Posts tagged “Florida”

• Okay, I am late to the party on this one, but my heart just grew two sizes when I discovered that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr managed to surreptitiously, throughout the course of the 2022/23 NBA season, insert all the lyrics from the Taylor Swift song All Too Well into his post-game press conferences.
• The story of the Archimedes Palimpsest is fascinating. I saw someone mention it on Instagram and couldn’t believe it was true, but it appears to be a legitimate tale.
• The team at The Athletic put together a compelling argument that not only is Mahomes worth his new half-a-billion-dollar contract, but he might actually be better than Brady.
• I doubt you need me to tell you this, but Sally Field is just incredible in Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix. The movie is wonderful and we loved it.
• Renewables have surpassed global coal power for the first time in over a century! (The last time coal lost its lead as the world’s largest electricity source, the Treaty of Versailles was in review and Congress had just established a national park in Arizona named for its big hole in the ground.)
• Shohei Ohtani meets 100-year-old Nagasaki survivor
• Sure, they may be trying to jump on the Wordle bandwagon, and it’s a bit tricky to play, but the new Catalogues game from The New Yorker is pretty fun once you get the hang of it. – hat-tip @heidiyounggrasshopper
• You can’t produce a Field Notes edition of The Maltese Falcon and not expect me to automatically purchase it.
• This Smithsonian article explaining The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life was pretty interesting.
• Some good news on the public health front: Florida Republicans Refuse to Take Up DeSantis Bill Loosening Vaccine Mandates
• Need another reason to stop eating meat? A flesh-eating cattle parasite is spreading beyond Texas.
• The Voting Rights Act Was the Nice Version
• Asian jumping worms, an invasive, soil nutrient-gobbling earthworm that can leap a foot in the air, are moving rapidly across the country.
• A second detainee has died at an ICE facility in Louisiana where a recent inspection report found insanitary conditions, problems with medical care, and the use of excessive force.

• This was a surprisingly fun read: A complete guide to juggling, from zero to siteswap notation, by someone who juggles in nightclubs.
• Far too few people understand this crucial statement from this article from The Handbasket on the future of artificial intelligence in journalism: Telling a machine that can’t perceive that it can’t perceive won’t make it perceive that it can’t perceive.
• A New Jersey Teen Finds Treasure, and More, in Abandoned Storage Units
• Periodic and timely reminder that Marisa Tomei is an anagram for “It’s a me Mario!” – via @benoitbruneau
• Y2K 2.0: The AI security reckoning is yet another fantastic essay from Anil.
• I’d somehow never heard of the water-level task and now I can’t stop thinking about it.
• How a blind man made it possible for others with low vision to build LEGO sets
• It’s probably bad for everyone that Meta lost that big social media lawsuit.
• A guy in Australia searching for caves to explore using Google Maps found a huge scar on the landscape that turned out to be evidence of a massive tornado that nobody saw.

I love you, but you are not serious people.

• This article contains some absolutely bonkerballs statistics: Analysis Finds That Google AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization – via @drskyskull
• I think we all agree that the narcissism of our current POTUS makes it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.
• The Next Coup Attempt, And How to Stop It
• A 19-year-old Mexican migrant died at a Florida immigration detention facility last month, and ICE hasn’t been able to find his arrest record.

• Italy’s famous Lovers’ Arch collapses into the sea on Valentine’s Day – via my little sister
• What the? There’s a species of mushroom that makes everyone who trips on it think they’re seeing dozens of tiny humans. As far as we know, it’s the only hallucinogenic that makes everyone have the same hallucinations. – via Kottke
• A startup called LightBar is paying everyday internet users to probe AI models for outputs that rip off copyrighted film and TV content, then packaging that evidence for studios to use in lawsuits, settlements, or licensing deals.
• Research suggests that drinking 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee per day (or 1 to 2 cups of tea) is associated with a lower risk of dementia. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• My uncle had two small parts in the 1990 Tom Cruise NASCAR film, Days of Thunder, which was filmed partly in Daytona Beach and the surrounding area. He’s at the very beginning of the film for a few seconds as a reporter interviewing one of the racers and he appears again in the fake police officer prank as a Florida Highway Patrolman. He’s the very tall trooper with a mustache. Uncle Dic (Domenic Albanese) was a supreme exaggerator and teller of tall tales, but for some reason I always believed him – because it sounded so authentic – when he told us that while they were waiting to film the scene he and Robert Duvall got in a farting exchange that had Tom Cruise in stitches. (I am also in the movie. You can see me during the celebration after the last race, right behind Cruise’s car. I’m the dumb teenager wearing a leather jacket in Florida.)
• Take a few minutes to read the fascinating backstory behind the Benjamin Franklin medal that was used in the coin flip at Super Bowl LX and how Topps selected its list of the 75 best baseball cards of all time.
• The official trailer has been released for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Winter Olympics

