Top Of The Week: Hijack, Coke, Nigh, Trap, Fall
The Yodogo Hijacking
Madysan Weatherspoon | Fascinating World | 29th January 2026 | U
In 1970, a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka was hijacked by nine university students who wanted to start a Marxist revolution. They ordered the pilots to fly to Cuba, seen then as a utopia by communists. But their Boeing 727 could not fly that far without refuelling. So the hijackers pivoted to North Korea. This gave the Japanese authorities the chance to plan a masterly deception and rescue (1,200 words)
The Coke Factory
Turner Brooks | Paris Review | 4th February 2026 | U
Account of a young architect's obsession with the New Haven, Connecticut, coke plant. It was 1966 and the J.M.W. Turner-esque cloud of steam that the factory produced — "so thick it looked like one could climb into it" — was mesmerising. He started making nocturnal visits to stare at the giant mechanised ovens, each seventy-five feet deep, that transformed coal into coke. Highly evocative writing (1,300 words)
The Singularity Is Always Near
Kevin Kelly | 3rd February 2026 | U
The tech singularity — the point at which technology becomes a black hole of self-perpetuating creations — “will always appear as if it is about to happen”. “The singularity is simply a phantom that will materialise anytime you observe exponential acceleration retrospectively. In a thousand years from now, all the 11-dimensional charts at that time will show that ‘the singularity is near’” (2,400 words)
Is it Really So Much Better Now?
Chris Arnade | Chris Arnade Walks The World | 3rd February 2026 | U
There is an "expanding sterility" to 21C life. Instead of ordering food from humans, we use a frustrating app. Getting a flight rebooked traps us in a maze of chatbots. The doctrine of hyper efficiency has both made us less efficient and sucked the soul out of day-to-day interactions. Machines are good at many tasks, but not at interacting with humans. It's a mistake to outsource that work to them (3,000 words)
Selfish And Stupid
Paul Sagar | Diary Of A Punter | 1st February 2026 | U
Climber ponders the fall that left him tetraplegic with bitter honesty. “I took more risks than most. But there are others who took far, far more than I ever would have dreamed of.” One of those risks was free solo climbing, a controversial topic even amongst climbers. Why did he do it? His best explanation is akrasia — “situations in which a person apparently acts against their own professed best judgement” (3,300 words)
Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!
Podcast: The Fabulous Lives Of Peg Plunkett | Trapped History. Introduction to an 18th century courtesan who became Dublin's answer to Samuel Pepys when her incendiary memoirs were published (48m 46s)
Video: It’s Not That Serious | YouTube | Ricky Ubeda | 3m 58s
Contemporary dancer Ricky Ubeda’s dance film. Come for the groovy music, stay for the great choreography and camerawork.