Did you know that Atlanta is known for a distinct type of roller skating and that the style is currently under threat of being diluted by skaters from around the country who roll into town on a regular basis? Me neither. NYT (Gift Article with some pretty rad photos): A ‘Skate Migration’ Is Changing How Atlanta Rolls. "It was the warm-up party for the Jivebiscuit Skate Family Reunion, one of the longest-running national gatherings of Black roller skaters. The 17-year-old event, held in February, is one of several annual parties that have made Atlanta a skating hub, bolstered by a steady, decades-long influx of Black residents from other cities ... That commingling has Atlanta’s stalwart skaters concerned about keeping their distinctly energetic and percussive style alive. They say Atlanta’s newer skaters, who have wide access to regional variants, increasingly practice a hybridized type of skating that’s not rooted in any one tradition." (You ever have one of those epiphanic moments when you realize you've wasted your whole adult life sitting in front of a laptop, reading and regurgitating news stories, when you could have been strapping on pair of roller skates and attending events with names like the Jivebiscuit Skate Family Reunion?) 2Gender RevealIn many ways, young voters were the key to the 2020 election, and the same could be true in 2024. This time around, key issues among this cohort could be an "opposition to the intensity of the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza and frustration with an economy many see as stacked against them." It's safe to say that, "the closeness of the contest between Trump and Biden puts especially heavy pressure on Biden to negotiate a cease-fire, if not a conclusion to hostilities in Gaza." (This is true even though every piece of evidence we have suggests Trump would be worse on this—and every other— issue.) But there's something else emerging in this group: a gender divide that one researcher describes like this: "Something more significant is going on than just new demographic patterns, such as rising rates of education or declining adherence to a religion — the change points to some kind of cataclysmal event." This is not your father's gender divide, or your mothers. Like every other divide in America today, the one between young men and women is historically stark. Lots of interesting datapoints in this overview from Thomas Edsall in the NYT (Gift Article): A Huge Gender Gap Is Emerging Among Young Voters. 3Commands Performance"Agents are not only going to change how everyone interacts with computers. They're also going to upend the software industry, bringing about the biggest revolution in computing since we went from typing commands to tapping on icons." That was Bill Gates in a memo shared with Microsoft execs back in 2017. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft "forged a partnership with a then relatively unknown startup called OpenAI." One lesson of this article is pretty obvious: If you get a memo from Bill Gates, read it. But is another lesson that Bill Gates is still pulling the strings at Microsoft? Maybe ask ChatGPT? 4Fast Break"Pop quiz: What two traits do the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Lakers have in common? The first commonality is obvious: All five teams have either already been eliminated from the 2023-24 NBA playoffs or are one loss away from elimination ... The second shared trait might be related to the first: These are the five oldest teams in the playoffs." For a few years, we've been watching the rise of the new, young NBA superstars that would eventually take over the league from the household names we've come to know and love (or hate). The moment seems to have arrived during the first round of the 2024 playoffs. The Ringer: No Playoffs for Old Men. (FWIW, this trend comes for newsletter writers, too.) 5Extra, ExtraTrouble is Bruin: So you're a college president and all your training has been focused on managing academics. Now you're confronted with campus protests being covered nonstop by the media. You celebrate free speech. You hate violence. You also need your school, ultimately, to run (classes, exams, graduation ceremonies). Students are raging, professors are chiming in, donors are writing open letters. So what do you do? It turns out, almost every answer to this test has been wrong. NYT (Gift Article): Before the Violence, U.C.L.A. Thought a Tolerant Approach Would Work. 6Bottom of the News"The Georgia Department of Natural Resources confirmed that someone in the Brunswick area reported a nuisance alligator on April 21 — the day Henney said Wally went missing — and that a licensed trapper was dispatched to capture it. The agency said in a statement that the gator was 'released in a remote location,' but stressed that it doesn’t know if the reptile was Wally." Man says his emotional support alligator, known for its big social media audience, has gone missing.
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