• I don’t know if there is any possible way NBC could do a worse job this Olympics. Several times now I’ve managed to avoid all social media and my email, flipped to NBC to start watching, and caught the end of the local news team spoiling everything I was about to watch. Peacock doesn’t help much, either, as it seems every time I try to watch anything there I see a message telling me the event has just concluded or hasn’t started yet, or I click to watch speed skating and am shown women’s hockey instead. It’s all very frustrating.
• France’s Viral Ice Dancing Team Has A Dark Backstory
• Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych is the most important athlete at the Olympics right now
• SNL always has great sketches for the Olympics. I liked this year’s about the terrified luge racer, but it doesn’t top the All-Drug Olympics or Jason Priestley (with Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman announcing) as the worst ice skater in history.
• Norwegian skier Atle Lie McGrath, grieving his grandfather’s passing at the start of the Olympics, was so distraught from losing the men’s slalom gold medal that he threw his poles, unstrapped his skis and walked toward the nearby woods to be alone.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things:

• The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner.
• Cardi B slammed the Department of Homeland Security after it mocked her for saying she’d “jump” ICE if they came after her fans during a show.
• A Florida handyman who received a pardon from POTUS for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been convicted of multiple state charges of child molestation and exposing himself to children
• A Pennsylvania Olive Garden employee killed himself by plunging his head into a hot deep fryer. (When I was a teenager a broken piece of fryolator equipment caused me to submerge my right arm up to the elbow in 425°F peanut oil. I got second and third degree burns all over my arm and where the oil splashed, and it was easily the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced.)

• MTV Rewind is an interface through which you can watch music videos from the 70s to the 20s, organized by decade. – via Jason
• A Finnish company has created auto-focus glasses, which use eye-tracking sensors and liquid crystals to automatically adapt to the needs of the wearer. They look like regular glasses, too. – via What Could Go Right?
• You Can Order a Stunningly Detailed LEGO Replica of Your House on Etsy – via my dad
• I have now purchased two Jetsetter Tech Polo shirts and two pairs of Jetsetter Tech Pants from Jack Archer and they’re awesome. I was “influenced” by someone on Instagram and decided to give them a try and have been pleasantly surprised. The shirts look great even after multiple washes, and the pants are just as good as Lululemon ones. (And they even have a stretchy section in the waistband for when you know you’re going to eat a pound of pasta at dinner.)
• Did everyone else know that the fork was popularized in Italy? (I had no idea!)
• Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court ruled that two laws barring the procedure violate the state constitution.
• The Heat Is On:
  • This is infuriating: The House of Representatives voted 341 to 79 to fund the current administration’s war-mongering foreign policy agenda.
  • “Everyone who has gotten rich since Jan 2025 should vote Republican in the midterms and everyone who hasn’t should vote Democrat.” – via @ronfilipkowski
  • Man convicted for carrying the podium belonging to Nancy Pelosi during the January 6 US Capitol riot seeks Florida county office.
  • Great quote: “An economy built on stripmining its populace cannot be sustained.” – via Citation Needed
  • Colorado appeals panel skeptical of sentencing for former county clerk who breached election systems
  • I wholeheartedly agree with this statement: “Democrats should reject any pretense of political normalcy while [the current administration’s] goons wage an ongoing terror campaign against their own constituents. With government funding running out soon, the time to take a stand is now.” – via atrupar.com

• A limited-edition, Fabergé egg pendant, inspired by the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, was (grossly) recovered after six days of closely watching the man accused of swallowing the jewelry in a New Zealand store.
• Scientists found that taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily slowed telomere shortening by the equivalent of about 3 years of biological aging over 4 years. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• Fifteen Years
• If you need a good gift for anyone over 80 years old, these hard candies are great. My grandmother loved them and I used to send her a tin every year on her birthday and Christmas.
• We didn’t see it in the theater, but the 1986 comedy Ruthless People was on high rotation at our house for a while (from Blockbuster, once it was released on VHS). Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater, and Bill Pullman had us in stitches and I still occasionally quote it. (Now you can rent it on Amazon.)
• An Indian boy, just 3 years old, became the youngest rated chess player in history.
• These Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights are awesome. They’re super easy to install and you can control them with an app on your phone and/or via Alexa, HomeKit, etc. (The cost has been fluctuating wildly for months now, by hundreds of dollars, and I wish you the best of luck in finding them listed at the absurdly low price we paid.)
• I can relate to this guy’s 2025 Parenting Wrapped. – via hiro.report
• My Kid’s Insane Christmas Wish List, Annotated – via my friend Lauren
• University of Florida Honors Program class teaches Gainesville‘s punk history – via my little sis
• This holiday season, consider giving the gift of independent journalism. – via @marisakabas
• ‘Tis the Season:
  • The president’s Florida mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud. – via @charlesornstein
  • Pete Hegseth Should Be Charged with Murder – via @elienyc
  • I Left the CDC 100 Days Ago. My Worst Fears About the Agency Are Coming True – via @brandyzadrozny
  • Spotify is garbage on every count: Its treatment of artists, its ICE advertising, the CEO’s investment in military AI, its leading role in the commodification and AI slop-ification of music, its terrible audio quality—you name it. A Guide to Finding the Best Spotify Alternative – via @bcmerchant
  • “If you’re a complete idiot life sure does have a lot of surprises for you.” – via @samthielman.com
  • “All I want for Christmas is for the worst people in the world to experience some consequences.” – via @gracelp
  • The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on the president’s birthday next year, but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

