Concrete is the second-most consumed substance in the world and causes much environmental damage. Despite this, it's needed for essential infrastructure and, paradoxically, will be needed even more to protect against climate change.
Alongside all of this, it has a lifespan of about 100 years, which means much of our infrastructure is hitting that age limit and starting to rot.
This is a fascinating article on our addiction to concrete and the harms that come with it.
AI is definitely being overhyped these days, but there are still some impressive machine learning examples popping up. This real-time parody debate between Trump and Biden is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.
German artist Mario Klingemann has made a fluffy robot dog that produces art critiques by pooping them out of its butt.
A great write-up on the Bleep sound of Sheffield that had an important place in the history of dance music. I still remember the first time I heard LFO, I was blown away. Luckily, my speakers were not.
Rob Gordon, Warp co-founder and a supremely talented and important producer and engineer in the bleep story, remixed The Theme for its Virgin rerelease as his “bass statement” but no mastering engineers would touch it. One did, Geoff Pesche, but in order to fully capture the sheer depth of sub-bass on the record, he crawled under the mixing desk to remove its limiters. Letters of complaint flooded to Virgin, as ill-prepared speaker systems were blown and destroyed across the UK.
