July 30
Oh of course Google scientists have demonstrated a genuine "time crystal" for the first time ever. "The consequence is amazing: You evade the second law of thermodynamics."
July 29
The US poverty rate is expected to be *cut in half* this year due to pandemic relief efforts from the federal government. Presumably after those efforts end, poverty levels will go back to "normal".
What if the Unvaccinated Can't Be Persuaded? ~15% of Americans just won't do it unless forced and it'll take many months (if not years) of education & outreach to reach another 15% who aren't. *sigh*
From the first time, scientists have been able to observe x-rays coming from the back side of a black hole, which were bent around the hole and toward us. Einstein's general theory of relativity remains undefeated.
July 28
Huh, Gawker is back? RIP that old rainbow logo.
"Two bartenders floated in and out of the conversation, dropping comments like 'what's Covid?' to laughter. Just recently, a beloved cook at the restaurant had died from the virus, they said." This is a horrifying portrait of contemporary America.
July 27
An entertaining thread arguing that most pickup trucks in the US are purchased as status symbols and aren't practical. "Owning a truck the size of a WWII Sherman tank serves no practical purpose."
A timeline of digital nomadism. The term "digital nomad" was first used in 1997, but the concept originated perhaps as far back as the 60s.
The trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Looks fun.
What a find! This short clip from 1974 is the earliest known footage of Prince playing live music. He was just 16, performing before the demolition of a YMCA building.
July 26
Grace Loh Prasad and her son Devin folded 465 origami cranes during the pandemic, one for each day. "As the number of cranes grew it also gave us some perspective on the magnitude and strangeness of our ongoing experience."
What It Feels Like to Lose Your Favorite Season. On top of everything else, the climate crisis is disrupting seasonal rhythms. (I can't get outside for exercise today because the air quality is "unhealthy for all groups" here in VT.)
4 Reasons I'm Wearing a Mask Again. "The Delta variant is spreading fast, so I'm supplementing the protection offered by my vaccine."
Sundown Towns Are Still A Problem For Black Drivers. "It's when you veer off to the back roads that don't connect to the highway, that's when you find yourself in trouble."
The Simplest Tool for Improving Cities Is Also Free. "We can creatively reorganize our collective hours and days in ways that help more people enjoy our cities and institutions."
July 23
This guy has gone 20 years without spending any money. He even goes so far as burning bills when he gets them. (It seems like he still causes a substantial amount of money to be spent on his behalf though...)
July 22
The Last Duel, a historical film set in medieval France starring Adam Driver and directed by Ridley Scott? Sure, yeah.
Great interview with Jane Goodall, who is still going full-tilt at 87. "I don't know what the meaning of life is. The meaning of my life is to give people hope because without hope you give up."
Low Pay, No Benefits, Rude Customers: Restaurant Workers Quit At Record Rate. "It was almost like there was this unplanned, unorganized general strike."
Anti-vax groups have invented their own alternate vocabulary to avoid being kicked off Facebook for misinformation — e.g. "dancing" = "getting vaccinated", "Pizza King" for "Pfizer", "oxygen thief" for "mask".
Pornhub has created guides to "Classic Nudes" for several museums. "I had thought I might feel a little pervy visiting The Met just for nudes; instead it made the museum's collection come alive in ways I'd forgotten it could."
The Is This Prime? game. I got tripped up by 87 because I forgot my divisibility rules (if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, the number is also.)
The Internet Archive turns 25 years old this year. One of the cornerstones of the open, living web.
July 21
What the fuck is going on with the FDA? Why haven't they given full approval to the Covid-19 vaccines? It's been *months* and people are dying of preventable disease.
The first part of the Civil Rights documentary Eyes on the Prize is now available on HBO Max. They are also making a follow-up series that will "reflect on the legacy of the movement...and tie it to the present day."
July 20
This is a sobering thread about the realities of Covid & the Delta variant. Vaxxed or no, we're in for a long haul. "With Delta, it's unlikely that Covid will ever go away, or be held at low levels."
What are Jeff Bezos & Blue Origin up to? Maybe, @tcarmody supposes, they aim to "harvest, contribute, and (if possible) control the energy, material resources, and industrial tools and knowledge that enable human spaceflight".
To assess the risk of Covid for you & your family, Dr. Katherine J. Wu recommends "checking virus conditions like you check the weather" before you go out into the world and do things.
