Jul 7, 2023 4 min read

You Should Read - July 7

Just One Thing

Steven Soderbergh's Raiders of the Lost Ark, in black-and-white and sans dialog.

I'd heard about this ersatz black-and-white version of Raiders for years, but only recently spent the time to find it. Turns out, it's more than just a desaturated copy. All original sound - dialogue, sound effects, score - has been removed. The score is replaced by modern techno from other, more recent films. At the very least, make time to watch the first 15 minutes.

Collected Ephemera

The Verge Who Killed Google Reader?: Ten years after its untimely death, the team that built the much-beloved feed reader reflects on what went wrong and what could have been.
⇛ Oh what I wouldn't give for a true Google Reader clone. I don't understand why Google didn't spin it out or someone hasn't stood up a real copycat.

The Washington Post I Moved My Gmail to a Less Creepy Email. It Was Surprisingly Easy: Moving 15 years of Gmail messages to a smaller email service let me glimpse true tech freedom.
⇛ My Gmail is at 97% so now may be the time to finally make the switch.

Letterform Archive “Subscription to Mischief: Graffiti Zines of the 1990s”:
A first-of-its-kind exhibition captures the innovation and community of graffiti, as seen in the pages of indie publications.
⇛ In the mid-90s, my first real (salaried) job was at a digital comic book startup. The creative director was a former graffiti artist. I remember him growling at me in response to some of my graphic design opinions, “We ain’t livin’ in a Swiss world!”

El Pais Ana Garbín Alonso: Identity of ‘Anarchist Madonna’ Revealed 87 Years After Iconic Spanish Civil War Photo: The identity of the young militiawoman on a barricade in Barcelona had been a mystery until an exhibition in Montpellier of long-lost works by its author, Antoni Campañà

It's Nice That Amrit Randhawa on Using Graphic Design for Social Causes and Commentary: “Lots of my self-directed outcomes can feel quite silly, but they are rooted in a meaningful context.”

CBS News An Iconic Hollywood Sound Effect Called "The Wilhelm Scream" Was Uncovered in an Archive: The original recording of Hollywood's worst-kept secret — a sound effect used when characters meet a grisly end called the Wilhelm scream — has been found.

Buddhist Door Aging Teachers and the Future of Buddhism: In Buddhist communities around the world, a generation of senior teachers is slowly disappearing.
⇛ This article focuses on non-Zen, non-Western leaders. But, last weekend, Shōhaku Okumura Roshi stepped down as abbot of Sanshin Zen Community. In 2020, Sojun Mel Weitsman stepped down as abbot of Berkley Zen Center and then passed away shortly thereafter. His successor, Hosan Alan Senauke is 76. A generation of Zen teachers in the West is moving on. It will be interesting to see how Western Zen evolves as a new, more diverse generation of leaders steps into their place and the direct connection to Japanese Zen thins.

Our Present Dystopia

Chronicle of Higher Education We’ve Been Thinking About Work All Wrong: New books by Jenny Odell and Sheila Liming argue that our productivity culture is deeply flawed.

The Washington Post Here’s What Your Boss Might Be Able to See While You’re at Work: Workplace software like Microsoft, Google Workspace, Slack and Zoom log certain activities that could be accessed by your employer

The Atlantic The Monk Who Thinks the World Is Ending: Can Buddhism fix AI?

Anil Dash Today's AI Is Unreasonable

Vice AI-Generated Books of Nonsense Are All Over Amazon's Bestseller Lists: Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited bestseller list was full of books with titles like “Apricot bar code architecture” and “Jessica’s Attention” earlier this week.
⇛ Reminder: Cancel your Prime.

Newsweek AI is the Scariest Beast Ever Created, Says Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling

The Markup AI Is Hurting the Climate in a Number of Non-Obvious Ways: Training and running AI models emits a vast amount of carbon—but AI is also being used to boost fossil fuel extraction and generate climate misinformation

NPR An Unexpected Item Is Blocking Cities' Climate Change Prep: Obsolete Rainfall Records: Rainfall reports for some states are 50 years old, which means they don't reflect how the climate has already changed in recent decades.

The Weather Network Smelling Plastic? Millions Are in the Path of Toxic Smoke Plumes: No, there isn’t a pile of tires on fire nearby; what you smell is smoke from the wildfires
⇛ I was in NYC earlier this month. Walking back to my hotel, I thought I smelled burning plastic. Turned out it was forest fire smoke. Later, I assumed my mind conjured up the burning plastic smell because I was associating my location with my memories of 9/11. Turns out, my nose might have been accurate.

Complex Squid Game Creator Gets No Residuals or IP Ownership Despite Series Earning $900 Million for Netflix: “The irony is not lost on us. Pay your writers,” the WGA tweeted about Hwang Dong-hyuk’s lack of additional compensation for the show’s unprecedented success.

The Colleges of Law A Pride Month Warning: Recent attacks by politicians on the LGBTQ+ community echo a dark past.

The Wabbit Hole