- 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.
Posts tagged “virus”
- 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 250th 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.
- A Masters win for Rory McIlroy gives him, at last, a seat at the table.
- The Last of Us S2 on
HBOMax premiered this weekend, so it’s a great time to read some perspectives from an epidemiologist and a plant scientist. - What can we learn from the books being read by the characters in White Lotus S3?
- Lorne Michaels is going to produce a British version of Saturday Night Live starting in 2026.
- Great quote from physicist Brian Greene: “My best teachers were not the ones who had all the answers. They were the ones deeply excited by questions they couldn’t answer.” – via Austin Kleon
Dreaming of a song, but something went wrong:
- A federal judge sided with the [current] administration in allowing immigration agents to conduct enforcement operations at houses of worship for now.
- Death is the point.
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard signed a sworn declaration stating that she was a resident of the State of Texas, and then voted in Hawaii. – via mehdirhasan.bsky.social
- Vice President JD Vance fumbles trophy during Ohio State football’s White House visit
- I can think of a few thousand better ways the AP could have worded this headline to more accurately convey just how corrupt this weirdo is: DeSantis Defends $10M Donation from State Agency Settlement to Charity Linked to His Wife
- The American Dream Is Over: He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement, and a plurality of American voters.
- Just in time for Penguin Awareness Day (on Thursday, January 20th), the Wildlife Conservation Society‘s Argentina Program has released amazing underwater selfie video recently taken by a male Gentoo penguin fitted with a special camera.
- Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, said, “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.” – via The Curious About Everything Newsletter
- In the city of Poznań, Poland, a group of eight clams controls the local water supply through a clever bio-monitoring system. – via kottke
- I have been trying unsuccessfully for a while now to find the recipe for the Pistachio & Orange “Redemption Cake” that Amelia Le Bruin made on The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (S7: E1 “The Great Christmas Baking Show”). If anyone has any leads, please let me know. [Update: I sent her an Instagram DM and she replied to tell me she’d try to find the recipe in her notes!]
- Oysters and Beer Have Always Been on the Menu at One of America’s Oldest, Most Renowned Restaurants. I have been here many times, including a memorable birthday dinner in my 40s, and can confirm that The Union Oyster House is a national treasure. – via my dad
- Netflix Is Telling Writers to Dumb Down Shows Since Viewers Are on Their Phones – via The Dailies
- The essay Who Goes Nazi? from the August 1941 issue of Harper’s Magazine should be required reading at every high school in America. – via Laura Olin (threads / bluesky)
- It was fun to read about all the wild Christmas gifts NFL quarterbacks got their offensive lineman last week. Did you know that NFL teams are required to provide “three dozen sliced oranges for halftime” for the visiting team? And that each team easily goes through at least 80,000 Uncrustables each year? Oh, and Notre Dame winning the Sugar Bowl on January 2, 2025 ensured a Black head coach will be in an FBS national championship game for the first time ever. – via The Athletic (threads / bluesky)
- People often ask me what I think their children should study to learn how to be a programmer, or create video games or apps and I always answer that they should start with the absolute basics. Learn Bash Scripting in 10 minutes is a great example.
An Existential Crisis
A terrifying podcast on research, science, and disaster
- Better Marriage Blanket: Contains the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons!
- I’ve been using Twitter since April 23, 2007. How about you?
- I’m not 100% sure, but I think the premise of this article is that superheroes seem to be getting less super, and that’s bad. If that’s what he’s saying, I agree. If that’s not what he’s saying, then I don’t get it.
- It’s been almost fifteen years and the Ike Hilliard Stop and Pop is still one of the most amazing plays I’ve ever seen.
- Nimoy Sunset Pie is a lot like Selleck Waterfall Sandwich.
- How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet, by Douglas Adams
- “The Township will feature an ensemble cast, including actors Wendell Pierce and Dominic West from The Wire as a pair of successful, well-adjusted real estate agents who occasionally grab one quick drink after work before returning home to the families they love.”
- “When the worm was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cyber-security experts didn’t know what to make of it. It infiltrated millions of computers around the globe. It constantly checks in with its unknown creators. It uses an encryption code so sophisticated that only a very few people could have deployed it. For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find [its] creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting …”
2024-07-26: Broken links in this post have been removed and/or updated.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0
Free Virus Scanner
How to Open Outlook Attachments
A friend of mine sent me a link to an iTunes song he thought I’d like. Of course I was unable to open it because it came delivered as an attachment. (Cue scary music.) Microsoft thinks that I can’t possibly be trusted to not open some flesh-eating virus, so by default Outlook blocks everything. It’s
AmericanGreetings Valentine Virus
If you get an email with the subject line “Valentine’s Day eCard !” that looks like it came from AmericanGreetings <services@americangreetings.com>, it’s most likely a virus. I’m not even going to take a chance by clicking the link. The link appears to be to the americangreetings.com domain, but if you hover your mouse over it
Protect Yourself
Here is a must-read: 7 ways to protect your home PC link via What’s On It For Me?