From Square America.
A few photos taken by a Chicago cabby in the 70s, including several great portraits of his fellow drivers. From Square America, which has the rest of the series.
There
Posts that focus on and link to the doings of others.
523 Posts
The world needs more companies like HebTroCo, a shop run by two dudes from Hebden Bridge (that's in the UK):
10 years ago we had an idea in the pub. We’d found out that our town, Hebden Bridge, used to be known as Trouser Town. Was it possible to support small British manufacturers with production sized orders, and get more people wearing British made clothing? So we started with trousers. Now we’ve got shirts, jackets, boots and more, all made in factories up and down the UK.
Someone vandalised our building, so we had to do something about it.
There are few things I hate more than taggers. RevengeFont is a very cute response.
Once again, Joan Westenberg hits it out of the park with Why Personal Websites Matter More Than Ever:
I don’t know why we talk about walled gardens. That seems to imply something beautiful, something worth defending. It conjures images of beautifully maintained flowerbeds protected from the outside world. But that’s not what Facebook built, what Instagram built, what Twitter built. They built paved, unshaded, barren hellscapes, trapped us in them, and surrounded us with guard towers and razor wire, intended to keep us in, not protect us from anyone else. There's no "garden" here.
You can read the whole thing on Westenberg, which, like A Tiny Bell, is powered by Ghost.
For many years, I was an Android user. I could not find a decent music app for the platform, though I tried many. In 2023, I switched to iPhone because i wanted to use an Apple Watch for tracking sleep and other health metrics and you need an iPhone to use an Apple Watch.
Though I think Android is unquestionably a better-designed platform, Apple does have one (and only one) great music app: Albums, which is one more than Android. It functions fine in the free version but at $25 per year for the Premium version, I think it's well worth supporting.
The other day, Crucial Tracks posted a how-to: Finding New Releases Using the Albums App which is worth checking out if you use Albums.
Evident is a nonprofit news organization producing documentary journalism for the public good. They put crews on the ground and cover crucial issues through in-depth cinematic reporting. Their journalism is accessible and transparent, driven by their mission to inform the public, not by profit incentives.
They just launched a few days ago. Looks like they're made up of former producers from Scripps, Vice, PBS, Bellingcat, and other reputable outlets.
You can subscribe to their Youtube channel; here's their launch trailer:
I always love learning about new birds. The flightless Takahē is native to New Zealand and for many years was thought extinct. They were rediscovered in 1948 in a hidden value on the country's southern island and scientists are trying to boost the population. Gorgeous bird.
Here's a brief piece on them from TKSST:
When I was living in Vanuatu, I kept hearing a bird that made a sort of Woop-Woop noise. I never laid eyes on one and when I asked locals what they were called, I was told, "We just call them Woop Woop birds." Wish I'd had the Merlin bird ID app back then.
I have chosen to live this way, to live near the sea without running water, to surround myself with simple beauty. My days have been emptied of all fanfare and complication.
Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, Joseph Monninger meditates on life, death, and beauty from his small seaside cottage for Down East.
Great site for the celiac in your life: Jodi Ettenberg's Gluten-Free Cards for international travel. Heading to Japan, Vietnam, Poland, Latin America... ? For $10 you can get a country-specific guide to eating gluten-free on your travels.
Here's Joan Westenberg on the onslaught of Tech where it's not needed:
I would have happily paid double for the experience of simply flipping through a menu and talking to another human being. ...
I can tell you right now that anyone working in a decent venue would rather have a line of people ordering at the counter than be juggling iPads and QR codes while barely interacting with human beings.
I won't say there's a ton in the article that I haven't thought myself, but mentioning the worker side of it is a nice touch. As a lifelong retail worker I can't help but agree with the points being made.
I'm somewhat privileged because I'm a hermit and couldn't give a damn about visiting the latest trendy places. I simply refuse to participate. "Oh, I can only order using Instagram? Thanks, but I'll eat elsewhere." Truly, there is not a meal on the planet that I'd download an app to eat.
Hell, a couple months ago I walked into what I thought was a CIBC (one of the largest banks in Canada), only to be told, "Oh no, you can't pay your credit card balance here. This is a cashless bank." What the actual fuck is the point of such a thing?!
Read the full article on Westenberg.
