Restoring TCUP

Digital decay is inevitable. Zeros and ones might not fade, or rust, like their material counterparts, but without maintenance and care digital systems break down over time just the same. Some of this gets swept under the rug, because Google might stop linking to a broken website, reducing the chanc

asfarasicantell.com

Iceland: Week 52

One year later, this is my last full day in Iceland. It's been more than a year on the calendar, but somehow my time in Iceland ended up being exactly one year when accounting for various trips. My ap...

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Eva and the Island

In reviewing Tim Ecott’s previous book, The Land of Maybe: A Faroe Islands Year, I concluded that he likely had more stories to tell about the Faroe Islands. He had clearly fallen in love with the pla...

lookingnorth.blog

Iceland: Week 51

Things have gotten very minimal. As I enter my last week living in Iceland, I've had success in selling all of my larger pieces of furniture, which is a relief, but that also leaves me with a very spa...

asfarasicantell.com

From the megalophobia community on Reddit: The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the only rotating boat lift in the world.

Explore this post and more from the megalophobia community

reddit.com

Iceland: Week 50

I'm down to my last fortnight in Iceland and it has a symmetry of undoing, mirroring the steps I took last July as I figure out how to cancel accounts, sell my things, and say goodbye to my adopted co...

asfarasicantell.com

Visiting Stóra Dímun

A day spent on Stóra Dímun, the Faroe Islands' smallest and most remote inhabited island.

lookingnorth.blog

Faroe Islands: Week 2

After an unusually sunny first week in the Faroe Islands, my remaining time exhibited the more typical Faroese pattern of unpredictable rain, fog, and wind. This wasn't nearly as bad as it seems thoug...

asfarasicantell.com

Faroe Islands: Week 1

I've been in Tórshavn for a week, long enough to settle into a routine of sorts. I've been writing at Williamshús in the morning, then out exploring the city and nearby islands by bus and boat in the afternoon. I've made progress thinking through some upcoming projects, but have also been drawn to c

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Williamshús

This morning, I woke up at 5am to the sound of crows and kittiwakes, the July sun already fully risen but still bathing Tórshavn in a pink haze that flattened the outline of Nólsoy, visible from my kitchen window. The shape of the island in shadow is like a cartoon snake that has swallowed something

asfarasicantell.com

Iceland: Week 49

Tomorrow I fly to the Faroe Islands for my residency at Williamshús, the former home of William Heinesen, a Faroese writer and composer. I'll be living in an apartment on...

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How to Prevent Meta From Using Your Instagram Images in A.I.

nytimes.com

Iceland: Week 48

The numbering of these weekly blog posts doesn't include the three weeks I spent in the US around the new year, so while typing "48" into the header, it caught me off-guard to realize that this coming week will cap the one-year mark of my arrival in the country. It has been dawning on me in other wa

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Iceland: Week 47

Back in Week 4, I hiked the Laugavegur trail, a 55 km path from Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk in the Icelandic highlands. The starting point, a series of rhyolite mountains surrounding a massive lava field, was a magical spot that I knew I wanted to go back to before I left Iceland. This week, just th

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Iceland: Week 46

There are lots of parades in Iceland. This week's parade was in honor of Icelandic National Day, when the country officially broke ties with Denmark to form an independent republic on June 17, 1944. Not to be confused with Sovereignty Day, when Denmark first recognized Iceland's autonomy on December

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Iceland: Week 45

This week brought the kind of summer sun that garners local headlines about an "epic heatwave," which in Reykjavík means 68° Fahrenheit. On Friday, I took a long walk around the city and the mood was ebullient, with Nauthólsvík beach full of sunbathers midday and most people opting to soak in the se

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How the world’s greatest trailbuilders create the perfect hike

Around the world, trail designers are quietly employing surprising techniques to engineer awe. You’ve probably felt it without even knowing why. Inside the creative science that’s transforming your ti...

nationalgeographic.com

Iceland: Week 44

The Reykjavík Arts Festival is going on this week and I filled two more slots on my Icelandic musician bingo card. The first was a performance by Hildur Guðnadóttir and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Hildur is the artist-in-residence at this year's festival, hosting multiple events throughout the t

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Iceland: Weeks 42 + 43

For most of the last two weeks my parents have been in Iceland. After a couple of days in Reykjavík, we traveled around the country together, driving 1500 miles counter-clockwise on the Ring Road with excursions into Vestmannaeyjar, the Eastfjords, and around various peninsulas. They were on a tour

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Iceland: Week 41

It's been an interstitial kind of week. After returning from London to a windy and still quite chilly Iceland, I've spent much of my time this week reading, getting extra...

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Iceland: Week 40 (& London)

My week started and ended in Iceland, but in between I spent four days in London, going to museums, taking lots of trains, drinking great coffee, and walking over 30 miles. It was nice to be in a giant city again, to feel the energy and possibilities that, for all its charm, are not part of life in

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Iceland: Week 39

Last Thursday, 255 days after my first day of classes, I hit submit on two final papers and wrapped up my one-year graduate program in international relations at the University of Iceland. Last semester was focused on core theories, along with the Arctic and Iceland's foreign policy. This semester h

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The Ensh*ttificator

Digital products and services keep getting worse. In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved into enshittification and how to r...

vimeo.com

Presidents Can Be Impeached Because Benjamin Franklin Thought It Was Better Than Assassination

The founding fathers struggled with the idea of whether the top leader should be impeachable

smithsonianmag.com

Iceland: Week 38

Thursday was the first day of Icelandic summer and after my oral exam in Internet Governance that morning I attended The Green Walk, a march across Reykjavík promoting nature conservation. Iceland is a country of such natural beauty that it's easy to assume its citizens are inherently aligned with p

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Iceland: Week 37

Signs of spring abounded in Iceland this week, from flowers pushing themselves out of the soil, to cats sneaking around the streets, to a mountain hike with only scattered remnants of snow and ice. The first day of Icelandic summer, a public holiday, is this Thursday. Icelanders don't have Punxsutaw

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Iceland: Week 36

The collage above includes some photos from the previous week, a sign that I've been heads down since returning from my trip to the north. The upcoming week is the last for my classes, and I've mostly been focusing on the remaining tasks to wrap up the semester. I have a couple of assignments, a cou

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