- An oral history of Industrial Light and Magic
- Always Invite Anna
- Don’t cry for millennials or Gen Z. Save your pity for those in their 50s. Why Gen X is the real loser generation.
- Fat Bear Week is here.
- This is now incredibly the 16th consecutive year I’m linking to this: It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers
- The truth is not always beautiful nor beautiful words the truth. – via @swiftonsecurity.com
- I’ve always loved the Jabberwocky.
- For more than a century in the 18th & 19th centuries, an edited version of Romeo & Juliet, with “a 67-line final conversation between Romeo and Juliet“, was more popular than Shakespeare‘s original. – via kottke
And now for the bad news:
- A little chat about genAI is well worth your time. Don’t be the kind of person who says, “I hear you. I understand. But also, I don’t care.”
- He’s Been On Louisiana’s Death Row for Decades. A Judge Just Vacated His Conviction.
- “A former director of the North Carolina Republican Party – who resigned amid election fraud and corruption scandals – has been appointed to a new role overseeing North Carolina’s state and local election officials…” – via @maddow.msnbc.com
- Bear shot, killed after wandering into Central Florida home
- POTUS Fired a U.S. Attorney Who Insisted on Following a Court Order
- Hollywood Union Files Complaint Against Use of James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader Voice—Which He Sold Before His Death
Posts tagged “dailydavid”
- Twitch streamer Kai Cenat gifted a home and car to a mother and her son after they were evicted.
- Del Shannon, best known for his 1961 hit Runaway, hired Tom Petty on as his producer for the 1981 album Drop Down and Get Me.
- “Pasta alla Cacio e pepe” is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect texture and creaminess of the sauce can be challenging. – via kottke
- This is not the first time I’m urging you to learn about the paradox of tolerance.
- “I think it’s embarrassing, where they’re at. […] Like, they have no pride. They have no gut. They’re embarrassing. They’re an absolute shame and a dark mark on the University of Florida right now. Billy Napier should be gone. [But he] is not public enemy number one. He is not enemy number one of me, at all. That falls on the spineless, greedy losers that aren’t willing to make the call that needs to be made because they’re padding their own pockets, and because they don’t care about winning.” – via Brandon Olsen, Locked on Gators
- Related: SEC annual opponents revealed. Call me crazy, but I don’t like the new format and miss having divisions.
Good news for people who love bad news:
- Confirmed: Fascism is worse than UV rays.
- This time around is different; things are actually getting materially worse each day, and the human brain is unequipped to notice, let alone process, all of it. – via The Handbasket
- Here’s a very comprehensive overview of all the many indefensible things the current administration is doing to terrorize… our food.
- Every year thousands of Americans die on the roads. Individuals take the blame for systemic problems.
- In the olden days, a kingdom threatened by a strangely-tinted, tiny-handed, fire-breathing beast might opt to attempt to buy it off with a princess or two. Now we offer him a night at Windsor Castle.
- We Already Know a Way to Save a Bunch of Lives. Thanks to insurance companies, we’re not doing it.
- One of the largest sports collectibles forgery rings in the hobby has been busted in a bizarre fraud and forgery case that has rocked the hobby.
- A professional toy photographer recreated the amazing story of the Shackleton Arctic expedition using LEGO bricks and a Nikon DSLR camera.
- Tragic things are going to happen. Figuring out how and why is the complicated work of serious professionals.
- I really cannot argue with any of the films on this list of The Ten Best Screenplays of All Time, but I dramatically disagree with the order. I also cannot imagine not putting Casablanca first and not including Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or any of a half dozen other Spielberg movies.
- Spontaneously Exploding Prosecco sounds like it would be a good late-90s Italian punk band name.
- The ‘rising fastball’ was a tantalizing myth. Then teams started teaching Induced Vertical Break.
- I agree with most of the points made in this essay on why Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural still resonates with sports fans. (It’s one of my all-time favorite movies.)
- An Amateur’s Guide to Working with the Media in a Hostage Crisis
“Even the word hopeless is not devoid of hope.”
– Blinky
Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate all vaccine mandates.- Consider those loonies who believe that the Apollo moon landing never happened. Now imagine a world in which everybody is like that about everything—because nothing can be proven. – Our Shared Reality Will Self-Destruct in the Next 12 Months
- The current administration’s shortcut rule-making is shortchanging all of us.
- His Book on Charlie Kirk Was About to Come Out. Then His Subject Was Murdered. (See also: Florida Reporter Suspended After Texting MAGA Congressman to Ask If He Still Supports Campus Carry After Kirk Shooting)
- The Department of Education has announced that it will partner with right-wing think tanks and organizations to develop and spread what it claims is patriotic education.
- It’s painful to read the archived story of how Epstein, bolstered by unlimited funds and represented by a powerhouse legal team, was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them.
