The United States economy grows 3.3% in the final quarter of 2023, beating analysts’ predictions. / Semafor

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova say they didn’t grow women’s tennis for it to be exploited by Saudi Arabia. / The Washington Post [+]

Four women from Myanmar relate what it’s like to survive a coup. “All I want is to be safe.” / The Dial

Interviews with young Chinese people attempting to “rùn” away, often to the United States. / Dan

News organizations across the US are undergoing a rapid contraction. / CNN

One corner of the media that’s actually doing well? The conservative “Never Trump” movement. / Reliable Sources

YouTube says it’s aware that it’s currently plastered with AI-generated ads in which celebrities unknowingly pitch scams. / 404 Media

X, formerly Twitter, is being swamped by AI-generated pornography featuring Taylor Swift; one example garnered 45 million views. / The Verge

New York City loses $100 million to speeding cars with obscured or covered license plates. / Streetsblog NYC

Some examples of odd car keys. / Jalopnik

See also: Notes on guitarists building their own effects pedals. / Why is this interesting?

Some rules for living, from science fiction author Larry Niven—e.g., “never fire a laser at a mirror.” / Futility Closet

How did groups of birds acquire their odd names? Partly from “an unknown nun in an English convent on a planet without clocks, calculus, or democracy.” / The Marginalian

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The world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis in 2022 was not in Afghanistan or Ukraine, but the Central African Republic. / Undark

Ten countries have now been dragged into the “ever-expanding” Middle East war. / The Economist

An investigation finds the United Arab Emirates funding more than 100 assassinations in Yemen, with training provided by American mercenaries. / BBC News

See also: A reporter’s “obsessive search” to unearth the history of how Congress secretly funded the atomic bomb. / The New York Times [+]

Notes from a simulated coup following the upcoming presidential election. “I think the biggest threat is denial.” / Slate

Jelani Cobb: The pertinent issue now is not what caused the Civil War but what we should have learned from it. / The New Yorker

“Nones,” or the spiritually unaffiliated, are now the largest religious group in the United States. / Pew Research Center

Your weekly white paper: A survey of students using chatbots finds 3% halted their suicidal ideation. / NPJ Mental Health Research

Nearly 90 percent of top news outlets now block AI data collection. / WIRED

Descriptions of different sounds to be heard in space (or sounds based on those sounds)—e.g., “the groans of a ghost in a bottomless well.” / Nautilus

Related: The best neighborhoods for starting a life in the galaxy. / Quanta Magazine

Some early drawings from engineers who dreamed of tunnels connecting England and France. / Public Domain Review

A French photographer trains rats to take selfies. / Augustin Lignier

Correction: Yesterday’s link to a Guardian story omitted the word “measles.” Our bad!

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In the past year, the Pentagon has successfully tested a wide range of autonomous weapons, and while there’s more to come, international consensus remains iffy. / Defense One

The US is currently on pace to produce more oil—13.3 million barrels of a day—than any country in history. / CNN

In Ukraine, Radio Boiling Over in Kharkiv gives residents a megaphone to broadcast their fears and anger as they face daily bombardment from Russian missiles. / The New York Times [+]

“The best approach to teaching empathy may be through literature, art, music, and other humanities.” Why defunding liberal arts is bad for health care. / STAT

In all of 2022 there were 941 cases in Europe. From January to February last year there were more than 30,000. / The Guardian

The current state of white-collar employment: Job dissatisfaction is growing, with more workers hoping to switch jobs, but with fewer openings to choose from. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

See also: A database that tracks tech layoffs as they’re announced. / Layoffs.fyi

“I’m not going back.” The dramatic story of what happened when an astronaut refused to return from a spacewalk, an incident that remains shrouded in mystery. / Ars Technica

Remembering music writer Neil Kulkarni, who died this week at 51. / The Quietus

See also: Published earlier this month, Kulkarni’s retrospective of some of his own favorite pieces. / The Wire

Johnny Marr responds to video showing the Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” playing at a Trump rally: “Consider this shit shut right down right now.” / Pitchfork

An argument for why some rich countries are so culturally conservative. / The Great Gender Divergence

“The pain cave is where I go when it physically feels like I can’t take another step.” A dispatch from one of the world’s most competitive ultra-marathons, in Chamonix. / BBC

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In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rules Border Patrol can once again remove razor wire installed by Texas at the Mexico border. / The Dallas Morning News

An investigation of the White House’s pharmacy uncovers disturbing findings, including a request to “hook up” someone with a controlled substance. / STAT

Plastic bag bans work. In New Jersey alone, 5.5 billion bags a year have been eliminated since 2022. / Grist

See also: Elias Sime creates artworks from e-waste, much of it found in the artist’s home city of Addis Ababa. / Hyperallergic

