Become a Supporting Member For 15 years, Longreads has published and curated the best longform writing on the web—and we wouldn’t exist without dedicated readers like you. Give today and ensure that quality journalism continues to flourish. Monthly Annually Monthly … Read more
Colin Marshall reviews Jeremy Braddock’s “Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums.” Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums by Jeremy Braddock. University of California Press, 2024. 320 pages. IN … Read more
Two weeks ago, one of my best friends and ex-cheese comrades, Chelsea, brought our old mentor/boss-lady, the illustrious Kim Martin, into the shop. Neither of them had visited us before, and it was pretty exciting to show them around our … Read more
There’s a psychological burden of digital life even heavier than distraction. When the iPhone was first introduced in 2007, the notion of an “everything device” was universally celebrated. A single object that could serve as phone, camera, music player, web … Read more
Most of life’s engines run on sunlight. Photons filter down through the atmosphere and are eagerly absorbed by light-powered organisms such as plants and algae. Through photosynthesis, the particles of light power a cellular reaction that manufactures chemical energy (in … Read more
Photo cred: my dad Someone once asked me, “What’s something you believe in, despite not having any evidence for it?” Without thinking, I said “There’s a place for everyone.” As in: every person has a purpose, nobody is superfluous or … Read more
Pets do the darndest things, especially if you teach them a bit of math. A while back, we talked about the frequency domain: a clever reinterpretation of everyday signals that translates them into the amplitudes of constituent waveforms. The most … Read more
There’s a 30-year old dead rabbit in Seven Sisters tube station For over thirty years, a dead rabbit has hung inside Seven Sisters tube station, and thousands of people walk past it every day without noticing. The dead rabbit is … Read more
Last month I researched two historical questions. I originally posted summaries on Twitter and am reproducing both here. Why Vim Uses hjkl Question: Why does Vim use hjkl and not the arrow keys for navigation? Common Explanation: It keeps your … Read more
Most of us write our IP addresses the way we’ve been taught, a long time ago: 127.0.0.1, 10.0.2.1, … but that gets boring after a while, doesn’t it? Luckily, there’s a couple of ways to write an IP address, so … Read more