@Jake
I write about drinks, public policy, and other vices in Portland, Oregon. Co-founder of Seabird, the app you're using right now!
www.jacobgrier.comReads far and wide — 123 sources in 90 days
Also a writer — 3 original pieces this quarter
A smart piece on stupidity. "Novelists have long understood the intelligence-stupidity relationship with a clarity that most scientists choose to ignore. Perhaps because fiction can show the process by which an intelligence can devour itself, a rather unpalatable spectacle to a rationalist."
What Makes Humans Stupid
What Makes Humans Stupid: It takes intelligence to get things spectacularly wrong. An essay on our undoing.
nautil.us
This article nods briefly to the fact that despite this "trend," smoking rates are still very low by historic standards. The interesting takeaway for me here is that acknowledgment that smoking is (for many people, at least) genuinely fun. The denial of this has misguided experts in tobacco control for a long time, leading them to overestimate the ease of prohibition.
Cigarettes are back in vogue. How did this happen?
Celebrities like Dua Lipa and Gracie Abrams have been photographed with cigs, as have social media influencers who like the retro vibes.
washingtonpost.com
The only line I'd disagree with here is that "[every]social media platform is awful." You all make Seabird pretty great!
Graham Platner Was the Perfect Twitter Candidate
Social media transformed his campaign into a political mirage.
slate.com
Maybe not the story to read on the first day of a trip by ferry to an island in the Pacific.
Alone and Adrift: How a Chinese Businessman Survived Six Days in Open Water
Jellyfish, raw crabs, and endless ocean — an entrepreneur’s relaxing trip in South China turns into a nightmare ordeal.
sixthtone.com
Musgrave on being back in the Cool Zone.
Highway to the Coolest Zone
War's back? I'm back!
musgrave.substack.com
Distillery cats are popular. But distillery spiders? They have a role to play too.
The Eight-Legged Quality Control Department
The unsung role of spiders in creating and aging spirits — and why every cellar master says the same thing: Don’t touch them.
thelongbar.substack.com
As someone who until recently lived right next to the Lloyd Center, the people trying to save a dead mall are incredibly misguided and I'm glad the city council didn't attempt some means to stop it.
Portland City Council Determines the Lloyd Center Can’t Be Saved - Portland Mercury
The plan to redevelop the Lloyd Center Mall and the surrounding land will go forward, despite two appeals aimed at saving the mall and its ice rink. On Wednesday, Portland City Council cast an initial 10-0 vote to uphold the Lloyd Center Central City Master Plan for the area’s redevelopment. (Two councilors were absent, one […]
portlandmercury.com
This is one decision to go to war that I could endorse.
Opinion | We’re Living in a Tick Nightmare. It’s Time to Go to War.
With ticks, we’ve barely begun to fight back. The longer we wait, the more territory they will claim across both our geographic and psychic maps.
nytimes.com
A Norwegian perspective on the Viking imagery of the national team and reclaiming it from the far-right to celebrate a positive identity.
Norway’s Vikings Are Reclaiming Valhalla at the World Cup
The far right spent a century claiming the Vikings. Norway’s World Cup team — horned helmets, runes, a viral row-chant and all — just took them back.
jacobin.com
We're all rooting for Count Binface, right?
‘He goes a bit funny if you use his real name’: the unstoppable rise of Count Binface
Nigel Farage foresaw a summer stroll to glory when he forced a byelection – but now risks his career being trashed
theguardian.com
Things I didn't know about BlackBerry: after losing the phone market the company pivoted to software that's now ubiquitous in cars and medical devices, and these days it's even a profitable company.
How BlackBerry Staged a Comeback by Winning Over Car Companies | The Walrus
After its near-death experience, the tech behemoth is profitable once more
thewalrus.ca
Lessons from Venice on how to remember Donald Trump.
Vercel Security Checkpoint
startribune.com
Daniel Vaughn says Portland's still got it when it comes to Texas barbecue.
Does Portland Still Have the Best Texas-Style Barbecue Outside of Texas?
I made this claim back in 2019, so I went back to Oregon to check in on how the scene is doing today.
texasmonthly.com
Learning about the forgotten Swedish colony in what became the United States via a British news service. Perhaps my old job promoting aquavit would have been more successful if the Swedes had stuck around.
New Sweden: The US's long-lost 'secret' colony
It was the smallest, least-populated and shortest-lived colony in the US. But despite being virtually unheard of today, it helped shape the nation's birth 250 years ago.
bbc.com
Some incredible reporting about the perception of the US among Canadian and European leaders in this piece from WSJ.
wsj.com
wsj.com
I don't often post about sports, but when I do it's from UnPopulist!
