today's wire, drawn at random

Tuning in…

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Sourced from

Observed from —, local time —.

What this is. A single static HTML file, no server, no database, no account. On every visit it asks the English Wikipedia's own API for the Current Events Portal, a page volunteer editors update continuously and source to wire services and major outlets — AP, Reuters, the BBC, the Times, and others. Your browser then draws one entry from that list by chance and sets it on the page. Reload, or press “another,” and it draws again.

Why random. A feed built only from what you already say you want can quietly wall you off from the earthquake, the ruling, the coup, that you didn't know to ask for. The free press only does its constitutional work if someone is still reading things they didn't select. This page is a small, imperfect stand-in for that: a spread of what an editor judged worth recording, offered to you unsorted.

The type. Set in Computer Modern, designed by Donald E. Knuth for TeX, one family carrying every size on this page from the word you can read across the room down to this line.

The shape. The layout follows Edward Tufte's idea of scale: state the large thing first, then let each fact resolve into finer detail as you look closer, or here, as you scroll — category, then story, then sources, then the fine print of where and when you're reading it.

Wikipedia text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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