January 31
What if what we observe as dark matter & dark energy is actually a sophon lock on our technological progress? (Can you tell I'm re-reading the Three Body Problem trilogy rn?)
The Dictator's Playbook series on PBS looks interesting. "Learn how six dictators, from Mussolini to Saddam Hussein, shaped the 20th century."
The 50 Greatest Film Scores Of All Time. My own personal list would place "Tron: Legacy" higher, but this is a solid list.
What It Felt Like to Almost Die. "As I lay on that concrete, unable to breathe, my heartbeat taking full liberty, the truth revealed itself."
January 30
Before the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, engineer Roger Boisjoly & his colleagues knew there was a low-temperature problem with the boosters and fought to stop the launch. NASA overruled them.
I loved this "digested read" of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Skin in the Game. "If you take just one thing away from this book, make it this: Big Nick knows best and is doing you a favour by writing it."
Peter Jackson is set to direct a documentary on the Beatles' final album, "Let It Be". The source material will include 55 hours of never-released video and 140 hours of recording audio.
Kenji López-Alt on The Truth About MSG. Does eating it really give you a headache? According to the studies: not often but it depends.
After enduring years of rape, Lorena Bobbitt chopped off her husband's penis and the media pilloried her for it. "'I don't even buy that he was raping her,' [Howard] Stern said on one segment with John. 'She's not that great looking.'"
January 29
January 28
Justin Hall's seminal WWW home page links{dot}net turned 25 years old last week. This was probably one of the first 10 websites I ever visited.
The Vermont-only mailing list Front Porch Forum is a super-interesting social network. *Everyone* in VT uses it – for selling stuff, finding rides, announcements. I used it when I moved here to find a house to rent.
January 25
I really liked this roundtable-ish interview with a number of internet advice columnists. Nice to get a meta-view of the undertaking.
January 24
The market for football-related insurance (esp. related to head injuries) is drying up. "People say football will never go away, but if we can't get insurance, it will."
Jeff Bridges teases a Big Lebowski sequel? Super Bowl commercial?
"We may finally know what causes Alzheimer's – and how to stop it." The headline is a bit sensational, but the link between gum disease and the cause of Alzheimer's is something to keep an eye on.
Lee Unkrich is leaving Pixar after 25 years. He directed Coco, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story 3.
January 23
Craig Mod has launched a membership program to support his writing, podcasting, and walking efforts. Crucially, like @kottke's membership program, almost nothing is disappearing behind a paywall.
Entertaining thread by @leahbroad comparing musical composers to biscuits/cookies. "8. Haydn, Jammie Dodger. The fun, family-friendly biscuit."
January 22
"I Need An Abortion — Now What?" A comprehensive guide to the laws, restrictions, and waiting periods for every US state.
This paper proposes two techniques for detecting the glint of starshine on exoplanetary oceans (!!!!)
An experimental Ebola vaccine appears to be working to contain an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "Salama said the vaccine efficacy rate in the current outbreak is well above 90 percent."
January 19
January 18
January 17
January 16
How You Hope Your Extended Family Will React When You Explain Your Job To Them. "Your eight-year-old cousin will run in, his eye wide, his cheeks rosy. 'When I grow up,' he will shout, 'I want to be a permalancer!'"
January 15
Chuck Wendig ranks grocery store apples. He calls the Red Delicious "an apple best used for throwing at your enemies" and the Honeycrisp "the Ed Sheeran of apples".
January 14
The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin announced that their Mad Men archive is now open for research. "Classes...have already used the collection to study popular culture, nostalgia, advertising and the press."
I've said this before, but the contemporary web is 50% America's Funniest Home Videos and 50% "Elvis Is A Martian!!" tabloids from 80s supermarket checkout aisles. And no one predicted this.
50 things that will be 50 years old in 2019. Sesame Street, the Moon landing, PBS, the Internet, Woodstock, Monty Python...1969 was quite a year.
January 12
January 11
Music for Nothing, a selection of free music clips from composer/sound designer Joel Corelitz. If you have a podcast that needs some intro music, this is a goldmine.
A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow. Oddly, nowhere in the book's description do they actually say how these countries did it: nuclear power.
The 20 Best TV Dramas Since "The Sopranos". The list includes Mad Men, The Americans, Deadwood, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. Halt & Catch Fire is the first entry in the "Toughest Omissions" section.
January 10
Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds. "The oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago."
Jami Attenberg on moving from a big city (where she was surviving) to a smaller one (where she's thriving). "I had started to feel aged out in New York, a place that is constantly seeking the new."
The trailer for Weird City, a new show from Jordan Peele. "The middle class has completely vanished dividing Weird City into two sections: Above the Line (The Haves), and Below the Line (The Have Nots)."
At CES in Vegas this year, people can get married by the voice assistant in Mercedes' new electric car. "By the power vested in me by my own artificial intelligence..."
January 9
Destination Art, a guide to 500 works of permanently installed artworks from around the world. Books like these are great bucket list populators.
The Mars Anthropocene. In humanity's rush to go to Mars, we should stop to consider the permanent effects we will have on the planet (as we haven't with our own).
January 8
The Letterboxd year in review for 2018. "Letterboxd is where diverse, clever and funny film lovers gather to share their passion for film."
January 7
2019 will be the final year of Design*Sponge, one of the best OG blogs. "This won't be a sad shuttering of doors — it is going to be a full-fledged, joy-filled celebration..."
In order for China's censorship of the internet to work, they have to teach young workers forbidden knowledge (about Tiananmen, dissident Liu Xiaobo). I think I remember this bit from 1984 (also forbidden in China).
From the NY Times, Our Favorite Facts of 2018. "According to one study, people typically touch their phones 2,617 times per day."
January 4
For some NBA players, the caffeine in pre-game coffee (made with fresh-ground organic beans) is a performance enhancing drug. "I just felt focused. My mind just felt locked in."
I might be the only person I know who really liked Vice. Here, Nicholas Lehmann compares the real Dick Cheney with the one depicted in the film.
Jada Yuan visited 52 places in 12 months for the NY Times...here's how it went for her. "You see, it was a dream job. It's just that my idea of what made this dream job dreamy has changed so much."
Thoughts from ex-Microsoft exec Steven Sinofsky on the naive "Why doesn't Apple just sell a cheap iPhone?" analysis. My hot take: Apple is a consistently undervalued company. (Compare their p/e ratio to their cohort for starters...)
Janet Jackson revisits Rhythm Nation. "Unlike almost any other major pop artist, Janet revisited her signature song, in a world of #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, and declared her past vision obsolete."
January 3
January 2
Courier Prime, a refined version of the Courier font. "Since the beginning, screenplays have been written in Courier. Its uniformity allows filmmakers to make handy comparisons and estimates, such as 1 page = 1 minute of screen time."