The Independent Variable
The Independent Variable
Kevin Humdrum
Welcome to The Independent Variable, the official linkblog of the interwebs covering culture, politics, sports, and tech since 2012.
Latest Posts
BirchtreeSo I’ll ask again, would you rather have had your music listened to by more people and you earned more money, or would you like to have had fewer people listen and make less money?I’m sorry, but this is nonsense. The whole point...
YouTubeSami is a favorite to win the Turner Award for 2025, featuring the best in new developments in contemporary art in Britain. Getting to see Sami in his element, talking about his art, was wondrous. There is power and reckoning in...
pkethWhen that happens, companies (especially the VC-backed kind) now need to contrive new and increasingly stick-like reasons for customers to pay again. From made-for-marketing ‘features’ that suck to use IRL, to breaking compatibility...
Winter is ComingAnyone can start a literary journal, but it takes dedication and care for one to prosper and grow into something with potential. Foofaraw Press is an independent zine of surreal storytelling and worldly observations....
The EconomistMany of the new lawyers installed in senior posts over recent months “don’t care what the right answer is”, bemoans the former senior JAG. “They spend all their time trying to figure out what the administration wants and...
Mac AppSo this is a genius app/extension to Apple Notes that works on top of Apple Notes to give you better formatting tools, markdown, slash commands, backlinks, and templates. It has me rethinking where I keep my notes—currently in iA...
.new - Google RegistryBrowse the full list of .new shortcuts available today from Adobe, Spotify, and many more.Whats.NewI have long been a frequent user of "docs.new" to quickly create new Google Docs. TIL that there are far more '.new'...
LithubTons of awesome looking and sounding books here. Support small presses this holiday season! The dream is for a Foofaraw book to one day be featured on a list like this.
SF ChronicleAlthough Michelin has positioned its inspectors’ anonymity as a key component of its process in evaluating restaurants and hotels, the wine inspectors’ visits will not be anonymous.I find the Michelin Guide to be absolutely...
The EconomistFootball still struggles in America, though. MLS remains a dull watch, despite its sprinkling of foreign mega-stars such as Lionel Messi, who plays for Inter Miami.Not surprising that a country with one of the highest...
The New YorkerSince Trump returned to office his Administration has fired or muzzled government scientists with disfavored views on nutrition and climate change; cancelled funding for long-running surveys on food insecurity and global...
The New YorkerMaybe my brain is replaying my life now because I have a terminal diagnosis, and all these memories will be lost. Maybe it’s because I don’t have much time to make new ones, and some part of me is sifting through the...
BBCHernández was found guilty in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and of possessing machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.Bombing boats from Venezuela without any (publicly released) evidence, while...
HarvardThe dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.Four hundred thousand...
Short of the WeekIncredible animated student short film from France. Produced in a stunning knitted stop-motion animation style to create some beautiful visuals. And if you stick around for the whole thing, it gets pretty deep.