Kickoff For August 29, 2022
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.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Technology
Remembering Apple’s Newton, 30 years on, wherein Jeremy Reimer looks back at Apple’s PDA from the 90s, and how laid out the template for Apple’s mobile devices to come.
American Reams, wherein David J. Under explores the worlds of paper and digital, their points of intersection, and ponders why one hasn’t supplanted the other.
$100 Million to Cut the Time Tax, wherein we learn how the non-profit group Code for America is trying to help make it easier for people in need to apply for government benefits.
Ideas
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Bird, wherein we learn how the hobby of birding changed (and might have saved) the life of one person, and learn about birding from the perspective of both hobbyists and professional ornithologists.
Nostalgia: powerful, poignant — and a painkiller, wherein Jonny Thomson walks us through the good and bad about reminiscing on the past, and how occasionally looking back is mightily good for you to do so.
Meta Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does, wherein Caleb Madison examines the etymology of the word, and how it’s been co-opted and misused by hipsters.
Odds and Ends
The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge, wherein we learn how a programmer involved with coding some of the spy agency’s cyber weapons may have leaked those digital tools not for ideology but to stick it to his co-workers.
English is not normal, wherein John McWhorter explores the almost nightmarish idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies that make English a rather unique language (and probably not in a good way).
Explore the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, wherein Sleiman Azizi takes us on a tour of the major stops on one of the Japanese capital’s main subway lines.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.