Posts tagged “Bob Dylan”

• The death of Brigitte Bardot, 1960s sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, means there are now only three people mentioned in the 1989 Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire who are still alive: Chubby Checker, Bob Dylan, and… Bernie Goetz. – via Simon Kuestenmacher
• There’s really no way to explain to anyone under the age of about forty what a big deal MTV was when it launched. It’s not at all surprising — I haven’t watched in at least twenty years — but it’s still a bit sad to learn they’re shutting down all music-only channels as of December 31.
• Also nostalgic: The HTML Elements Time Forgot
• Prepare to waste some time playing the Top 10 Free Browser Games of 2025.
• Rome just unveiled two new subway stops that transform its metro into a museum experience. – via Ciao Bella
• Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a runaway supermassive black hole ten million times larger than the sun, rocketing through space at 2.2 million miles per hour.
• I had no idea there was a sequel to one of my favorite SNL sketches.
• “That first post-game sacrifice only aired online, but the explosion was immediate.”
• A new study suggests moderate fitness appears to act like an insurance policy against alcohol’s long-term negative health effects. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• It’s hard to believe that Steven Spielberg has made only four studio films about aliens, primarily because his first two were so incredible. Disclosure Day, coming in 2026, will be his fifth.
• “If you want a job in the moisturizer industry, the best advice I can give is to apply daily.” – via Cassidy Williams
• Not securing domain names before announcing something idiotic has been a perpetual epic failure of the current administration.

• The Falconer time travel sketch is genius, and I can’t believe it took me almost twenty years to see it.
• Space Pants is almost as good. (Check out its Reddit thread and backstory, too.)
• Ballad of a Thin Man has always reminded me of The Second Coming. It’s more than a little disturbing that they’re equally relevant these days. – via my dad
• The Roman Empire’s original smartwatch: portable sundials
• I have been using Dotster as my registrar for this site for more than 25 years. I was a little miffed to learn last year that they were acquired by Web.com, but didn’t think much of it because my site’s registration is paid far in advance and I rarely think about it. Today I got an email telling me that Web.com was acquired by Network Solutions, and I cannot stand their platform. Most of my 50+ domains are registered at Dreamhost, so I’ll likely be switching soon.
• Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world:
  • “The last ship from China will dock at a West coast port on the 29th, and the last Chinese ship will dock on the East coast around May 10th. […] We’re screwed.“
  • [Current] administration officials are placing dozens of posters of arrested unauthorized immigrants along the White House driveway.
  • POTUS pardons Nevada politician who paid for cosmetic surgery with funds to honor a slain officer.
  • A little-known firm with investors linked to JD Vance, Elon Musk, and POTUS could get a piece of the federal expense card system — and its hundreds of millions in fees.
  • Republicans are trying to steal an election in North Carolina.
  • Please understand that when 2A cultists point their fingers at bizarre tragedies – like what happened recently in Vancouver – as some sort of justification for their infantile predilection for firearms, an excruciatingly rational response is that the entire automobile industrial complex is also misguided, cancerous, and evil.

• Dark energy is probably doing something weird, and we don’t know why.
• The Scale of Time
• New research suggests that being even slightly dehydrated can reduce muscle thickness after lifting weights—potentially limiting growth and recovery. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• Prosecutors who resigned rather than carry out what they saw as an unethical, improper and potentially illegal order were 100% vindicated by [the judge]’s extensive findings.
• “Only one thing / I did wrong / Stayed in Mississippi / Way too long” – For some reason I had no idea that this was a “newer” (relatively speaking) Dylan song, or that it was released on 9/11. It feels much older than that. (It’s also weird that the Sheryl Crow cover was released in 1998!)
• On the Best (Worst) Best Man Speech Ever (at My Super Mario-Themed Wedding) – via kottke, of course
• How to optimize files and fix your storage problems on Macs, iPhones, and iPads
• We Can Do Better:
  • Several members of [the President]’s National Security Council have been fired a day after conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and pressed [the President] to get rid of them.
  • The state of Florida is prepared to convict [a woman] for killing her son, despite the fact that the only direct evidence of arson has been thoroughly discredited. This story is as infuriating as it is heartbreaking.
  • JD Vance Would Throw His Own Kids Under A Bus If [POTUS] Were Driving It
  • How the [Current] Administration Learned to Obscure the Truth in Court
  • Texas GOP Congressman Ronny Jackson has been fundraising with what appears to be an unauthorized legal expense fund.
  • [Administration] Declares a Trade War on Uninhabited Islands, US Military, and Economic Logic
  • Georgia Woman Arrested After Having Miscarriage
  • The [current] administration is planning to halt more than half a billion dollars in contracts and grants awarded to Brown University.

My mom loved “Do not go gentle into that good night”, and I have thought about that poem quite a bit since she died. Last week I stood in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and explained who Dylan Thomas was to my son. When Taylor Swift released ttpd a few days later, I heard the title track and almost couldn’t believe the serendipity.