January 9
End Of The Pizzagate Road
Edgar Maddison Welch, who shot up a DC pizzeria because of an online conspiracy theory that it was a front for a child sex slavery ring, was killed by police when he pulled a weapon on them during a traffic stop. [more inside]
"a high heel you ordered online during a prolonged daydream"
No-buy 2025 offers other ways to fill the void (WaPo gift)
Tiny anime girl cyberprison shown at CES
"At CES 2025, a company called Sybran Innovation showed off the Code27 Character Livehouse. It's an AI-powered digital purgatory that you can trap a small anime girl in, forever."
Woven In Respect
Sakiori is a hobby of making new cloth out of strips of old fabric salvaged from worn clothes. It comes from a time and place when cotton was a scarce commodity, but it lives on today because the result is a fabric with a unique aesthetic. [more inside]
Simultaneous Mario Bros
From Awesome Games Done Quick 2025, four speedrunners play Super Mario Brothers at the same time, superimposed.
"The live audience had a great time, I think..."
"In his one-hour stand-up special, D.J. Demers: Interpreted, Demers is raising the standard of accessible comedy with two versions of special, one complete with closed-captioning subtitles and an onstage American Sign Language interpreter, as well as descriptive captioning for the visually impaired." Canadian-born Demers is a Deaf comedian who does his stand-up in English (as opposed to ASL) and discusses some of the choices he's made about how much of his disability to turn into comedy. See also: Tonight Show debut, YouTube channel, an impromptu joke with his interpreter, Jennifer Lees.
"the arc of the universe bends towards disco"
A Twinge of Saudade is an essay by Norwegian-British music critic Chal Ravens about Abba, going from their beginnings, through their glittering career, and their afterlife. She discussed the band, and the cultural moment in Sweden from which they hailed, and why they were at odds with Anglophone pop culture, with Thomas Jones on an episode of the LRB Podcast.
Physics for Cats
... is Tom Gauld's upcoming collection of his New Scientist cartoons. You can see ten pages from it on the Drawn & Quarterly site I've linked.
The World's Largest Cruise Ship: Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas
Building the World's Largest Cruise Ship. What's it like on the world's largest cruise ship? Walkthrough
ten tips for an "overtly consumptive hobby"
"What I wish I had was a list of now-obvious tips for keeping and running a home bar, and here is where I will keep them", says Justin Duke, who believes much cocktail-related writing on the Internet is 'not particularly actionable to the genre of person who is like "I made this drink and it's tasty! How do I get better at this?"' Disclaimer: Justin is a friend of mine.
Gish Gallop
The Gish gallop (/ˈɡɪʃ ˈɡæləp/) is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available [more inside]
Where does American socialism stop and American Marxism begin?
The amount and quality of this scholarship can be celebrated — or for conservative critics, decried — but the question here is, does it possess a distinct identity? And what is its impact? An identity to this academic Marxism is difficult to outline since little links the Marxist literary critic and the Marxist sociologist, except left-wing sympathies and occasional shared vocabulary. from American Marxism Got Lost on Campus [Jacobin; ungated]
January 8
Imagine a clock but with like, four arms
s32 unix clock. A cool visualization of the original signed 32-bit integer Unix time moving toward the 2038 ending of the epoch that began in 1970. More description in David Buchanan's announcement blog post about it (from 2023, but what is time?).
There’s an emu on the loose on the Eastern Shore
Patti LeConte and her husband were driving home from Ocean City on New Year’s morning when they saw traffic slowing near Hebron in Wicomico County.
As they got closer, the Ellicott City couple realized the reason why: A 6-foot-tall bird was loping down Route 50.
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise
The prevalence of documentaries about musicians is a curse, because most of these films do a terrible job of showcasing music. One rare and moving exception is the work of the director Robert Mugge, whose film Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise -- about the musician and bandleader whose multimedia and pan-cultural activities made him one of the prime artists of Afrofuturism -- is one of the most satisfying musical portraits I’ve ever seen. - Richard Brody, The New Yorker [more inside]
"95% of vampire novels take place in Alaska, New Orleans, or Las Vegas"
Article by Katy Waldman in The New Yorker about an allegation of plagiarism in a romantasy series. Archive link. Unpublished novelist Lynne Freeman thinks that Tracy Wolff's Crave has used elements from Freeman's Blue Moon Rising, with involvement from her editor and publisher. Waldman discusses the difficulty of establishing plagiarism when the books are different in tone but have many similar details, particularly within a genre which uses tropes extensively. Via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
📚 Under the fold: A Lot of Books 📚
In addition to Small Press Distribution's shutdown (previously), in November of 2024 independent distributor National Book Network announced that it will also shut down in 2025, offering clients a chance to move to Simon & Schuster Distribution Services and a lot more notice than SPD. Independent Publishers Group still exists, and small distributors Asterism and Itasca have bridged some of the gap. Many presses have incurred higher costs than usual—but the amazing and challenging work of small presses soldier on, producing books that are too loud, too transgressive, or too weird for the Big 5 (previously). [more inside]
clickety clackety clock
An electromechanical seven-segment display. Single link youtube, fourteen minutes. Three-dee printing, hand-wound electromagnets, a couple of design iterations, and a result which satisfies even if you can see some tweaks for the next version.
