January 31
The 50 best car commercials of all time. About half of these are for Volkswagen.
An immersive multimedia presentation of the Sherlock Holmes adventure, A Scandal in Bohemia. "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name."
January 30
January 29
Royalty Exchange is an online marketplace for buying and selling the rights to music royalties. A 10-yr contract for Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys just sold for $190,500.
In 2019, more Americans went to the library than to the movies. "Visiting the local library remains by far the most common cultural activity Americans engage in."
January 28
John Gruber: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10. "Great though it is in so many ways, overall it has fallen so far short of the grand potential it showed on day one."
January 27
Men's legacies vs women's safety. "If Bryant's fans are looking for a way to reconcile their love and grief with the accusation, one way would be to consider this apology as a sign of someone who seemed to be taking stock of the hurt he caused."
"For growing numbers of people the weekend is an emotional wilderness where interaction is minimal and social life non-existent." Much of this resonated with me.
What the...? Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway (and many other more useful inventions), also invented the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine (the one w/ 160+ flavors)?!
The Spotted Pig is closing. Am I reading between the lines correctly that Friedman is closing it down so he doesn't have to pay his victims?
January 26
Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna have died in a helicopter crash. The former NBA star was 41.
January 24
Are You Ready to Have Friends With Kids? "Once you have friends with kids, your life is no longer about you. It's about your friends' kids."
Clayton Christensen, most well-known for his theories about disruptive innovation, has died aged 67. I had a brief chat w/ him several years ago; he was a genuinely nice person.
January 23
The NY Times profiles 21 people who have quit something (job, sex, cars, church, friendships). Quitting things is underrated.
Google's ads look just like the search results now. The company hasn't been a "search engine" for a long time now, but the takeover of the company by biz dev & sales folks is complete.
Updates on and an explainer about the Wuhan coronavirus, which has infected 600+ people and killed 18 so far. This is the not-fun part about being in Asia right now...
January 22
January 21
Boing Boing is celebrating 20 years online. 20 years! Congrats @frauenfelder @doctorow @xeni @beschizza and the rest of the gang!
An ant colony has memories that its individual members don't have. Ants are fascinating.
January 20
January 18
The National Archives admits they modified an exhibition photo of the 2017 Women's March by blurring out references to Trump and women's body parts (e.g. "This Pussy Grabs Back") on signs. No defense for this whatsoever.
January 17
Season 3 of Slow Burn, hosted by @byjoelanderson, is about the murders of Tupac and Biggie. They made a playlist of music from the show on Spotify.
"Which of these 2020 Democrats agrees with you most?" I got Warren, followed by Sanders and Yang.
The first in a year-long photo series on each of the 50 US states: Wyoming. The Beartooth Mountains, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Bighorns, Wind River...Wyoming might be the most beautiful state in the US.
Charts depicting the growth of Apple over the past decade. In terms of revenue, "the Apple of January 2020 is roughly six times the size of the Apple of January 2010".
The simple joy of f***ing up in the kitchen. "The eight survivors from the original band of 40 [soup dumplings] were mediocre at best, a quiet final salvo in an unmitigated kitchen debacle."
January 16
The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation. "If our planet was 50% larger in diameter, we would not be able to venture into space, at least using rockets for transport."
How New York's Bagel Union Fought – and Beat – a Mafia Takeover. "The union handled the Mafia the same way that it handled nearly all extreme issues with management: full public confrontation."
Queens native Awkwafina to be the voice of the No. 7 subway train for a week. "This is 69th St, which is definitely, definitely not funny in any way."
Muji has taken their website offline for an entire month for "maintenance". The company's stock price has dropped sharply in the last month as well.
January 15
Every Restaurant Playlist. "If you're eating even one small plate, you'll be hearing these songs."
A collection of videos about the benefits of boredom. "When you're bored, you tend to daydream, and your mind wanders, and this is a very, very important part of the creative process."
The ten different types of movies, based on the posters. Includes "orange and blue action" and "leaning couple".
January 14
10 pairs of British tabloid headlines comparing Meghan Markle to Kate Middleton. Markle, a woman of color, gets dragged for the same things that Middleton is praised for.
Alcohol is one of America's biggest public health & safety threats. Why isn't it treated as such? "Alcohol is the one drug almost universally accepted at social gatherings that routinely kills people."
Gallup poll: Only 84% of Americans say it's very or extremely important for parents to vaccinate their kids. And 46% are unsure if vaccines cause autism.
In 1992, a football rule was changed: the goalkeeper couldn't pick up a backpass from a teammate. This small change revolutionized the game. Keepers & defenders became more skilled w/ the ball & possession gained importance.
January 13
How one librarian effectively banned Goodnight Moon from the NYPL for 25 years. "If Anne Carroll Moore didn't like a book, she could effectively kill it."
Why does every website now ask you to accept its cookies? And is this helping improve our online privacy?
Criminals are using virtual goods in games like Counter-Strike to launder real money. "Buying and reselling digital goods is a popular way for financial criminals to cash out from identity theft."
January 12
January 10
If you don't run across many folks who identify as nonbinary, today's trending #IAmNonbinary tag is a good way to meet some. Thanks to those sharing their stories!
An HBO adaptation of Bong Joon Ho's Parasite is in the works. "It is unclear if the limited series will be some sort of follow-up to the movie or an English-language remake."
January 9
Sequin, an iOS app that "lets you touch/brush colorful sequins". You can change the sequins' colors and turn photos into sequined patterns. $0.99.
The New-York Historical Society has acquired Robert Caro's papers. "I want people to be able to see how I gather my material and how I turn it into books, how I write."
January 8
An imagined report from 2030 on how we ended the climate emergency. "We will finally reach peak global emissions. We will finally stop accelerating towards our own destruction."
January 7
Kylo Ren's fractured helmet and the Japanese art of kintsugi (broken pottery repair with visible "scars"). "The idea is to treat the breakage of the piece as a part of its history, instead of something to hide."
A visit to the Uncut Gems pop-up store in the Diamond District. They had the gem Furbys, bottles of water, and movie merch for sale. Really wish I coulda seen this.
January 6
My pal @craigmod loves to walk. Recently, he walked 600 miles across Japan on a quest for old-style Japanese cafes and their signature dish, pizza toast (which Mod calls "a hug produced in a toaster oven").
1923 is a zine publication of works from that year that have entered the public domain due to copyright expiration. "If we don't engage with the public domain, we can't truly feel its value."
TIL that Billie Eilish and her brother/musical partner were homeschooled. "I never went to school, so popular was never a thing for me. I don't understand peer pressure."
January 4
January 3
Eat a Peach is a memoir by chef David Chang that will be out later this year. "David Chang opened a noodle restaurant in Manhattan's East Village that should not have survived its first, misbegotten year."
A physicist from Caltech is closing in on a grand unified theory ... of snowflakes. "Although ice is especially weird, similar questions arise in condensed matter physics more generally."
January 2
IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete With TurboTax. Good on ProPublica for their reporting pressuring the IRS into this.
It's 2020. You're old. "Remember when Jurassic Park, The Lion King, and Forrest Gump came out in theaters? Closer to the moon landing than today."
My Half-Hour with Einstein. "So you're studying at Princeton. Would you like to meet Einstein?"