Welcome to the Convivial Society , a newsletter about technology and culture. This installment takes up complementary themes to the last but from a different perspective and with the work of Jacques E

Welcome back, in relatively short order, to the Convivial Society . This is an uncharacteristic installment in that it follow so quickly on the previous one and has, to my mind, a rather blog-ish feel

Welcome to a special installment of the Convivial Society . On Monday, a friend emailed to let me know that the philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann had passed away overnight. While I may not men

Animals Observations of a sleeping octopus startling awake have scientists asking if it has nightmares or is just getting old. A day octopus is seen at the Butterfly Pavilion in Colorado. In 2019, a v

Sticking an electrode inside a person’s brain can do more than treat a disease. Take the case of Rita Leggett, an Australian woman whose experimental brain implant changed her sense of agency and self

Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of the infamous General George Armstrong Custer, once said of the couple’s stint near Hays, Kansas, during the American Indian Wars of the mid-to-late 19th century, “There

image courtesy Better Block The Dallas-based urban design group Better Block says it very plainly: they try to help people improve cities by not over-thinking every decision. They do the substantial p

O ver the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, formin

As they used to say in those adverts... "We asked 13 people about their use of LinkedIn." Well, no one asked anybody, but as people have shared their own Hello Pages with me, I've read their comments

The notion of “externalities” has become familiar in environmental circles. It refers to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses. For instance, industrial processes can p

Kelp is common along temperate shorelines around the world. For millennia, this large brown algae has been vital to coastal Indigenous peoples. In Washington State and British Columbia, kelp is a trad

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. See More → Scientists have discovered new evidence that the universe was briefly governed

This past week, a crew of private space tourists — carried by a vehicle built by SpaceX and operated by Axiom Space — arrived at the International Space Station for the vacation of a lifetime. And bec

Hello and welcome to Oversharing, a newsletter about the proverbial sharing economy. If you’re returning, thanks! If you’re new, it’s great to have you. A special thanks to all the paying subscribers

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (green) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH A

Homeless families being housed in a north London Travelodge are due to be moved out when Beyoncé concerts begin at the end of the month after the local council failed to extend their bookings. The Gua

The Baffler , May 26, 2023 Fresh Hell The best dispatches from our grim new reality Jason Arias Word Factory W o r d F a c t o r y Let it Bleed In a shocking literalization of the USA’s victimization

We're not crying, you're crying! Never Forget Known as some of the animal kingdom's most complex social creatures , elephants in captivity appear to enjoy their interactions with humans — and a new st

How did the universe start? Did we begin with a big bang, or was there a bounce? Might the cosmos evolve in a cycle of expansion and collapse , over and over for all eternity? Now, in two papers, rese

Riding on the Peninsula Crossing Trail, July 2021. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland) The bad news is that a one-mile stretch of the Peninsula Crossing Trail will be closed for the next three weeks.

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - At the beginning and around the Peninsula Crossing Trail in North Portland, the city has placed “Area Closed. Do Not Enter.” signs up, along with a note reading the trail will b

An ordinance restricting daytime homeless camping in public right-of-ways is expected to be introduced by Mayor Ted Wheeler at the May 31 Portland City Council meeting. Wheeler’s ordinance would ban c

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over homeless camping on city sidewalks, according to the law firm representing the Portlanders with disabilities. Last September , t

Board members walk out of their meeting amid shouting protestors. Full gallery below. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland) TriMet’s seven-member board of directors voted to enact a 30-cent fare increa

USA TODAY NETWORK Watch Video: People with autism learn to speak with hands. DETROIT – It wasn't until Ashley Marchuck started experiencing frequent anxiety attacks at work – almost every day – that s

Dr Doherty, an anaesthetist in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Co Meath, said: “The possibility of being autistic never entered my head. I had a very stereotypical view of autism and I certainly did not f

Last fall, a group of Portlanders with disabilities sued the city of Portland over street camping, alleging the city was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing homeless people to bl

O n April 25th 2023, the Virginia Supreme Court ignored a life-shattering mistake. Though he confessed under a lengthy interrogation, Michael Ledford did not set the fire that killed his son and horri

Revising a work of fiction is pure agony. This is one of the main tenets of the writer credo (or maybe just a huge meme among writers.) And yeah, it definitely sucks a lot of the time. But I'm in the

M101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is located about 21 million light-years away from Earth and is the home of a new supernova, the closest of the past five years. Credit: Hubble Image: NASA, ESA

From Thanksgiving dinner conversations to pop culture discourse, it’s easy to feel like individuals of different political ideologies are occupying completely separate worlds, especially online. Peopl

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s last-minute city budget amendments left Portland transportation stakeholders feeling like they've had the rug pulled out from under them. Now, they want every Portlander to know: T

"More than astronomy, communicating with ET will require a breadth of knowledge." Is Anyone There? A team of scientists at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute have put togeth

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. See More → Scientists have invented a device that can continuously generate electricity fr

quantum computing Physicists Create Elusive Particles That Remember Their Pasts May 9, 2023 In two landmark experiments, researchers used quantum processors to engineer exotic particles that have capt

I n 2018, news spread around Saroj Duru’s village that four elephants had gathered at a nearby lake. Such creatures didn’t typically visit her region in central India — they were known to stay further

Hello and welcome to Healing is my Special Interest, the newsletter about all things late-diagnosed neurodivergence, high control religion, and pursuing healing while society crumbles. I’m so glad you

In Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel The Count of Monte-Cristo , a character named Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort suffers a terrible stroke that leaves him paralyzed. Though he remains awake and aware,