Analyzing The Internet's Watercooler - I am mostly sharing this as a motivation to come back and try and build this. Though it also intrigues me that we now have the power for almost anyone to do significant sentiment analysis using social media. Though the narrative has been how much data others are using, it should be how quickly we can check those narratives using tools we can build ourselves.

Radioactive Suburbia - Thinking about the scale of the war effort in World War II can be a little obtuse when you don't have context. Here is an example of the federal government merely building a town around a secret project, using prefabbed materials and other shortcuts. It's a fantastic design accomplishment in itself but is just ancillary to the Manhattan Project.

Aggressive Design Futurism - Though you can easily say that most of the iMac now that isn't a computer has been removed, it still has a very distinctive look and shape. Starting with the bright blue that killed the era of the beige boxes, 9to5 Mac details the history of the iMac through every iteration.

The New Alchemy - Google’s AI researchers propose new methods for testing and demonstrating AI and machine learning for more scientific rigor. They allege that most of the field is bathed in secrecy and in danger of not being able to show its work.

Visual Algorithms - I used to always have issues in coding classes trying to do more advanced algorithms because I would have problems keeping a mental model going. Hopefully, these can help me brush up my rusty skills.

Trump and The Attention Economy - Cory Doctorow examines how the commodification of attention created the perfect environment for a candidate like Trump to thrive.

Forgotten Stanger In A Forgotten Land - John Scalzi talks about how Heinlein has faded in the last few years, not to mention the other old Grand Masters that have faded from public view. Hell, Gibson and Sterling are looming giants in the genre they "revolutionized" in the 80's. This is all pretty standard stuff, but I feel that genre fiction is particularly prone to this because the broader literary establishment treats it as disposable entertainment.

Cutting Costs - It’s always interesting to me to look at the ways that engineering focused on cutting costs can backfire. Hackaday looks back at aluminum wiring and why it ended up being far more dangerous than copper.