The Atlantic is announcing that David Brooks, who for years has contributed memorable Atlantic cover stories and essays on political and societal issues, is joining the magazine as a staff writer beginning next month. The Atlantic will be the home for all of David’s writing, and he will also host a new weekly video podcast that will launch later this spring. David worked as an opinion columnist at The New York Times for 22 years.

In a note to staff, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes: “David’s work––his columns, his stories for us, and his many books––have made him known and acclaimed around the world. He is, among other things, America’s best pop sociologist, someone with a reporter’s curiosity and a writer’s grace. He is an unparalleled diagnostician of the faults and weaknesses of governments, institutions, and social structures, as our readers know from such stories as “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,” “Confessions of a Republican Exile,” and “How the Ivy League Broke America.”

The forthcoming podcast will explore the moral, social, and philosophical underpinnings of human decency—with a particular focus on the role that institutions play in shaping communities and ideologies. The podcast is produced by The Atlantic and made possible by support from Yale University, which is also announcing today that David will be a presidential senior fellow at Yale University’s School of Global Affairs.

The Atlantic has been rapidly growing its podcast network, and this new video podcast will be the fourth to launch in the past 12 months. Last year, The Atlantic launched Galaxy Brain with Charlie Warzel and The David Frum Show, and is developing a new show with Adam Harris. The third season of Autocracy in America with Anne Applebaum is out now; The Atlantic’s flagship show is Radio Atlantic, hosted by Hanna Rosin.

Press Contact: Anna Bross | press@theatlantic.com

Late last year, industrial designer Adam Miklosi embarked on a self-directed project, creating primitive cars out of aluminum extrusions.

Here in the new year, he's seeking a role for the leftover extrusions. After spying DesignWanted's Rethink the Coat Rack competition, Miklosi came up with an idea:

"After the first ideation rounds, I made some early 3D-printed prototypes before diving deeper into render visualizations. Testing proportions, attachment logic, and the character of the hooks on real aluminium profiles."

"I'm genuinely happy with how these turned out. A bit rough, very early-stage, but already showing the balance I'm aiming for: industrial structure + playful, customizable elements. Also couldn't resist arranging them into a small, fun composition."

Competition aside, I think Miklosi could easily get a side hustle going by selling these. They remind me of something you'd see from Alessi in the '90s, back when design was fun!

The Guardian has an unpaywalled timeline of the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and I find their coverage to be uniformly better than what is offered by the self-styled “paper of record.”

For people wondering whether the tRump administration will be content with the kidnapping and trial but otherwise not put troops in the country, signs are pointing toward Nope.

The United States is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the operation to capture Maduro, Trump told Fox News on Saturday. He said: “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”

I’m merely an observer of history and certainly not the most astute one. But it seems that the last time the US was “very strongly involved” in a foreign nation’s resources following open hostilities, people got their hair mussed. And there’s no point speculating about what sort of fair or favorable deal this administration will try to strike with whoever winds up leading Venezuela because we know that’s not going to happen. Especially with the admin saying stuff like this.

 the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.

See also.

In a Dec. 17 social media post – around the same time sources say Trump was making a decision to greenlight the Jan. 3 military operation — Trump said the U.S. military threat to Venezuela will “only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

Trump aide Stephen Miller made a similar claim.

“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property,” Miller wrote on X.

Claims that “we” (white people) taught the “ignorant savages” (brown people in countries with oil including the ones that gave us advanced math and science) how to extract that oil. Therefore the brown people owe the white people money/oil is collection of words I last heard during Bush the Sequel’s America’s Excellent Iraq Adventure, II.

I can’t recall whether it was an official position, but it was certainly held by the sort of thugs who might have oozed their way into power.

At any rate, calling the nation’s decades-old decision to nationalize its oil reserves “theft” from the US sounds like a justification for taking it without compensation. I suppose the new leader might agree to whatever President Greed wants, which will be everything. But I think it unlikely that the people of Venezuela will think getting rid of Maduro is worth what that does to the economy. Which means someone will have to protect “American Property.”

As an aside, on the international stage no one is amused, including Russia.

The post President Gas appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

It’s 2026 in Bangkok. Turns out, everything this year is exactly the same as 2025 so far, a truly terrible year. But hey, celebrate if you want, pretend like 2026 will be better.

The post Greetings from the Future appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

I pushed a key change to the Underscore music player over the weekend. Members can now click on any song in their collection to play it (previously there was only a randomize button). I added this because I often wanted to listen to a particular song/album/playlist, genre, or tempo (chill, upbeat, etc.)¹ and sat there hitting the random button until I got something I liked. No more; quick selection and back into the work groove.

If you missed it, here’s what I wrote about Underscore at launch:

Here’s how it works. You can add links to music from Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Apple Music to it — just paste their share URLs in. Reloading the page gives you a random piece of music from your collection. You can see a list of the songs, videos, playlists, and albums in your collection and can hide them if you want. That’s it. That’s all it does.

There’s no APIs or authentication or auto-synching playlists. The music is played through embedded players and if it lands on something from Spotify, Apple Music, or Bandcamp, you’re gonna have to click the play button in the embedded player (Soundcloud and YT videos should play automatically (but don’t always for whatever reason)). When your current selection ends, the new random thing doesn’t automatically play…you need to refresh the page.

I use Underscore every single day while I’m working. Is anyone else out there using it?

P.S. I also added the ability to add Tidal albums & playlists to Underscore. Unfortunately, Tidal’s embedded player doesn’t play full-length songs, even for logged-in users. If you’re a Tidal user, bug them about adding this feature to their embedded player!

1. I prefer chill in the morning and when writing. When designing or programming, I like something more upbeat. Also depends on my mood on the day.↩

Tags: kottke.org · music · Underscore

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Happy holidays to you all, however you celebrate...or don’t.

We are some of the lucky ones this year, with a roof over our heads, food on the table, and family and friends close to hand. We are blessed.

But it has not always been this way.

For those struggling this holiday season, a reminder, if it helps, that Christmas marks the time when the light starts to come back.

[Photo by Buddy Poland.]

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