GOOD MORNING! It's August 14, 2073, and it's going to be a real scorcher. Yesterday was pretty bad in New York City-the thermometer reached 107, but you've seen it higher-and today will be worse. It's noisy in your apartment because the city is repaving the street, just as it did last fall. As it happens, you have a midday flight to Montreal, where your client has relocated from Miami. There's a knock at your door; it's a pair of EMTs doing a wellness check on your next-door neighbor, who is 89 and hasn't been seen for a few days. Turns out she's okay, but she's breathing a little hard and not moving around much, so they implore her to keep the air conditioner on.
When you step outside, dogs are whimpering as their paws hit the concrete. The crosswalk is even worse, literally hot enough to burn the pink pads on their feet. You had planned to take the new N-train extension to La Guardia, but it has gone out of service because the steel rails near 30th Avenue have expanded in the sun and buckled. Instead, you take a taxi, and though the driver is concerned about his decreased battery range in this heat, you make it then discover that La Guardia is curtailing takeoffs till dusk.
Rather than sit at the airport, you decide to get on the short section of the N train that is running back to Astoria, and you find a café there so you can work. Outside, two high-school students have set up a live stream. They've laid a skillet on the asphalt, and they crack an egg into it, hoping for a sizzle. When they pick up the pan, the bottom brings soft tar with it. The kids point an infrared thermometer at the blacktop and pull the trigger. It reads 152 degrees.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Early and Often: David Freedlander - Momentum vs. Machine The Trump and Harris campaigns battle it out for every last vote.
WIth two weeks left to go, the contours of the 2024 presidential election are clear: Both campaigns need voters who usually don’t vote, and Kamala Harris needs to bring the Democratic coalition, including its Trump-curious members, back home.While the Republican side plans to spend the remaining days of the contest trying to lure low-propensity voters to the polls, the Harris team will attempt to persuade voters of color to return to its side and will try to increase numbers among white voters in previously red suburbs.
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.