[Oh, yeah, Greg, you and “Vik” are clearly on the same page.]How might one try to defend Florida’s garbage curriculum that teaches, in part, that slaves developed skills which could be applied for their personal benefit? Well first, one shouldn’t, because the idea is indefensible … | Continue reading
[Let’s not go to Florida. It is a silly place.]Sometimes, one is forced to wonder how the members of the Florida Department of Education can possibly sleep at night. The Florida State Board of Education’s new standards includes controversial language about how “slaves developed s … | Continue reading
[“[I]t’s about a lot more than just flowers.”]Rachel Nafis runs Psalter Farm, which provides flowers in San Diego. Rather than a large centralized farmland, she does her growing on shared land, beautifying her neighbors’s property as she does.Link: https://www.latimes.com/lifesty … | Continue reading
[Please, Can you Not?] Way back in 2011, I used the term “autocorrupt” to describe what the iPhone keyboard sometimes did in its attempts to fix mistyping. At the time, typing on a smartphone was still rather novel, and the built-in autocorrect technology was really fairly solid. … | Continue reading
[“Those who don’t want to download the app can pay ParkMobile over the phone by calling 877-727-5304.”]Throughout 2022, Stone Harbor, NJ issued an average of approximately 2.5 parking tickets per day. More recently, however, the town has gone on a ticket-writing spree. This past … | Continue reading
[Out of the frying pan, into the fire]Do you know what’s so, so much worse than facing military discipline in America? …U.S. soldier, Private 2nd Class Travis King…was reportedly being escorted back to the United States from South Korea for disciplinary reasons. After going throu … | Continue reading
[“He was a total clown.”]Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform that keeps your conversations secure as they travel across the internet. What it can’t do, and indeed what no system can do, is prevent your messages from being read when you text openly while standing … | Continue reading
[Mistakes were made.] Recently, I received a curbside food waste bin from the city of Boston. It’s part of a system for composting that works with city living. As I have a small kitchen and no yard at all, composting myself is not much of an option. I don’t really want to intenti … | Continue reading
[Be sure to get the optional death and dismemberment plan.] Late last year, I bemoaned the relentless encroachment of advertising into every single facet of our lives. At the time, the ads in question were on the uniforms of the Boston Red Sox. Now, the arch-rival Yankees have ma … | Continue reading
[If only they’d suspended operations a month earlier.]Despite the confirmed demise of all aboard the ill-fated Titan submersible, the story itself won’t die, because the media won’t let it. And so it is that we get a headline like this: Titan submersible implosion updates: OceanG … | Continue reading
[Certainly not the design experts.] Parodontax makes a mouthwash “designed for people with bleeding gums”. That’s quite the target market, one which instantly makes me think of this guy: That’s good old ”Bleeding Gums” Murphy, from “The Simpsons”, and if he were still alive and … | Continue reading
[🦄]Out in San Francisco, driverless cars from Waymo and Cruise have been providing taxi services for some time. Now, ahead of a meeting where the companies may be authorized to start charging for the service, a group of activists have started fighting back with a delightf … | Continue reading
[And not a single person was defenestrated?]OK, if Yevgeny Prigozhin really took a post-mutiny meeting with Putin, then my understanding of the recent events in Russia has hit a new low. Russian President Vladimir Putin met mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin after the failed Wagn … | Continue reading
[Don’t be like this.] Current Miami mayor and future Republican presidential primary dropout Francis Suarez recently tweeted to boast about his time in a 5K race: This is a very bad tweet. It’s bad on its face, because the speed with which someone runs is completely irrelevant t … | Continue reading
[Lawyers will probably not be of much use.]I’ve been fascinated by Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s brief-and-aborted uprising in Russia, because it is nearly incomprehensible to me. I keep trying to map it onto American politics, but it just does not line up well at all. What if the CEO of … | Continue reading
[That means “air-derived electricity”.]Someday, we might be able to use suffocating humidity to cool (and dehumidify) our homes.Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power | Continue reading
[They’ve had some impressive speakers over the years!]It’s Independence Day here in America, but also in one small area of Denmark, where the locals celebrate July 4th too. Learn all about RebildfestenLink: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0704/Why-are-Danes-celebrating-the-Fou … | Continue reading
