July 31
July 30
Through its national "green legacy" initiative, Ethiopia plans to grow 4bn trees in the country this summer. On Monday, they planted 350m, a world record.
July 29
Greta Thunberg has figured out how to get to the Americas for the UN climate summits in New York and Santiago, Chile. She'll be sailing aboard a high-tech racing yacht!
July 26
A new story? essay? thing? by Lydia Davis. "New Things In My Life."
Did you know @kottke has a regular reader newsletter? It's TRUE. It's called Noticing, and it's absolutely free. Check out this week's edition:
"Who were the Romanovs, and why would anyone want to be one?" The curious recurring phenomenon of the Romanov imposter:
July 25
The design of the medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been revealed. They're made from metals recycled from electronics (like mobile phones).
Updates on the European heat wave. Paris hit 105ºF, the city's highest ever recorded temperature.
https://t.co/FgZM7TJFyz
July 24
Short profiles of 18 African-American astronauts. "It was 22 years after Alan Shepard's first space trip that the U.S. sent a person of color up."
July 23
The 20 most bike-friendly cities in the world. No surprise to see Copenhagen and Amsterdam topping the list. 0 cities from the US on there.
July 22
What's the Difference? is a newsletter that examines the distinctions closely related items, e.g. grilling & BBQing, biodegradable & compostable, and crudo, carpaccio, sashimi, & tartare.
Most Wikipedia Profiles Are of Men. This Scientist Is Changing That.
July 19
Pizza Crust Saved To Make Pizza Stock. "Most people just throw out their 'pizza bones,' but there's a ton of flavor still in there."
July 18
French billionaires pledged hundred of millions for the rebuilding of the Notre Dame but have yet to cough up the dough. They are perhaps waiting on tax breaks and the power to determine the vision for the reconstruction.
All sled dog bodies are different. All sled dog bodies are beautiful.
July 17
A frequently traveller from Spain to the US wonders about the differences between the two countries. "Why are homeless people so rare in Madrid and so common in San Francisco when here GDP per capita is half?"
Incredible photos from the 2019 Artistic Swimming World Championships. The first photo is amazing.
A typically illuminating interactive feature from the NY Times. "A baffling alert. A race to the wrong building. Notre-Dame still stands only because firefighters decided to risk everything."
July 16
For Sibling Battles, Be a Sportscaster, Not a Referee. "Narrate what's happening. Repeat back what your kids say to you. Try to be neutral." I'm totally trying this...in my best Phil Hartman play-by-play voice.
CBS has uploaded 4 hours of its coverage (with anchor Walter Cronkite) of Apollo 11's launch to YouTube. I wonder if they'll do the same w/ the Moon landing & walk?
Why wasn't the bicycle invented sooner? "Advances in materials and manufacturing were probably necessary for a commercially successful bicycle."
July 15
Fighting climate change may be cheaper and more beneficial than we think. "What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?"
When you fly, do you prefer takeoffs or landings? (I'd choose takeoffs, but I remember many more landings.)
A Phish skeptic goes to a Phish concert. "If the singing amounts to a violation, the jam's sin is arguably worse: it's just really boring, and it's really boring for a really long time."
July 12
July 11
I love how this NYC mail carrier worked within the USPS guidelines to bring a sense of individual style to his uniform. "I started by cropping the pants as well as narrowing the legs a bit."
The North American beaver is a formidable landscape engineer. Humans may be able to work together with them to restore water systems and improve land use
Eight men share stories of high school experiences where they behaved towards girls or women in ways they now regret. Honestly, I don't know what to make of this...
An interview with Chaédria LaBouvier, the curator of the Basquiat exhibition at the Guggenheim. "I didn't come to the Guggenheim to play small."
After 70 years in production, the last Volkswagen Beetle has rolled off the assembly line. I bet there will be a reboot in the future...there's just too much brand equity there to squander.
July 10
It's Okay to Be Good and Not Great. "What's interesting is that not always trying so damn hard to be great isn't just the path to being happier; it's also the path to getting better."
An Oral History of the Early Trans Internet. "Driven by a need to find community and speak freely about our lives, trans folks were able to find each other online."
The trailer for Honeyland, a documentary about one of Macedonia's remaining nomadic beekeepers. "We only take half. Half for [the bees], half for us."
July 9
What Really Happened to Malaysia's Missing Airplane. When William Langewiesche writes about aviation, it's always worth a read.
Old Weather. You can help climate scientists by transcribing logbooks from whaling & military vessels that contain weather & sea ice observations from the 19th and 20th centuries.
July 8
There's a secret group of Cold War science advisors called "Jason" that still counts Freeman Dyson as a member? "If Jason didn't exist, who would create it?"
Why is the US women's soccer team so dominant? Because Title IX encouraged hundreds of thousands of young girls to play soccer. 700 high school girls played soccer in 1972 when Title IX passed; in 2018, that number was more than 390,000.
July 4
July 3
July 2
So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend. "Megan [Rapinoe] is at the boss level in the video game of knowing herself." #goals
I Am An Old Soul. "I crave the simpler things: the real intimacy of chatting on AIM."
Do you remember that iOS game "10000000" from several years ago? Its creator is back with "Photographs", another hard-to-describe hybrid game that's getting some good reviews.
July 1
The showrunner for Star Trek: Picard is going to be.... Michael Chabon?! (I'd noticed on his Instagram that he was involved with the show.)
Why plants don't die from cancer. "The Chernobyl disaster reveals the true extent of our environmental impact on the planet. Harmful as it was, the nuclear accident was far less destructive to the local ecosystem than we were."
In recent decades, electroactive bacteria have been discovered building little electrical grids for themselves all over the world. "It alters entire ecosystems, and may help control the chemistry of the Earth."
According to a recent survey of experts on women's issues, among the top 10 most dangerous countries for women are India, Somalia, Syria, and the United States. The US was tied for third in the sexual violence category.
Taylor Swift on the news that louche music bro Scooter Braun is buying her back catalogue: "This is my worst case scenario." If this crap is happening in the open to Swift, just imagine everything we don't see.