- A study of 500 diners found “attractive servers earn approximately $1,261 more per year in tips than unattractive servers.” Mostly because of “female customers tipping attractive females more than unattractive females.” – via 52 things I learned in 2025
- A recent randomized trial on exercise for cancer patients breaks new ground in showing the life-extending powers of a workout.
- Scope Creep is an online horror video game about being a project manager.
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“Time is indeed a cruel mistress.”
History and the Passing of Time is a brilliant (and short) essay by Daniele Bolelli, host of the History on Fire podcast.
- This is your annual reminder that the album Sugar & Booze by SNL alum Ana Gasteyer is chock full of fantastic holiday music and you can stream it on Alexa.
- I have at least eight of these Wyze smart plugs and they are great for scheduling holiday decorations. (I have two Wyze outdoor plugs, too.) This year I bought two more of these battery-to-plug adapters. (They let you convert battery-powered decorations—like snow globes and animated Santas—so you can plug them into the wall.)
- And you may ask yourself, “How did I get here?” (This is actually a fabulous explanation of how the Internet works and not, sadly, a site about Talking Heads. Coincidentally, I just learned a few days ago that David Byrne was at RISD at the same time that my dad was at PC, and my dad said Byrne used to work in the window of a New York System place grilling hot dogs.)
This might be the most wholesome thing on YouTube. Dad, How Do I? is a collection of videos teaching you how to do all sorts of basic things. – via Jason- It’s hard for me to believe it’s been a decade since the release of The Force Awakens. (I still love BB-8 and was pleasantly surprised to learn he was imagined into existence by J.J. Abrams himself!)
- In Bolivia a team of paleontologists have discovered and meticulously documented 16,600 footprints left by theropods, the dinosaur group that includes the Tyrannosaurus rex.
Posts tagged “William Gagne”
- 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.
FridayFive: Crazy Movies
Movies from dad
1984
The future is always closer than you think.
#FridayFive: Awesome Things About My Dad
View the Friday Five from December 20th, 2013
My Dad’s Personal Blizzard
My dad’s birthday is December 20th. This year Mother Nature’s gift to him was a tremendous snowstorm that blanketed much of the East coast. He took some terrific photographs of the area around his home in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Here’s a sample:
- General Stuff
My dad has posted more gorgeous shots of New England to his Flickr feed.- Nothing is over until we decide it is!
- Suck it, Michael. The Beatles are one notch above the King of Pop for most-viewed Wikipedia article.
- How the hell does a car’s differential work? I never understood it… and then I watched this General Motors 1930s tutorial which explains it wonderfully. (link via Kottke)
- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – MLK, Jr.
- Dooce is still writing the best stuff on the Internet. Seriously. If you haven’t yet read everything she’s ever written, take a few months off work and go do that right now. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll wonder why she doesn’t have her own television show.
- What did you think you were going to find at hiddenpassageway.com?
- What’s the business benefit of free bread at restaurants? (AskMeFi is just awesome, although some of the questions people ask can be quite depressing.)
- My wife is sure to be thrilled to see LA Weekly’s list of 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants.
- Yes, you could build your house with LEGO blocks. But why?
- Pizza Hut Fails Basic Grammar, another excellent post from the witty One Step Forward
- Techie Stuff
- Check out these cool grunge peeling sticker social media icons.
- Ten ways to stop spam in WordPress covers the basics and includes a few new tricks I didn’t know.
- Make your Mac prettier with a glossy dock.