- Dave Barry wrote a lovely essay on what it was like to learn from Google’s AI-powered search results that he’d recently passed away. Allison Parrish wrote a bonkers analysis detailing more than you wanted to know about how Game Boy cartridges work. – both via cassidoo
- If you still have any subscriptions on their platform, send the author this detailed piece on how and why to leave Substack. – via kottke
- Related: Substack has once again revealed itself to be a Nazi bar.
- Some notes on the iPhone’s New Satellite Messaging Function – via @sweat_science
- New research reveals that Americans have abandoned a simple daily habit that reduces stress as well as — and, at times, more effectively than — exercise, meditation apps, or massage. Taking just 15 minutes to read for pleasure can reduce your stress levels by 68 percent — but 84 percent of American adults no longer do it daily. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
- Related: More than half of American adults now read below a sixth-grade level. – via Kimchi & Gabagool
- Nobody Knows How to Make a Pencil is a brilliant essay from 1958 which I first read on Jason’s site forever ago. (The original link is gone but I found a copy on the Internet Archive.)
- I Am An AI Hater
- Help save Ned the snail!
- Introduction to AT Protocol – via cassidoo
Things Can Only Get Better:
- The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism. – via Laura Olin
- Scientists say flesh-eating bacteria cases are rising because of climate change.
- Every Frame Is a Goodbye is a lovely little essay on photography – via my dad
- I am relieved to report that Happy Gilmore 2 was fantastic. I was worried it might be terrible, but it was a masterpiece sequel and loaded with incredible cameos and great jokes.
- A Friendly Introduction to SVG and a Priority Compass – both via the always brilliant cassidoo
- Someone has put together a compilation of awesome video game maps. – via hiro.report
- Here’s a handy hack to keep squirrels out of your garden.
- “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” I’ve seen that attributed to William Butler Yeats, but Quote Investigator can’t verify it.
- Related: Stop living this way. Make the smallest bit of effort. Be your own person. Research. Take pride in the words you repeat, and … attribute them accurately.
- We truly owe Thomas Jefferson mad, mad props for wonderfully irreverent things like the Season 27 premiere of South Park.
- I’ve been using Markdown for around twenty years now and still often forget what’s what. I love a good cheat sheet.
- Just Give Me Some Normal Damn Dinosaurs
- Mysterious Antimatter Physics Discovered at the Large Hadron Collider
- Military leaders aghast as Meta founder Zuckerberg crashes classified Oval Office meeting
- FEMA response to deadly Texas floods delayed and deficient with Noem in charge
I am unabashedly irrationally jealous of Bandit Heeler.- I recently watched (and very much enjoyed) The Four Seasons on Netflix. Aside from one incomprehensible casting decision, it was great.
- Three hours outside of Las Vegas: Star Wars Glamping
- A few things I’ve researched online recently: types of scissors, Randall Tex Cobb, where to watch Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Are Tarantulas Dangerous?, The Ice Storm cast
- Owls in Towels is exactly what you think it is. – via both kottke and Laura Olin
- Whoa. Liam Neeson is doing a remake of The Naked Gun?! – via The Dailies
- The Missing Semester of Your Computer Science Education
- Killer bees!
- Star Wars Lofi is a collection of ambient background music / videos from a galaxy far, far away.
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves:
- The Whiff of Corruption: POTUS’ New Perfume Has Strong Notes of Graft
- One of the Dreamliners That Gave a Boeing Manager Nightmares Just Crashed
- HOTTEST TAKE: Stupid-Americans are the New Irish-Americans, POTUS is Their JFK. is a brilliant essay on our current predicament in America. Stupid people are those who don’t understand what is happening around them and have no interest in actually finding out.
- Alligator Alcatraz immigrant prison camp is Florida’s sadistic ‘one-stop shop’ for mass deportation
- Why Won’t ICE Comment on Kristi Noem‘s Cannibal Stories?
- FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff
- Ten Ways to Get a Tee Time at Augusta National – via my son
- What Is Italian Brain Rot? The Surreal TikTok Obsession, Explained
- A cephalopod captured on video in March has been confirmed as a juvenile colossal squid, the first live colossal squid observed in its native habitat.
- I visited the Disney website to find the hours of the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival and was asked to complete a survey. Here was my answer to their question about Lightning Lane passes: “I have been an AP holder (at Disneyland for 5+ years and at Disney World for 10+ years) and still absolutely cannot understand how Lightning Lane works. It’s incredibly confusing compared to Fast Passes and it’s reprehensible and indefensible that AP holders must pay for Lightning Lane passes.”
- Italy enacted a law in March 2025 making it so only individuals who can prove at least one parent or grandparent was born there will can be considered citizens from birth.
- Wow. The U.S. government is phasing out the penny, whose use has spanned more than two centuries.
- The Sports Bra, a small chain of bars that only show women’s sports on their TVs, announced that it’s opening new locations in Boston, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.
- Bobby Tables: A guide to preventing SQL injection
Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing:
- POTUS resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of twelve countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions.