As cruise ships become more and more massive, so do their greenhouse gas emissions. / Bloomberg

With more television coverage than ever, more of the world’s soccer fans are finally watching the African Cup of Nations. / Quartz

See also: “As countries fail to produce more technical midfielders, they will continue to struggle against defensive teams in low blocs.” Explaining Afcon upsets. / Africa Is a Country

On box beds, the medieval sleeping cabinets that sheltered inhabitants from the cold, but cramming too many inside carried a risk of suffocation. / BBC

“When I first read about this project, I liked the idea, but I also thought it sounded a bit insane.” How the California Forever project could transform urban planning. / Noahpinion

See also: A world map of places mentioned in Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. / Data Is Beautiful

Analyzing the current state of restaurant menus: the of-the-moment foods, the focus on labor, the very tiny fonts. / The New York Times [+]

“Vibe Personality Order occurs when you take a backseat in your own life…so you turn to shopping instead of doing things.” / The Trend Report

A new book looks inside click farms—which boost clients’ social media through paid likes, follows, and comments—and which the author used to promote the very same book. / Huck

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Israel appears to be following the advice of the Biden administration and other allies by waging a more targeted war to reduce civilian casualties. / The New York Times [+]

Still, the death toll of Palestinians in the Gaza war surpasses 25,000, as Israel announces the death of another hostage. / AP

Weeks ago, OpenAI announced chatbots of political candidates aren’t allowed; now, it’s halted a Dean Phillips bot built by a group supporting his presidential campaign. / Engadget

Does double dipping matter? Research shows there are “between 100- and 1,000-times the number of bacteria transferred to the dip when a chip was bitten.” / Bon Appétit

Mary Weiss, lead singer of the Shangri-Las, whose hit “Leader of the Pack” is one of the most famous “teenage tragedy” songs, has died at 75. / The Guardian

See also: A playlist of teen tragedy songs, aka “death discs” or “splatter platters.” / Spotify

“What also separates this era of artfully inane music is the sheer volume of it and its wide-scale popularity.” The musical age of shitpost modernism. / Pitchfork

Why swapping uppercase letters for lowercase saves data. / endtimes.dev

“It was a thrill to slough off, for a few minutes, the expectations of my human form.” What it means when we pretend to be animals. / Aeon

Nashville to Raleigh/Durham tops the list of the most turbulent US flight paths. / Travel + Leisure

“Any space that can house a table and chairs is flipped into a temporary sponsored home.” Spending a week with billionaires in Davos. / The Wall Street Journal

A solution to the trolley problem, courtesy of actual railroad workers. / Mastodon

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Some of these certainly flew under the radar, but here are 20 things the US government did this week. / Wake Up to Politics

A surprising number of Americans think they live in the Midwest, even when they’re as far away as Colorado or Arkansas. / The Wall Street Journal

See also: A brief but fascinating history of US accents and dialects. / Smithsonian Magazine

A higher-than-normal number of restaurant closings in New York City can be attributed to the fact that sales haven’t returned to pre-pandemic numbers, but rents have. / Eater

One theory as to what actually killed Pitchfork: Streaming and AI-based recommendations are a lethal combination for human-generated music writing. / Platformer

Another theory: New music is bad business for labels, who’d rather plunder established catalogs, and platforms, who’d rather generate musician-free tracks. / The Honest Broker

See also: People hated Pitchfork because it mattered. / Hell Gate

A look back at how the artist-first social network Ello, seduced by investors, met an untimely end. / Waxy

“It’s a parasitic plant that grows around Mt. Takao… I just added them on a whim.” What Kazuo Oga of Studio Ghibli thinks about when he thinks about backgrounds. / Animation Obsessive

Remembering when, in 1983, When Nick Cave and the Birthday Party played to 30 people at a show in Dallas. / Dallas Observer

In 1976, a Massachusetts judge made headlines by saying he couldn’t rule on a cocaine trial unless he’d tried it first, and then attempted to legalize the drug. / Weird Universe

Ten of the world’s greatest sandwich styles. / Atlas Obscura

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Ambassadors to Washington are betting against American democracy, thanks to the GOP-Democratic divide. / Politico Magazine

Richard Louv: Reconnecting children and nature may be the last cause in the US that transcends political barriers. / MIT Press Reader

Related, perhaps: “Poverty doesn’t cause societal violence—how you become an elite does.” / Radical Contributions

A report says Google’s policies against disinformation haven’t caught up to the latest styles of climate denial on YouTube. / The Verge

Your weekly white paper debunks the myth that people’s names were changed at Ellis Island. / DttP

A dog becomes the first canine known to speedrun a video game. / Kotaku

Food delivery robots on college campuses prefer—i.e., their marketers prefer—to be photographed near students with “a healthy BMI.” / 404 Media

