When language fails: "What Is The Ozma Problem, And Why Does It Matter?" (Plus- the "Light Gate") Exploring explanation: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/14/s...

The end of civilization? A sobering assessment of "The dawn of the post-literate society" from @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social (Plus- George Grenville) Buckle up: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/13/w...

On inequality in income and wealth: "Homoploutia: Top Labor and Capital Incomes in the United States, 1950–2020" @stone-lis.bsky.social (Plus- the exploding whale incident) Evaluating equity: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/12/a...

A beautiful new way to enjoy (and learn from) a classic: John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" Pondering perspective: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/11/s...

The striking changes underway in the financial sector: “What Wall Street’s obsession with ‘capital solutions’ tells us,” from @semafor.com (Plus- International Accounting Day) Back to basics: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/10/r...

On the challenge of keeping our language-- our words and our use of them-- up to the task of wrestling with our present and our future: Robin Sloan and Quentin Hardy (Plus- Louie, Louie) Pondering pondering: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/09/w...

On the foundation for modern geometry and physics: "What Is a Manifold?" @quantamagazine.bsky.social (plus- John Wallis) Getting down with geometry: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/08/i...

The stunning interiors of rare musical instruments @charlesbrooks.bsky.social @boingboing.net (Plus- Sax and Sousa) Cherishing craftsmanship: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/06/i...

On the conditions of liberty: "What is civil society, and why should we care?" @himself.bsky.social (with @noahpinion.blog.web.brid.gy) (Plus- Guy Fawkes) In praise of plurality: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/05/n...

For scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table: "How the Occult Gave Birth to Science" @dalequark.bsky.social @nautil.us (Plus- Rasmus Bartholin) Thinking about transmutation: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/04/a...

On Silicon Valley's search for Lebensraum in the Lone Star State: "The Texan Ideology" @thebaffler.com (Plus- Stephen F. Austin) Mess with Texas: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/03/i...

"Kind of like the film world’s one intellectual"- the remarkable Walter Murch: "Every Blink" @lrb.co.uk (Plus- Hal Roach) Juxtapose: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/02/i...

Since 1870, 1/5 of the economy transforms every few decades. Now, increasingly, companies are turning into banks; and banks (and others), into casinos. @delong.social @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social @tedgioia.bsky.social @kyla.bsky.social (Plus- Poker) Just say no: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/01/f...

Why zippers keep getting better: "The Company That Zips the World | YKK’s Ninety-Year Obsession" @carryology.bsky.social (Plus- The Haunted Mansion) Zipping it: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/31/n...

A telling parable too relevant to the administration of justice—and rife mishandling thereof—in our day: "The Lessons of Due Process in Julius Caesar" @jstordaily.bsky.social (Plus- Mars invades!) Recognizing rights: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/30/i...

Recent findings reveal that even simple pricing algorithms can make things more expensive: "The Game Theory of How Algorithms Can Drive Up Prices" @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social @quantamagazine.bsky.social (Plus- The Federalist Papers) Musing on malign mechanisms: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/27/i...

Experimenting with sound in 19th-century popular science: "Hooked on Sonics" @publicdomainrev.bsky.social (Plus- Mahalia Jackson) Listen: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/26/t...

On the very long history of deep fakes and misinformation: "Enchanting Imposters" @jstordaily.bsky.social @saraivry.bsky.social (Plus- The Stones do Ed Sullivan) Grab for a grain of salt: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/25/t...

In 1984, a prescient Thomas Pynchon considered: "Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?" @nytimes.com (Plus- Against the Day) Hanging onto our humanity: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/24/d...

What's actually going on with artificial intelligence? What should we be thinking? Doing? "The Majority AI View" @anildash.com (and more from @kevinkelly.bsky.social (Plus- the Universe's birthday?) Parsing pumped prognostication: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/23/t...

Why do simple rules generate complexity? "‘Entropy Bagels’ and Other Complex Structures Emerge From Simple Rules" from @jordanacep.bsky.social @quantamagazine.bsky.social (Plus- Soupy Sales) Untangle: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/22/f...

What the West should learn from China: "The Great Reckoning" @kaiserkuo.bsky.social (with @pkrugman.bsky.social and @himself.bsky.social) (Plus- Zhu Yuanzhang) Rethink: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/21/f...

A triumph for history and the importance of ideas: "Joel Mokyr's Nobel" @antonhowes.bsky.social (Plus- Christopher Wren) Pondering the process of progress: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/20/w...

Reclaiming our humanity: "Walking as Inactivity" (Plus- Lewis Mumford) Amble: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/19/w...

'Humans of New York' transforms Grand Central Into a monumental photo show @humansofny (Plus- Edwin Way Teale) See: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/18/p...

Neoliberalism is in crisis. What's next? "Defeated by reality," from @brankomilan.bsky.social (Plus- NYC barely dodges bankruptcy) Rethink: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/17/n...

