TIDINGS: Squeaky clean edition


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Soapdish

As bar soap gives way to body wash, an enthusiast for the former takes an unexpectedly deep dive into soap history and makes a quasi-scientific and fully nostalgic case for the humble bar.

Slate | Dan Kois

Bad lunch

Memoir from a former chef for the rich and entitled on luxury yachts in the Mediterranean.

The Sun | Mishele Maron

My life as a sex worker at a Nevada brothel

And a memoir from another type of worker as a New York writer takes on a second life in a fully legal Nevada brothel.

Esquire | Paloma Karr

How brothel workers in Nevada just made labor history

Facing a new exploitative contract claiming rights to their likenesses intellectual property, sex workers at that same brothel form a groundbreaking union.

The Nation | Kim Kelly

Say goodbye to the sex drought!

As young people in other countries enter a sex recession, Danes are bucking the trend.

The Guardian | Zoe Williams

How far back in time can you understand English?

A clever test of your English reading abilities: a blog post slips further back into English prose style one century at a time, becoming mostly unintelligible to modern readers by the end.

Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie



For years the Taliban told women to cover up in public. Now they're cracking down

In Afghanistan, the Taliban is once again enforcing extreme restrictions on women's dress, including denying them entrance to hospitals.

NPR | Fariba Akbari and Diaa Hadid

How to stop a dictator

There's a great deal of scholarship about how democracies backslide, less on how democracies save themselves. A journalist looks to Brazil, South Korea, and Poland for lessons on how Americans can oppose their own authoritarian leader.

Vox | Zack Beauchamp

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’

Harrowing account from a UK tourist visiting the US with a valid visa, a dream vacation that turned into a nightmare ordeal: shackled, separated from her husband, sleeping on floors, and locked away in detainment cells for six weeks.

The Guardian | Jenny Kleeman

A presidential problem of canine proportions

If there must be misbehavior in the White House, let it be the pups, not the president: a look back at presidents' troublesome dogs.

The Atlantic | Nicholas Florko

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm

New research finds durable effects from viewing algorithmic content on X (formerly Twitter), shifting user perspectives to the right on salient issues. (A case for Seabird: our only algorithm is showing you content from people you choose to follow, and all posts include outbound links!)

Nature | Germain Gauthier, Roland Hodler, Philine Widmer and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya

Too many satellites?

On the negative externalities of megaconstellations of satellites streaking visibly across the sky: "for the first time in human history, this shifting baseline means kids today won’t grow up with the same night sky every previous generation of humanity had access to."

The Conversation | Gregory Radisic and Samantha Lawler

Arda transforms beer waste into plastic-free faux leather

A start-up is working to scale a new leather-like material made from the spent grains of beer and whiskey production, no animal or plastic inputs needed.

Dezeen | Rima Sabina Aouf

Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

An engineering approach to appreciating the genius of Jimi Hendrix, whose use of the electric guitar went far beyond mere amplification to new, groundbreaking means of musical expression.

Spectrum | Rohan S. Puranik

Kevin Durant: face of the NBA internet era

The history of social media through the online experience of one star athlete.

Moll Don't Lie | Molly Morrison

Economic impact of NBA teams: Nearly nil

And in Portland news, would losing the Trailblazers "set Portland’s economy back by a generation"? Economic studies suggest reasons to be skeptical.

City Commentary | Joe Cortright

See the best of nearly half a million entries

In photography: striking category winners from the Sony World Photography Awards.

Colossal | Kate Mothes

A chronicle of coexistence with birds

And in book and bird news: Bird City explores the avian side of the Big Apple.

American Scientist | Mya Thompson

The links in our newsletter were all shared first on Seabird, our minimalist platform simply designed for recommending worthwhile links. Learn more about us here and join to discover and share articles like these every day. Your recommendations may appear in a future edition of Tidings.

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Welcome back to Tidings, our weekly newsletter highlighting stories shared by the community on Seabird. Join our web-based beta, no app download required, with code "WaitIsOver", or download our mobile apps. And if you're enjoying articles you discover on Tidings, help us spread the word by recommending it to friends! The end of mail in Denmark As Denmark officially ends its postal service, a funny, meandering reflection on writing letters and the frustrations of Danish bureaucracy. The Dial...

Welcome back to Tidings, our weekly newsletter highlighting stories shared by the community on Seabird. Join our web-based beta, no app download required, with code "WaitIsOver", or download our mobile apps. And if you're enjoying articles you discover on Tidings, help us spread the word by recommending it to friends! In search of Wikipedia's saviors Dispatch from gatherings of Wikipedians, the volunteers keeping "a staggering feat of human endeavor" alive in the age of AI. The Dial | Imogen...

Welcome back to Tidings, our weekly newsletter highlighting stories shared by the community on Seabird. Join our web-based beta, no app download required, with code "WaitIsOver", or download our mobile apps. And if you're enjoying articles you discover on Tidings, help us spread the word by recommending it to friends! The perks of being a mole rat From clams to tortoises to Greenland sharks, various animals have adapted for extreme longevity. Can humans borrow the same tricks? Works in...