i can see why some fans might be miffed by artists pressing not-quite-finished albums to LP, but if i was a fan of these artists, i feel like i'd also be at least a little stoked? alternate takes/mixes/edits/drafts/outtakes/rarities! things to collect! https://www.
Complex three-dimensional rearing environments amplify compensatory plasticity following early blindness (in short-tailed opossums) https://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2026/07/02/ENEURO.0059-26.2026 Try visual-to-auditory sensory substitution to supplement tactile f…
"""
[…] and I opened the case (politely examined by the guards of the Palace at four stages of my approach to the Red Hall) that held my ansible and some pictures. The pictures—films, photos, paintings, actives, and some cubes—were a little gallery of Man: people of Hain, Chiffewar, and the Cetians, of S and Terra and Alterra, of the Utter-mosts, Kapteyn, Ollul, Four-Taurus, Rokanan, Ensbo, Cime, Gde and Sheashel Haven … The king glanced at a couple without interest. “What’s this?”
“A person from Cime, a female.” I had to use the word that Gethenians would apply only to a person in the culminant phase of kemmer [a cyclical period of heightened sexual activity during which secondary gender characteristics emerge], the alternative being their word for a female animal.
“Permanently?”
“Yes.”
He dropped the cube and stood swinging from foot to foot, staring at me or a little past me, the firelight shifting on his face. “They’re all like that—like you?”
This was the hurdle I could not lower for them. They must, in the end, learn to take it in their stride.
“Yes. Gethenian sexual physiology, so far as we yet know, is unique among human beings.”
“So all of them, out on these other planets, are in permanent kemmer? A society of perverts? So Lord Tibe put it; I thought he was joking. Well, it may be the fact, but it’s a disgusting idea, Mr. Ai, and I don’t see why human beings here on earth should want or tolerate any dealings with creatures so monstrously different. […]”
"""
(Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness)
once again feeling trapped by the ever-enshittifying otter #transcription platform. does anybody have an online or offline alternative that allows users to search through all transcripts at once?
Apple opens iOS to alternative app marketplaces in Brazil and changes App Store commission structure following a settlement with competition watchdog CADE (Marcus Mendes/9to5Mac)
https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/18/apple-an…
I'm not big on the whole Christian "natural/artificial" binary, or the settler-colonialist concept of "wilderness" which erases indigenous stewardship in a bid to claim mid territory (see, e.g., tribes forced out of what are now national parks in the US). But I do enjoy getting out of urban/suburban environments and into places where the human impact on the land is minimal and/or synergistic with non-human flourishing.
I was thinking about why I enjoy this so much today while out on a stroller hike with my younger child, and came to the conclusion that it may be less about being in a "natural" space and more about being in a space whose flourishing is not tied to the capitalist necropolitical "growth" spiral.
Like, there's the baseline intrinsic beauty of flowers, trees, flowing water, etc. Then there's the pleasure of considering how these things fit together into an ecosystem and mutually support each other (and also compete/predate, etc.). But on top of all that, there's the sense that these things are part of a self-sustaining pattern that's capable of continuing without outside inputs and without creating external waste over vast, geologic timescales. The things I see when I look around in a city aren't like that. 100 or 1000 or 10000 years from now they'll be ruins, not necessarily because of human extinction or anything like that, but because the resource flows that create them are inseparable from a fundamentally unsustainable economy built around a paradoxical assumption of infinite exponential growth.
There *are* of course some human-built or -stewarded things in the world that are sustainably maintained, and ruins can have their own kind of beauty. But to me part of the joy of being on a hiking trail is to look around and see beautiful systems that will persist regardless of (most) human political outcomes that I spend a lot of energy worrying about.
Even in the extreme cases of climate change these things will eventually come back, albeit in an altered form. I don't want to ignore the incredibly destructive impact of humans on the environment, of course, but still, it's comforting to me to think about how the problems and brokenness of currently-dominant human cultures might change and scar but will not actually destroy the many systems on this planet that just don't depend on humans for their propagation.
Raiders’ Maxx Crosby Gets Strong Message After Kirk Cousins Scuffle https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/maxx-crosby-message-kirk-cousins-scuffle/
There's a #degrowthUK email list to connect with people working for, on, or interested in, #degrowth.
To join, send an email to the following address: degrowthuk-subscribe[at]lists.riseup.net
See
EU Member States are deprioritising 'non-wires' solutions or non-fossil flexibility as alternatives for network expansion.
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/20…
Giants' Cam Skattebo won't alter approach after injury: I'm going to get back to 'running people over' https://www.nfl.com/news/giants-cam-skattebo-won-t-alter-approach-after-injury-i-m-going-to-get-bac…