How China Stole Snooker
Ross Davies | UnHerd | 18th April 2025 | U
Misleading headline, but this report of an esoteric sport's global resurgence is still worth reading. The UK in the 1980s was "snooker loopy". Most towns had a club. The decline was sharp, hastened by the removal of tobacco sponsorship. Then snooker became a cool pastime for young people in the Far East and the sport realigned. It retains British eccentricities while its British roots "wither" (2,500 words)
Mark Zuckerberg And Snapchat
Internal Tech Emails | 18th April 2025 | U
Revealing correspondence from 2013 when Facebook tried to buy Snapchat, filed as part of Meta's anti-trust trial. CEOs should not write emails. A desperate-sounding Zuckerberg offered $6bn. Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel turned it down. Zuckerberg was "disappointed and frustrated". Sheryl Sandberg then suggested telling Spiegel that "leaking this won't help his relationship with you" (2,500 words)
The Rise Of The Infinite Fringe
Tina Nguyen | Verge | 17th April 2025 | U
Theory of media ecosystem evolution. Once, conspiracies were at the edge of acceptable discourse. Now, that "fringe" is so central that it underpins how power is wielded. "Remove one thread at the edge, and the fringe gets longer; remove more threads, and the fabric’s surface starts to shrink. Pick at it for 10 years, pulling threads from wherever and the structural integrity of the fabric weakens" (5,000 words)
An IKEA Bookshelf’s Third Coming
Rachel Davies | Dirt | 6th February 2025 | U
An echo of a Marcel Breuer Bauhaus design, it took three names and 40 years for this industrial steel-framed bookcase to hit the zeitgeist. In 1985 it was the "Guide", then in 2002 the "Enetri", and has been rebirth in 2025 as the "Byakorre". The eventual triumph of a democratic design? Or a cynical attempt to take business from "vintage" IKEA resellers? "People are willing to pay $1000 for IKEA now" (1,000 words)
from The Browser ten years ago:
Broken On The Wheel
Ken Armstrong | Paris Review | 13th March 2015 | U
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a French court reached a final judgement in a murder case which shaped the final period of Voltaire's argumentative life. The campaign to clear the name of Jean Calas began the reform of French criminal law and is also seen by some as the start of the movement to end the death penalty. In his last years Voltaire became a "one-man Innocence Project" (3,100 words)
Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!
Podcast: Night Stream At West Quantoxhead | Radio Lento. An hour of beautiful field recording from an English field containing a rushing stream and some gently slumbering sheep (60m 45s)
Video: Aspect Ratios | YouTube | Kodak | 10m 41s
Director Ryan Coogler presents a lucid and informative explainer on different types of physical film — from narrow 8mm to "large format" at 70mm — and what effects work best with each one.
Afterthought:
"Death's not a separation or alteration or parting; it's just a one-handled door"
―Stevie Smith