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The paradox of horror: How scary films can soothe your anxiety
Matt Berninger, lead singer of The National, traded his notebook for a baseball. And the words kept coming.
I didn’t realize until reading a recap at The Athletic that on Saturday night Will Smith hit the first extra-inning Game 7 homer in the history of the World Series. Oh, and the nail-biter peaked at 33.1M viewers and beat the last Game 7 (in 2019) by 10%, making it the most-watched MLB game since 2017.
The New England Aquarium built a geriatric island for aging penguins to live in safety and dignity.
Take a walk! A modest increase in physical activity can delay cognitive decline by three years or more, and Alzheimer’s symptoms decrease with just a few thousand steps a day. And new research shows exercise could help reduce anxiety as effectively as traditional talk therapy in as little as 8 to 12 weeks.
This is pretty wild: [M]ost Americans in 1790 consumed an average [of] 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year. (Today the average is closer to “just” 2 gallons per year.)
Adults ruined “6-7” for Halloween – via my wife
The University of Florida Gators 7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux became the tallest college basketball player ever.
I’ve long loved The Point, but never knew the full story of the brilliant, baffling rise and fall of Harry Nilsson. – via my dad
Things Can Only Get Better:
- Federal agents drive off with 1-year-old girl after arresting her father in Los Angeles
- Louisiana officials waited months to warn public of whooping cough outbreak – via @elizabethjacobs
- One analytical model shows that the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. – via @newyorker.com
- The United States of America continues to extrajudicially murder people.
- A Food and Drug Administration official who resigned on Sunday was sued by a Canadian pharmaceutical company, which accused him of soliciting a bribe and tanking its stock with false statements as part of a revenge campaign against a former colleague.
- Employees at The Washington Post uploaded a fake video to 8 social apps. Only one told users it wasn’t real.
- East Wing ballroom donations by corporate owners create awkward moments for news outlets

Screenshot of Bluesky post about SNAP benefits being withheld from the poor

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

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.

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

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.)

Egyptologist in Paris Discovers Secret Messages on the Luxor Obelisk: The 3,300-year-old monument has sat in the French capital’s center for almost 200 years, but no one else noticed these strange encryptions.
I took the boys to see Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in the theater on the 20^th anniversary of its release. I saw it in Century City (several days before the official release) two decades ago (and then again a few days later!) and am happy to report that also viewing it hundreds of times on a TV did not detract at all from the thrill of seeing it on the big screen. We loved it. It’s wild that the re-release of a twenty-year old movie made north of $42M over the weekend. Related: I love reading about Star Wars movie mistakes.
“The choice of wood was completely incomprehensible,” isn’t the best line in this story about a concentration camp violin, but it’s up there.
In sport, turning 30 was once the point where pundits started sharpening retirement speeches. But Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Lewis Hamilton didn’t just stretch the narrative, they shattered it.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams:
- “DOGE” has tapped into some of the most sensitive and valuable data in the world. Now it’s starting to put it to work.
- Related: “DOGE” says it has saved $160 billion. Those cuts have cost taxpayers $135 billion. – via @heidiyounggrasshopper
- Public health, modern medicine, and disease mitigation will suffer under RFK Jr. because he sees sick people – not sickness – as the problem.
- Vince Vaughn poses with POTUS in the Oval Office. Pathetic.
- Senate Democrats who took heat for government shutdown vote now feel vindicated. Pathetic.
- Oh Great, Millionaires Are Racing Sperm Now
- The Supreme Court’s Late-Night Alien Enemy Act Intervention

If you can’t get excited about Jack Black as Steve, you really need to spend more time interacting with elementary school children.
We need to work on bringing the phrase, “the whole megillah,” back into regular use. I feel like abandoning this wonderful expression was a bad idea, even though I’ll freely admit that I thought it was spelled “magilla” until about ten minutes ago.
I have started listening to the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast and really love it. Of course, the three episodes I’ve heard so far were ones featuring interviews with Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and Jeff Goldblum, three of my favorite actors, so my opinion may be biased. But all three had me laughing out loud at one point or another and it’s nice to hear Conan’s voice again.
A month after the death of his mother, Tiger Woods says he’s recovering after surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles, likely ending his 2025 season.
An 11-year-old boy who pulled the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card will likely sell it for more money than Skenes will make from his 2025 Pirates base salary. – via @jacksongagne.com
Tim Walz to launch national tour of town halls in Republican House districts. (Go get ’em, Tim!)
Madness:
- The Pentagon Keeps Pouring Cash Into Golf Courses – Even As [Administration] Slashes Government Spending
- USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmers
- Department of Justice Official Says She Was Fired After Opposing Restoring Mel Gibson‘s Gun Rights
- Pete Hegseth is expected in the coming weeks to start a sweeping overhaul of the judge advocate general’s corps as part of an effort to make the US military less restricted by the laws of armed conflict. – via @jamellebouie.net
- NIH officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. – via @kwcollins.bsky.social

