[SIC] Day 522

Vol. 4, No. 102 🔓

[SIC] Day is a daily selection of 20x signals from my media landscape, grouped to illustrate potential patterns in the zeitgeist, offered exclusively to paying subscribers of [SIC]. All imagery is mine, except where noted.

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[SIC] Day 522

Kicking It

• The race to create the ultimate running super shoe / Dezeen

• Which are now going for $3k on resale sites / Front Office Sports

AI-rad Money

• Speaking of running: Anthropic ran an internal office marketplace, allowing AI agents to close 186 real deals buying/selling gift cards / TechCrunch

• Corollary: The AI debt wave means bonds aren’t boring anymore / Quartz

Up in the Sky

• Meta has struck a deal to receive solar power beamed from satellites in space / Axios

• Or Maybe its the electric flying taxi that’s freaking my dog out right now? / CNN

• Freaking me out: Flight Prices Are Up, Fuel Is Low. Is Euro Summer on Ice? / Vogue Business

Watery, Domestic

• Tourism Corollar: San Francisco Is Going Nuts Over a Giant Sea Lion Named Chonkers / WSJ

• Elsewhere in diversions: Rikers Island uses video games as part of a strategy to reduce violence among inmates / NYT

• Speaking of debateable : Why New York City Spends So Much on Its Mediocre Schools. The country’s biggest school district has too many teachers and not enough students / The Atlantic

Artsisms

• More school daze: The Death of the Art School. corporatization and “administrification” of American higher-education institutions / Hyperallergic

• But without schooling, How do creatives find inspiration in everyday life? / It’s Nice That

• Apropos of that: Are We Entering a Post-Individual Era of Art? / Artnet

• Speaking of: Kim Gordon Was Never Just the “Girl in the Band” / Hyperallergic

• Also irreducible: Taylor Swift filed trademark applications for clips of her voice and likeness in what looks like an effort to take legal steps against AI imitation / Variety

• Also not just a girl: Perfectly Imperfect: PALOMA ELSESSER / PI.FYI

• But on the topic of models: Why Are So Many Influencers Speaking at Harvard Business School? / Vogue Business

Booking It

• Speaking of speakers: What booking a magician for the White House Correspondents’ dinner reveals about the state of press / Monocle

• Also revealing: Publishers are telling bestselling authors to write shorter books / Gift Guide

• The best books of the year (so far) per the NYT / NYT

[SIC] Day 522