Galley copies of my wife’s book arrived yesterday! So good. “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves,” by nicolatwilley—out June 25 from penguinpress—on what happens to our food between farm and table. Preorder here: bookshop.org/a/4369/9780735…

A set of maps depicting Osage County oil and gas resources, made by N. Wood Bass et al. of the USGS, published in 1942. Interesting to see in light of David Grann’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (and its recent adaptation). pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b9…

Book mail!

A “trend of ‘burglary tourism‘ from South America... Once in the country, police say, they plan heist sprees and fence the loot,” targeting “homes often connected to open spaces, hiking trails and canyons.” #burglarsguide latimes.com/california/sto…

“To umarell is to take an interest in the built environment”—where an “umarell” is a slightly comical, usually retired man who pauses to watch construction sites. Stoked to be a judge for the inaugural 2024 World Umarelling Championship! Rules here: scopeofwork.net/il-campionato-…

Looking forward to this, tonight in Culver City. Congrats to Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman for a fantastic book on what they call a “profound mismatch between the scale of planetary challenges and the institutions tasked with governing them.” sup.org/books/title/?i…

Randomly stumbled on these images—by early 20th-c. photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich Prokudin-Gorskiĭ, color-composited by none other than Blaise Aguera—while putting together a new post. Click through for books, ambient music, quantum navigation, and more! endnotes.cc/p/quantum-navi…

Industrial cheese caves, ice houses, Ragnarök... If you're in LA on July 2nd, stop by North Figueroa Bookshop for stories behind nicolatwilley's superb new book FROSTBITE—how refrigeration changed our food, cities, landscapes, bodies, and more. Drinks to follow! northfigbookshop.com/event/#calenda…

A fantastic review of FROSTBITE in the Financial Times! “Twilley’s style weaves storytelling with a series of well-timed narrative combination punches... bravura technique... accessible, informative and infectiously readable... quietly inspiring a desire for change.” ft.com/content/17a83e…

Some thoughts on "analog horror," in which "a radically inhuman presence has crept into our picture of the world, contaminating our representations from below." endnotes.cc/p/notebooks-sh…

Feels like only a matter of time before a major wildfire hits a substantial, closed landfill, and I do not want to be in the region to breathe those fumes. Wasn’t a wildfire, but “roughly 1,500 crushed cars burned at a recycling yard” outside LA. latimes.com/california/sto…

“When ants have been exposed to a pathogen, they change the way they build their nests in order to reduce the risk of an epidemic.” We discussed this in “Until Proven Safe” (untilprovensafe.com)—animal architecture can exhibit quarantine protocols. newscientist.com/article/244732…