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The Atomic Lucy
My friend Gabrielle is a playwright, and she submitted an audio story, The Atomic Lucy, to the Atlanta Fringe Festival using some of my music as the soundtrack,
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Dancers in Penn Station
The lower level of Penn Station is perfect for dancing and serving as a makeshift dance studio.
Penn Station, the transit hub for hurrying commuters and Amtrak riders, has a side gig. Its wide, lower level corridor — specifically the passageway leading to the Moynihan Train Hall from Track 7 to Track 16 of the Long Island Rail Road — is an unlikely dance studio.
Officially called the West End Concourse, the corridor has a lot going for it: It’s easily accessible, the floors are spacious and smooth, and there are public restrooms, a rarity in New York City.
It’s a ready-made stage for all sorts of group and partnered dance, including hip-hop, K-pop and salsa. Reflective glass windows overlooking the tracks double as mirrors. Rows of blue lights overhead make for pleasing visuals when filmed. The biggest draw? It’s free.
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AI can’t have my em dash
A supposed tell that something was written with AI is the use of the em dash—signifying a pause for a related thought. But really, it’s proof of what AI was trained on.
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US drug deaths down
A promising trend: drug deaths are declining. Why?
Theories include the wider distribution of Narcan, or naloxone; a trend of weaker, less deadly fentanyl being sold by dealers; more readily available addiction healthcare; and also the loss of so many vulnerable young people who have already died.
Many researchers believe another key factor may be less risky drug and alcohol use among teens and twenty-somethings, a pattern that emerged during the years of the COVID epidemic. One study by a team at the University of Michigan found the number of teens abstaining from substance grew to its highest level in 2024.
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Gen Z parents don’t read to their kids
I’ll never be a parent, but it makes me sad when a parent doesn’t read to their kids. Signs are pointing to a decrease in Gen Z parents reading to their children.
If parents are reading out loud to their children less, US educators can tell. Russell, who offers courses to teach literacy skills to kids as young as 18 months, regularly gets inquiries from parents of older children – some as old as 14 – who still struggle to crack open a book.There are other tell-tale signs. “We see children who can sit still and focus for hours on YouTube or Miss Rachel, but when you sit them down with a book, they move, wiggle, or scream and run away,” said Russell, who lives in Houston.
Gen Z parents inherited an economy racked by inequity and instability that makes child rearing all the more stressful. The cost of childcare in the US – roughly $11,000 a year on average – has soared since the 90s. It’s no wonder they might be too tired or stressed to read to their kids at night, even if they realize it’s important to do so.
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Olivia Rodrigo and David Byrne – Burning Down the House
Olivia Rodrigo and David Byrne combine for an energetic, infectious performance of Burning Down the House.
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An elephant forgets to pay for its snacks
An elephant entered a grocery store in Thailand for snacks.
Danai Sookkanthachat, a volunteer park worker familiar with the elephant, said Plai Biang Lek, who is about 30 years old, is a familiar sight in the area and has been known to enter people’s houses in search of food. This was the first time he had seen him going into a grocery store.
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Sewing pattern makers to fold
As a consequence of private equity closing JoAnn’s fabrics, and tariffs, the company that prints sewing patterns will now be liquidated.
The legacy sewing pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, commonly referred to as the Big 4, have been sold to a liquidator.
The brands were owned by IG Design Group, a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party, and gift products based in the UK. On Friday, the company announced it had sold its US division, IG Design Group Americas (DGA), which owns the sewing pattern brands, to Hilco Capital, a liquidation firm. DGA also owns other craft brands, including Boye needles, Wrights trim, and Perler fusible beads, among others. Hilco has also been involved with liquidating Joann’s assets after it filed for bankruptcy in January.
IG Design Group cited the impact of tariffs imposed by the US as a factor. Over 50% of DGA’s products are manufactured in China, although the sewing patterns are made in the US. The company also mentioned a softening market over the last several years, as well as the bankruptcy of Joann, as factors in the sale.
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Mary Meeker covers AI trends
For the better part of the 2010s, Mary Meeker’s trends report was a must read for anyone working in technology. 2019 was the last edition, but she’s returned, delving into AI.
Venture capitalist Mary Meeker just dropped a 340-page slideshow report — which used the word “unprecedented” on 51 of those pages — to describe the speed at which AI is being developed, adopted, spent on, and used, backed up with chart after chart.
“The pace and scope of change related to the artificial intelligence technology evolution is indeed unprecedented, as supported by the data,” she writes in the report, called “Trends — Artificial Intelligence.”
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Ukraine also fighting the media war
After Ukraine bombed Russia, images and other media of its success proliferated online. And that’s part of the war.
Within just hours, three videos of the strike spread from Ukraine’s federal security agency to a journalist based in the country, later spilling into social media and news outlets worldwide. The videos appear to be filmed from the perspective of a drone, complete with an overlay of information about the drone’s telemetry.
In one video, the drone flies over an airfield, passing clouds of dark gray smoke billowing from multiple warplanes. Another clip apparently captures the moment a plane explodes into a tower of flames. The third shows a drone descending toward an aircraft, with the video suddenly freezing and displaying the message “Warning no data” upon reaching the plane.
