “The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering.”
In 1964, legendary jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie ran for President as a write-in candidate . Some of the more interesting details about his campaign: If elected, he’d rename the White House to the Blues House. Running mate was slated to be Phyllis Diller. “She seems to have
Ski Jumping Pairs is my favorite Winter Olympics event. (Video by Riichiro Mashima.)
One might assume that his photography is the nepo baby of his writing, but this is genuinely a great show.
From designer Beth Mathews, a free “Private Property! No ICE” sign you can print out for your shop or restaurant.
"Tenderness is the most modest form of love. It is the kind of love that does not appear in the scriptures or the gospels, no one swears by it, no one cites it... It appears wherever we take a close and careful look at another being, at something that is not our 'self.’"
"Cynthia Zarin traces the rise of fascism through the diary entries of Virginia Woolf."
What movies can you brag about seeing during their original run in the theater? Not big movies, more culty ones. I’ve got Iron Giant, American Movie, Run Lola Run, Hands on a Hardbody, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. 😂
From a draft of the opening narration of Star Trek : “Assigned a five year patrol of our galaxy, the giant starship visits Earth colonies, regulates commerce, and explores strange new worlds…” I’m glad they punched it up.
Throwback devices from the early 2000s like the Blackberry, T9 phones, and Nokia's "Bricks" are sources of both reminiscence, play, and inspiration. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as
"Attention without feeling ... is only a report."
Plus, Sarah E. Bond on polychromy in ancient art, a Miami artist’s ode to queerness through water, and a sculptor’s shapeshifting art.
Industrialism brought us the idea of optimization. Incremental improvements combined with measurement to gradually improve results. We can optimize for precision. A car made in 2026 is orders of magnitude more reliable because the parts fit together so well. We can optimize for
The appearance of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the most important document discovery of the twentieth century. Yet, in some sense, they didn’t deliver what many assumed to be promised within: that is, the basis for a complete revision of everything we thought we knew about
The creator of The Marginalian and author of the new book Traversal responds to 25 questions on writing, reading, and creativity.
From TED-Ed comes an animated introduction to the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient Greek device that dates back to the 2nd century BCE. TED writes: “In 1900, Greek divers stumbled upon a 2,000-year-old shipwreck whose contents would shake our understanding of the ancient
How to keep your soul from leaving you.
"Cannabis officials courted a rising pot star to join New York’s legal market. Then a stunning police raid upended everything and shattered a family."
"It is very important to be in love with life... Life is very fragile and always elusive. As soon as we think we 'understand,' there is another mystery. I don’t understand anything. That is, I think, the key to understand everything."
"What is it like, such intensity of pain?"
I never thought I would become an art critic who complains about exhibition didactics. And yet, after a visit to the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, here I am.
