Kickoff For May 31, 2021
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
It’s hard to believe that another week’s bitten the dust and that 2021 is almost at its half way point. I’m still trying to figure out where March went.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Science
We are at a crossroads in the search for a new physics, wherein Pedro G Ferreira muses about the problems that physics isn’t solving and ponders ways to try to solve them.
Why “Trusting the Science” Is Complicated, wherein Suman Seth explains that offering the titular trust can be difficult if we cannot quite tell where or what the science is.
Why Bumblebees Love Cats and Other Beautiful Relationships, wherein Stefano Mancuso ponders evolution and looks at the disastrous results of humanity messing with nature on a grand scale, results that are often more damaging to us than to nature.
Technology
The lost apps of the 80s, wherein Dave Winer looks back at a time when tools on the tools computer users had at their disposal, which (in contrast to a lot of what’s available today) were [H]ighly customizable products, or products with UIs with character, people had something they don’t have now — choice.
A View Of The Future Of Our Data, wherein Matt Prewitt outlines the idea of data coalitions, a workable vision for the future of our data, a future that we’ll need to fight for.
The battery invented 120 years before its time, wherein we learn how and why the lead-iron battery invented by Thomas Edison might be making a comeback.
Odds and Ends
How Tokyo’s Public Housing Defined Japan’s Middle Class, wherein we learn how a style of home transformed housing in postwar Japan, and helped transform the country at the same time.
The Precarious State of the Mom-and-Pop Store, wherein we learn about a New York City couple who’ve chronicled the slowly-fading world of the city’s neighbourhood retailers and learn about some of their finds.
Off-Season on the Jersey shore, wherein Gabrielle Esperdy examines Tyler Haughey’s almost desolate photos of urban New Jersey in its off season and we learn how the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened and amplified the meanings of those photos.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.