The US Team’s Loss Hasn’t Shamed America in the World Cup, Trump’s Conduct Has
His brazen campaign to reinstate a player has elicited global disgust and rightly so
theunpopulist.net
Is building a platform designed for readers good business given these trends? Maybe not, but we're here for the holdouts!
The End of Reading Is Here
Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.
theatlantic.com
Research into a question possibly only of interest to real coffee fans: where mass gets lost along the way from the coffee tree to your cup.
Coffee Decoded: How Much Coffee Does It Take To Make Coffee? — Specialty Coffee Association
Welcome to Coffee, Decoded , the Specialty Coffee Association’s weekly column on science, research, and all things coffee knowledge. PETER GIULIANO , the SCA
sca.coffee
A fun project celebrating Canadian icons, including the elusive Nanaimo bar.
macleans.ca
Solid piece on what right and left get wrong about Social Security and the coming difficulties for funding senior benefits in the US.
The Elixir of the Payroll-Tax Cap and Other Social Security Myths
Progressives are wrong about how to reform the program. Conservatives are, too.
theatlantic.com
And a bit more fun culinary history.
The World Thinks Americans Only Eat Pizza-Nugget-Burgers. The Truth Is a Much More Interesting Story.
Is the KFC Double Down really what the Founding Fathers wanted for us?
slate.com
Really nice post on learning to cook without a recipe, by feel. This is mostly my approach to pizza. I do weigh dough ingredients but I do the kneading by feel, and toppings can be completely spur of the moment.
The anxiety of the perfect loaf: the illusion of culinary precision | josh iza.ac
Update: This blogpost has been getting a (minor) amount of attention over on Hackernews and Metafilter. I took a moment in a new blogpost to go through some of the comments. One of my favorite recipes for challah does not tell you how much flour to use. To a modern amateur...
iza.ac
Me: In my book I wrote about "The New Prohibition" as a cautionary tale. The island nation of Palau:
The worst idea in the history of tobacco control
The island nation of Palau and its backers are trying to have nicotine scheduled as a prohibited drug under the international illegal drug regime. What is going on?
clivebates.substack.com
Man, it's like you can't even trust the integrity of Donald Trump and FIFA anymore.
Trump Asked FIFA to Review U.S. Player’s Suspension. Now He’s Eligible to Play.
The reversal of Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension is highly unusual. It was the first time since 1962 that FIFA has nullified a suspension for a red card received during the World Cup.
nytimes.com
I will do it. I will drive the Ferrari EV.
Opinion | It’s Ugly. It Costs $640,000. Everyone Is Mad About It but Me.
Ferrari’s new E.V. is being panned by critics, but it ought to be celebrated.
nytimes.com
Today we celebrate a historic list of grievances. Here's how they apply to the current wannabe king.
Every Act Which May Define a Tyrant
A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
liberalcurrents.com
Insider piece from an employee at Monticello about how the institution retreated after right-wing attacks for its "woke" telling of the full story of Jefferson.
What Broke Monticello - The American Prospect
How a right-wing smear campaign tried to silence the reality of Thomas Jefferson’s life, and in some ways succeeded.
prospect.org
Peter Suderman on celebrating the American cocktail as America turns 250.
America’s First Great Culinary Innovation Had Just Three Ingredients. It Was Enough to Change the World.
This is one export we can all be proud of.
slate.com
"There I was—a man from California in Texas watching drones built in Korea bring a story from Jerusalem to life."
Fireworks Are Not Patriotic. Drone Shows Are
This Fourth of July will feature more drone shows than ever. I went on a pilgrimage to drone country—and had a near-religious experience.
wired.com
Andy Craig makes a case for court packing, but with constitutional legitimacy. Though if we're going to do cement a number of justices in the Constitution -- which strikes me as a good idea -- I'm not necessarily sold on nine rather than a larger number, which would put less sway to individual appointments.
The Unfortunate Necessity of Court Packing to Stop America’s Authoritarian Drift
A proposal to add justices without opening a cycle of mutually assured destruction
theunpopulist.net
I've really enjoyed kveik beers I've had the opportunity to try, so I'd love to make it to the Norwegian farmhouse beer festival someday.
Once Craft Beer’s Most Exciting Yeast, Kveik Is Quietly Thriving in Norway’s Farmhouse Breweries
This fall, when fans of rustic farmhouse ales meet up again at their annual three-day festival in Hornindal, western Norway, they can raise their glasses to a pair of milestones: 2026 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Kornølfestival, the main gathering of the Norwegian farmers who brew their own beer and those who love it. Additionally, this year counts as more or less a full decade since kveik, the strange yeast used to ferment those beers, first started making waves in the craft world. Tho
vinepair.com
On Costco vs Amazon, and lessons from the former for Mamdani's public grocery stores (which I'm far from convinced are a good idea).
