Dave Lee
My WorkBlogupdated 25 minutes ago

Interesting links, noteworthy journalism and other miscellanea from around the web.

The way we watch elections is changing. Project C:

That made for an election night that was less of a single shared experience and, for many watching along with streamers, felt more intimate and engaged than just having CNN on in the background. In fact, it may have been the most distributed election-night audience ever, and we have no real way to count it.

Election night happened in a lot of small roomsnewsletter.projectc.bizWhat I saw flipping between livestreams, and what the numbers say about where the audience went

Young men aren’t loyal to a party; they’re loyal to a feeling: The system isn’t working for them. In 2024 they sent that message to Democrats. This week, they sent it to Republicans. Same guys, same pain, different recipient. So here’s my advice to everyone who won on Tuesday, Democrats and Republicans alike: They didn’t vote for you. They voted for change, and if it doesn’t happen, there will be more earthquakes.

Boys to Menprofgmedia.comFixing a broken system

Henry Mance, one of my favorite writers, takes a train to Cornwall.

On social media these days, you find hotheads debating who counts as English. The answer is simple, I want to shout. A person becomes truly English the moment they realise what a pain it is to get to Cornwall.

The long, luxurious way to Cornwallft.comBelmond’s sumptuous sleeper promises to turn the epic journey from London to Penzance into a holiday in itself. The result is part hotel, part adventure and part logistical miracle

The New York Times on the evolution of AOC:

In public and private remarks, meetings with lawmakers and appearances with midterm candidates inside and outside the socialist ranks, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 37, has begun sketching her preferred vision for the left’s next phase. She hopes to nudge the rambunctious coalition in a bigger-tent direction that mirrors her own path in Congress and stands to benefit both its collective agenda and her own potential ambitions.

Ocasio-Cortez Has Evolved. She Wants the Left to Evolve, Too.nytimes.comThe New York congresswoman, once a bane of establishment Democrats, has tried to nudge her movement in a bigger-tent direction as she weighs her 2028 options.

ChatGPT builds a chair.

What we have here is, quite literally, a chair designed by someone who has read a lot about chairs but never actually sat in one. They know what a chair should look like, what it should do, the mechanics of how one is put together, the physics of holding you up. But they have no embodied experience of the world, no history with chairs or any other object, no physical memory. They don’t know how it feels, not merely to sit in a chair, but to encounter one in the world, to place it among other things in a home, to live with it, to be around it every day as one goes about the mundane business of life. This is the idea of a chair brought to life; but things—objects, beings, relationships—are not mere ideas, and you certainly can’t get every aspect of them from books. The chair is low stakes, but, once again, you wouldn’t want to run a society, or a culture, or a planet this way.

Benchma(r)king – James Bridleemergencemagazine.orgTechnologist and artist James Bridle conducts a simple chair-building experiment to explore how our embodied intelligence could meet AI’s disembodied knowledge in more meaningful ways.

MVP

Amazing shot of the Milwaukee Brewers catcher and World Series MVP William Contreras. "All the people back in Venezuela mean a tremendous amount to me," he said after the historic win. "So I’m very happy (about) what I’m able to accomplish for them, and hopefully, inspire them."

Carmen Mandato, Getty Images

The FT declares iTunes cool again.

[T]he iTunes Store is re-emerging as an unlikely venue for pop stars to hawk collectibles to superfans, reach untapped audiences and bolster chart positions. Last month, pop superstar Ariana Grande surprise-released a live version of her latest album Petal as an iTunes-only exclusive. This follows a string of iTunes-exclusive releases in recent years from artists such as Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Doja Cat, Summer Walker and Tinashe.

How iTunes came back from the deadft.comRecord labels and artists including Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande are using the throwback music store to bolster their chart position and cash in on their fandom

City of Dreams

The terrific New York: A Documentary Film, has had an update — some 27 years after the original aired on PBS. To my mind, it's the greatest documentary series ever made. A reminder, in these Fielder-esque times, of what can be achieved classic storytelling and informational techniques. Do yourself a favor — add the PBS package to your Amazon Prime account and dive in. It's a mere 22 hours long.

Anyway, a while ago I looked on Spotify to see if the stirring soundtrack had been added and was disappointed to find it missing. Since the new episodes, it appears to have been finally added — all eight hours of it. A wonderful music bed to your work day.

Memes as a love language.

As communication goes, sending a meme is one of the lowest-lift—one might even say laziest—ways to stay in touch. It’s barely a step above not saying anything at all. But a surprisingly large body of research on meme-sharing has found that it can serve an important function in relationships and bring people closer together.

Sending a Silly Meme Is an Act of Lovetheatlantic.comThe case for a common, occasionally annoying, and secretly sweet digital habit

Cruel...

Those Madison Square Garden employees got their hopes up at the end of September when the Knicks sent an email to a long list of employees, which gave recipients a first glimpse at their would-be championship rings. Atop the email, a copy of which The Athletic has obtained, was a graphic of two differently styled rings.

“Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here,” the email read.

“(Employee name), this one is on the house. MSG is issuing a complimentary employee championship ring. The same jeweler, the same craftsmanship, personalized with your name. No cost to you.

“There are two designs to choose from: Championship Gold and Garden Classic. Reserve the one you want below.”

But the email was a fake-out, a phishing test Madison Square Garden sent to see if those employees would click, multiple team sources said.

Those who did click the link at the bottom of the message did not get to choose any jewelry; instead, they were forced to attend a mandatory cybersecurity class to help satisfy some of Dolan’s growing cybersecurity concerns, those team sources said.

Knicks coaches didn’t get rings on banner night; MSG staff received phishing email: Sourcesnytimes.com“We are not disclosing anything about the rings,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement Thursday evening.

Love this idea. Plug a location into Wikipedia and only see articles related to places within a mile or so. My tip: cycle through them all with the random feature.