Popula

Originally published at Medium in March 2018, and subsequently paywalled; offered here for ease of access. *** Mark Zuckerberg is a small man — five foot seven, according to Google — but that is not very widely known, because the only images of him available to the public are carefully crafted to make him look taller, according to former Wired writer Graham Starr.

Rap beef has no rules. When rappers clash, they can and do say whatever it takes to discredit their rivals. To win, emcees have lied, presented hearsay as gospel, and disclosed opponents’ intimate secrets. Collateral damage is common and often deliberate. Spouses, children, cities, record labels, radio stations, magazines, clothing brands, and even blogs have been caught in the figurative crossfire. Beef is a bloodsport.

When rappers clash, they can and do say whatever it takes to discredit their rivals. To win, emcees have lied, presented hearsay as gospel, and disclosed opponents’ intimate secrets. Collateral damage is common and often deliberate. Spouses, children, cities, record labels, radio stations, magazines, clothing brands, and even blogs have been caught in the figurative crossfire. Beef is a bloodsport.

Ten years ago, on April 25th, the City of Flint, Michigan, under the thumb of state-appointed emergency operators, switched their municipal water supply from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. Governor Rick Snyder’s Republican administration had imposed a brutal austerity paradigm on both Flint and Detroit, where the vast majority of Michigan’s Black population was concentrated.

I don’t know what happened, not really. My memories reveal, as if through curtains slightly opened, only a blurred something outside a greasy window that I can’t make out, or even ascribe a shape to. But something was, is, there, something dark and menacing and fixed on me. The common symptoms of childhood sexual abuse are many, and I have ‘em all: Addictions. Mysterious pains. Difficulty with intimacy. Compulsive sexual behaviors. A black vortex of anger and unplaced shame.

Arizona State University Librarian James O’Donnell’s comments on new developments in the lawsuit against the Internet Archive, published here with the author’s permission. The case of Hachette et al. v. Internet Archive lumbers on. It is mostly impossible to comment on this case without getting into the partisan weeds, and not much point to doing that. This is the kind of case that will have its life independent of what the enlightened general reader thinks or expects and will end where it ends.

The launch of Flaming Hydra, the exciting new publishing collective of 60 celebrated writers from Brick House, has kept Popula’s editors and writers working at a blistering pace for the last few weeks. This has meant an unexpectedly long hiatus from publishing at Popula. We do have some fine stories in the works here as well, so please stay tuned.

On October 7, 2023, in Gaza, my entire life changed. I am an accountant, married, with three kids, 2, 4, and 6 years old. Lived a happy normal life like any normal family. It was a Saturday when a war erupted between Israel and Hamas. “Armored group controls Gaza,” we heard, with no preparation or warning. Rockets bombing and destruction, everywhere in Gaza, without caring about civilian people’s lives.

Tom Scocca’s essay in New York last week, “My Unraveling,” is a matter-of-fact dissection of the failings of the US health care system, and of the casual brutality with which society treats those who fall ill; the precarity in which even the most hard-working and accomplished young professionals are expected to live, work, and raise families; and the grim state of the media industry, in which Scocca, one of the country’s most admired journalists and editors, has faced a huge amount of trouble...

Tom Scocca’s essay in New York last week, “My Unraveling,” is a matter-of-fact dissection of the failings of the US health care system, and of the casual brutality with which society treats those who fall ill; the precarity in which even the most hard-working and accomplished young professionals are expected to live, work, and raise families; and the grim state of the media industry, in which Scocca, one of the country’s most admired journalists and editors, has faced a huge amount of trouble...