I finally saw Captain America: Brave New World and will say that, at the end of the day, it was a fun movie. I think Anthony Mackie works as Captain America and he’s a fine actor. Harrison Ford is brilliant, of course. The plot is actually great. But — just like pretty much every MCU offering since Avengers: Endgame — I left feeling like I have no idea whether Disney and Kevin Feige have a plan or if they’re just pumping out movies.
A Cheeto shaped like the Pokémon Charizard sold at auction for over $87,000.
I cannot imagine a scenario in which Stephen A. Smith is worth $20,000,000.00 per year, but I also cannot imagine paying $87,000.00 for a Cheeto shaped like a Pokémon character, so I guess that’s why I am not in charge of contracts at ESPN.
Two men were charged Wednesday in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in a backyard two days after they got together to watch the final game of the regular season in 2024.
I am almost certain that I read Always Go To The Funeral when it was published (or aired on the radio) two decades ago, but it just popped up in a recent issue of Links You’ll Love and it’s worth sharing again.
I one hundred percent did not see the sudden political twist coming in White Lotus S3E3 but I am f’ing here for it. Kudos to Mike White and HBO for going there. I can’t wait to see the next episode. (And, yes, I know it’s MAX now.)
In other news:
- POTUS signs executive order to establish government bitcoin reserve.
  </bangs head on desk>
- It’s Tax Season – The Perfect Time for POTUS to Sell This “Critical” IRS Computing Center: Last year, the IRS Martinsburg site was “viewed as a high priority.” Now it’s suddenly “functionally obsolete”?
- The CDC is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links. – via @boghuma.bsky.social
- Maine officials said the Social Security Administration did not provide any explanation for the abrupt end of the decades old registration process, or for the sudden reversal. – via @crampell.bsky.social
- I really hope in a hundred years there will still be people left to cringe at this headline: Half the World’s CO2 Emissions Come from 36 Fossil Fuel Firms

Steve Carell helped make sure high school students affected by LA wildfires wouldn’t have to worry about paying for prom tickets.
For reasons I cannot explain, I have still not managed to watch A Knight’s Tale, even though I know it was one of my mom’s favorite movies.
It doesn’t look like they’ve released their 2025 operating dates yet, but the Breathtaker Alpine Coaster is a must for anyone visiting Aspen in the summer.
Take a moment to complete The Heritage Foundation DOGE Survey and give them a piece of your mind. (If you decide to use your real email address, you’ll have to unsubscribe from their garbage newsletter.)
Friendly reminder: There’s seriously no sane reason to drill for oil in Alaska and anyone saying otherwise doesn’t understand math.
I had no idea that watermarks were invented in Italy in the 13th century.
Practically all of Spain’s population growth since the COVID-19 pandemic is due to immigration.
Can confirm: “the democratic party leadership sorely underestimates how much young people fucking despise them” – via @junlper.beer
Make It Stop:
- POTUS signs order designating English as the official language of the US
- This whole story is nuts: With its top lawyer placed on leave after less than one week in the role, a culture of fear has paralyzed FEMA. – via The Handbasket
- After the POTUS joint address to Congress earlier this week, Hayden Haynes, the chief of staff to House Speaker Mike Johnson and one of the most powerful aides on Capitol Hill, was arrested for driving drunk.
- Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) “[W]hat’s happening in the US right now is some sort of weird hybrid of the kind of power grabs we’ve seen in the tech industry, combined with a more traditional collapse of democratic institutions.”
- The Iowa GOP advanced a bill making it a misdemeanor for a healthcare provider to administer a COVID vaccine. – via @piperformissouri.bsky.social

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