Xi's military leadership shake-up—apparently part of his plan to tackle corruption and disloyalty—raises questions about China's combat readiness. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
The history of the US government's comic books, which run the gamut from educating Americans on safety to pushing all-out propaganda. / Beautiful Public Data
“Electrons may exist in a dense state of quantum entanglement with one another, forming a kind of fluid.” The very strange properties of so-called “strange metals.” / IEEE Spectrum
Americans are getting shorter, and the likely reason why is wealth—and therefore health—inequality. / The Week
In a century-long battle of sandwich cookies, Oreo has almost entirely vanquished Hydrox, which claims its competitor employed dirty tricks to get to the top. / The Hustle
Elizabeth Spiers on how working with ChatGPT is like raising an eight-year-old, or, “So you knew it was wrong and you did it anyway?” / The New York Times [+]
How Pyongyang's architecture and city planning is an expression of state ideology and asserts control over its citizens. / Atlas Obscura
This is cool: Using Lego-like bricks made of a material similar to fiberglass, a small crew built a 96-unit apartment building in under two months. / Fast Company
“A mouse has been filmed secretly tidying up a man's shed almost every night for two months.” / The Guardian
A website dedicated to documenting every British record shop since the 20th century—”the legendary, the lost, the infamous and your forgotten favourites.” / British Record Shop Archive
“The first month was excruciating; the 35 or so others have been mostly fine.” Rich Juzwiak on his decades-long addiction to quitting. / Slate
John Warner has never watched ET, but he's read the novelization multiple times, and honestly it sounds better than the movie. / The Biblioracle Recommends
“I think it's nice to remember that songs can never be fixed in place.” An oral history of PC Music, the influential label that's now 10 years old. / Dazed