Our inequality materialises our upper class, vulgarises our middle class, brutalises our lower class.

– Matthew Arnold

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Featured illustrator: Lucas Wakamatsu

Dense Discovery
Dense Discovery
 

Welcome to Issue 51!

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Between a looming environmental collapse and the rise of science-denying demagogues, most of us are struggling with our lack of agency. As individuals we often feel powerless. However, in less than four weeks, on September 20, you get a chance to feel more hopeful, if only for a day.

On that Friday, millions of people around the world will go on strike and stop work to draw attention to the climate crisis. And we need everybody to show up! ‘Earth Strike’ is going to be huge. Unions with millions of members in Australia and across Europe are supporting the strike, which will be just the first day of a week-long series of events aimed to disrupt business as usual.

If you’re one of the many people who are frustrated about the lack of action but in the past stopped short of attending protests, I urge you show up to this one. Even to just represent those people who would like to go but can’t get out of work. (As a reminder: research shows that non-violent protest of ‘just’ 3.5% of a population can lead to substantial system change.)

If you are running a business you can increase your impact by encouraging your team to take part and by publicly speaking about and supporting the strike. (Find your closest protest here.) If you want to go a step further, you can even shut down your website for the day to symbolically highlight that ‘business as usual’ is not an option.

September 20 is a rare chance (or responsibility?) to go beyond just retweets and likes. Get out there, make your voice heard, and be part of what may be the biggest global day of action we’ve ever seen. – Kai

Dense Discovery is currently read by over 37,000 subscribers. Support us by (1) Sponsoring an issue, (2) Booking a classified ad, or (3) Sharing this issue with friends and colleagues.

 

Make the Most of Your Time SPONSOR

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Harvest →

A simple and intuitive time tracking tool.

We all want more time to do the work that matters, but if you don’t know exactly how you’re spending your time, it’s hard to change your habits. Enter Harvest, a simple and intuitive time tracking tool that helps shine a light on exactly how you’re investing your time. Learn more

 

Apps & Sites

Penman →

Speech-to-text editor

Penman combines a powerful text editor with Google’s speech-to-text technology, enabling you to create quick notes or ‘write’ longer stories with your voice. (iOS only so far)

PixelSnap →

On-screen measurements

A MacOS app for measuring anything on your screen: quickly get the distance between two elements, find the boundaries of any object by simply dragging an area around it or check alignment by adding horizontal and vertical guides.

Clubhouse →

Project management for software teams

There are now so many project management tools out there that we’re seeing specialisation into different sub-categories. Clubhouse is made specifically for software dev teams, offering features ideal for sprints, for example. Their API allows you to update your project status right from the Terminal.

Progress Bar OSX →

Progress reminder

A little app that shows how far you are into your day, month, year and life! With a byline that gets your attention: “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time”.

 

Indie Mag of the Week

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Another Escape →

Another Escape is a lifestyle journal for those who love the outdoors, telling stories of passionate people inspired by nature.

– Latest Issue: 12 (Water)
– Frequency: two issues/year
– Formats: print only
– Origin: United Kingdom

We’re giving away five copies to randomly selected DD readers. Keep an eye on your inbox to find out if you’re among them!

 

Goods & Accessories CONSUME RESPONSIBLY

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Future Histories →

What the past teaches us about the future

“In Future Histories, Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a ‘usable past’ that help us determine our digital future.”

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Titan Smart Cable →

Unbreakable charger cable

Through ultra-strong braided aramid fibre, this cable takes up 1,500 lbs of force to break. The 90° plug stops fraying and should make this cable last a lot longer than standard USB cables. There is even a three metre long version for the hard-to-reach outlets in your home.

 

Overheard on Twitter

You are not a hypocrite if you change your mind after getting new information.

@WhitneyCummings

 

Food For Thought

Innocence lost: what did you do before the internet? →

Read

“Quite soon, no person on earth will remember what the world was like before the internet.” Leah McLaren fears that we’ll miss the empty space and the boredom that existed before the internet which she says was a crucial prerequisite for most of ‘humanity’s wonders’.

Do You Have a Moral Duty to Leave Facebook? →

Read

A philosopher’s stance on Facebook: “By being on Facebook one serves as a data point for Facebook’s social media experiment, even if one encounters none of Facebook’s experimental manipulations. In doing so, one could be helping Facebook to refine its algorithms so that it can better single out specific individuals for certain purposes (...)”

Is the Internet Making Writing Better? →

Read

This short review of the book ‘Because Internet’ (featured in DD issue 45) gives away some of the books surprising findings: “To those who fear that the Twitter era is eroding our eloquence, McCulloch replies that, in fact, ‘all our texting and tweeting is making us better at expressing ourselves in writing.’”

 

Aesthetically Pleasing

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Lyyra is a typeface with a radical aesthetic that alternates between the organic and the mechanical. Shown here in the expanded style.

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Some amazing brand identity work by Studio South for development 246 Queen.

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Dillon Marsh combines photography and computer generated elements in an effort to visualise the output of various mines in South Africa.

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Laura Baverstock is a talented hand embroidery artist with an affinity for insects, it seems.

 

Classifieds

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Classifieds are paid ads that support DD and are seen by 37,000 subscribers each week.

Book yours →

 

The Week in a GIF

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Email us the URL to your favourite GIF and we might feature it here in a future issue.

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