2026-03-12 02:02:01
Georg Cantor is celebrated for revolutionizing mathematics by proving that there are different levels of infinity. But he didn’t do it alone and evidence has emerged that he plagiarized the work of a collaborator.
2026-03-12 01:16:48
“8 in 10 AI chatbots were regularly willing to assist users in planning violent attacks including school shootings, religious bombings, and high-profile assassinations. DeepSeek went as far as wishing the would-be attacker a ‘Happy (and safe) shooting!’”
2026-03-12 00:38:00
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE has an interview series called Work is Four Letters he describes like this:
Most people think their jobs are boring or pointless or bullshit, but I don’t; if you look around you, everything you see was made by someone, somehow, and that’s really interesting to me. Work is Four Letters is an occasional series — edited for brevity and clarity — highlighting what people do for work and why they do it.
The conversations are informative and robust. The latest interview was with NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie and I found both his description of how he thinks about his job and the ways he DOES his job interesting. Also this nugget about our current experience:
I think the big thing that I’d like people to take away is an understanding that not everything we’re experiencing now has happened before — I reject that. The past is truly a different country. Although you can find historical analogies, they’re just that: analogies. They aren’t one-for-one equivalents. But what you can say is that past generations of Americans have had to sort out their own struggles, and have faced similar questions that we face today, similar questions about the nature of our country, the nature of who belongs here, etc., etc.
Tags: interviews · Jamelle Bouie
2026-03-11 23:41:57
John Baskerville was an influential 18th-century printer and type designer; you’ve probably used (or at least heard of) the Baskerville typeface. Cambridge University has the original punches1 used to create his signature typeface and has made high-res digital photos of them available online. If you, like me, are not familiar with how lead type was made back in the day, an explanation of what a punch is:
The typographic punch is the initial design for the letterform and one of the first of three stages in the manufacturing of metal type: short lengths of steel onto which his letters were cut in reverse and in relief. The punch was ‘tempered’ to increase its toughness and enable its use as a tool. Secondly, the punch was struck into the surface of a softer piece of metal (copper), leaving an impression of the ‘right-reading’ character to be cast. This was called the matrix. Finally, type was manufactured when the matrix was passed to the type-caster and inserted into a mould, into which molten lead-alloy was poured. This produced a cast of the type in relief and in reverse which were then arranged to create a text block and once inked, paper could be pressed against it.
Baskerville is available in a number of different modern versions and revivals, but seeing close-ups of the actual cut & shaped metal from 1757 is something else. (via @johnathanhoefler)
Note from the collection: “Not all punches in this collection are Baskerville’s originals; some are later additions.” ↩
Tags: John Baskerville · typography