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The LA region is huge and crisscrossed with endless highways. It’s easy to forget that it has a passable—maybe decent, even—commuter rail network that serves not only the valley, but dips well into SoCal. Also, hard to go wrong with trains and beer.
And if you’re new to The Militant Angeleno, you’re welcome. Enjoy exploring LA through their eyes.
Bonus: please ask Metrolink officials to actually commit to electrification. Their wait-and-see approach is absurd.
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You’re not supposed to fall in love with an ugly font. No one collects specimens of Arial. No one gets into eBay fights for artifacts set in Papyrus. No one walks a hundred miles in a hot New York summer, sweating beyond imagination, getting shouted at by security guys, to capture photos of Comic Sans.
So why do I love Gorton so much?
An amazing deep dive into a typeface that is everywhere and yet, kinda doesn’t exist?
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In this thread, I will explore some ideas on why Tokyo is so fashionable. Some of it does have to do with culture, but as you’ll see in the thread, culture is also shaped by political, economic, and institutional forces. IMO, one should look for structural reasons for outcomes.
Again with the social media threads, yes, but this is a masterclass!
Derek Guy makes some excellent observations and arguments as to why multiple facets (and forces) of Japanese culture & society right now are driving fashion choices in Japan’s largest city.
Is this the effect of appreciating craft? He argues that’s too simple of a reason.
But to be honest, when I feel the most optimistic about Sam Altman’s proclamation that “much of society will soon be up for debate” (paraphrasing), I hope for something like Tokyo’s fashion scene on a grander scale: a movement to value physical objects, experiences, and perhaps even digital craft in a way our current digital economy eschews.
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From the Hollywood Reporter’s article, “How Watch Duty Became an Essential Resource for Angelenos During Wildfires”:
“I don’t want to sell this. To who? No one should own this. The fact that I have to do this with my team is not OK. Part of this is out of spite. I’m angry that I’m here having to do this, and the government hasn’t spent the money to do this themselves,” Mills says. “So, no, it’s not for sale. No, I’m not open to change all of a sudden, and I just don’t give a shit.”
There used to be a couple places you could reliably find good information on an unfolding natural disaster—namely Twitter and Facebook. But for reasons… [gestures broadly], this is no longer the case.
I had not heard about Watch Duty before this disaster, but if you live in the Western U.S.—and let’s face it, even in a neighborhood you think is safe from a wildfire event—this app should probably be on your phone.
Also, “I’m angry that I’m here having to do this, and the government hasn’t spent the money to do this themselves,” could probably sum up so much of modern life right now, sadly.
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In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor. Its face, periodically filled with light and devoured by darkness, has an ever-changing, but dependable presence in our skies.
An incredibly-detailed and interactive microsite on our moon and its relationship with the earth.
Fun fact: the earth’s rotation is slowing down. On an infinite time scale that will be a problem for us, but for now, enjoy that each day is slightly longer—2 milliseconds per century—than it used to be.
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If you counted to a million without taking breaks, it would take you more than 11 days. But to count to a billion would take you just under 32 years. And with breaks to sleep and eat? Almost a lifetime.