A sharp analysis of how the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed have laid the groundwork for Trump, Brexit and the rise of nationalism in general. Features an interesting quote by Napoleon that’s worth keeping in mind: that to understand a person, you must understand what the world looked like when he was twenty.
«To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon.»
It’s simple visualisation, but it introduces a helpful new metaphor to the migration discourse – new at least to me.
One of my favourite books that I’ve read recently. With all the negative connotations algorithms have been in the news with lately, it’s worth remembering what they actually are: sets of rules for computing things. Things that might be quite useful. When to stop looking for your ideal home, how to schedule Todos, when to introduce randomness to your decisions.
The city of Amsterdam drained one of its canals, catalogued every single thing they found and put them all online.
A very interesting adademic paper from 2005 that has resurfaced in the context of the World Cup: How free circulation of labour in football has improved the game overall, increased inequality between clubs, but on the other hand reduced the gap in strenght between national teams – and what all of this tells us about globalisation.
The best piece I’ve read all week on the USA’s infamous treatment of immigrant children. On photographs as «a grammar and an ethics of seeing» and how Trump’s allies are «attempting to destabilize not just the facts on the ground, but also another kind of truth: The emotions most humans will feel.»
If you read «You May Want to Marry My Husband» back then, you’ll remember it. This is her widower, telling his story, one year after his wife’s death.
For map nerds and explorers: an interactive map of islands that have been described and mapped, but that may never have existed in the first place.
What made you happy in the past 24 hours? The answers of 100 000 people, categorised and charted. Made me happy.