Related: A former Domino’s delivery guy pays homage to “old-school delivery workers.” / The Atlantic

Some big retailers are reversing course on self-checkout kiosks. / BBC News

Coming soon to a home near you: indoor solar power technology. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

A German man breaks the record—previously held by a German man—for drinking a cup of coffee the fastest. / Sprudge

“January is unhurried, never rushed, a month to be savoured.” An apology for January. / The Fence

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The United States attacks Houthi ballistic missiles in Yemen over the Iran-aligned group’s targeting of Red Sea shipping. / PBS

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they attacked Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. / Reuters

Pakistan warns of retaliation for an Iranian airstrike. / CNN

OpenAi no longer prohibits using its technology for military purposes. / The Intercept

Related: Amazon is now full of products with names like “I’m sorry but I cannot fulfill this request it goes against OpenAI use policy.” / Ars Technica

Worldwide, more than one in three women do not feel safe walking alone at night in their own community. / Gallup

In China, suspected criminals who end up in court are found guilty 99% of the time. / The Economist

In the United States, chronic absenteeism in schools nearly doubled between 2018-19 and 2021-22, to 28% of students. / The New Yorker

A dialect group selects “enshittification” as 2023’s word of the year. / The American Dialect Society

See also, from last month: “It’s been a year of endless einsteins.” / The New York Times [+]

Emma Stone says she applies to be on Jeopardy! every year—”and not that ‘Celebrity’ horsecrap.” / AV Club

BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter Annie Nightingale dies at 83. / Mixmag

“Gen Z lip-sync face” refers to young men physically contorting their faces online to appear to have prominent jawlines. / GQ

See also: “It’s a new year, the annual Great De-bogging, when we all attempt to heave ourselves out of the muck and into a better life.” / Experimental History

A company harvests ice from Greenland’s fjords and ships it to bars in the United Arab Emirates. / The Guardian

A short video on how river ice is made into hot tea in Mongolia. / The Kid Should See This

A study finds around 99% of Americans live near at least one Mexican restaurant. / axios

Similar to how General Tso’s chicken is hard to find in China, “New Orleans-style wings” have almost nothing to do with Louisiana. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

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A round-up of African migration trends to watch in 2024—e.g., state fragility, seasonal economic opportunities. / Africa Center

The world’s most “powerful” passports, ranked. / The Points Guy

A very big battery replaces Hawaii’s last coal plant. / Grist

TW Lim: We went from mining nature for particular fats, to mining fats for their components. / Scope of Work

From November, “tyromancy” refers to an ancient fortune-telling practice that uses cheese. / Saveur

What it’s like to organize a race that goes up and down a mountain in the middle of winter? “If I sit down, I get snoozy.” / Patagonia

A paraplegic rock climber decides to climb Yosemite’s legendary El Capitan “one tiny pull-up at a time.” / The Los Angeles Times [+]

A man spent $1 million—and seemingly wrecked part of his family—to turn his modest living room into “the world’s greatest hi-fi.” / The Washington Post [+]

Related: How to make a traditional Japanese-style kitchen knife. / Chicago Magazine

Unrelated: A video tour of “the world’s best houseboat.” / YouTube

A profile of the Hollywood screenwriter who’s paid $300,000 a week to rewrite other people’s scripts—”a fee that he acknowledges is ‘insane.'” / The New Yorker

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Internet and telecom services in Gaza get cut as a result of the Israeli bombardment. / Al Jazeera

Jeremy Bowen: It’s time to stop talking about the war spreading elsewhere—it’s already happened. / BBC News

Spencer Ackerman: You did it, Joe! You escalated the war you spent the week saying shouldn’t escalate. And you have a plan now, right? / Forever Wars

Museum curators and ordinary citizens are trying to preserve Ukraine’s experience of Russia’s invasion. / Atlas Obscura

A team of physicists finds a new kind of magnetism “playing out within an engineered material only six atoms thick.” / Quanta Magazine

A 2023 study finds physician shortages in medically underserved areas in the United States unimproved by increased pay or student loan forgiveness. / Undark

The Federal Highway Administration wants less sign language that uses pop-culture references or humor. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Why does a cul-de-sac in Los Angeles have an ordinance barring skateboarding? Public safety. / The Los Angeles Times

Related: The great skate show Epicly Later’d is back. / GQ

London-based illustrator Edie Medley draws a comic about what it’s like for women to grapple with urinary tract infections. / It’s Nice That

British artists like Damien Hirst and Glenn Brown are running their own museums. / Artsy

What it’s like to look at flora and fauna through AI-powered binoculars. / Outside

Fashion’s favorite color for 2024 is predicted to be “deep, muddy yurples.” / Blackbird Spyplane

See also: An open letter to Jeremy Allen White regarding his recent Calvin Klein ads. / McSweeney’s Interent Tendency

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