Starliners, CrowdStrike and AI slop
The 8 worst technology failures of 2024, according to MIT Technology Review.
Fire season is year-round now
Fires are tearing through Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena, and Sylmar. Gusts of up to 100 mph are reported. LATimes has made the wildfire coverage accessible to all. Fact check from Newsweek on whether LAFD's budget was cut. Related: California voted to keep forced prison labor this year. The history of California's inmate firefighter program.
Prediction markets and their role in predicting the election
Prediction markets can make a valuable contribution to policymaking. Besides elections, prediction markets are also used to bet on other activities like sports outcomes. Social prediction markets like Manifold allow users to create their own markets for others to bet on (albeit with play money)
The Beaches --
Liquid hot plasma
Catchy tunes on corruption
On the occasion of the US sanctions placed on Antal Rogán ("Tóni"), current Hungarian Minister of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office -- a historic first considering Hungary is a NATO country and Rogán is an active government member -- let me introduce you to the thinly veiled references in the catchy pop-punk song about a certain "Tóni": Bankrupt - Tony Montana [more inside]
Ancient Music
“Should I eat this ... Christmas tree?” - Belgium edition
Yes, says Ghent Climate City, with the explanation “Your Christmas tree is edible as long as it is not yew, and your tree has not been treated with a fire-resistant spray”. “Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried – for use in making flavoured butter, for instance”; summarised as Scandinaviërs eten kerstbomen (Scandinavians eat Christmas trees). No, retorts Belgium's Federal Agency, with the warning “Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain”. Have you ever eaten a tree? If so (or not), then perhaps there's a t-shirt for that.
Threaded Comments
This shift is indicative of a resurgence in women’s use of thread, not as a domestic activity – but as a form of protest. Yet, given the sexist connotations associated with acts such as embroidery, knitting and crochet, why would women, and particularly feminists, choose this medium as a vehicle for their message? from Threads of resistance [Aeon]
January 7
Should you use a plate or bowl when pie is served à la mode?
Some nerdy Redditors have doubts about 2024 election integrity
On two separate subreddits, data analysis and conjecture are underway about possible anomalies in the election results. Detailed charts, videos and lengthy posts can be found, including analysis of each swing state, leaked ballot data, and comparisons to the country of Georgia's election (believed to have been rigged using the "Russian Tail" vote-flipping approach). Is there any chance of validity in their research?
A Man, A Plan, A WTAF
Trump refuses to rule out using military to take Panama Canal and Greenland (Guardian) “I can’t assure you on either of those two,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. “But I can say this, we need them for economic security.” [more inside]
Miles Davis at the Isle of Wight Music Festival
While some artists were, not unnaturally, overawed by the vast size of the audience, Miles and the band appeared unfazed and slammed into their set with such ferocity that it jerked the audience around me from its stoned afternoon ennui into a bustle of excited head-turners. ... This was jazz Jim, but not as we knew it. [more inside]
Dredging creates perfect island hatchery for endangered birds
Dredging creates perfect island hatchery for endangered birds. More than 30,000 cubic metres of dredged sand deposited on a tiny island south of Newcastle in New South Wales has delighted an endangered little tern population. More than 50 have begun to lay and hatch their eggs in sand on the island.
Shawna The Mom
Via her youtube shorts, Shawna The Mom has been providing catharsis and joy throughout the holidays to everyone who is plagued with narcisstic family members. Watch Shawna and her excellent husband John stand up to John's mother Barb and his sister Jen. Watch Jen get her own redemption arc! [more inside]
"Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere."
"The study, led by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of California, Davis, is the first to chronicle widespread carnivorous behavior among squirrels." More about this long-term squirrel study.
shhhh
Here's some cute pandas
Giant Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao play in the snow. The National Zoo in Washington, DC, has a new pair of pandas after returning three pandas at the end of 2023 to China. Bao Li and Qing Bao will be visible to the public beginning January 24, 2025.
