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Executive Function Theft. The concept of executive function theft, where one entity offloads things they consider unimportant onto some other entity they consider unimportant, freeing up their own time at the expense of loading someone else down with having to do more, and expend more of their own executive function to deal with the increased workload that has been thrust upon them.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:27 PM PST - 56 comments

The process to award the 2034 World Cup will have only a single bidder: Saudi Arabia. Morocco, Portugal and Spain as the only bidders for the 2030 edition, were awarded the tournament, but with games also to be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This will create a “unique global footprint” for football (G. Infantino, head of FIFA) as well as substantial global climate footprint. Does this represent an example of football’s potential to unite a divided world? Or does the addition of South American sites allow FIFA to tick off not just two but three continents against its commitment to cycling through the world’s major landmasses? [more inside]
posted by biffa at 3:59 PM PST - 40 comments

All 243 of Taylor Swift’s Songs, Ranked [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:40 PM PST - 91 comments

Generate your own knuckle tattoos. Made by Kat Michaela.
posted by Cash4Lead at 1:23 PM PST - 89 comments

The hidden culprit behind America’s boarded-up storefronts
posted by Artw at 11:46 AM PST - 81 comments

Beautiful Mind [slyt] is about that moment when you find someone who really understands you. The shock of recognition. Or perhaps the schemes that become possible? [more inside]
posted by otherchaz at 11:43 AM PST - 5 comments

"What is magic for me is ... it's so hard to say ... but it's the feeling that my own heartbeat, my own breathing, is as a response to and in parallel with a heartbeat and a breath that is already out there." Poet Harry Owen on finding magic in the natural world, and in the seasons of our lives. (SLYT)
posted by swift at 5:37 AM PST - 2 comments

Everything was going as it had to and therefore as it should. What could I do about it? I got into bed and watched the sleet strike my window, grateful to be inside for a while longer. Then I thought some more about Jesse’s blanket. That way I could add another paragraph to this essay, and maybe earn an extra fifty cents. from Four Men by William T Vollman, about homelessness, alcoholism and the death of his daughter. [Harper’s; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 3:39 AM PST - 11 comments