“There’s Something Living Inside Fog, Scientists Find.” This fog—there’s something living in it? Sounds are muffled and non-directional. Is that breathing? Is it in front of you? Or right behind you? A shadow, in the corner of your eye. Then gone, or maybe you imagined it? There’s something living inside fog, scientists find. A touch on the back of your neck, feather light. Turn around. There was a scientist here wasn’t there? Who found something living? In this fog? It’s so hard to remember now, with all this fog. There’s something living inside it. Was that a scientist? How many eyes does a scientist usually have? The̸̛̞r̵̳͛ę̶̄'̵̟̉s̷̮͌ s̸͚͊̆ͅo̵̩̯͂m̸̦̉̈́ȩ̵͕̓̈́t̷̢̺͈̓̇͊̕ ̶̦̼̪̘̕ḧ̵͔͍̪͙́͆i̶͓͐n̸͔̣͇͖̣͚̂͐̉̔̓͌̚g̶̘͍͛͋̎͐̌̓ͅ ̷̖͎̟̺̲̣͎̾̄̈̍̓l̶̗̞͊͘͝ ̷͙̹̱̪̪̼̅̿̈̋̍͒̇͠ͅi̴̙̞͂̀ ̷̪͇̙͈̼̀̄̍̇͠v̴̨͉̤͗̆̔͗̊̅ ̴̗͖͚̳̤̳̖͔̃̀͋̋̌͒̿͠ ̸͎͙͚̀͐́̿̋̄ ̶̨͔͕͋ ̴͕̤͒́͛̇͂͝i̴̱͙̤͈̽̋͛͂͛̎͝ͅ ̸̥̜͈̣̫́́̉̄̚͝n̵̡̜̱͎̏̉͂̍̍̊͝͝ ̷͓̱̗̄̿̕g̴̪̜̲̺͝ģ̵͔͎̹̯̗̽̇̓͝ģ̴͔̻̪̥͖͙͖̽́͒̄
What Else Did Scientists Find?
Scientists Find Way to Supercharge Dangerous Computer ‘Worms’ With A.I.
—Cade Metz, New York Times. Ok, but why?
Scientists find yeast in frozen mummy's guts, use it to make sourdough bread
—CBS News. Ok, but why????
Scientists Find Cosmic 'Rosetta Stone' To Decode Baffling Signals From Deep Space
—Michelle Starr, ScienceAlert. Yes, great, this always turns out well in fiction.
Scientists find an elusive vibration—a Higgs mode—changing a crystal’s symmetry
—Savannah Mitchem, Argonne National Laboratory. Who among us hasn’t cycled through all the “elusive vibrations” searching for that perfect “Higgs mode,” iykiwm(aityd)?
Scientists Find That Ordinary Wi-Fi Routers Can Identify People With Near-Perfect Accuracy
—Linnea Pejcha, My Modern Met. This isn’t “identifying people” like connecting to your device and identifying your digital footprint. The wi-fi radio is looking at you. There’s something living inside the cloud.
Scientists find new species of dragonfly, grasshopper and a fluorescent spider
—Tim Cocks, Reuters. The Wilderness Project can keep looking for things. Everyone else, please chill.
Sick ground effects, bro. Photo Nicky Bay/The Wilderness Project
I’m joking, of course, the worst thing scientists have ever found (a tie between the demon core, leaded gasoline, and Goth Girl Spit energy drink1) is still better than anyone a billionaire ever finds to run a media company. For example David Ellison, Paramount’s new owner and villain from an 80’s golf-themed comedy, found Bari Weiss, who coincidentally is also a tie between the demon core, leaded gasoline, and goth girl spit. Then Bari Weiss found Nick Bilton, the Michael Barbaro for people who also like Michael Barbaro, and here we are again because shortly after my last post Bilton fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley by email like the coward he is. “Despite yesterday's misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together,” Bilton weaseled, but Pelley says “there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back.’” Who should we believe? “The most awarded correspondent in the history of 60 Minutes” or the guy who warned us in 2014 of a terrifying possible future in which “a rogue computer momentarily derails the stock market”—an event that had happened four years earlier. Who can say.
Tom Ley can say, writing in Defector that Bilton “has already written his name into the history books as one of the media industry's most pathetic bosses.” But wait, cautioned Chris Cilizza, you may find that things look very different down here at boot level. Can you believe we have both Cilizza and Dylan Byers working right now? This is like the Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle era for media guys who suck. In Page Six, Peter Kiefer and Tatiana Siegel dug up all kinds of dirt including the rumor that Weiss is paying Bilton $2.5 million for the job, and that one person who wisely turned her down was Tyrangiel of the Riddermark. Max Read gave the Page Six story a max read, and disputed the claim that Bilton’s politics are “hard to pin down:”
He's a Rich Gen X White Guy; he has the base-model Rich Gen X White Guy package of resentments and intuitions; and this has led him to what, eight years ago, Bari Weiss herself was calling the "intellectual dark web." This is the same journey taken by tens of thousands of Rich Gen X White Guys across the country; as one of Kiefer and Siegel's sources says: "Nick’s politics are consistent with a lot of the tech people he’s covered."
Like much of Silicon Valley, Bilton has made a long political pilgrimage all the way from “secretly reactionary” to “openly reactionary.” How’s all this landing elsewhere in the company? Not great, reported Oliver Darcy in Status:
According to people familiar with the matter, CBS Entertainment chief Amy Reisenbach has privately told associates that creatives in Hollywood have expressed disdain over Weiss’ efforts to remake the network.
But that’s not all. I’m told Reisenbach has made clear in such conversations that she too believes Weiss is inflicting significant damage on the broader CBS brand—creating problems for other company leaders, including herself.
“NEWS MAN BAD”: A Personnel Memo from Animal, Your Editor-In-Chief. Even McSweeney’s is getting dunks in. However as I was writing this post, the Times’ Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum report that:
In a joint email to the show’s staff, [Lesley] Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said they would “stay and fight” in order to “repair and preserve” the reputation of the country’s top-rated news program.
A wise person once said “it is crucial to understand that you will never outlast the fuckery. Once the fuckery starts, it’s all fuckery from then on.” But good luck to them, I’m sure they’re built different.
You have to admit that was a LOT of free newsletter
But it's still Paywall June so the stuff you get for free is like a tie between the Demon Core, leaded gasoline, and goth girl spit. There are good things today, including an Atlantic story and two A.I. projects, if you can believe it. But you need a paid subscription for those. Oh, also:
