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Zines, the anti-AI
Zines. Freaking zines. You put a zine in an undergraduate’s hands and say “Someone like you made this. You could make this. All you need is some found images, paper, scissors/glue, and your own imagination. No chatgpt necessary.”
They light up, every single time, without fail. They start to recognize how little Generative AI serves them in the long run. They’ve called zines “Anti-AI” to my face and gleefully showed me their first zines with thought, intention, and inventiveness.
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Librarians resist
Leave it to the pedantic superpowers of librarians to force laws to be followed.
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Maycember
May has always been a busy month, at least in American culture. It’s gotten to the point the hubbub of Spring, Mothers Day, graduation, sports, festival, et al now commands its own term–Maycember.
Much like the month of December, my packed calendar at the end of the school year has left me feeling like there’s not so much joy, as obligation and overwhelm. Instead of cruising into summer with a sense of relief, I’m sweating my way to the finish line—and possibly crying and stress snacking at certain points, too.
It’s hard to relish in the moments and milestones when your to-do list is longer than your kids’ Christmas lists. I’m always thinking about the next function I have to attend, or person to remember to call, or thing to book, or buy.
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A letter to RFK Jr
Anais Godard wrote “An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Who Thinks My Daughter Is a Tragedy“. The whole thing is quotable, and its strength lies in its astute lyricism.
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Jasmin Paris, first woman to complete The Barkley
The Finisher is a 45 minute documentary of Jasmin Paris, first woman to complete The Barkley Marathon. It makes for a good sequel to the Barkley Marathon documentary.
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Millennials became uncool?
A tale old as time, a younger generation calling an older generation uncool. And now, Gen Z hath judged Millennials.
In fact, much of the ire provoked by gen Z’s teasing is driven by a sense that the younger generation are merely jumping on a cool and trendy bandwagon built by millennials. “We paved the way for gen Z to be killing it on TikTok with our crappy Myspace accounts and MSN-ing each other from our university bedrooms,” says 41-year-old Lizzie Cernik, who believes millennials have a strong work ethic and are “tough cookies”
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Drone summons lightning
It’s like something out of a sci fi movie–a drone summoning lightning.
Earlier this month, the Japanese telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) successfully used a drone equipped with a lightning-proof cage to essentially summon lightning in an effort to mitigate damage from an incoming thunderstorm. According to NTT, lightning causes up to 200 billion yen ($1.4 billion) damage a year, so using these lightning drones could go a long way towards protecting sensitive equipment and population centers during severe weather events.
