Terry Returns To World

from The Guardian

Blacklisted fashion photographer Terry Richardson returns to the newsstands

Arena Homme+ publishes cover shots and portfolio eight years after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced

Chloe Mac Donnell – Deputy fashion and lifestyle editor

Terry Richardson, whose newly published portfolio is a tribute to film director David Lynch. Photograph: Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Eight years after major fashion brands and publications said they would no longer work with Terry Richardson, following a string of allegations of sexual misconduct made against the renowned fashion photographer, he now appears to be making a comeback.

This week, the magazine Arena Homme+ unveiled its latest issue, featuring two covers shot by Richardson and an accompanying portfolio. One cover consists of an image of a toilet cubicle graffitied with the text “Punk rock ruined my life.” Another is a shot of a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump’s face.

Entitled For David, from Terry, the images are billed as a tribute to the US film-maker David Lynch, who died in January.

[ click to continue reading at The Guardian ]

Inviso-lenses

from StudyFinds

Revolutionary Contact Lenses Let Humans See The Invisible

Research led by Tian Xue, University of Science and Technology of China

Hand,Gestures,Captured,On,Thermal,Imager,Device.,Warm,Hands,Of
Hand gestures captured on infrared imager device. (Image by Maximillian cabinet on Shutterstock)

HEFEI, China — Scientists have solved two major limitations of human vision in one breakthrough: our inability to see in darkness and our blindness to infrared light. Newly developed contact lenses convert invisible infrared radiation into visible colors, effectively giving wearers both enhanced night vision and access to an entirely new color spectrum.

Published in the journal Cell, the study describes how researchers created these soft, transparent contact lenses embedded with microscopic particles that convert infrared radiation into visible light. Unlike traditional night-vision goggles that produces grainy green images, these lenses create sharp, colorful visuals that work seamlessly alongside normal eyesight in any lighting condition.

[ click to continue reading at StudyFinds ]

Robot Turtle, Cool!

from The Wall Street Journal

Forget Humanoids. At MIT, Worms and Turtles Are Inspiring a New Generation of Robots

Daniela Rus, the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, is developing robots that take more cues from nature than science fiction

By Isabelle Bousquette

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Everyone is obsessed with humanoid robots right now, but the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory thinks tomorrow’s intelligent physical machines could be something radically different.

Think soft and squishy robots, says Daniela Rus. Picture flexible robots, or even edible ones. 

Her research group has built a robot out of sausage casing (and a small magnet) that could theoretically be eaten and then perform small-scale non-invasive surgeries, Rus said. Another project is a robotic sea turtle named Crush, designed to help monitor sea life, which uses silicone flippers to maneuver around delicate coral reefs. 

Rus was a pioneer of this approach, known as “soft robotics.” Now creative new uses of artificial intelligence are pushing her work to a new level.

“I really wanted to broaden our view of what a robot is,” Rus said. “So if you have a mechanism that’s made out of paper and that moves, is that a robot or not? If you have an origami flower that you attach to a motor, is that a robot or not? To me, it’s a robot.” 

[ click to continue reading at WSJ ]

Pete Rose Uncancelled

from the Los Angeles Times

Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson reinstated by Major League Baseball, making Hall of Fame election possible

By Steve Henson

Pete Rose in a Cincinnati Reds uniform rounds first base on a baseball diamond
Pete Rose rounds first base after breaking Ty Cobb’s record for career hits at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati in 1985. (Associated Press)

Pete Rose was posthumously removed from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list Tuesday, making the all-time hits leader eligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson, banned after his participation in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, also was reinstated in a sweeping decision by commissioner Rob Manfred that included other deceased players from the list. All are eligible for election to the Hall of Fame.

An MLB statement released Tuesday referred to it as a “policy decision.”

“Commissioner Manfred has concluded that MLB’s policy shall be that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.”

[ click to continue reading at LAT ]

Self-obsolescence

from The Free Press

AI Will Change What It Is to Be Human. Are We Ready?

This technology can usher in an age of flourishing the likes of which we have never seen. It will also foment a crisis about what it is to be a person at all.

By Tyler Cowen and Avital Balwit

Are we helping create the tools of our own obsolescence?

