Posts tagged “Google”

• 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 250^th 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.

• Some resistance leaders have created a Google Doc to track what members of Congress are doing during this March recess.
• A flooded quarry, a mysterious millionaire and the dream of a new Atlantis: An innovative mission on the Welsh border, funded by an anonymous private investor, has begun work to create a ‘permanent human settlement’ under the sea.
• What do you think are the odds that you will die during the next year? Try to put a number to it — 1 in 100? 1 in 10,000? Whatever it is, it will be twice as large 8 years from now. Gompertz Law is fascinating fun with statistics, even if it gets a little more terrifying to read every time.
• If your website’s “LOGIN” menu link opens a new window or browser tab, please know that every single person who clicks it hates you.
• Make It Stop:
  • Engineers and executives at the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries — sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting.
  • A Timeline of the Politicization and Weaponization of the Justice Department – via kottke
  • Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told Fox that the solution to high egg prices is for people to raise chickens in their backyards. – via Today in Politics
  • The Los Angeles Times removed its new AI-powered “insights” feature from a column after the tool tried to defend the Ku Klux Klan.
  • With its ASMR videos of people being forced out of the country, the White House is turning suffering into entertainment. The administration is trying to showcase its program of “mass deportation” as reality-show style entertainment, through which voters will rationalize their cruelty.
  • Fired federal employees – some with top security clearances – were not given exit briefings. That means, allegedly, their laptops, security badges, usernames and password, etc. were not collected either. I cannot fathom this level of government incompetence.

• Utah teen arrested for taping fish to ATMs – via kottke
• Lorne Michaels Is the Real Star of Saturday Night Live
• Egyptian officials announced the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, the last of the lost tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, which reigned for over two centuries. It’s the first royal Egyptian tomb to be discovered since the final resting place of King Tutankhamun was found in 1922. – via @indyfromspace.bsky.social
• Mexico threatens to sue Google over name change of Gulf of Mexico on US maps
• The most disturbing part of this headline is that anyone — anyone — could be shocked by this: “Julianne Moore in ‘Great Shock’ after POTUS Bans Her Children’s Book Freckleface Strawberry from Schools”
• “DOGE” seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS. Here is an excellent TL;DR of the article: The POTUS has ordered the IRS to hand over all of your personal information to a Holocaust denier who works for the richest man on Earth, who is a Nazi. – via @theophite.bsky.social, via anildash.com
• Related? The IRS Is Buying an AI Supercomputer from Nvidia
• “President Plane Accident” – via @rollingstone.com

• Here’s a really lovely resource: Mister Rogers on How to Talk to Kids About Distressing News Events – via kottke
• Of two drivers heading towards each other down a one-way street, surely it is the one driving the wrong way who is most sorely in need of feedback. But it is unfortunately unusual to get a focused note of timely, specific, and usable criticism before things go too badly wrong.
• Scientists are using AI to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano.
• AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it is a great article from MIT Technology Review about the history of Google and search engines and the wonders of the (inevitable) artificial intelligence future, but I fear we’re looking at yet another Torment Nexus. – via Jodi Ettenberg
• “He’s the Veruca Salt of presidents.”
• The current administration is staging a coup, trying to illegally eliminate agencies, seize control of the U.S. government’s payment systems, and gain access to sensitive data on all Americans without any oversight. It’s time to fight back like our democracy depends on it. – via Laura Olin
• “DOGE” has already thrown entire swaths of the federal government and its programs into disarray – programs that serve millions of Americans. ProPublica is is attempting to document who is involved and what they are doing.
• Billionaire’s blitzkrieg on D.C. has brought into focus his vision for a dramatically smaller and weaker government, as he and a coterie of aides move to control, automate – and substantially diminish – thousands of public functions.
• ICE is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations.
• The team at Court Watch is maintaining an ongoing list of Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Executive Orders.

I wish I could think of something uplifting or witty to say by now, but I don’t. I’m sure that day will come soon, but today I’m just … tired. Hopefully these links will brighten your day a little.

• Meet Armando Villarreal, the man behind college football’s coolest helmets. – via @theathletichq
• Choose your decade and channel-surf the past on virtual TV sets. – via Laura Olin, who has a fantastic newsletter
• Allegedly, you can now scrub your personal information from Google searches. Here’s how to do it.
• JSON Crack is a free, open-source data visualization app capable of transforming JSON (and several other structured formats) into interactive graphs. – via @sung.kim.mw
• “1500+ free HTML templates for websites, landing pages, blogs, portfolios, ecommerce and admin dashboards” – via @devluc
• Great news for people who love bad news: This year won’t just be the hottest on record — it could be the first to surpass the 1.5-degree-Celsius threshold laid out in the Paris climate accord. – via @scientific_american
• “Vanity Fair hits it on the nail.” via @deirdre.assenza
• Related: “Unfriendly reminder that good people don’t support rapists.” – via @iamayortrightkay
• Apropos of nothing: It’s nearly impossible to be a depressed ball of rage-filled anxiety while listening to Clair de lune. – via @gatordavid
• Please tell me Taylor is working on a “The White House” version of “The Black Dog”. And if she’s not, maybe Weird Al can get on it. I hope it’s shitty / in the White House… – via @gatordavid

• General Stuff
  • If you’re taking any medicine for any reason at all, you should read this article.
  • Abusive relationships like this one just suck.
  • Perspective
  • Wired has a great article all about craigslist, if you like that site.
  • Whole Foods has crazy expensive groceries, but terrific thoughts on healthcare reform.
  • I had no idea that the word avocado comes from the Nahuatl word ãhuacatl (“testicle”), a reference to the shape of the fruit.
  • Think that we’re not living in the future yet? Read The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data from Google. Or take a look at how you could use your iPhone as a restaurant HUD. And start saving up for that jetpack.
  • Here’s your cute kitten fix for the day.
  • You can convey quite a bit with just three frames. (The ones from Jaws, The Goonies, and Jurassic Park are my favorites.)
• Gator Stuff
  • Bill Belichick presents a stone face to the world, but succeeds in part because he is open to change. For the past two years, the Patriots have run an offense that is all but identical to Urban Meyer‘s Florida spread.
  • Stopping Tim Tebow isn’t easy, but it is possible.
  • Kirk Herbstreit on Tebow
  • Boom! – must-watch YouTube vid of big Gator hits
  • “Tim Tebow’s proficiency as a passer and rusher have placed him among the all-time greats after only two seasons as a starter,” according to statistical analysis done by Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel.
• Techie Stuff
  • Oh, hey! I didn’t realize you could create animated images with Photoshop!
  • Apple did a very smart thing when it priced Snow Leopard below the cost of a typical family visit to the movies.
  • Do you use any of the out-of-touch computer terms on this list at your office?