“Utopian for Beginners” | Joshua Foer for the New Yorker

On constructed languages and what happens when a creator loses control of his creation.

“We think that when a person learns Ithkuil his brain works faster,” Vishneva told him, in Russian. She spoke through a translator, as neither she nor Quijada was yet fluent in their shared language. “With Ithkuil, you always have to be reflecting on yourself. Using Ithkuil, we can see things that exist but don’t have names, in the same way that Mendeleyev’s periodic table showed gaps where we knew elements should be that had yet to be discovered.” “She really understands my language!” Quijada exclaimed. He leaned across the headrest and told Vishneva, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, “I don’t know if you’re a saint or crazy.”

“Cyborg America” | Ben Popper for The Verge

On the burgeoning “grinder” subculture, based around body modification and human enhancement.

“The implant stayed put the second time. Tim quickly stitched the cut shut, and cleaned off the blood. “Want to try it out?” he asked Sarver, who nodded with excitement. Tim dangled the needle from a string of suture next to Sarver’s finger, closer and closer, until suddenly, it jumped through the air and stuck to his flesh, attracted by the magnetic pull of the mineral implant. “I’m a cyborg!” Sarver cried, getting up to join his friends in the waiting room outside. Tim started prepping a new tray of clean surgical tools. Now it was my turn.”

“Fear of a Black President” | Ta-Nehisi Coates for The Atlantic

On the promise and disappointment of Obama’s first term.

“What black people are experiencing right now is a kind of privilege previously withheld—seeing our most sacred cultural practices and tropes validated in the world’s highest office. Throughout the whole of American history, this kind of cultural power was wielded solely by whites, and with such ubiquity that it was not even commented upon. The expansion of this cultural power beyond the private province of whites has been a tremendous advance for black America. Conversely, for those who’ve long treasured white exclusivity, the existence of a President Barack Obama is discombobulating, even terrifying.”

“Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” Verse 2: A Close Reading With Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps” | Caleb Mason for the Saint Louis University School of Law

On the accuracy of Jay-Z’s legal advice in “99 Problems”

“The lesson for perps is threefold: (1) don’t consent, (2) know the reasonable suspicion boilerplate and don’t provide it, and (3) make a record of the encounter any way you can, including your behavior, appearance, and demeanor before and during the stop, the officer’s stated motive for the stop, all of your responses to questioning, whether or not you were placed under arrest, and the exact amount of time you were held on the side of the road. And finally, most importantly, for both sides—when in doubt, talk to a lawyer. My door’s always open to players on both sides of this game. Call me.”

“‘I Refuse to Cater to the Bullshit of Innocence’: Interview with Maurice Sendak” | The Believer

On watching friends die, ebooks, growing up in a family devastated by the Halocaust and “the idiot role of being a kiddie-book person”.

BLVR: You find the unvarnished truth consoling, even if it’s vicious and painful. MS: If it’s true, then you can’t care about the vicious and the painful. You can only be astonished. Most kids don’t dare tell the truth. Kids are the politest people in the world. A letter like that is wonderful. “I wish you would die.” I should have written back, “Honey, I will; just hold your horses.”

“Buckeye Hate” | Walter Kirn for The New Republic

On the character of Ohio and it’s disturbingly central role in presidential politics.

“In other words, [Ohio is] a state with lots of rednecks that also has plenty of poor urban minorities balanced by a certain magic number of college-educated professionals. Add in a lot of struggling factory workers, stay-at-home moms, Roman Catholics, evangelicals, college students, military veterans, Latino immigrants, and nursing home residents, and there you have it: our republic in a can. The situation disturbs me even so. That any one state should posses such outsize power over the country’s political destiny strikes me as outrageous on its face, but that this state should be my own birthplace, the very cradle of American mediocrity and overzealous lawn ornamentation, is positively terrifying.”

“Louis C.K. and the Rise of Laptop Loners” | Adam Wilson for the Los Angeles Review of Books

On the brilliance of Louie.

“It’s C.K.’s fearless embrace of the unsettling, the complex, and the potentially unmarketable that makes it an exciting show to watch.Louie is an ever-evolving creation, a no bullshit attempt to make something honest and challenging in a medium that’s inherent nature stands in stark opposition to these very goals. This is a brave thing to do, braver even than broadcasting one’s deep-seated fears and self-loathing for laughs.”

“Here & Gone” | Wright Thompson for ESPN’s Outside the Lines

On FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s curious relationship with his Argentinian hometown.

“Messi keeps returning to Rosario, pulled by obligation, to be sure, but likely by something else, too. He works at maintaining connections to his hometown. It starts with the way he talks. I grew up in Mississippi but, as I moved around, I left the guts of my southern accent in the Midwest. But Leo never lost the very specific Rosarino accent, and he’s lived in Spain almost as long as he lived in Argentina. That’s a choice.”

“Cocaine Incorporated” | Patrick Radden Keefe for The New York Times Magazine

On the cocaine supply chain, the business practices of the powerful Sinaloa cartel and their rivalry with the brutal Zeta cartel.

“Chapo and his colleagues were never peaceful types; in the last few years, they have waged vicious wars of acquisition to seize the lucrative smuggling routes through Juárez and Tijuana. But to fend off the Zetas, Sinaloa is resorting to new levels of barbarism. In March, the cartel dumped a collection of dismembered bodies in Zeta territory and posted a series of open letters on the walls around them, deriding the Zetas as “a bunch of drunks and car-washers.” Each message was signed, “Sincerely, El Chapo.”