If that sounds like a question only a depressive or a stoner would ask, let us assure you: We are neither. We are early AI adopters.

We stand at the threshold of perhaps the most profound identity crisis humanity has ever faced. As AI systems increasingly match or exceed our cognitive abilities, we’re witnessing the twilight of human intellectual supremacy—a position we’ve held unchallenged for our entire existence. This transformation won’t arrive in some distant future; it’s unfolding now, reshaping not just our economy but our very understanding of what it means to be human beings.

We are not doomers; quite the opposite. One of us, Tyler, is a heavy user of this technology, and the other, Avital, is working at Anthropic (the company that makes Claude) to usher it into the world.

Both of us have an intense conviction that this technology can usher in an age of human flourishing the likes of which we have never seen before. But we are equally convinced that progress will usher in a crisis about what it is to be human at all.

[ click to continue reading at The Free Press ]

The Gatekeeper

from The New York Times

If Your Vibe Is Right, He Might Let You Into the Club

Fabrizio Brienza is among New York City’s most experienced gatekeepers, standing watch outside nightclubs and curating the crowd inside.

By Dionne Searcey

The music inside Paul’s Casablanca lounge was thumping on a recent night as sweaty dancers maneuvered under a disco ball. Outside, a line of would-be revelers looked longingly at the entrance. A green velvet rope was nearly all that was separating them from the good times being had inside.

That rope and Fabrizio Brienza.

As the “door” of the lounge, in SoHo, Mr. Brienza is in charge of plucking patrons from the line to enter. Only a choice few get in.

“I curate the vibe of the place,” said Mr. Brienza, who has worked at Paul’s for five years and estimates that on busy weekends he turns away hundreds of people who don’t fit that vibe. Which is defined solely by him.

Mr. Brienza is on the front lines of gate-keeping in a city that thrives on exclusivity, giving rise to power brokers around every corner.

[ click to continue reading at NYT ]

Flying Car, Cool!

from The Daily Express U.S.

World’s first mass-produced flying car unveiled after more than 500 successful flights

Created by Slovakia-based developer Klein Vision, the AirCar is set to be the world’s first mass-produced flying car after completing more than 170 flight hours

By REANNA SMITH

Artist impression of the new production prototype of the AirCar
Artist impression of the new production prototype of the AirCar (Image: Klein Vision / SWNS)

A Slovakia-based developer has unveiled what is set to be the world’s first mass-produced flying car in a groundbreaking moment for the aviation industry.

Klein Vision showed off its production prototype of the AirCar, the world’s first certified flying car, during the 2025 Living Legends of Aviation Gala Dinner in Beverly Hills last month. Distinguished guests including Prince Harry and legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin got a sneak peek of the flying car as they took part in a ceremony honoring pilot firefighters for their heroic efforts in battling the recent Los Angeles wildfires.

[ click to continue reading at The Daily Express ]

Like-olution

from The Wall Street Journal

Humans Evolved to Like ‘Likes’

The thumbs-up icon became the most used feature on social media by tapping into our deepest psychological instincts.

By Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson

an ape giving a thumbs up to a man looking at his phone with a thumbs up icon in a speech bubble.
ILLUSTRATION: PETER ARKLE

Statistically speaking, you’ve probably already pressed a like button several times today. If you’re under 20 years old, even more. Perhaps you recently posted on Instagram or Facebook and have been eagerly checking as the like count rises on your phone—each new like accompanied by a buzz in your pocket and a flutter in your heart. But why do we like the like button so much that it almost immediately became the most used feature on social media—and by now is at the fingertips of the majority of humans on the planet?

In 2018, neuroscientist Lauren Sherman and colleagues set out to study that question. They asked 58 young people, aged 13 to 21, to go through their Instagram accounts and select several photos they had posted recently.

[ click to continue reading at WSJ ]

Mossbrae Falls

from the Los Angeles Times

California’s most beautiful waterfall isn’t even open to the public

By Jessica Garrison

A man stands on a boulder looking at curtains of water cascading down a cliff over lush moss.
Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta, Mossbrae Falls cascades out of lava tubes and down mossy cliffs into the Sacramento River. (Bronwyn Jamrok)

Mossbrae Falls is breathtaking, but inaccessible.