• Three brothers cleaning out their late mother’s attic discovered a remarkably well-preserved copy of Superman No. 1, which sold at auction for a record-breaking $9.12 million.
• Everyone in Florida should be thankful for alligators. – via my dad
• What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows. – via @heidiyounggrasshopper
• I love this research into whether the mere presence of someone in a Batman costume makes people act nicer. (Spoiler: It does.)
• Why do NFL refs keep botching the overtime coin toss?!
• Clues by Sam is a daily brain teaser that manages to be both cute and maddening – via The Athletic
• On the evening of October 9, 1992, a meteor weighing more than two tons punctured the atmosphere. Sonic explosions accompanied its descent as it broke apart while screaming across the sky before a small chunk of it went through the trunk of a parked car in Peekskill, New York.
• Does Harrison Ford Know His Lines?
• The ultimate dad gift? A World War II Aircraft Advent Calendar
• War Is Over If You Want It:
  • The people making AI seem trustworthy are the ones who trust it the least.
  • Higher Ed’s Rush to Adopt AI Is about So Much More Than AI
  • The current maliciously-ignorant dotard running the most powerful nation-state in the history of mankind decided to demolish the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden (established by first lady Edith Roosevelt as the Colonial Garden in 1903) in addition to leveling the Rose Garden and felling two historic magnolia trees (commemorating Presidents Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt) adjacent to the East Wing in his craven lust to install a self-aggrandizing and pointless ballroom.
  • A 17-year-old U.S. citizen and high school senior was detained by immigration officers in Oregon on Nov. 21, 2025.
  • Driver Denny Hamlin breaks down in tears as the first witness testifying at NASCAR antitrust trial
  • Indigenous actress Elaine Miles of Northern Exposure was detained by ICE at a bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake. – via @phillewis

• The Philadelphia Eagles have produced yet another awesome and fun Christmas video. – via The Kids Kickoff
• Missing Flamingo Thought to Be Living in France
• Beginning in the 1970s, Alan Rosen – the Indiana Jones of vintage sports cards – professed that there would always be a market for older cards and memorabilia, and history has proven him right.
• The Fascinating History of Tarot Card Decks: From the Renaissance to the Modern Day – via kottke
• It’s tough to argue with anything on this list of 100 small steps you can take to live to 100. And some of them are even pretty fun. – via hurly
• The Food and Drug Administration unveiled a new blueprint for the regulation of bespoke drug therapies, a way for these treatments to quickly get to market if they meet certain standards.
• A cannon, three coins, and a porcelain cup were among the first objects Colombian scientists recovered from the depths of the Caribbean Sea where the mythical galleon San José sank in 1708.
• This Is Fine dot gif:
  • Over 30,000 Charlotte, North Carolina students skipped school in protest of ICE operations in the area.
  • The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state: How the AI Crash Happens
  • Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives
  • I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. Students chose to actively avoid learning because it’s boring and hard.
  • Paul Bojerski, a 79-year-old who was born to Polish parents in a WWII German refugee camp and who legally emigrated to the U.S. when he was 5, has been abducted by ICE in Florida. – via @oliviamesser
  • Prominently displaying the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom is a clear and obvious violation of the First Amendment. How is this even an issue?
  • Sex Workers & A Secret Charity: The Story Of Cory Mills’ ‘F*cking Bananas’ Afghanistan Mission – via @ronfilipkowski
  • This story is simply heartbreaking. A Teen in Love With a Chatbot Killed Himself. Can the Chatbot Be Held Responsible? – via New York Times Magazine

It’s easier to put your hand in the next guy’s pocket if he’s illiterate.

American society is dominated by wealthy mountebanks and literally demented politicians who are happy to take on all the risks of AI because it promises to create workers who cannot even conceptualize quitting, much less striking.
from We Used to Read Things in This Country, by Noah McCormack

• 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

• 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

• 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.

• 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