Greetings, Tidings readers! This week's newsletter features several stories about our current information ecosystem: on AI-generated writing appearing in the Wall Street Journal, YouTube political commentary coming from actors reading AI-generated scripts, and elites cooking their brains on X and other platforms. These are all examples of why we're dedicated to building a better space for online writing at Seabird: recommendations from real humans, no opaque algorithms, no embedded video, and no swamps of replies. If you haven't created an account yet, come check it out! On to this week's links...
"An incumbent president is seriously trying to interfere with the casting and counting of votes in an election that will decide whether his party keeps Congress. That he is unlikely to succeed does not change what this is: a shocking, criminal assault on the electoral process."
The UnPopulist | Andy Craig
An appreciation of the feminist icon.
The Cut | Rebecca Traister
Some payphones in Los Angeles still work, and an art project is inviting people to use them to say goodbyes.
Atlas Obscura | Alexis Wood
Counterintuitive argument alert! A case that, metals aside, your trash is often better sent to a landfill than to a recycling center.
Works in Progress | Alex Chalmers and Rob Wiblin
An illustrated introduction to the tricky concept of Hilbert spaces, a key to quantum mechanics.
Quanta | Charlie Wood
A look at the evidence of data fraud from a prominent Duke professor.
Data Colada | Uri Simonsohn, Joe Simmons, and Leif Nelson
Not seabirds, sea beans: a short fiction selection for your weekend.
The Saturday Evening Post | Pamela Cottam
The slogan is lately derided for its political impracticality, but behind it are some good ideas and even some real accomplishments.
The New Yorker | Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Beatings, psychological torture, and removal to African countries where they have no ties: inside the Trump Administration's brutal third-country deportations. [Gift link.]
The New York Times | Pranav Baskar, Genevieve Glatsky, and Hamed Aleaziz
A deeply reported piece on how federal prosecutors have imprisoned Prarieland protesters for sentences stretching decades.
Mother Jones | Andrew Fedorov
A path to success as a political commentator on YouTube: just be an actor reading from an AI-generated script.
Semafor | Max Tani
"When people let a chatbot do their writing—even if they’re guiding and carefully reviewing its work—they might not realize that it’s doing some of their thinking too."
The Atlantic | Will Oremus
"The publics formed by social media platforms are not going away and are going to continue to be influential. But we would do well to treat them with the same suspicion that we would had towards tabloids in the past."
Liberal Currents | Adam Gurri
Signs of inevitability in the transition from internal combustion engines to electric cars.
Bright Spots | Jay Rosenow
And induction cooking is winning over professional chefs: quieter, cooler, less polluting, and easier to clean than a gas range.
The Guardian | Fiona Harvey
On the sometimes contentious differences between "alcohol-free" and "non-alcoholic" brews. [Gift link.]
The Wall Street Journal | Jennifer Williams
Useful advice for your next vacation: how to bike around Belgium while maximizing your experience of cheese.
Afar | Hayley Domin
Finally, in bird news... check out the glorious avian photography in this year's Audobon awards.
Audubon Magazine
Tidings is edited by Jacob Grier. 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.
