Where do Americans go to hang out? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001. A 2025 study found the same pattern holds true for coffee shops, libraries, rec centers and more. Catherina Gioino, a news editor covering behavioral economics at @fortune, explores the trend and why it’s unhealthy for us. Plus, how you can diversify your relational portfolio:
Featured story: "I was molded from the clay soil in Deep East Texas ... This region has an antebellum history shrouded in violence, mystery, and resilience—much like the ecosystem of the Big Thicket, which is arguably the most diverse in the world." https://www.texasobserver.org/love-letter-black-woodswomen-deep-east-texas/
In the AI sphere, the word “singularity” refers to the moment tech’s intelligence surpasses humanity’s. When will this happen? Here’s what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a podcast last month: “We are now, like, in the singularity. This is the moment.” Sci-fi writers have been imagining a post-singularity world for ages, and @mental_floss shares these seven books where it happens:
Gregg Araki started making films in the early 1990s, often with a budget that today would cover about six weeks of rent in Los Angeles. So an intimacy coordinator to oversee sex scenes wasn’t really feasible. But Araki used one in his latest work “I Want Your Sex,” a provocative and funny movie about an inappropriate sexual relationship between a boss and employee that features what the director calls “HBO nudity (no genitalia, but plenty of boobs and butts).” How the inclusion of an intimacy coordinator may have influenced Araki’s process, from @IndieWire:
In our latest "postcard," reporter Jason Buch explores the natural beauty ... and pervasive surveillance ... of the Texas #border region on a unique two-wheeled journey. https://www.texasobserver.org/postcard-laredo-border-wall/
Postcard: A caliche road that runs for several miles along the river through Laredo, built by U.S. Border Patrol, offers a unique way to explore the region and appreciate its natural beauty ... and the pervasiveness of #border militarization. https://www.texasobserver.org/postcard-laredo-border-wall/
#nature #cycling #BikeTooter #immigration #culture #photography
Shortly after the members of BTS returned from fulfilling their mandatory military duty early this year, the South Korean sensations released their critically acclaimed 10th studio album “Arirang.” Yet it won’t win a Grammy Award, not after the band opted out of submitting it for entry. Too cool for school? There's more to the story. @RollingStone reports on BTS’s decision and why the Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category is stirring up a tempest:
"Everywhere is the heavy, closed-curtain silence of an institution that has lost some 90% of its employees and 100% of its paying audience.
Ms. Weiswasser keeps coming to give tours, she said, to bear witness, to tell her dwindling visitors that the shabby emptiness they see is not what the #KennedyCenter was. For more than half a century it was a grand democratic project, she tells them, bringing the #beauty and #inspiration of the #arts to everyone."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/politics/kennedy-center-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.2Umd.o6fONjoGp_dX&smid=url-share
"The center’s story, she said, began with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who in 1958 signed legislation to establish a performing arts center in #Washington. President John F. Kennedy championed the cause, and after his assassination #Congress passed a bipartisan bill dedicating the institution to him.
“That’s how it got its name,” Ms. Weiswasser said, adding pointedly, “This is a memorial. Memorials are to dead people.” She did not mention Trump"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/politics/kennedy-center-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.2Umd.o6fONjoGp_dX&smid=url-share
"Last year, Trump removed the Kennedy Center’s leadership, cut its programming and installed a handpicked board that had his name drilled into the building front. A court ordered the name removed last month. Audiences, performers and visitors have fled from the center, which has lost about 90 percent of its staff and, for now, 100 percent of its paying audience."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/kennedy-center-tours.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.zFz-._TlL6IZVflGP&smid=url-share
#KennedyCenter #Culture #Arts #Art #Politics #DonaldTrump #Trump #Corruption #News #Press #US #USA #DC
[Here's the article referred to above]
Trump Gutted the Kennedy Center. A Tour Guide Wants You to See It Anyway.
In a dogged demonstration of love for a Washington institution, Sandy Weiswasser is among a few dozen volunteers still showing dwindling visitors a hollowed-out building.
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/politics/kennedy-center-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.2Umd.o6fONjoGp_dX&smid=url-share
#KennedyCenter #Tour #History #Culture #Art #Politics #USPol #GOP #DonaldTrump #Trump #Corruption #News #Press #Washington #DC #WashingtonDC #US #USA #UnitedStates #America
"The ending of the tours comes after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a New York Times article detailing Trump’s gutting of the iconic cultural institution. Before the memo was circulated on Thursday, three volunteers had expressed worries to a reporter that the #KennedyCenter would target the tour program in retribution."
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/kennedy-center-tours.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.zFz-._TlL6IZVflGP&smid=url-share
#DonaldTrump #Trump #Corruption #Politics #USPol #Culture #Art #Arts #News #Press #US #USA #Washington #DC #WashingtonDC
"Last year, Trump removed the Kennedy Center’s leadership, cut its programming and installed a handpicked board that had his name drilled into the building front. A court ordered the name removed last month. Audiences, performers and visitors have fled from the center, which has lost about 90 percent of its staff and, for now, 100 percent of its paying audience."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/kennedy-center-tours.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.zFz-._TlL6IZVflGP&smid=url-share
#KennedyCenter #Culture #Arts #Art #Politics #DonaldTrump #Trump #Corruption #News #Press #US #USA #DC
"The ending of the tours comes after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a New York Times article detailing Trump’s gutting of the iconic cultural institution. Before the memo was circulated on Thursday, three volunteers had expressed worries to a reporter that the #KennedyCenter would target the tour program in retribution."
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/kennedy-center-tours.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.zFz-._TlL6IZVflGP&smid=url-share
#DonaldTrump #Trump #Corruption #Politics #USPol #Culture #Art #Arts #News #Press #US #USA #Washington #DC #WashingtonDC
When Argentina and England met in a World Cup semifinal match earlier this month, the potential for a political firestorm was clear. The 10-week war over the Falkland Islands in 1982 comes up every time the two nations play. And after a stunning comeback victory, the Argentine players wasted no time in unfurling a banner that read “Los Malvinas son Argentinas.” (Indirect translation: "The Falklands are ours.”) Their fans back home took notice and turned the controversial political statement into a cultural juggernaut. Read more from @AssociatedPress:
Christopher Nolan’s new film “The Odyssey” is a box-office hit. But, oh, how the script is lacking depth, the food looks horrible — and there aren’t even any sex scenes! At least, that’s the view of Emily Wilson, a classics scholar and translator at the University of Pennsylvania, who came away disappointed with the Oscar-winning director’s adaptation. Read more from @npr:
This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
Featured story: "When you were 8, you could control the wind. The trees would listen, waving their long branches at you. ... That was when the birds called your name and the squirrels followed you." https://www.texasobserver.org/love-letter-black-woodswomen-deep-east-texas/
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
In our magazine: “Boom, they’re out! You get that vortex when they surge out of the cave, and then when they reach the tree line, you get that river of bats in the sky.” https://www.texasobserver.org/the-bats-of-bracken/
In our magazine: "From very early on, the Black women around me drew the maps that guide my life’s trajectory. I have had the privilege of growing up under their watchful eyes." https://www.texasobserver.org/love-letter-black-woodswomen-deep-east-texas/