- Japan’s sushi legend Jiro Ono turns 100 and is not ready for retirement
- Wait. What? College golfer aces same hole twice in one day!
- Feisty Otters Are Once Again Hijacking Surfboards in Santa Cruz
- “When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.” – via Joe Hanson
- Like the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, researchers say some AI models may be developing their own survival drive, seeming to resist being turned off and even sabotaging their own shutdown.
- New to me: Italian time
- The average energy bar is anywhere from 6 to 15 times more expensive per calorie than a good ol’ PB&J.
- Hoo boy. Care to read about how chatfishing has made finding love on dating apps even weirder? – via kottke
- “[On] Sunday, [October 26, 2025,] the [New York] Times had more column-inches dedicated to urging readers to gamble on football than to China’s control of rare-earths minerals.” – via TMQ
Some good reasons to vote:
- Before [POTUS], and Before the Young Republicans, There Was the Dartmouth Review – via my dad
- [I] really resent the continued assertion that there’s so much anger on both sides, as if the causes of the anger are equally legitimate. [W]e’re angry because masked maniacs are violently snatching our family and neighbors off the street, and they’re angry because we’re calling them out for it. – via Marisa Kabas
- As improbable as it had seemed just minutes ago, it now appeared that I really was texting with interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. [See also: New York AG Letitia James pleads not guilty to mortgage fraud charges]
- “the speaker of the House is refusing to seat a duly elected member of Congress to protect the president from a vote to investigate his extensive connections [to] the world’s most notorious human trafficking pedophile” is one of those things you simply cannot put into New York Timesese – via ryan cooper
Posts tagged “Japan”
- Researchers in Japan have developed a durable and recyclable plastic that fully dissolves in the sea and doesn’t leave microplastic pollution in the oceans because it breaks down in the water over time. – via @oceanbluestar.bsky.social
- Early entry for the best news of the year? Ted Lasso is returning for a fourth season.
- I recently finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is easily the best work of fiction I’ve read in the last twenty years. After five pages I was enjoying it so much that I decided to pace myself so I could inhabit its story as long as possible, but ended up devouring it in just a couple of days. My only regret is that I will never get to read it for the first time again. 1
- Happy belated 27th birthday to kottke.org, the website that inspired me to start blogging a quarter-century ago.
Notes from the firehose:
- Conservative former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig issued a stark warning about what he described as [the President’s] escalating attacks on the legal system.
- Former Spiritual Adviser to POTUS Indicted for Sexually Abusing a Child
- Top Democrats Warn “DOGE” Employees of Potential Criminal Exposure from Ethical Misconduct – via @beyer.house.gov
- “Mr. Schumer’s stated approach of waiting for Trump to ‘screw up’ and continue this inexplicable embrace of the slippery slope is wholly inadequate and an astonishing failure of leadership.”
- [The President’s] deportation of Venezuelan migrants may have violated a direct court order, leading to what the former general counsel of the FBI, Andrew Weissmann, has called a potential “doomsday scenario.”
- [The President] has already implemented at least half of Project 2025’s objectives in eight areas.
- A 2016 UK study found folks who participated in Dry January had improved confidence around abstinence, did not rebound, and drank less alcohol overall six months later, regardless of their January success. – via YLE
- Friendly reminder: There are exactly two things you can try and do. You can try and fail or you can try and succeed. Otherwise you try to do something.
- Research suggests that even taking small breaks from sitting could significantly improve your cardiovascular health, making it easier than ever to protect your heart and improve your overall well-being. – via Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Pump Club
- “If you’re only going to open a book on the off chance you have several hours to kill in a comfy chair with a glass of scotch, it’s only ever going to happen when you have several hours to kill in a comfy chair with a glass of scotch.” How to Read a Whole Damn Book Every Week – via Links You’ll Love
- 33 Ways To Improve Your Life, Japanese Style – via pretty much everyone I follow
- Quantum physics is wild: “Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time.”
- “You shouldn’t be driving over 100 mph—and your car shouldn’t let you.” – via kottke
Eternal, The Honor It Bore
Reunited ‘Marauders’ Recall War’s Hell in Burma’s Jungles
Command and Control
Stories from the Cold War
Absurd Directory Structures
As soon as I saw the story about giant jellyfish sinking a Japanese trawler posted on MetaFilter, I sent the link to my friend Ryan via instant messenger. (Ryan, I know, is fascinated by tales from the Japanese fishing industry.) He said, “[the] story would’ve been perfect if the jellyfish had actually eaten the crew,”
Democratization of the Moving Image: SXSW 2006
A transcript of a 2006 SXSW panel
What the?
These costumed characters were used to promote Boong-Ga Boong-Ga at the Tokyo Gaming Convention. One is a poking finger, the other a poop keychain. Only in Japan…
Crazy
Remember this?
Japan Travel Tip
Well I guess if I’m ever in Japan … and … er … trying to … uhm … well … this might be … er … useful.