Posts tagged “Barack Obama”

• Renewable energy was the world’s leading source of electricity in the first half of 2025 for the first time ever, knocking coal off its longtime throne. – via The Progress Network
• Narrative String Theory (NST) is an awesome collection of movies, television shows, and other assorted media that feature detectives (or conspiracy theorists) connecting pictures on a wall or whiteboard with thread.
• Taylor Swift gave her Eras Tour crew jaw-dropping bonuses because of course she did.
• Mississippi State will face Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, which requires head coaches to sign an agreement saying the winner will accept having a bucket of mayonnaise dumped on his head.
• RIP Tom Stoppard
• The Athletic did a great story on the current value of the sports collectibles seen in Home Alone.
  Related: Meet the family that pulled the most expensive Shohei Ohtani baseball card to date.
• Why do we have two nostrils instead of one big hole in our face? – via Jason
• 51% of the animals in farms across the world are shrimp. – via Tom Whitwell
• I know I’ve linked to this already, but I’m going to once again urge you to read the fascinating backstory of the Duck Tales theme song, history’s catchiest single minute of music.
• I’ve certainly experienced the Abilene Paradox plenty of times. I didn’t know it had a name, though. – via cassidoo
• Can Magnus Carlsen, the best chess player in the world, beat a novice while facing increasingly-difficult disadvantages?
• Jingle Bell Rock:
  • WTF? White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden
  • WTF? Liam Neeson Narrates Anti-Vax, Pro-RFK Documentary
  • WTF? Fake social media accounts attempted to push a ridiculous narrative framing Taylor Swift as a white supremacist.
  • Massachusetts Catholic Church Angers Conservatives with Its ICE-Themed Nativity Scene
  • Am I the only one thinking that there’s something really sus about this whole insane Venezuela lunacy? They’re not flooding us with drugs. We don’t need their oil. Why all the trumped up aggression? I feel like we’re living in the first few chapters of a 007 novel and we’re soon going to learn 90% of some critical part of cryptocurrency or artificial intelligence computer chips can only be found buried underneath some mountain range there or something like that.
  • “It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” wrote Maria Shriver, about the latest stupidity out of the current administration.

• “Don’t let your dreams give up on you.” – via @austinkleon
• “The supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar industry built on hype and deception. Here’s an inside look at what works, what doesn’t, and how to ensure you only use products you can trust.” – super informative, well-researched notes on everything from Vitamin D and collagen to fish oil and creatine, – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• “Personally, I’m making a choice to not be fearful.” – via Starship Casual
• “America’s collective decision in the 20th century to make cars and the roads serving them the bedrock of all urban and regional planning will go down in history as just another of our nation’s awful, ruinous ideas that we nevertheless clung to for generations, like slavery or lead paint.” – via kottke
• “If you must read one post-election assessment of what went wrong, [The Daily] Kos’s “What went wrong: Part 1” is worth your time.” – via @zeldman
• “If things really go south, expect MAGA Republicans to devour each other as hungrily as the worm who feasted on RFK Jr.’s brain.” – via @heidiyounggrasshopper
• “You know things are really bad when you’re Kübler-Rossing completely out of order.” – via @gatordavid
• I’ve been a fan of Daring Fireball for more than twenty years, and his How It Went essay might just be the best thing he’s ever published. If you’re looking for a tiny sliver of hope after the election, I highly recommend reading it. (Maybe grab a box of tissues first.)
• And remember, “This is the same country that elected Barack Obama… twice.” – via @geoffbaron

• Here’s some excellent advice from Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame: “Don’t be that guy. Don’t wait for the world to acknowledge your accomplishments.” (He’ll also help you find a job.)
• For @andybabb: A Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
• Where can I fly for how much?
• Twirdie is Twitter golf!
• The Earth is just amazing. (I had no idea the Titanic was that deep.)
• Porn surfers are likely to have out-of-date software that can be exploited, making those users an attractive target for cybecriminals.
• Sexual Congress
• How to keep someone with you forever — employee or lover.
• The Spill, The Scandal and the President is the inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years … and let the world’s most dangerous oil company get away with murder. (Does anyone else ever wonder why the hardest hitting investigative journalism in America is consistently done by a rock ‘n roll magazine?)

Okay, this is just awesome. Ron Howard directs Chevy Chase (as Gerald Ford), Dana Carvey (as George H. Bush), Darrell Hammond (as Bill Clinton), Will Ferrell (as George W. Bush), Dan Akroyd (as Jimmy Carter), and Jim Carrey (as Ronald Reagan) in a presidential reunion visit to Fred Armisen (as Barack Obama) and Maya Rudolph (as Michelle Obama) in the White House to try to convince the current President to push the Consumer Protection Act through Congress.