Incremental Breakdown: “With Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region showing incremental progress, Ukrainian officials characterized the battle as grave and renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without that, the foreign minister warned, Ukrainian forces won’t be able to stop Russia’s advance on the east.” Russia squeezes Ukrainian strongholds in east. (Sociopaths don’t stop, they have to be stopped.)

+ Unhired Hitman: “One of the many strange things about being an American citizen these days is that there’s a whole lot of killing done in our name that our government deliberately keeps secret … What does it mean to be a citizen of a state that kills for you but doesn’t tell you about it? Are you still responsible?” Phil Klay in the NYT: America Kills Its Enemies in Our Name. And Then Keeps It Secret.

+ Wrap Star: “Between the inner layers of this modular vision of blocks, cubes, and interchangeable units is the diaphanous material that holds together the subcomponents of the containerized world: stretch wrap.” The Prepared: On Stretch Wrap.

+ Cone Head: “You may not know Joy by name, but you’ve probably tasted its cones. Mister Softee? A Joy customer. Dairy Queen? Also Joy. Your local ice cream shop? Probably.” NYT (Gift Article): Many Ice Creams, but One Cone to Rule Them All. (I don’t know which Joy inventor came up with the idea for the Mister Softee double-wide cone. But I salute you!)