What’s worse for disease spread: animal loss, urbanization, or the climate crisis? The climate crisis. / Goats and Soda
Donald Trump allegedly asked big-oil executives last month for $1 billion in campaign donations. / The Guardian
DNA analysis shows baobab trees first arose in Madagascar 21 million years ago. / BBC News
Paul Ford on generative artificial intelligence: “AI is like having my very own shameless monster as a pet.” / WIRED
A quick list of improvements in the latest version of ChatGPT. / X
Related: OpenAI is framing GPT-4o as a translation service, “which raises real questions about how it’ll hold up in widespread use.” / rest of world
“Circular construction” refers to building new projects in a way that allows raw materials and parts to be reused. / Bloomberg CityLab
Related: A Seattle company is selling home-building kits based on Frank Lloyd Wright designs. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
In “perhaps the most-Japanese contest,” gardeners compete to create seasonal landscapes in the bed of their trucks. / Spoon + Tamago
Unrelated: A “portal” sculpture, connecting residents in New York and Dublin, is shut down after reports of people mooning each other. / The Telegraph
The great Alice Munro dies at 92. A tribute to her work from Munro’s Books, and a selection of stories and essays. / The New York Times [+], Instagram, The New Yorker
Attention readers: Camp ToB, the Tournament of Books’ summer popup event, is coming soon, and we need your help picking the books! / The Tournament of Books
