Long past time to quit X. “Those who continue to post on X — in particular those X users who are not racist psychopaths — are enhancing the site’s usefulness to [Musk] as a propaganda tool by drawing more eyes to the platform… “
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
How Anti-ICE Protesters Became Prisoners in Trump’s War on Antifa
"'We are not terrorists.'"
Longreads
• Longreads
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jaya Saxena

The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
Close to the Edge Part 1 (Classic)
We all dream of the perfect vacation when everything goes right. This episode is about the opposite. Hear stories of people having near death travel experiences.
PLUS: We wanna hear from you! Tell us about your intergenerational travel stories. Who did you go with? Where did you go? What did you learn about traveling with this person of a different age? How did the trip go? What are some stories you brought back? We want to hear it all.
Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
smolmachines / smolvm as a sandbox for untrusted Python & JavaScript
Quoting Jeremy Morrell
My hypothesis is that there is a new opportunity for Extensible Software on the web. LLMs radically lower the cost of authoring extensions, and modern sandbox primitives lower the deployment cost and provide good security boundaries. We can build our app as a solid, accountable core, and allow users to safely extend it in many directions by having LLMs fill in the missing pieces. We can give our users super powers.
— Jeremy Morrell, Extensible Software in the age of LLMs
Tags: sandboxing, llms, ai, generative-ai
Conceptual integrity and counting lines of code
Colossal
• Grace Ebert
Damien Hoar de Galvan Puzzles Scraps of Reclaimed Wood for a Daily Sculpture Project
From reclaimed wood, Damien Hoar de Galvan pieces together dynamic sculptures for a daily project.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Damien Hoar de Galvan Puzzles Scraps of Reclaimed Wood for a Daily Sculpture Project appeared first on Colossal.
19.08.2026
@ProfessorofRock and I discuss AOR music #rock #classicrock #shorts
Colossal
• Kate Mothes
Four Shortlisted Artists Stand to Win the Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026
The winner of the competition receives a £15,000 award plus a commissioned work for London's National Portrait Gallery.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Four Shortlisted Artists Stand to Win the Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026 appeared first on Colossal.
Perseids
Work Chronicles
• Work Chronicles
(comic) The courage to question
Song Exploder
• Hrishikesh Hirway
Charli XCX - Camera
Charli XCX is a Grammy-winning artist who has been making music since she was a teenager. In July 2026, she released her eighth album, Music, Fashion, Film. It debuted at number 1 on the UK charts—her 4th album in a row to hit number 1 there. In addition to her music career, for the last few years, she’s been acting in films. And for this episode, we talked about how those experiences inspired her song “Camera," and how she and producer Finn Keane figured out how to translate that into music.
For more info, visit songexploder.net/charli-xcx.
Colossal
• Kate Mothes
Brussels’ Grand-Place Is Carpeted with 750,000 Fresh Dahlias in a Tribute to Hokusai
Titled "Neo Hokusai," the monumental arrangement last weekend in Brussels covered nearly 14,000 square feet.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Brussels’ Grand-Place Is Carpeted with 750,000 Fresh Dahlias in a Tribute to Hokusai appeared first on Colossal.
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
How a Cowboy Rides When the Range is on Fire
"When wildfires approach, moving cattle to safety means managing their fear and instincts. Here’s how it’s done in B.C.’s Nicola Valley."
18.08.2026
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
Amazing Abandoned Places with Cal Flyn
Cal Flyn is the author of Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. She also has a new book, called The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness. On today’s show, she and host Kelly McEvers explore the allure of places that humans have abandoned.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Particle Physics Equipment
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