Less than half a mile from the city limits of Dunsmuir, Calif., a little railroad town in far Northern California, there is a waterfall so beautiful that people say it takes their breath away.

Mossbrae Falls, which is fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta’s majestic slopes, tumbles across mossy cliffs in great curtains of water, and then down into the Sacramento River.

A century ago, the waterfall was a glorious tourist attraction. Southern Pacific Railroad ran special trains to it, where people could get out and take in the view and drink from the springs.

[ click to continue reading at LAT ]

F†ck Digits

from InsideHook

The Analog Life: 50 Ways to Unplug and Feel Human Again

There’s life beyond the infinite scroll. We put together a toolkit of habits, routines and products to help you live more intentionally.

BY TANNER GARRITY

Three analog scenes: a woman playing backgammon, a man using a record player, and a person reading a book at a wooden table. Here's how to unplug and lead a more analog life.
Going analog isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about resistance.

In 2006, a UX designer named Aza Raskin invented a concept called “infinite scroll.” The feature provided an alternative to internet pagination — anytime users reached the end of a feed, timeline or results page, they could just flick the screen down for more. And like magic, more always arrived.

Raskin knew exactly what he’d built: “If you don’t give your brain time to catch up with your impulses, you just keep scrolling,” he explained in a BBC interview. “It’s as if [you’re] taking behavioral cocaine…sprinkling it all over your interface. That’s the thing that keeps you coming back and back and back.” 

Did we know what we were walking into? Say you took a time machine back to the early 2010s. The iPad, the first commercially profitable tablet, had just arrived. Smartphones were adding a litany of features, steadily transforming from a situation-specific tool into an all-day ecosystem. Most of us felt lucky to have these things — and the original versions certainly weren’t cheap.

[ click to continue reading at InsideHook ]

Project Blue Pope

from The Sun

Will the next Pope FINALLY reveal the Vatican’s UFO secrets? Insider says ‘truth is coming’… with help of US president

Steve Bassett reveals how the Vatican’s widely claimed UFO secrets might come to light

by Juliana Cruz Lima

8UFO campaigner Steve Bassett said the Catholic Church has knowledge of UFOsCredit: STEVE BASSETT

THE Vatican should finally reveal the truth about alleged links between UFOs and the church, a top UFO lobbyist has urged.

Steve Bassett, executive director of the Paradigm Research Group, said the “truth is coming” – but it might not be the next Pope who releases any bombshell files.

Bassett says he believes it is clear the Catholic Church knows about UFOs – and likely has documented evidence hidden in their archives.

He insists “extraordinary” information sits locked away in the Vatican Library – collected from millions of confessions reporting strange sightings or close encounters.

It comes after Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch claimed Italy had uncovered a UFO during Mussolini’s reign in 1933.

Following the death of Pope Francis, Bassett revealed whether the next Cardinal could finally fling open the doors to the Vatican’s UFO files.

[ click to continue reading at The Sun ]

Art Dick

from CNN

Forgers and fraudsters trusted him for decades — but he was an undercover FBI art detective

By Oscar Holland

A founding member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, Ronnie Walker’s elaborate sting operations often saw him posing as a dealer, authenticator or buyer of stolen paintings. Illustration by Leah Abucayan/CNN/Adobe Stock

Winning the trust of convicted burglar Jerry Christy was the kind of challenge undercover FBI investigator Ronnie Walker had spent years preparing for.

A founding member of the bureau’s specialist Art Crime Team, the Oregon-based agent was well-versed in art history — and trained to pose as a would-be buyer, authenticator or dealer of stolen works. Christy, meanwhile, was being covertly investigated in 2007 over the theft of several artworks, including a 17th-century etching by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn.

“That etching that was my entrée into his ring,” recalled Walker, who recently retired from the FBI after almost 29 years, allowing him to speak more openly about his career exposing fraudsters, forgers and traffickers in elaborate sting operations.

“At the time, I was really hyper-focused on learning about fine art prints,” added the former agent, who met Christy through a confidential source in 2007. “And I made him believe I was the kind of person who could sell a Rembrandt.”

But things got trickier for Walker, he said, when Christy’s expert accomplice got in touch.