Parsing the past: "How the German Peasants’ War Exposed 16th-Century Europe’s Fragile Foundations" @literaryhub.bsky.social (Plus- Marie Antoinette) Pondering the historicity of the history we “know”: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/16/i...

Persecuted punctuation: "AI loves an em dash — writers in the US, on the other hand, aren’t so keen" @sherwood.news @clivethompson.bsky.social (Plus- Fortran) Muse on marks: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/15/p...

A meditation on "Naked and Alone": "Does Each of Us Have a Big Enough Brain to Compensate for Our Lack of Fangs, Claws, Sprinting Speed, & Dodging Quickness?" @delong.social (Plus- Winnie-the-Pooh) Band together: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/14/i...

In defense of "the lowest form of humor": "Can Puns Save Democracy? Probably not. But maybe a little?" @ajjacobs.bsky.social (Plus- Lenny Bruce) Doubling down on double entendre: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/13/m...

Celebrating a master of visual explanation: "Vale Stephen Biesty: Cross-Section King" @irondavy.bsky.social (Plus- William Steig) Showing (in addition to telling): roughlydaily.com/2025/10/03/w...

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard: "Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival" @harvardmagazine.bsky.social (Plus- August Wilson) Pondering profundity: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/02/w...

The East India Company all over again? "The AI Raj: How tech giants are recolonizing power" @allisonstanger.bsky.social @thebulletin.org (Plus- the Battle of Gaugamela) Take it back: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/01/i...

An early warning sign? "U.S. Container Imports Face Historic Decline as Tariff Effects Take Hold" (Plus- the Crash of 2008) Batten down: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/29/t...

A telling stunt pulled by a master of marine art: "Ivan Aivazovsky’s Miniature Seascapes (ca. 1887)" @publicdomainrev.bsky.social (Plus- Al Capp) Tackling the tiny: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/28/i...

The selling of Sydney Sweeney: "The Uggo Police" (Plus- Gwyneth Paltrow) Pondering personae: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/27/i...

Research that makes people laugh, then think: "Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners" @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social @arstechnica.com (Plus- Ron Toomer) Have some serious fun: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/26/t...

Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful: ""Is This the End of the Dictionary?" @stefanfatsis.bsky.social @theatlantic.com (Plus- William Faulkner) Look it up: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/25/i...

Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true? "The Climate Change Paradox" @quantamagazine.bsky.social @insideclimatenews.org (Plus- "Don't Worry, Be Happy") Facing reality: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/24/w...

As global warming challenges traditional agriculture, scientists are looking to “probiotics” for crops as a possible new green revolution: "Better Farming Through Endophytes" @ahelt.bsky.social @jstordaily.bsky.social (Plus- John Boyd Orr) Musing on microbes: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/23/i...

The respective vulnerabilities of tyrants and crowds: "Absolute power can be a terrible weakness," from @himself.bsky.social (Plus- “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”) Get it together: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/22/p...

A labor of love: "This trucker built a scale model of NYC over 21 years. It’s drawing museums’ attention" @gothamist.com (Plus- the Great Fire of New York) Get small: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/21/i...

Two scholars predicted political upheaval in America in the 2020s. Their explanation of why it’s here and what we can do to temper it: "Welcome To The 'Turbulent Twenties'" @noemamag.com @raydalioofficial.bsky.social (Plus- jumping the shark) Buckle up: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/20/w...

How social media algorithms are transforming language: "Our viral vocabulary" @etymology.substack.com.web.brid.gy (Plus- International Talk Like a Pirate Day) Pause to parse: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/19/a...

Clive James reviews "the most boring book in the world" @boingboing.net (Plus- Samuel Johnson) Tackling tedium: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/18/h...

A fascinating interactive comparison of what different jobs pay: "Salary and Occupation" @flowingdata.com (Plus- Emperor Norton) Investigating inequality: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/17/a...

Interrogating a defining-- but slippery--concept at the heart of many discussions of global culture or geopolitics: "The Idea of the West" @mereorthodoxy.bsky.social @noemamag.com (Plus- “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”) Pondering a perplexingly plastic paradigm: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/16/i...

If "printer's ink" is the lifeblood of democracy, we have an issue: "Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’" @josieharvey.bsky.social @theguardian.com (Plus- USA Today) Surviving the surfeit: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/15/a...

There's rule-of-law, and then there's rule-by-law: "Banksy mural of a judge beating a protester is scrubbed from London court" @apnews.com (Plus- Hitler at Nuremberg) Protect what's precious: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/14/t...

On geologic byproducts, American automotive lore, and the hidden beauty of the industrial age: "Fordite" @ryantomorrow.bsky.social (Plus- RIP, Henry Hale Bliss) Rethinking remnants: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/13/t...