Facts are optional and subjective
Meta to End Fact-Checking Program in Shift Ahead of Trump Term (gift link to NYT article)
Crosspost: Moderation committee and MetaFilter
The Interim Board of The MetaFilter Community Foundation has moved ahead with creating a moderation oversight committee. Here's more information and how to get involved. If this is not your jam, no worries, there will be additional opportunities to get involved and support MetaFilter. That's it, that's the cross-post. But since this is the blue, some additional links below: [more inside]
Deus Ex Machina
Over the years, Donald E. Knuth has produced a slew of bestsellers on topics that might seem to have only limited appeal, most notably the arts of computer programming and mathematical typography. His latest book takes on a subject so challenging it has to hide behind a coy title: Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About. What is this subject that dare not speak its name? Not sex, but religion. The book is based on a series of lectures on "interactions between faith and computer science". The main topic is Knuth's approach to Bible study through random sampling (which led to an earlier book as well, titled 3:16); there is also musing on the programmer's role as god of a created universe. It's a very unpromising subject, but Knuth is a very good author. - American Scientist
10 Greatest Comics Where the Human Torch Kills Hitler
No, in the Marvel Universe, Hitler did not die by suicide. He died by being burned alive by the original Human Torch. Though they did Save Hitler's Brain, as Maxwell Yezpitelok's article also explains. (Title taken from Maxwell's skeet about it).
Click here
Do you feel insufficiently stimulated? Just click here. A short game about modern existence by neal.fun.
One of the few objects left that can summon a virtuous aura of salvation
The idea of men who need new stories but refuse to read them is also exaggerated and hyperbolic. It has become its own kind of story. It’s a legend, one that’s been repeated for years, haunted by zombie statistics and dubious facts. Its continued flourishing says a lot about what our culture worries about and all the things we hope will heal us. from Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis? [Vox; ungated]
January 6
Woman allegedly found with 94 reptiles in wildlife trafficking crackdown
Woman allegedly found with 94 reptiles in wildlife trafficking crackdown. Operation Ares leads to the arrest of a 26-year-old woman from Ashfield, Sydney who allegedly tried to export 94 live native reptiles to Hong Kong over a period of four weeks. [more inside]
Game Jam Days are Here Again (apologies to Yellen, Ager and Roosevelt)
Great snakes! Blow me down! I'm about a week late, but there's still time to make a game for Gaming Like It's 1929, the public domain adaptation game jam! (Techdirt articles one and two, previously (with links to all previous jams and their submissions and winners)) [more inside]
The Standards Trio
Keith Jarrett on piano, Gary Peacock on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums have been one of the longest running jazz groups ever. ... Jarrett’s aim was to reconnect with the “tribal language” of jazz and to investigate the “non-possessive” side of music making. Apart from a couple of studio visits, the trio has mostly worked live, and significantly, they don’t use arrangements. Arrangements can be possessive of course - “This is how we play this tune, this is what we do with that one” - so they let each song begin, develop, and end as it may. Following on from that, the setlists are also constructed in real time. [more inside]
FanFare, So Fine, Throws the Bums a Dime
THIS WEEK IN FANFARE... New release movies under discussion this week: HBO's Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, chronicling the history of that smooooooth West Coast sound; the 2024 remake of Nosferatu from filmmaker Robert Eggers (The VVitch); Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the new biopic A Complete Unknown; Clint Eastwood's Juror #2; Saturday Night, a behind the scenes comedy/drama about the launch of SNL; the New Zealand oddball family comedy Bookworm; the queer rodeo drama National Anthem; and Amy Adams turning into a dog in Nightbitch . TV shows under discussion include: Star Wars spinoff Skeleton Crew on Disney Plus; Apple TV's post-apocalyptic Silo; the new season of Netflix's Squid Game, and Soulsville USA just got a series post. [more inside]
An ideology that does not fit tidily with the Republicans or Democrats
Of course, the problem is that, in Trump, libertarians are dealing with someone whose nature is entirely transactional and who has no real ideological core. It means that, while libertarians might be able to achieve certain objectives by working with him and his acolytes, they can never be sure that they’re not undermining their beliefs in civil liberties by strengthening Trump’s position. Any victory you give to Trump could mean putting another nail in your own coffin. from It’s a Weird Time to Be a Libertarian [The New Republic; ungated]
The Garages Sign Off 🎸
Seattle Garages - We've Been The Garages This is the final installment in our "we are the garages" series, harking back to our very first album ("we are the garages Vol 1") in 2020. We will still be releasing our album EXPANSION, which is about the (you guessed it!) expansion era of blaseball, later in 2025. But "we've been the garages" is the album where the community has come together to really celebrate, commiserate, and sing about the end of this wonderful game and what it's meant to us all.
We've been the Garages. Thank you and goodnight. [more inside]
Intersex Interviews
Video interview with Roshaante Anderson. 14 minutes long. Content warnings for frank discussion of genitals, sex, and transphobia/intersexphobia.
Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Roshaante was born with a vagina and internal testicles. He did not find out he was intersex until he was 11 years old. [more inside]
Essential tools to make the modern web more bearable
Essential tools to make the modern web more bearable – Because a lot of the internet is controlled by a very small number of companies, people have created tons of tools to make using services that lack viable competitors more bearable ... [Here] are a few tools that I think are pretty accessible and could make your internet experience a lot more enjoyable.