Thanks for the reference! I'm aware of Wu's work but haven't dug into that one yet. Will def. give it a look.

A Brief History of Doomscrolling News fatigue is nothing new

I’ve been mostly quiet here for a while, working on a book about 19th-century newspapers and the early attention economy—an era that looks uncannily like our own. More to come soon; in the meantime, I've been thinking about the history of doomscrolling:

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Feeling stoked about my latest acquisition: an antique Kelsey Excelsior press, with mini type case. Would you believe these things used to sell for five dollars back in the 1890s? The Victorian equivalent of a cheap inkjet printer.

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97

Pouring one out for Tom Lehrer, a true polymath if ever there was one. I will never look at pigeons in the park the same way again.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

Getting our march on.

Just how bloody was medieval England? A ‘murder map’ holds some surprises. The University of Cambridge project reveals sky-high homicide rates in medieval London, York and Oxford and shows that male college students were among the most frequent killers.

An impressive piece of digital sleuthing by researchers at Cambridge, stitching together public records and running data analysis to generate "murder maps" of medieval England. Apparently the biggest troublemakers back then were college kids. Plus ça change ;)

www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025...

Fascinating piece by David Caswell on the recent changes to x.AI‘s responses on South Africa “white genocide.” Not quite a smoking gun, but gets tantalizingly close to getting Grok to rat out the boss.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/interv...

Holy ****

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

News outlets everywhere should follow @wired.com's lead in dropping paywalls for primarily FOIA-based reporting.

freedom.press/issues/wired...

A provocative think-piece by @maxmcguinness.bsky.social on the complex, often conflicted relationship between French modernists and their 19th century news media.

“The French modernists show us how to carve out space for artistic expression within dominant media without being dominated by them.”

Paul Otlet was a great many things but, well, not much a poet ;) Still, I quite like this kind of digital found poetry experiment. Sort of an Ezra Pound-meets-William S. Burroughs-meets-Python kind of vibe.

Fascinating think-piece on the heritage of AI hype cycles past and present, from computer historian Thomas Haigh:

cacm.acm.org/opinion/arti...

In 1659, the the Puritans in Massachusetts enacted a law that declared that Christmas was sacrilege and exchanging of gifts, greetings, and wearing fine clothing on that day was Satanic. Anyone caught celebrating was fined 5 shillings. (About 5 days wages.)

The "War on Christmas" was an inside job.

Cottrell Printing Press (1800s), Museum of Printing

Collection of printing casts, Museum of Printing.

A few pics from a morning well spent at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts—a wonderland of old prints, presses, and assorted typographical gewgaws. Also one of the last places on earth where you can still see a working Linotype! www.museumofprinting.org

Audubon on Other Minds and the Secret Knowledge of Animals “In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear,”…

Audubon, a century and a half ahead of modern science, on other minds and animal intelligence

Zakir Hussain, legendary Indian tabla musician, dies aged 73 The classical musician, who performed with George Harrison and Van Morrison, died in a San Francisco hospital on Sunday

Sad to hear the news about Zakir Hussein. Indian classical music isn’t my usual cup of tea, but he gave one of the most mesmerizing musical performances I have ever seen. A phenomenally gifted artist, and by all accounts a nice guy. Someone worthy of remembrance.

www.theguardian.com/music/2024/d...

Modernism Inc. - Official Trailer | 13th Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival YouTube video by Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival NZ

Re-watching Modernism, Inc. (now streaming on Prime), a beautifully crafted documentary about Elliot Noyes and his outsized impact on twentieth century design, and the Bauhaus-ification of corporate America.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Ts...

Sure, why not?

Hello BlueSky. I'm Alex, currently working as a UXer at Google, writing books and things, and hacking away at my five-string banjo. I'm interested in the history of technology, bluegrass music, and the uncanny valley of life with a Labradoodle.