- The [current] administration revoked EMTALA guidance for emergency rooms to provide abortions when pregnant patients’ lives are in danger.
- Even the pro-gun lawyer working at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives opposed the current administration’s move to allow the sale of forced reset triggers.
- While ICE patrols court houses for law-abiding immigrants, friends of the President get a free pass.
- Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled after the head of the disaster agency said he had not been aware the United States has a hurricane season.
- Close your eyes and point in almost any direction, and you’ll find an area of knowledge loss.
- Andor was phenomenal. Full stop. It wasn’t simply a great Star Wars story. It was a brilliant story even if you had — quite inconceivably — never even heard of Star Wars. It also managed to stay full-throttle awesome from S1E1 through S2E12, and somehow it did this even though everyone watching knew exactly what happens next, which had to have been unimaginably difficult to execute. (And I am not ashamed to admit that I didn’t realize Andor was “and/or” until several episodes into the first season, even though anyone unlucky enough to be the recipient of a professional email from me can tell you that’s one of my favorite conjunctions.)
- Related? The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site
- The New York Liberty Became the First $450M Women’s Team
- I (mostly) agree with the list Bruce Feldman compiled of the 25 best players of the millennium (so far). I have bigger issues with the list David Ubben put together of the best college football games since the turn of the century. I was somewhat surprised to see Florida ranked tenth in the list Stewart Mandel made of the best programs of the 2000s. It’s hard to believe how long it’s been since we had the best QB in history.
- Take It on the Run by REO Speedwagon holds up.
- Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz recently sent a home run out of PNC Park at 122.9 mph (against the Milwaukee Brewers), recording the hardest hit ball in the Statcast era.
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction:
- Dozens of staffers walked out when NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya promoted an unproven COVID origin story.
- [Current] administration orders Michigan coal plant to stay open
- The Belief System Behind the Palm Springs Bombing
- “[D]on’t worry about making your products safe for your customers. Even if you kill them, just pay a small fine and move on.” Apparently not prosecuting criminals is how to make America great again.
- It’s always a bummer to learn that a perfect domain name is already taken.
- Every high school theology, civics, social studies, and American history teacher should show the Bible lesson scene from The West Wing (The Midterms, S2E3) at least once each semester.
- Five Quick and Easy Habits Suggested by Sports Psychologists is a phenomenal resource. Read it.
- The DMARC Guide from Global Cyber Alliance is an invaluable tool for anyone who manages email servers.
- An endurance swimmer aims to become the first person to swim around Martha’s Vineyard, getting in the water during the start of white shark migration season, in a bid to change perception of the predators shaped by Jaws. See also: Jaws Turns 50
- I still can’t get over the serendipity of Harvard not realizing they had an original copy of the Magna Carta. It would be very convenient if someone could find a copy of Constitution somewhere soon. It seems like almost everyone currently in Washington, D.C. hasn’t read it lately.
- Long-distance relationships are always difficult, even for KGB spies.
A Hazy Shade of Winter:
- Moderna pulls application for COVID–flu combination shot. – via carlbergstrom.com
- Majority of US states now have laws banning or regulating cellphones in schools, with more to follow. [Maybe parents wouldn’t be so desperate for a way to contact kids during school if we weren’t always terrified of them getting shot.]
- An AI-generated summer reading list was published in major newspapers. [Tip of the iceberg. Canary in a coalmine. Whatever you want to call it. It’s going to get worse.] – via boghuma.bsky.social
- Diseases are still spreading, but the CDC is no longer warning the public about them.
- The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.
- This might be the dumbest thing he’s ever said, and he’s said some of the dumbest things anyone has ever heard in human history. (And that I don’t even need to tell you who he is because you already know supports this claim.)
- How Jeffrey Lurie, Jason Kelce, and the Eagles saved the tush push.
- Police in France have found the long-lost graveside bust of Jim Morrison.
- It was never meant to be proprietary. That’s just one of many good points Anil makes in MCP is the coming of Web 2.0 2.0.
- Pope Leo XIV heads the Catholic church from Vatican City, where a secret tennis court awaits.
- Holy smokes. That Preakness win by Journalism was incredible.
- The epic collapse of Florida governor Ron DeSantis is well deserved.
Stuck in the Middle With You:
- The current administration is trying to repeal a Biden rule that requires lead water pipes to be replaced. – via kellster.bsky.social
- U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1M and $5M worth of shares on April 2, just before the POTUS “Liberation Day” press conference that sent the stock market tumbling. – via darthbluesky.bsky.social
- I strongly agree with this statement, because it’s hard to stomach the idea that Everyone Is Cheating Their Way through College – via my friend
- Is anyone truly surprised that Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has no idea what habeas corpus means? See also: The Questionable Case of Kristi Noem’s $50 Million Luxury Jet
- Criminal investigation launched related to Hope Florida, the sham charity championed by DeSantis and his wife. – via progressflorida.org