Daily Bafflements

• “The more power you have, the harder it is to know who is lying to you and who is not. When you reach absolute power, there is no contact with reality, and that’s the worst kind of solitude there can be . . . . The solitude that threatened me after One Hundred Years of Solitude wasn’t the solitude of the writer; it was the solitude of fame, which resembles the solitude of power much more.” – Gabriel García Márquez

• Check out Jessica Roy’s piece in TIME about Terasem, a technology-based transcendent religion not headquartered in Silicon Valley, weirdly. Terasem’s followers believe that it’s possible to create and preserve a digital version of oneself, and then upload that self into an artificial body in the far future. Sample pull-quote: “So far more than 32,000 people have created free mindfile accounts.” Another: “Technology does feel and small and look and act like a God, at least sometimes.”

• Here is a site where you can explore the Los Angeles Police Department’s archive of noir crime scene photos (via David Grann).

• Speaking of criminal photos, you simply must look at this one, circulated by Paul Healy, which he describes thusly: “Here is an incredibly good quality photo from the 1850s, featuring two young royals on tour in the colonies.” It’s even in color, somehow. (Clap, smile, clap, clap.)