The ancient Mesopotamians had professional mourners. These weren't people who showed up to funerals with tissues, they were artists who transformed grief into performance, turning loss into something the community could share. They wailed, they tore their clothes, they made suffering visible and audible. Today, we have Twitter
The first time I encountered a love hotel was not in Tokyo but in a photograph, Kyoichi Tsuzuki's image of a room decorated like a spaceship, complete with control panels that did nothing and a bed shaped like a UFO. I found myself fascinated not by the eroticism
The adults arrived at Rotterdam's Driehoeksplein with clipboards and architectural renderings, ready to transform a tired urban square into something sensible. The children arrived with different plans. By the time the renovation opened, the renamed Driehoekspark featured spaces for play, education, encounters, and cooling, designed in ways that
The NFL wanted sixty years of Super Bowl glory celebrated. What they got was a full-throated reminder that rock and roll and reggaeton don't bow to corporate pageantry. On February 8th, 2026, at Levi's Stadium, Green Day opened the 60th Super Bowl with what was supposed
The courtroom looks nothing like the Crypto.com Arena where Tyler, the Creator threw himself to the floor in a cloud of smoke at the 2026 Grammys. No pyrotechnics here, no bright green soldier uniforms, no explosive performances of "Thought I Was Dead." Lawyers, laptops, and the kind
The best music in 2026 isn't coming from some corporate playlist machine. It bleeds out of Oslo basements and Brazilian farewell stages where humans still plug guitars into amps and scream like they mean it. This week brought proof in stereo: Norwegian hardcore punks Draümar announced their self-titled
Utah has launched a first-in-the-nation pilot allowing an AI system to renew existing prescriptions, often without requiring a physician to sign off, though safeguards include escalation pathways and human review. As of January 2026, Utah residents can use Doctronic to request renewals for about 190–200 eligible, non-controlled maintenance medications,
The $68 Million Whisper The $68 million settlement Google agreed to pay last week for allegedly spying on users through its voice assistant feels both shocking and inevitable. Shocking because the sum represents millions of private conversations potentially transmitted without consent. Inevitable because, well, haven't we all suspected
The best art happens when the mask slips. Whether it's mascara running down a queen's face or a vocalist's voice cracking on a high scream, the moment performance fails is the moment it becomes real. I've been chewing on this since stumbling
Meta Killed Its Metaverse. Star Trek Knew Better All Along. Meta killed Horizon Workrooms, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. While Mark Zuckerberg's virtual office fades into the digital void, Paramount+ drops Star Trek: Starfleet Academy into our laps like the universe saying "maybe
We've entered the era where the ultimate status symbol is a device that refuses to bother you. This tells you everything you need to know about where we went wrong. The mui Board exemplifies this absurdity perfectly. When inactive, it's wood grain. Touch it, and subtle
There's something distinctly American about treating caution as inefficiency. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that xAI’s Grok will join Google’s AI engine inside Defense Department networks, and that Grok is expected to go live later this month. Watching this unfold feels like observing a national