Jan 29, 2021

Etcetera #1: Birdwatch, crosswords, counterculture

Matthew Culnane

Thanks for subscribing to Etcetera! Here’s the first issue.

Below is a list of links that I found interesting this week. Each one has a brief description of what it’s about along with some related reading from my bookmark archive.

Please share any great links you think should go in the next issue. Hit reply and it’ll go just to me.

Thanks, and see you next Friday.

Matthew (@coldbrain)

Why Twitter’s Birdwatch will fail

Like every effort at adding moderation tools to an already mature social network, Twitter’s Birdwatch will fail. Like everything else, it comes down to cold hard cash.

matthewculnane.co.uk

How the New York Times Crossword Became Too Big to Fail

Despite decades worth of missteps and competition from a growing indie scene, the Times puzzle is slow to change.

studyhall.xyz

How we made Typerighter, the Guardian’s style guide checker

An interesting look at how The Guardian has deployed a regex-based style guide checker into its CMS.

www.theguardian.com

See also: Why AI writing assistants are the next generation of style guides.

Our Stutter

Stuttering doesn’t just belong to the person who stutters — it’s something we share.

austinkleon.com

See also: The advantages of Tourette’s.

Why Can't I Just Cook What I Want & Like?

In an equal world, everyone would be able to do just this. However, that is not the reality of our current times. There are two major hurdles that stand in the way of everyone “cooking what they like”: equity of access & proper representation.

www.jennydorsey.co

See also: The misguided obsession with authentic food; Alison Roman, Bon Appétit, and the ‘Global Pantry’ Problem. (I might do a special issue one day about authenticity and representation in food; reply if that is of interest to you.)