when i get on my beloved N train and the train car has cold white fluorescents instead of warm incandescent lights i understand why caesar wasted his last breaths to gasp out “et tu, brute?”
The Dog Breed That Was Literally a Kitchen Appliance.
For three centuries, every serious kitchen in Britain ran on dog power. The turnspit dog, a short-legged, long-bodied breed officially classified as Canis vertigus, was purpose-bred to sprint inside a wooden wheel mounted on the wall, which turned a chain connected to the roasting spit. First documented in 1576, these animals worked in shifts, running for hours to keep joints of meat rotating evenly over open flames.
They were universally described as ugly. "Long-bodied, crooked-legged and ugly dogs, with a suspicious, unhappy look about them," wrote one naturalist in 1809. The misery was apparently well-founded. Cooks reportedly threw hot coals into the wheel to keep a tired dog running. Kitchens kept them in pairs so each got every other day off, and owners could tell them apart because one always hid on its workday.
On Sundays, the dogs got a reprieve, they were brought to church. Not for salvation, but because they made excellent foot warmers during long sermons. During one service in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester read from Ezekiel and uttered the phrase "it was then that Ezekiel saw the wheel." Every turnspit dog in the building bolted for the door.
Queen Victoria kept three retired turnspits as pets. But by the mid-1800s, a mechanical device called the clock jack could do the same job without feeding or rest. The breed had no other purpose. Within a generation, every last one was gone. Today, a single stuffed specimen named Whiskey sits in a glass case at Abergavenny Museum in Wales, the only physical proof that an entire breed of dog once existed solely as a living kitchen gadget.
Turns out planned obsolescence has been around a lot longer than the iPhone.
NYC observations after spending last week there
• people are actually outside touching grass (or cement 😅)
• very few AI ads or billboards around
• even cafes i went to - very few screens with claude code or cursor or some coding tool
• people are way more open to socializing. everyone is willing to strike up a conversation (not about AI agents)
• the energy is electric - everyone’s moving with purpose.
• found a way to talk to folks without mentioning AI
• way more artists, and non traditional creators. Met an actual physical product designer which was cool.
it’s genuinely refreshing to remember there’s a whole world outside the feed
been traveling the last few days and the SF tech bubble makes it easy to forget how alive real cities feel.
sorry SF, you’re still home… but perspective is healthy 🤷♂️
@colorblindk1d@sally124445 who are you to say that lol i literally know a law firm partner who clears $1m a year and she buys half her clothes on the real real. just admit ur mad bc she has style
@ascend_dfw@sanpellyenjoyer put a few tbsps of white vinegar in with the wash (softens + additional disinfectant) and then your clothes are softer after the dryer. no smell either