Today is Apollo 11 day and as usual, you can watch the coverage here "live" as it happened 52 years ago. The TV will flicker to life at 4:10pm EDT for the landing and again at 10:51pm EDT for the moon walk.
After his short flight into space, Jeff Bezos thanked "every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this". Which is true, but usually you don't say the quiet part loud?
This sounds interesting... Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism is a book about "how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power."
July 19
Oh, nostalgia! This site has Print Shop running in an Apple II emulator and it outputs a PDF of your creation when you print.
"Cat Person" and Me. "Kristen Roupenian's viral story draws specific details from my own life. I've spent the years since it published wondering: How did she know?"
Robots in Italy "with an artistic sensitivity" are carving marble sculptures commissioned by artists around the world. "We don't need another Michelangelo. We already had one."
NASA recently corrected a fault on the Hubble by switching to the backup hardware. The space telescope is fully operational again and will continue its incredibly productive 31-year mission.
July 17
July 16
The forthcoming new cookbook from Kenji Lopez-Alt is called The Wok, a book about "the most versatile pan in the kitchen". A must-buy for me; anytime I'm looking for a recipe for something to cook, I google "kenji [name of dish]".
A study using fitness tracker data shows that people w/ Covid often had elevated heart rates for months. "It took 79 days, on average, for their resting heart rates to return to normal, compared with just four days for those in the non-Covid group."
Magically Turning Into Random Objects. This is really well done.
July 15
The Well-Tempered Traveler is a single serving site from Google (??) that shows year-round temperatures & precipitation levels for dozens of cities around the world.
July 14
Watch 13x female world champion arm wrestler Irina Gladkaya take on all muscle-bound comers at Muscle Beach Miami. These matchups are all over in a comically short amount of time.
A NASA study is predicting a surge of coastal flooding starting in the 2030s. The cause is rising sea levels due to climate change amplified by a wobble in the Moon's orbit.
Instant new favorite weather app: Weather Strip. As @craigmod notes, the weather timeline is the best weather visualization around.
July 13
Instagram Has Become SkyMall. "These days when I open up the app, every ad customized for me is some decidedly loopy gewgaw."
Oh, and you really can clean your cast iron pan with dish soap. No need to be so precious about it...
The Myth of the Cast Iron Pan. "Having sprung from the core of the earth, it will die a tragic death if exposed to the tiniest soap bubble. The mortal gently cleanses the cast-iron with water, like a doting river nymph."
Mr. @glennf is hosting the Kottke Ride Home podcast this week while @jackisnotabird is away on vacation. Listen in! (Also, Jack and I finally met in person recently – so good to chat w/ him about the evolution of social media & many other things.)
July 9
Cuttlefish don't live a long time like corvids or have highly social lives like chimpanzees. They don't even perform magic tricks squeezing into caves or holes like octopi. But they're smart. How do they do it?
July 7
July 6
The White House is issuing an executive order offering a limited Right to Repair for farmers to fix their own equipment. Earlier reports had predicted the order might extend to other electronic devices as well
From @Seinfeld2000 and @hoodinternet: a supercut of the Seinfeld theme mixed with a hit song from each year of the show. (The Daft Punk works surprisingly well!) (ht @UnlikelyWords)
July 5
This weekend, some Texas-based white supremacists marched through Philadelphia's Center City. Then they started engaging Philly residents. "Somebody threw a smoke bomb to cover their retreat, and they literally ran away from the people of Philadelphia"
July 2
Scientific American, The Guardian, and a number of other publications decided earlier this year to start using the term "climate emergency" when covering climate change. "It's time for journalism to recognize that the climate emergency is here."
It's Time for the FDA to Fully Approve the mRNA Vaccines. "Others may not get immunized unless their employers require it, and many organizations...are waiting for the vaccines to be fully approved before instituting such mandates."
Sha'Carri Richardson has been banned from running the 100-meter race in the Tokyo Olympics because she tested positive for marijuana. This is totally totally shitty.
The shitty trend of police officers playing copyrighted music to keep the resulting videos off of social media continues. "You can record all you want. I just know it can't be posted to YouTube."
July 1
A record number of anti-trans bills (131 of them) are moving through the legislations of 36 US states — explore them & their potential impact here. "The goal across these bills is simple: to keep transgender people out of public life."
The danger of the Delta variant of Covid-19. "Vaccinated people are safer than ever despite the variants. But unvaccinated people are in more danger than ever because of the variants."