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Let’s kickstart 2026 with two brilliant essays from Anil Dash. How the Hell Are You Supposed to Have A Career in Tech in 2026? and How Markdown Took Over the World should both be required reading for every high school sophomore in America.
In April of 2010 a diver found a nearly seven inch Megalodon tooth.
I missed this bit of good news from last year: Vatican City Is Now Powered By Solar
How to Turn Toilet Paper Rolls Into DIY Boxes – via cassidoo
A massive 535-pound bluefin tuna sold for a record $3.2 million at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.
Spend a few minutes watching these interviews with dads outside Taylor Swift concerts. – via paulscheer.com
Netflix released the Stranger Things series finale in 600+ theaters over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, generating north of $25M in concession revenue. (That’s more than Avatar: Fire and Ash earned in actual ticket sales over the same stretch ($23.7M).) – via The Dailies
And finally, a handful of wonderful links from Laura Olin that I keep meaning to share:

When ancient Romans felt wronged, they didn’t ask for revenge from the gods. Instead they scratched their anger into thin lead sheets called defixiones, folded them carefully, and buried them in wells, graves, or temples, trusting that some power beneath the earth would take care of the rest.
Buckle up, buttercup. This essay is going to be tough to swallow. Collagen Sits on a Throne of Lies: How the supplement industry took meat garbage and turned it into a $9B business
A single HPV vaccination appears just as effective as two doses at preventing the viral infection that causes cervical cancer.
Finding it impossible to stop thinking about The Chair Company? You can get a Tecca t-shirt or hat, but they’re sold out of chairs.
One of the hardest parts of being a parent is attempting to balance, “Please study! School and your grades are very important,” with, “Don’t be stressed! This one history test isn’t going to matter at all in twenty years.” – via me
Have you ever wondered how a touch screen knows you are touching it?
Chindōgu: The Japanese Art of Unuseless Inventions
How a UF engineer found purpose Below Deck
Man unexpectedly cured of HIV after stem cell transplant
“Anyone who was born an American and therefore feels superior to someone who had to work to become an American doesn’t know the first thing about being an American.” – via @harrymccracken.com
Good News for People Who Like Bad News:
- A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them to separate facilities. – via @clauirizarry
- Zillow has removed climate risk scores from over a million real estate listings after realtors complained that information such as how at risk a home is from wildfires was causing them to lose sales. – via @carnage4life
- Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead. – via @papapishu
- “You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego.” – Penelope Hegseth to her son, Pete
- The Supreme Court is siding with the current administration 84 percent of the time; it sided with the Biden administration only 53 percent of the time. And of course only one of those administrations is habitually laying waste to the rule of law.
- Lawsuits allege USA Gymnastics, SafeSport failed to prevent sexual abuse by coach

“Hey gamers remember, on Dec 26 a lot of kids are gonna be online playing with their gifted console/game/pc for the first time. Be nice.” – via @dinocornel
An Ode to Christmas Eve
It’s a Christmas miracle! Netflix subscribers can play Civilization VI on iOS devices, free and with no ads. – via hiro.report
In 1996 Sir Purr became the only NFL mascot to ever be involved in a live play. – via @gregstreetz83
Is it just me or does every Instagram link shared via Apple Messages on iOS 18 take you to the wrong post? And the preview of the link in Messages never works.
The Alphabet Fades Away – via @anthony_onumonu
Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger, on lawmakers’ unfounded theories about those weird drones over New Jersey: “Members of Congress need to not be opportunistic idiots who say shit that’s not true.” – via crooked
Drinking caffeine (the equivalent of a very strong cup) thirty minutes before aerobic exercise increases fat oxidation by 11% in the morning and by 13% in the afternoon. – via Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Pump Club
A pregnant woman in Texas claimed her fetus was an HOV lane passenger, but got a ticket anyway.
New England’s largest outdoor sculpture park is in Brookline, New Hampshire, about an hour north of Boston. – via my dad

Plenty of excellent stories from Longreads: The Most Popular Editors’ Picks of the Year and Our Most Popular Stories of the Year
My friend Steve the Bartender recently did a Christmas Cocktail Special livestream!
Brilliant: ElevationLab has created an AirTag battery booster that lets you replace the default CR2032 battery with a pair of AA batteries instead, theoretically extending the charge of an AirTag for a decade.
You’ve got less than a week until the big day, so don’t forget to check out my quick list of easy Christmas gifts for parents.
This short video on the effects of a smartphone on your child is painfully accurate.
I know you’re getting tired of me talking about Shrinking, but I think it’s important to note that in a series featuring freaking Harrison Ford giving the performance of his career, it’s Ted McGinley – who plays Derek, the neighbor of Jason Segal – who rules the show. (McGinley was also in Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Revenge of the Nerds!)
A Tiny Christian College in Michigan Is Infiltrating Florida’s Schools
My son and I just happened to be watching TNF and were able to see the NFL’s first successful fair-catch free kick since 1976.
I adored Don’t Bleed on the Artwork: Notes from the Afterlife. Just astounding writing. Beautiful in the best way, including the gut-punch, “In Memory Care, one sees and hears many things one wishes to forget.”