Posts tagged “Oregon”

• 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

• Some excellent climate news: United States greenhouse gas emissions peaked in 2005 and have been declining ever since. — via All Predictions Wrong
• Some excellent environmental news: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Chinook salmon have returned to the Klamath Basin for the first time since the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in 1912. – via @saramontourlewis
• “Sorry I missed your call. I was sitting on the couch holding my phone and watching it ring.” — @scottevandavis
• Allbirds are great everyday shoes. They’re stylish, comfortable, and you can toss them in the washing machine. I have three pairs and love them. They’re having a 30%-off Fall sale ending October 27, 2024.
• A few days ago I realized that my sons have never heard of Snidely Whiplash. They don’t know Dudley Do-Right or Grape Ape or Hong Kong Phooey, either. I feel like I’m a terrible parent.
• I currently have a fourteen-year old. And I absolutely remember being a fourteen-year old. This video about growing pains from Amsterdam’s NEMO Science Museum is <chef’s kiss> good. – via @dsnyderuk
• In order to pass your CCNA exam, you need to be proficient at converting decimal numbers to binary numbers and binary numbers to decimal numbers — and do so quickly. Cisco made the challenge into a video game, and it’s pretty fun! – via Jason

• Beyond Apu — Why are there suddenly so many Indians on television?
• Want to save the Gulf of Mexico? Learn how to boom properly.
• The leading web property for yuletide holiday determination is now on your mobile phone. Never be at a loss again. Get the Is It Christmas? iPhone app!
• I got 99 problems but breathing ain’t one.
• It is a little-known fact that you can perform (almost) every pop song ever recorded using just four chords.
• A real-life Batman: This blind man “sees” using echolocation.
• It would be pretty rad to ride an elephant to work where your pet orangutan plays with his dog.
• New Scientist details the eight most amazing commutes in the animal kingdom. (Did you know that the Pacific leatherback turtle swims from Indonesia to Oregon and back every year?)

• The sketches on Funny Or Die keep getting better. This week Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes / Spock from the new Star Trek) appears as a convenience store robber who manages to get his life on track… sorta.
• Here’s the feel-good story of the day: A Portland couple — and their ’57 Chrysler — are still going strong after 50 years.
• Slate has published an interesting article on how the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting, and why that’s dangerous.
• I work with a developer in India who frequently complains that Outlook does not display messages from me correctly. He insists that it’s because my mail program — Apple’s Mail.app — doesn’t compose messages properly. I insist that it’s because Outlook sucks. (See also: Windows crashes displays at new Cowboys stadium during Oklahoma / BYU game.)
• When is it not cool to see recently-declassified video of decades-old nuclear weapons tests?
• Make sure to read TMQ’s all-haiku 2009 NFL preview.
• Daring Fireball mentioned that he hasn’t actually ever seen a Palm Pre in the wild, which might explain why its sales numbers are well below their projections. A guy in my office has one. Every time I see it I wonder what would possess someone to get anything other than an iPhone.
• AT&T says MMS for iPhones will launch on 9/25. I really don’t see why everyone is freaking about this. I don’t really like MMS. It’s simple enough to email something from an iPhone; why not just do that? Everyone was freaking about copy and paste and I didn’t understand that either. Sure C&P is a great feature, but I’ve probably used it ten times in the last 3 months… Three years ago I had a BlackBerry Pearl and before that a RAZR and I was always thrilled just to be able to actually receive telephone calls on them. As far as I’m concerned the iPhone is the best American invention since… well… the iPod.
• I completely agree with Chris Coyier: It would be brilliant to invest in Red Box… if this was 1997.
• DirecTV NFL Mobile: The most expensive free app in the world
• It took forever, but there is finally an official Flickr app for the iPhone.

My little sister is recording the event while mountain climbing somewhere in Oregon, so she asked me not to SMS her any information about the SEC Championship Game. Intentionally planning something of any importance — a mountain expedition, a wedding, bachelor party, childbirth, etc. — on a Saturday in the late Fall (or early Winter) is mind-boggling to me. My uncle — whose wife’s birthday is today, actually — got married on the day of the Super Bowl. (It was even worse that his favorite team was the AFC champion that year.) Priorities, people.