[ click to continue reading at CNN ]

Moonprank

from How Stuff Works

Ridiculous History: The Great Moon Hoax of August 1835

By: Bryan Young

great moon hoax
This 1838 French print by the Thierry brothers imagines the landscape and inhabitants of the moon. The stories that ran in The New York Sun would inspire multiple artists. Notice those moon beings kibitzing in the foreground.  SCIENCE & SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES

On Aug. 25, 1835, The New York Sun ran the first in a series of newspaper articles describing scientific findings from the moon. Known as “The Great Moon Hoax,” the articles were supposed to have been reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science and written by Dr. Andrew Grant, a colleague of the famous astronomer Sir John Herschel. The series featured some of the most popular articles the New York newspaper had ever printed at the time, and people clamored to read about the breaking scientific news of the day.

The articles describe Herschel, who had traveled to Capetown, South Africa, in January 1834 to set up an observatory with a powerful new telescope. Grant’s writings suggested that while in South Africa, Herschel had found evidence of life on the moon, including unicorns, two-legged beavers and humanoids that “average four feet in height, were covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane, without hair, lying snugly on their backs.”

The articles also described the moon’s geography as having massive craters, amethyst crystals, flowing rivers and lush vegetation.

[ click to continue reading at How Stuff Works ]

SuspiciousGPT

from Study Finds

Is Anything Real Anymore? AI Making Americans Suspicious Of Everything Online

Generative AI: Robot hands typing
(Image by feeling lucky on Shutterstock)

In a nutshell

  • Americans believe only 41% of online content is accurate and created by humans, with three-quarters reporting their trust in the internet is at an all-time low.
  • When tested, only 30% of people could correctly identify AI-written content, showing how difficult it’s become to distinguish between human and artificial writing.
  • 82% of Americans want businesses to be legally required to disclose when they use AI in marketing, customer service, or content creation.

[ click to continue reading at Study Finds ]

Umm, duuhhh… devices….

from VOX

When did people stop dancing at the club?

DJs, club owners, and patrons alike say there’s way too much standing around.

by Alex Abad-Santos

BELGIUM-LIFESTYLE-NIGHTCLUB-MUSIC
Typically, if one is on a dance floor, they should be dancing!Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images

Clubs are, first and foremost, for dancing. One could theoretically do other things there — drink, meet strangers, conduct important and possibly illicit business deals, anything really — but likely everything but dancing could probably be done more efficiently somewhere else. At the same time, while no one’s stopping anyone from dancing in other places that are more accessible and less expensive to shake and shimmy, from the gym to the bar to your own home, there isn’t a better place to dance to loud music than a club. 

But what happens if the dancing stops?

According to DJs, nightclub owners, frequent club-goers, and a number of frontfacing camera complaints over social media, a growing frustration at the dancery is a growing number of people not dancing. These nondancers are threatening to turn the club — a place where jumpin’ jumpin’, dancin’ dancin’, and maybe even love have all been promised — into one of those other places where no one dances. 

On the surface, the divide seems split between movers and non-shakers (with a little sprinkle of generational warfare), but it speaks to the very tenets of nightlife. The puzzling act of not dancing at a place designated for dancing is one of those mysteries that raises questions, if not calls for a full-blown investigation. Why did people stop dancing? What are they doing at the club if they’re not dancing? Who’s sitting out and who can we blame? Who’s complaining?

[ click to continue reading at VOX ]

Isle Royale

from National Geographic

Escape the crowds at the lower 48’s most remote national park

Lake Superior’s Isle Royale, an archipelago of 400 islands, is one of the least visited national parks. Here’s why you should see this little known island wilderness.

By Stephen Starr

At a time when record crowds are seeing visitors to some U.S. national parks asked to pre-book access, Isle Royale National Park, an archipelago of around 400 islands on western Lake Superior, is the very definition of off the beaten track.

Its main island is about 50 miles long and nine miles wide—19 times the size of Manhattan—and sees less than one percent of the average number of visitors to Yosemite National Park when it opens to the public on around April 15 every year.

As the least-visited national park in the continental U.S., Isle Royale National Park is only reachable by ferry, private boat or seaplane from mainland Michigan and Minnesota.

