April 30
April 29
Director John Singleton is dead at age 51. Boyz n the Hood blew my doors off the first time I watched it.
Eight infants with the "bubble boy" disease have been cured with gene therapy that uses modified HIV
NYC's Museum of Jewish Heritage will host an exhibition on Auschwitz. The tagline for the show is "Not long ago. Not far away."
The Louvre is hosting an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci starting this fall (Oct 24, 2019 - Feb 24, 2020). All tickets will be timed entry to deal with the demand. No word on whether the still-missing Salvator Mundi will be included.
April 25
April 24
The staged perfection of the Instagram influencer is on the wane. "Avocado toast and posts on the beach. It's so generic and played out at this point. You can photoshop any girl into that background and it will be the same post."
Astronomers have spotted the universe's first molecule, helium hydride. "Researchers believe that in that primordial gas, neutral helium reacted with hydrogen ions to form the first chemical bond joining the very first molecule."
Vermont passes bill abolishing Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples' Day. VT's governor will likely sign the bill.
April 23
Elizabeth Warren wants to cancel almost all student debt in America. As someone who benefitted greatly from not having significant student debt after graduating college, I fully support this.
Delta is starting to limit seat reclining on some of their planes. Great move. Seats are so close together now that reclining is idiotic.
How many packs of Skittles would you need to buy in order to find two packs having exactly the same number of candies of each flavor? Fewer than I would have guessed...
Pretty late to this one, but this thread of oddball celeb encounters is pretty great. Read at least until @questlove's story about roller skating with Prince and Eddie Murphy.
April 22
Living with passive suicidal ideation. "I wish there was a nicer way to say this, but I don't always want to be alive."
Trailer for season 2 of HBO's Big Little Lies. The season 1 finale was one of the best hours of TV I've ever watched.
The 50 best music documentaries ever. This is a big gap in my pop culture knowledge...I'd barely heard of any of these.
A new study shows that taking supplements offers "no discernible benefits in terms of reducing risks of death generally". Eating food with those vitamins & minerals does however.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg credits her persistence on the issue in part to being on the autism spectrum. "That allowed me to focus on one thing for a very long time."
April 18
Abigail Disney on What It's Like to Grow Up With More Money Than You'll Ever Spend. "Did Yale really say yes because I was that good, or did Yale say yes because of my last name? I'll never know."
I like Craig Mod's advice to his 23-year-old self (scroll down to "Advice to a young me"). "At 23 I was obsessed with minimizing recurring costs of living. They felt like poison to me."
Among the large US cities with the most families with kids are Fresno & Fort Worth. Among the lowest are San Francisco, Seattle, and DC.
Why I Take All My First Dates to Olive Garden. "Two people eating means you get three sticks total. I like to think Olive Garden did that on purpose, so that you're forced to break bread with your date."
April 17
The world's biggest airplane, Stratolaunch, recently made its first flight. The plane is designed to launch payloads into orbit from 35,000 feet.
A short history of the research into the Shroud of Turin, the sheet that allegedly covered Jesus after the cruxifixction. "I have spent an upsetting amount of time looking at a picture of Jesus's scrotum."
April 16
Milk Bar is renaming their Crack Pie. "Our mission, after all, is to spread joy and inspire celebration. The name Crack Pie falls short of this mission."
When traders buy contracts on the Chicago futures market for weather, those bets largely correspond to NASA climate models. "When money folks have to hedge the weather, it turns out they listen to climate scientists."
An update on how the students at LeBron James's I Promise School are doing. The early results are encouraging. "90% met or exceeded individual growth goals in reading and math, outpacing their peers across the district."
Photos of the aftermath of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. Heartbreaking, but it looks like firefighters were able to salvage more than I expected.
Stories of people transformed by Fox News. "I hate what that channel and conservative talk radio did to my funny, compassionate dad. He spent the last years of his life increasingly angry, bigoted, and paranoid."
April 15
Fossils of a previously unknown human species has been discovered in the Phillipines. "Specimens of H. luzonensis were dated to minimum ages of 50,000 and 67,000 years old..."
The Notre Dame in Paris is on fire. The spire has collapsed.
April 14
April 11
Cabin Porn: Inside, a follow-up to the bestselling book about tiny handmade homes. This new book focuses on the interiors of these cozy spaces.
A series of short video profiles of four magicians. "According to magicians themselves, the really big reveal is how their craft helps them to connect with other people."
World's biggest T. rex discovered. "Heftier than an adult elephant, the 9.8-ton animal shows that predatory dinosaurs got older and bigger than once thought."
April 10
April 9
April 8
Yes please! The new Sharon Van Etten record references Portishead and Pat Benatar
April 5
April 4
April 3
April 2
How to fight an outrageous medical bill. "When you challenge a medical bill, you need to find two things: the right information and the right person."
YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant. "Proposals to change recommendations and curb conspiracies were sacrificed for engagement, staff say."
How Banksy Authenticates His Work. "Like I said, it's flipping sweet, and all executed in Banksy's trademark tongue in cheek style. This whole authentication process would easily be my favourite artwork by Banksy."
Whoa, this is quite the Pixar easter egg. Scroll down the thread for matching screenshots.
April 1
Bike Insights. "We use intuitive bike diagrams and explanations written in plain English to help guide you in the search for your perfect bike."
I'm Vaccinating My Child the Natural Way — With Measles. "That's just one person's opinion backed by numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies. The literature on Facebook and Reddit tells a different story."