2026 w08 links & recs

Unlikely to do an actual review for this week. It's Saturday and I'm on track for a 0% week. It's just winter, we have one every year.

So let's do a link roundup as a placeholder. The only deliberate theme to the following is that I liked them; I am not the primary cause of any other themes you may detect.

Your Loneliness Was a Design Decision Made by Your Enemy

or: they want us isolated because it’s easier to sell us shit

Birds Before the StormMargaret Killjoy

The pivot - Charlie’s Diary

Charlie's DiaryCharlie Stross

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: Imperfect Simulations by Michelle Z. Jin

Clarkesworld MagazineMichelle Z. Jin

Sometimes I think I should just read one random drop from Cory's high altitude balloon each month, or each quarter, and I'd be fully up to date.

Pluralistic: America’s collapsing consumption is the world’s disenshittification opportunity (16 Dec 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

Pluralistic: The Post-American Internet (01 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

HagioClass - Lightspeed Magazine

Hayley stands by the exit to the bookstore, eyeing the torrent coming down in sheets over the parking lot. Behind her, Matt hides the tiniest of fist pumps and says, “You don’t want to go out in that. Come on, let me buy us a couple of drinks at the café.” She takes a long look at the tempest outside, checks the time on her phone, and says, “I guess I have time for a cup of tea. I’ll get my own.”

Lightspeed MagazineLeigh DeRouen

Jenny Diski · Why didn’t you just do what you were told?

You were very difficult, they tell me. You are very difficult, they say. It turned out that ‘doing what I was told’…

London Review of BooksJenny Diski

Industrial Revolution - Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects

Wall Street Crash (disambiguation) - Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects

Elias Ashmole - Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects

(If I save long Wikipedia pages to my Instapaper, I can read them on the Kobo and two-click add any links from within them to the Instapaper backlog without leaving the original article and without going to a phone or laptop.)

Tripwire force - Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects

Upon Review, It Looks Like President Nyarlathotep’s Small Business Soul Harvest Is Technically Against the Rules

“The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to President Trump’s economic policy on Friday, ruling that he had exceeded his authority when he imposed tar…

McSweeney's Internet TendencyAndrew Paul

The Enshittifinancial Crisis

Soundtrack: Lynyrd Skynyrd — Free Bird This piece is over 19,000 words, and took me a great deal of writing and research. If you liked it, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed AtEdward Zitron

Maybe take a walk first, though. Do some shoulder stretches, at least. Crack your neck.

John Gallagher · Quickly Quickly Quickly: Early Modern News

In early modern Europe, news took many forms. It could be words exchanged by the people who haunted Venice’s Rialto.…

London Review of BooksJohn Gallagher

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal by Louis Inglis Hall

Clarkesworld MagazineLouis Inglis Hall

Drink Poetry, Devour the Sun - Trollbreath Magazine

Drink Poetry, Devour the Sun

Trollbreath MagazineJonathan Helland

It's winter, we have one every year.