It’s a place where the only vehicles are canoes and kayaks, and moose, wolves, beavers and smaller animals are the sole year-round residents. For many, its attraction—centered on its 36 campgrounds and 165 miles of back country trails—lies in the fact that it’s one of the few national parks with no instant Instagram gratification; cell phone coverage is patchy at best.

[ click to continue reading at Nat Geo ]

Pax Lauren

from COMPACT

The Meaning of Ralph Lauren Nationalism

by Samuel Goldman

PHOTO: RALPH LAUREN

If you follow a certain kind of account on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), you’ve likely seen the posts. An image of a particular type of model—blond, blessed with prominent cheekbones and expensively tousled hair—rides a horse or sails a boat or plays croquet in warm golden light. Befitting the rustic settings in which they’re worn, the clothes are generously cut in muted colors. There’s a lot of tweed, tartan, and perfectly faded denim.

The caption is “Ralph Lauren Nationalism.” Presented without further comment in most cases, the posts belong to a genre that laments the world we have ostensibly lost. Remember an America, they imply, when this fantasia on WASP themes could be found in every glossy magazine and shopping mall in the country. Even if Ralph Lauren’s world was never exactly real, it expressed an ideal of wealth, tradition, and beauty that’s been replaced by gender non-conformists wearing hoodies and yoga pants. 

[ click to continue reading at COMPACT ]

CreepyGPT

from SFGate

Business Insider co-founder roasted over creepy blog post about AI workers

If a boss posted openly about swiping right on a human employee’s dating profile, that would constitute sexual harassment

By Stephen Council

FILE: Henry Blodget speaks onstage at a media conference held by Business Insider on Nov. 29, 2017, at Time Warner Center in New York City. / Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Henry Blodget, a famed-then-disgraced Wall Street investor who went on to co-found the news site Business Insider, has a brand new venture. It’s off to a creepy start: He immediately hit on his artificial intelligence-generated first “employee.”

In February, Blodget fired up a Substack newsletter called Regenerator. He’s the CEO, the editor-in-chief and currently the lone employee, promising the outlet will “analyze the most important questions in innovation — tech, business, markets, policy, science, culture, and ideas.” But in a Monday post, things took a turn for the extremely weird — to the extent that Blodget has since made several edits to its most eyebrow-raising passages, and turned off the post’s comments. Still, a few people got in their roasts, with one commenter writing, “The best time to delete this post was immediately after posting it. The second best time is now.”

[ click to continue reading at SFG ]

Madame X…?

from artnet

How John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’ Turned Paris High Society Upside Down

John Singer Sargent’s most iconic portrait ‘Madame X’ is the star of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s forthcoming exhibition ‘Sargent and Paris.’

by Katie White

a portrait of a woman with swept up auburn hair and incredibly pale white skin seen in profile wearing a plunging black evening gown
John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau) (1883–84). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

She was the sensation of Paris—known for her dramatic patrician looks, a Roman nose, and a famously cinched waist, as well as her numerous extramarital affairs. But the biggest scandal of American-born socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau’s life happened not in the boudoir but the salon—when, in 1884, celebrated portrait painter John Singer Sargent unveiled his daring vision of the alabaster beauty, a portrait only thinly veiled in anonymity, now known simply as: Madame X.  

Now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Madame X (1883–1884) is today regarded as Sargent’s most iconic portrait. The daring composition will soon star in the museum’s forthcoming exhibition “Sargent and Paris,” which traces the years from Sargent’s arrival in Paris at 18 in 1874 to Madame X’s unveiling and aftermath.

[ click to continue reading at artnet ]

Mary X…?

from The New Yorker

Mistaking Mary Magdalene

The subject of numerous controversies, she is defined by ambiguity, welcoming outcasts to the Church and provoking more imaginative approaches to faith.

By Eliza Griswold

A painting of Mary Magdalene.

An ancient depiction of a naked woman hung on the wall of my father’s study. Skeletal, stupefied, and wildly bedheaded, she contemplated distances across time and space, as saints and mystics do. As with many of the unsettling religious tchotchkes scattered around the rectory where I spent my childhood, I didn’t give much thought to the unkempt icon, until more recently, when I grew curious about Mary Magdalene and began to read into the controversies swirling around her.