Benjamin Fong | The Anti-Amazon
Costco's model and the future of retail
phenomenalworld.org
Because the best reading is often done offline: 258 new books for your consideration. Adding new novels from Chad Harbach, Daniel Mason, Dorthe Nors, and Emily St. John Mandel to my to-read list, among others.
Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026, Part Two
The year is half over, if you can believe it. Time marches ever forward, into the abyss. Books, though, can smooth the passage. If you choose wisely, that is. To that end, here are the novels, coll…
lithub.com
Fantastic column from Jamelle Bouie.
Opinion | Five Words That Changed America
It wasn’t Thomas Jefferson who made “All men are created equal” actually mean something.
nytimes.com
Great reporting on what the immigration crackdown leads to in practice: often no actual deportation, just leaving people who've been charged with no crimes locked up in cages for years with no idea of when they'll ever be released.
“Stuck in Purgatory”: ICE Detention in Louisiana Can Stretch on for Years - Bolts
Louisiana has more ICE lockups than almost any other state. Now as a surge in habeas petitions overloads courts, people are held “unfathomably” long without recourse.
boltsmag.org
Really fun profile of the Norwegian soccer star and the energized Norway fanbase.
Erling Haaland Plays Like a Viking
Norway’s hulking striker brought his country back to the World Cup for the first time in almost thirty years. How far can they go?
newyorker.com
I don't know what to make of this, and apparently neither do the scientists interviewed, since their responses are often completely contradictory.
How Seriously Should We Take The Threat of Mirror Life?
In the not-too-distant future, we might be able to create mirror versions of organic life. But should we?
gizmodo.com
A perspective one rarely hears: a person whose work involves detention centers on the conflict with his personal faith.
Removal | Plough
Sunday, I heard that we are all the body of Christ. Monday, I bid on a contract to build an immigrant detention center in the Texas desert.
plough.com
Portland mentioned! Not the most rigorously argued article, but relevant given the Trailblazers' threat taxpayers can pony up or lose the team.
Taxpayer-Funded Sports Stadiums Are a Massive Scam
With daily life getting more expensive for working-class people, why are sports owners still being handed subsidies for publicly-funded stadiums?
currentaffairs.org
I've pre-ordered this because I want to get it in print, but this sure to be worthwhile collection from Liberal Current is also free to read online right now.
The PDF of The Reconstruction Papers Is Now Free to the Public
If you've been waiting to read The Reconstruction Papers, wait no longer.
liberalcurrents.com
An Italian architect considers the design of the Microlino. We saw a few of these darting around the compact streets of Amsterdam, and they're adorable.
Why the Microlino is a masterpiece of Italian design
Carlo Ratti continues his summer series on the overlooked objects that define Italy, turning his attention to the tiny electric car quietly challenging the age of the SUV
wallpaper.com
And a visit to a different sort of ghost town.
Life at the end of the metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg built a future that nobody wanted. Tech bosses are repeating his mistake
prospectmagazine.co.uk
A report from DC on the national state fair.
washingtonian.com
In case you missed it, this is a great post from Jason Kuznicki.
Against Friends, Against Enemies
On the liberalism of productive ambiguity. And pineapples.
liberalism.org
Not really a great time for anyone in Russia right now (except maybe defense contractors), but you really don't want to be a military age male.
As the Tide Turns Against Putin, Beware the Drowning Man
Like a struggling swimmer, he may take desperate measures to stay afloat.
foreignpolicy.com
This was a surprisingly interesting interview about air conditioners, how they work, and how to make them contribute much less to the climate change that's making them necessary in more parts of the world.
How to keep people cool without making the planet even hotter
RMI's Ankit Kalanki on why fixing the way we test air conditioners is the secret lever to slashing global cooling emissions.
volts.wtf
The unromantic case against settling Mars.
The Mars Delusion | NOEMA
Establishing a human colony on Mars is fraught with risk. Why are so many people obsessed with achieving it?
noemamag.com
I admittedly haven't read all of this yet, but it looks like a really eclectic list and good way to uncover some new (old) music.
The 100 greatest songs of the 1960s
Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover your favorite albums and films.
pastemagazine.com
This worth checking out in a full-size browser, as well as clicking through to the archive of thousands of historic American menus. Looking through the Oregon menus uncovered one Portland dinner serving "Mount Tabor owls, roasted." A challenge for local chefs!
A History of Menus is a Menu of History
What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?
pudding.cool
On the First Amendment implications of Texas's law restricting minors' use of social media.
The Supreme Court is about to decide if children still have free speech rights
The Court’s hearing a case which asks if the internet has made the First Amendment obsolete.
vox.com
