If you’ve been wrestling with the recent revelations about Alice Munro, Michelle Dean might have put it down best over at The Cut.
This piece is many things: a close reading of Munro’s work, an argument for what we can separate between an artist and their art, and ultimately a personal struggle evoked with lucidity in the face of moral ambiguity.
The sleepy town of Granbury, TX was in for a rude awakening when Marathon Digital Holdings opened a bitcoin mine — an operation that not only draws a lot of energy, but creates a tremendous amount of noise:
“We’re living in a nightmare,” Sarah Rosenkranz says... As rock music blares from the speakers and other patrons chatter away, Rosenkranz pulls out her phone and clocks 72 decibels on a sound meter app — the same level that she records in Indigo’s bedroom in the dead of night. In early 2023, her daughter began waking up, yelling and holding her ears. Indigo’s room directly faces the mine, which sits about a mile and a half away. She soon refused to sleep in her own room. She then developed so many ear infections that Rosenkranz pulled her from school in March and learned how to homeschool her for the rest of the semester.
This feature in Time by Andrew Chow is expertly reported. It’s difficult to prove a casual link between the mine’s constant racket and the town’s health, but it’s hard not to be alarmed by what Granbury residents are suffering from: migraines, vertigo, nausea, leaking ear fluids, and a number of other horrifying ailments.
In his new podcast Shell Game, journalist Evan Ratliff uses AI to clone his voice — and that AI clone tricks his friends and family, shows up to meetings, and even makes small talk with scammers. The show launches July 9, but you can listen to a trailer now.
Criterion Channel’s new film series spans four decades, featuring ‘70s conspiracy thrillers, (Night Moves and Blow Out), both Bad Lieutenant movies (Keitel and Cage), ‘90s favorites L.A. Confidential and Out of Sight, as well as the deeply underrated Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There. There are plenty of others, too — perfect viewing if your summer is feeling a little too sunny.
[The Criterion Channel]
“People are babies and children and they cry when they can’t win.”
You can catch the tremendous concert film Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus live during its online premiere June 30 at 8:00 PM ET on the Criterion Channel. And don’t worry if you miss the stream — you’ll be able to watch it on any time starting July 1.
(ICYMI: we interviewed the movie’s director Neo Sora back when it had a theatrical release.)
The HBO fantasy series provided a boon in web traffic. But what happened when every publication started chasing the same thing?
David Pierce journeyed to Sin City (or is it Sphere City now?) to witness the Microsoft Excel World Championship. Among the planet’s best spreadsheet makers, he discovered one truth: if you can manipulate Excel like a pro, you become a god among humans.
I am assured by our friends at Polygon that this is, indeed, a real holiday.
[Polygon]