[ click to continue reading at The New Yorker ]

NEXT TO HEAVEN Author Talk w/ James Frey

from Bedford Playhouse

Next to Heaven with James Frey

click to pre-order at Audible

Wed, Jun 25

    Run Time: 60 min.

    James Frey, the literary force hailed as “America’s Most Notorious Author” (TIME) and the “Bad Boy of American Literature” (The New York Times), returns with his latest tour de force:  Next to Heaven, a darkly funny, razor-sharp thriller that peels back the gilded surface of America’s wealthiest enclaves. This incendiary novel delivers an addictive and voyeuristic plunge into a world where privilege, scandal, and moral decay intertwine, culminating in betrayal, chaos, and murder. 

    Moderated by best-selling author (and owner of Bedford Books) Fran Hauser.

    [ click to read and get tickets at Bedford Playhouse ]

    Range Media Partners Nabs James Frey

    from DEADLINE

    Author James Frey Signs With Range Media Partners

    By Denise Petski

    James Frey
    James Frey / Dutch Doscher

    EXCLUSIVE: Bestselling author James Frey has signed with Range Media Partners for representation.

    Billed as “America’s Most Notorious Author” by Time magazine, the “Bad Boy of American Letters” by The New York Times, and “America’s Most Important Writer” by Esquire, Frey has written multiple global bestsellers, including A Million Little PiecesBright Shiny Morning, and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. He has sold more than 30 million books and is published in 42 languages.  

    Frey penned the screenplays for 1998’s Kissing A Fool and Sugar: The Fall of the West, which he also directed. His other film or television work includes 2019’s I Am Number Four (based on his YA sci-fi novel written under the pen name Pitticus Lore) for DreamWorks. He executive produced CBS’ American Gothicdrama series and co-wrote 2019’s crime drama Queen and Slim, on which he also served as a producer. He’s currently adapting his forthcoming novel, Next To Heaven, into a television series for Department M. The novel, billed as “a satirical thrill ride through the dark heart of privilege,” will be published by Authors Equity and distributed by Simon & Schuster on June 17. 

    [ click to continue reading at DEADLINE ]

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby @ 100

    from AIR MAIL

    One Hundred Years of Gatsby

    Editions of The Great Gatsby—which achieved popularity only after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death—abound, but the mysteries surrounding the Great American Novel endure

    BY NATHAN KING

    Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in the 1974 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final royalty check was for $13.13, making him the recipient of a double dose of bad luck. By 1940, the novel he thought to be his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, was very nearly out of print, and the woman he regarded as the love of his life, Zelda Fitzgerald, was living across the country, in and out of mental hospitals.

    When Fitzgerald died alone, of a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 44—leave it to the world’s biggest romantic to perish of a broken heart—he considered himself a washed-up failure. The Great Gatsby hadn’t even sold out its initial printing, in 1925, of 23,000 copies, and Fitzgerald was living hand to mouth (the hand was big, but so was the mouth) writing short stories and film scripts. As an author, he was well known to the public but something of a back number. As a man, he was a shell of himself. The American Dream, the Great American Novel, the American Girl—for Fitzgerald, they were all wrapped up together—had eluded him, and not for want of trying.

    [ click to continue reading at AIR MAIL ]

    Rodrigo Corral (back with James Frey)

    from Fast Company

    Meet the designer behind the look of the 21st-century book

    In an industry ruled by #BookTok trends, Rodrigo Corral has become the publishing industry’s go-to designer by creating an undefinable style.

    BY ZACHARY PETIT

    Meet the designer behind the look of the 21st-century book
    [Photo: Michael Schmelling]

    There’s one big thing about Rodrigo Corral that does not initially make sense: The book cover maestro does not have a signature style. 

    Consider his chameleonic cover hits. The Fault in Our StarsThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Survivor, Lullaby and the rest of Chuck Palahniuk’s catalog. Rachel Cusk’s books. James Frey’s controversial A Million Little Pieces, the cover that helped launch Corral into ubiquity. Recent collaborative output like Intermezzo and Mojave Ghost. The books don’t have obvious visual connective tissue between them—but somehow, as creative director of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and his eponymous studio, Corral has spent the past three decades quietly redefining the look of the modern book again and again.

