It's all just a SERIES OF TUBES, you know.
Today someone on Twitter -- great start to a story, cool! -- cleverly responded with a blithe "why bother?" when I tweeted about a new Facebook tool. The comment, while offhand, caused me to fall down an existential rabbithole. Why bother tweeting? Why bother reading?! It's all just a SERIES OF TUBES, you know.
1. What's the big deal with March 27? According to Wikipedia, that's the date with the most "notable" births -- and the most notable deaths. It's either a case of serial vandalism ... or some serious metaphysics.
2. Turn off your computer, it's ruining your sleep. Research shows we sleep far less now than we did 100 years ago. But the problem's not modern life or alcohol or caffeine: It's the type of light coming from our laptops and phones.
3. This man made a secret album in an Apple store. He didn't plan it, exactly, but it's just what the desperate circumstances seemed to call for.
Postscripts: The man who invented the emoticon hopes to be remembered for his bigger contributions: like the 50 years of work he's logged in artificial intelligence. (3096 words/12 minutes)
Postscripts: #MyNameIs. #DontJudgeMe. Do judge Paula Deen. What a computer sees when it looks at porn and where it's illegal to be Internet-mean. Why small talk is so awful. How to tell if a tweet is true. The Verge is turning off its comments, to which I can only say: WOOHOO. 330 million reasons not to Google "Greek vacation"; 24 struggles only teen Twitter bots understand. Need to ID an anonymous person online? A forensic linguist might be your best chance.
Until tomorrow!
@caitlindewey
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