Mindblown: culture, urbanism, leadership, technology.
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motd: 20250426
You are already out of line. All that remains is direction.
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War Never Changes
“War Never Changes” is the tag-line for the Fallout videogame franchise. Within that fictional world, it means that even when countries and governments blow each other off the map, a brute with a club is still more powerful than a mayor with a plan. The player is invited to bash skulls just as much (or…
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motd: 20250419
You can’t eat potential. But they’ll sure try to sell it to you. With fries.
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Pink Glue
In the spring of 1972, two revolutions met in the same sentence. One had marched and shouted and chanted. One had done none of these things. By a vote of 84-8, the U. S. Senate approved the Equal Rights Amendment. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United…
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Installation
In the summer of 1971, with the Southern air thick and humid in Richmond, Virginia, 344 days after Milton Friedman’s New York Times Magazine article—“The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”—a partner at the white-shoe law firm Hunton & Williams typed a letter on cream stationery beneath the slow rotation of a…
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motd: 20250412
Darling, someone’s tampering with your freedom again. Pour another drink.
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the illusion of stability
Why Everything You’ve Built Is on Shaky Ground You probably don’t think about the economy much. Not the big picture, anyway. You’ve got a job, a mortgage, maybe a 401(k). You pay your taxes, try to make smart decisions, and hope things work out. When something feels off—rising prices, a blown tire you can’t quite…
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motd: 20250405
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wake
You wake up in the middle of your life. Thirty tabs open. A hundred thousand dollars in debt. Three-day shipping and nothing left to want. You’re not free. You’re on a payment plan for a life you don’t even remember signing up for. The voice in your head? That’s not your voice. That’s the ad…
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the 20 worst ideas of the 20th Century
In no particular order: Dishonorable mentions that didn’t make the top 20, again in no particular order: