New from me at The Torment Nexus: Now Mark Zuckerberg can finally stop pretending that he cares torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/mark-zuck…
In today’s edition of When The Going Gets Weird, a researcher says Time Inc. colluded with the CIA for decades, and Freud started using a couch because he got bored of looking at his patients: mathewingram.com/work/2025…
In today’s edition of When The Going Gets Weird, the secret reason that the US beat Russia to the moon, and a mountain town plagued by a mysterious nerve disease: mathewingram.com/work/2025…
I wound up at Pinterest and it wanted my birthdate before it would show me anything, but it just had a calendar-style popup where you had to click to go back by month from 2024. This is easily the most user-hostile thing I have ever seen. I would have to click 750 times. There was no other option
Qualifications required in a job ad says “53+ years of editorial experience” LOL
In 1952, the nuclear reactor at Chalk River in Ontario suffered a partial meltdown, and the team sent in to fix it was led by none other than 27-year-old Navy Lt. James Carter: www.csmonitor.com/USA/Polit…
In 1962 the nuclear reactor at Chalk River suffered a partial meltdown, and the team sent in to fix it was led by none other than 27-year-old Navy Lt. James Carter: www.csmonitor.com/USA/Polit…
What (or who) is copyright for? What purpose was it designed to serve? And does AI indexing of content qualify as fair use? In this week’s Torment Nexus: torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/why-ai-co…
Saw someone at a coffee shop with this on the table in front of them
In today’s “When The Going Gets Weird” newsletter, a Miami sophomore created a multimillion-dollar scam, and why some nativity scenes in Spain have a tiny figure of someone pooping mathewingram.com/work/2024…
Let’s normalize making Rudolph and the Bumble and Yukon Cornelius part of the Nativity scene for Christmas — but not Donner. That guy is an a-hole
For this week’s Torment Nexus newsletter, I wrote about AI chatbots and mental health, given some of the recent news about lawsuits. I think we should avoid a rush to judgement on the utility of AI companions: torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/are-ai-ch…
“I’m wearing what look like ordinary glasses in a room surrounded by Google and Samsung representatives. One of them steps out in front of me and starts speaking in Spanish. Hovering in mid-air, I can see her words being translated into English subtitles.” Shut up and take my money
Job opening says in the description that the successful applicant will “craft AI-first rubrics, ensuring all content aligns with rigorous standards and ignites curiosity.” Super
In this week’s edition of The Torment Nexus, I wrote about why Australia’s ban on teen use of social media is a mistake torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/australia…
In this week’s edition of my newsletter The Torment Nexus, I wrote about why Australia’s ban on teen use of social media is a mistake torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/australia…
New in my “When The Going Gets Weird” newsletter: How bicycles are changing what it’s like to be a girl in India, and the weight-loss drug Ozempic was derived from the venom of the Gila monster lizard newsletter.mathewingram.com/bicycles-…
Today in my newsletter “When The Going Gets Weird”: How the Great Cranberry Scare of 1959 set off a Thanksgiving panic, and why there’s an invisible string stretching around Manhattan newsletter.mathewingram.com/how-the-g…
Description for a piece of luggage on Amazon says that “after multiple ratios, it reaches the golden ratio, realizing the coexistence of firmness and toughness.” Can’t beat that
If you’re interested in whether Bluesky is truly a decentralized social network, I looked under the hood a bit in the latest edition of The Torment Nexus and the short answer is it is and it isn’t: torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/is-bluesk…
I’ve been going through some old pieces of mine and this one was particularly memorable. It got me invited on Tucker Carlson’s show, which was a train wreck, and the publisher was very mad mathewingram.com/work/2017…
New at The Torment Nexus: Is Bluesky decentralized? It’s complicated torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/is-bluesk…
In today’s version of my “When The Going Gets Weird” newsletter, a member of Blue Oyster Cult talks about that infamous SNL cowbell sketch, and the founders remember Cyberia, the very first cybercafe: newsletter.mathewingram.com/blue-oyst…
Just wanted to say that I know the headline item in this newsletter is a difficult read, and I debated whether to include it, but it was well done so I went with it newsletter.mathewingram.com/what-do-y…
One thing this interview with Vincenzo Barney makes clear is that he knows he has won the literary lottery with his August Britt piece and he is just along for the ride slate.com/culture/2…