    [ click to continue reading at Fast Company ]

    The Funk

    from DEADLINE

    Who Wants The Funk? ‘We Want The Funk!’ On Doc Talk Podcast With Stanley Nelson & Nicole London

    By Matthew Carey

    Funk music has been around since the 1960s, developing out of gospel, R&B and soul, with a distinct emphasis on “syncopated bass lines and steady, infectious drum grooves,” according to one description. But that’s an awfully academic way of putting it.

    The most important thing: Funk makes you want to dance.

    We Want the Funk!, a new documentary premiering Tuesday night on PBS stations, will have you moving in your recliner, on your living room dance floor or wherever you watch it. Directors Stanley Nelson and Nicole London join the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to explore the music and its key innovators including James Brown, George Clinton and Sly Stone.

    [ click to continue reading at DEADLINE ]

    Chapter 25 w/ James Frey

    from player.fm

    Chapter 25: James Frey on drunk, defiant differentiation

    NEXT TO HEAVEN – James Frey

    MP3Episode home

    What do you know about James Frey?

    Or what do you think you know about James Frey?

    I’m guessing it’s not nothing. Everyone has an opinion! When I first spotted ‘​A Million Little Pieces​‘ on my wife’s bookshelf when we were moving in together I was like “Oh? Really? That book? The Oprah guy?”

    And she was like “Have you read it?”

    And I was like “No, no idea what it’s even about. Just that it’s not real or whatever.”

    She looked at me with disappointed eyes. Understandably so! I hadn’t bothered to go below the surface. To read about it on my own. I had just soaked in some distant fumes off the story.

    “Read it,” she said, and pushed the book into my hands.

    That night I opened ‘A Million Little Pieces’ and was completely pulled into this pulsing, frenetic, endlessly climactic story of addiction, growth, and finding yourself. The book shook me. It was a masterpiece. I couldn’t believe it existed. I almost felt anger towards ​the Oprah saga​ because it headfaked me into thinking I knew what the book was about… when I couldn’t have been more off. I went deeper into James Frey’s catalogue and found myself similarly seduced by books like ‘​Bright Shiny Morning​‘ and ‘​Katerina​,’ and am looking forward to Frey’s new novel, ‘​Next To Heaven​,’ which is coming out in June 2025.

    [ click to continue reading (and listen) at player.fm ]

    White Sands Ancients

    from SFGate

    ‘A real chill’: National park discovery rewrites human history

    Evidence of 22,000-year-old vehicles was hiding beneath the sand

    By Adrianna Nine, Southwest Contributing Parks Editor

    Though it was underwater just 12,000 years ago, White Sands National Park — now an arid desert landscape — abounds with remnants of ancient human history. White Sands Missile Range, a Department of Defense-owned test area surrounding the park, features the world’s largest collection of ice age footprints, which were left behind by people dependent on the region’s bygone lake. Among those footprints, scientists have found new evidence of ancient activity recorded in the sand — and it’s transforming their understanding of early human technology.

    These, too, are tracks, but not the kind left by feet. Instead, they belong to travois, the earliest form of terrestrial transportation currently known. Made with long sticks and a basket or net, these primeval vehicles look a bit like a wheelbarrow without the wheel: Pulling the lifted handle or handles moved the basket attached to the sticks, allowing a person to glide heavy cargo across the sand.

    [ click to continue reading at SFGate ]

    Don’t Murder Me

    from TIME

    The Science Behind the Return of the Dire Wolf

    by Jeffrey Kluger

    Nature gave the world the dire wolf 2.6 million years ago, and then, through the hard hand of extinction, took it away—some 10,000 to 13,000 years ago when the last of the species died out. Now, the dire wolf is back, brought bounding into the 21st century by Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotech company. On April 8, Colossal announced it had used both cloning and gene-editing based on two ancient samples of dire wolf DNA to birth three pups, the six-month-old males Romulus and Remus and the two-month-old female Khaleesi.

    “Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm in a statement that accompanied the announcement of the births. “It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on.”

    [ click to continue reading at TIME ]

    Archives