🍵 Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers? — Japan Times

With wakōcha, there are no standard techniques for growing or processing, no standard machines — in other words, no rules.

It’s cool to hear about all the variety farmers can get with black tea vs the strict standards of green tea in Japan.

🔧 Issue #12: Tools — Taper

I don’t remember where I heard about this, but it’s another cool little web publication like The HTML Review. I haven’t dug into everything yet, but it’s pretty neat.

I wrote in The Media Guide yesterday that I was a little disappointed in the new Dehd album, Poetry, but as I was listening to it for a third time this morning, it really grew on me. Blue Skies had a similar pattern as well as it climbed up the ranks the more I listened to it.

🐻 Do the Chicago Bears really need a new stadium? — FT

“Sports stadiums [in the US] tend not to pay off. Without exception the return on public investment is negative,” says JC Bradbury, a sports economist who has studied public funding of US sports venues. He takes issue with some of the Bears’ figures and lack of detail — such as the projection that the project will have a regional economic impact of $8bn. “For a city that already has a team, in exactly the same location, that’s ridiculous,” he says.

My dad is vehemently against the city paying towards a new stadium (and even more against the Arlington Heights location given he lives in that direction).

🧦 Why Does the Ankle Rankle — GQ

I’ve been wearing my leather Birkenstock’s more and more since the weather has gotten nicer, but I still don’t think I’d ever go sockless in gym shoes…

🤖 We don’t need an AI manifesto—we need a constitution — FT

People aren’t perfect. Neither ethics training for AI engineers nor legislation by woefully uninformed politicians can change that simple truth. I don’t need to assume that Big Tech chief executives are bad actors or that large companies are malevolent to understand that what is in their self-interest is not always in mine.

I feel like there’s a lesson here for more than just big tech that people should be paying more attention to throughout their lives in general.

🎮 Phil Spencer isn’t your friend — Disconnect

After using his persona as a fellow gamer to sell a bad corporate strategy to fans of Xbox, it will be interesting to see what happens to him next. Will he be sidelined — or even sacrificed — as the company pivots to a strategy focused on milking the major franchises Microsoft bought with its ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard acquisitions beyond Xbox, or will he simply pivot to selling another corporate vision?

A great look at Microsoft and Xbox as they’ve been floundering and trying to grab on to any life line for the past decade.

🐦‍⬛ Ax Visio — Swarovski Optik

I obviously don’t need $5,000 binoculars as I’ve gotten more and more into bird watching (from home), but boy do I want them…

📻 The Problem with Music by Steve Albini — The Baffler

Historically, the progression of effort required to become a producer went like this: Go to college, get an EE degree. Get a job as an assistant at a studio. Eventually become a second engineer. Learn the job and become an engineer. Do that for a few years, then you can try your hand at producing. Now, all that’s required to be a full-fledged “producer” is the gall it takes to claim to be one.

This essay by Albini is from 1993—it’s truly delightful. It doesn’t go into the weeds, but you can feel the expertise and experience on the page. RIP.

🎤 Stand-Up Comedy Has Tripled in Size Over the Last Decade — Bloomberg

I think a big appeal for gong to stand-up shows is you get to go to a fun event and sit down at it… Or maybe I’m just getting old…

🗄️ Benefits of a daily diary and topic journals — Derek Sivers

I’ve considered making one for every musician, album, book, or film that’s had an impact on me, that I’d like to think more about. Why not? I admire the way that a good critic puts in hours of reflection on each piece, thinking deeper about something they’ve just taken in.

Ben’s post about Juicy Apps got me going down a rabbit hole of OBTF, Topic Journals, and Spark files (and how I can implement these in Bike) and this resonated with me as what I essentially tried to do back in the day with Roam.

💣 US finds Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza ‘inconsistent’ with human rights law, but will not cut flow of arms — Guardian

State department also says not enough concrete evidence to link specific US-supplied weapons to violations

There’s a chance they’re using someone else’s weapons to kill innocent people so “no harm no foul” for us, right?

👬 John Mayer Sets Record Straight on Andy Cohen Friendship — THR

Reinforcing the idea that any gay/straight relationship needs qualification that it’s not sexual devoids everyone involved of their dignity. 

I didn’t hear about this until this story, but I’m glad Mayer clapped back a bit against the writer and question.

📚 Inside libraries’ battle for better e-book access — Axios

“For popular trade e-books, libraries often pay $55 for one copy that expires after 2 years (or $550 for one copy for 20 years),” per the American Library Association. “Meanwhile, a consumer will pay about $15 for perpetual use.”

Just complete bullshit.

🙀 Exploding Kittens — Trailer

Just an incredible trailer. This new animated show from The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman hits Netflix in July.

Basic idea was you subscribe through the platform (service would still own the customer) and if you subscribe to three services, you get $1 off each and then the more services you add the more you save on each. Platform would then take $1/sub. Other services could be included outside streaming tv as well.

A business idea I had awhile ago was a platform that allowed you to self-bundle different streaming services. At the time, it felt like it would be impossible to get buy-in from streamers, but now…

🐻 The Bear S3 Teaser — IndieWire

June 27th! Nothing really happening in the teaser, but I’m still extremely excited.