Links #126

The Open Press Project looks cool, especially their new postcard printing press, which I am trying very hard not to covet.

Ted Gioia’s reading list on stupidity, starting with Thucydides. “This book is absolutely the place to start—and it marks an important moment in human culture. For the first time in the Western world, a historian turned to his own society and said: ‘This is stupid.’” I’ve started reading Thucydides because of this article and it’s surprising how modern it feels in some regards.

The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is publishing a Latter-day Saint art critical reader.

Hamilton Nolan on public ownership of public goods. “When you take a vital service and privatize it, you ensure that it will run according to a private profit motive rather than running with the goal of providing the best service to the public.” Agreed. More generally, capitalism (at least the late-stage growth capitalism we see at scale, the surveillance capitalism, the crush-the-poor capitalism; I’m not talking about small business here) more and more seems to me to be at odds with the gospel. (Which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by, given that a philosophy of selfishness was always destined to be at odds against a philosophy of selflessness.)

USGS showing all the earth’s water as a single sphere. Much less than I realized!

Procreate does the right thing and pledges not to add generative AI features to the app. The right thing in my mind, anyway. What a wonderful breath of fresh air. When I see apps add generative AI, it makes me want to avoid them. (So this is what it feels like to become a cranky old man.)

Ytch. Mashup of YouTube and old-school TV. More fun than I expected it to be.