Yes, it’s like BoingBoing never left.¹Wait, it hasn’t? Wild.

Automakers have discovered that people hate touchscreens! (Slate)
I hadn’t driven for over 20 years when we moved to New Mexico, and while our 2016 Subaru Forester only uses the touchscreen for the entertainment center and navigation,²I recently rented a Toyota Corolla for a business trip and about 2/3rds of the things I needed to do were hidden behind two clicks. I still hate it. Back in the 80s and 90s (and long before then), we used these weird things called buttons and knobs to perform complex tasks such as tuning the radio and turning up the air conditioning and you know what? It just worked. I get the whiz-bang factor that the touchscreen offers, but the ability to keep my eyes on the road while skipping over the skits on a Biggie album trumps that. (Like many of the worst things in modern technology, the growing touchscreen trend can be traced back to Elon Musk.)

A great look at the career of Stephen Root. (Vanity Fair)
In the last two weeks, RK and I have seen Root in Succession, Perry Mason³Yes, we are just getting to that. We know, okay?, and, of course, Barry. We have been absolutely loving it. It’s a testament to his ability as an actor that he’s playing completely different characters in each role while still having that ineffable groundedness in his performance. This served as a good reminder that I need to watch Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, where he returns to his theatrical roots (no pun intended) and plays Porter.

Take a ride on a space elevator. (neal.fun)
You think you know just how big the atmosphere is, and then you start scrolling. And you keep scrolling. And scrolling.

Criminals bought encrypted phones, or so they thought. (The New Yorker)
A great, longish read about the history and (likely) downfall of the much-coveted hardened phone. Maybe more important than the education offered here is the fact that this piece introduced me to the terrific Dutch word boeventelefoons, which translates to “Crook Phones.”