[Nearly a mile of elevation gain]Last month, runner John McGinty completed the arduous Mount Washington Road Race. The race is a 7.6 mile ascent up the tallest mountain in the northeast, and the weather is often record-settingly awful, even in June. So when his 82-year-old runnin … | Continue reading
[It was a test, and now that she’s been caught, we all passed!]We opened the week with Harvard employees behaving badly, and we’ll close it the same way. Harvard professor Francesca Gino, who studies dishonesty, has just been accused of falsifying data. Thankfully, she’s literall … | Continue reading
[Even with this abolished, the world is an endlessly strange place.]Perhaps you were familiar with fan death, but were you aware of another bit of South Korean quirkiness, the concept of “Korean age”? Under this system, which has its roots in China, babies are considered a year o … | Continue reading
[She went the extra ~1/16th of a mile.] When multiple teammates were taken down by injuries, Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo stepped up (and over), running the 100m hurdles to keep her team alive in this past weekend’s European Championships. [Link]1 Boumko competing in the e … | Continue reading
[Shoddy Identification; Really Irksome] Though Siri may have eventually learned the word “gazpacho”, it’s consistently finding new ways to vex me. Recently, I simply wanted to close my garage door from my Apple Watch, something I do frequently without issue: For the record, I wa … | Continue reading
[With just three little words, “head number 7” says so much.]Recently, the manager of the Harvard Med School morgue was accused of stealing and selling human body parts. Cedric Lodge and his wife Denise were among a half-dozen people arrested for some pretty grotesque crimes. Thi … | Continue reading
[Still, how long until Nintendo sues for mis-use of their IP?]I simply cannot imagine purchasing a home on Squirtle Lane. And yet, that’s just one of the ridiculous names Andrea Miller came up with for Serenity Place, a housing development where the streets are named after Pokémo … | Continue reading
[Social media makes reality so damned weird.]If this pair of the detested billionaires actually do fight, two nerds will enter, one nerd will leave. Then the other nerd will leave after being declared the winner.1 Footnotes: Video archived here. ↩︎ Link: https://www.bbc.com/news … | Continue reading
[When thunder roars, go indoors.]On August 4, 2022, Amber Escudero-Kontostathis was part of a group of four people who were victims of a lightning strike. She was the only one who survived, and just barely: The Secret Service agents who reached Amber first said her skin was dark … | Continue reading
[ Rubber duckie, I’m awfully fond of you ]The next time you’re having a rough day, say a 5 or worse on the Rubber Duck Scale: Why not take a look at these fantastic pictures? If you’re anything like me, they’re sure make you smile.Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2023/0 … | Continue reading
[Definitely wankers, though.]If you’re looking for a fun and fascinating activity to do with your father-in-law, you could apparently do worse than visiting a federal courthouse.Link: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/06/father-in-law-relationship-proud-boys-trial.html | Continue reading
[Being confidently wrong is worse than just being wrong.]We already know that ChatGPT is a liar. Part of the problem with it is how authoritative it sounds. Despite being frequently wrong, it states everything with extreme confidence. This flaw is perhaps most obvious when seeing … | Continue reading
[John is dead, though.]Thanks to machine learning, there may soon be yet another Beatles song. But rather than something awful like ChatGPT writing lyrics, this is just using advanced technology to clean up old audio.Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65881813 | Continue reading
[Carb up before a match, not during]Tennis player Iga Swiatek has been leading the sport for quite some time, holding the top women’s ranking for well over a year straight. During her matches, she has frequently handed out bagels and breadsticks on the court. These food items are … | Continue reading
[Bite request received]Over on Instagram (and elsewhere), Soren Iverson is mocking up hilarious features that no one wants, like this: This link was discovered via Elsewhat, a brand-new blog of many things from Neale Van Fleet.Link: https://www.instagram.com/soren.iverson/?hl=en | Continue reading
[You get out there and you find that f’ing dog.]Down in Colombia, four young children who survived a plane crash were found after 40 days in the Amazon. That’s a hell of a thing. Still, there are some issues with the process authorities used to locate them. In particular, they ma … | Continue reading
[The answers aren’t great.]On Monday, I wrote about the recent spat of deaths in horse racing. I was curious about why exactly horses are put down when they get injured. Now, the LA Times has some answers. They’re not terribly good answers, particularly if you’re indifferent at b … | Continue reading
[That’s a rough Wednesday.]Dale Wheatley works for the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois, which manages bodies donated for science. Apparently, he recently informed his supervisors about his “concerns about the mishandling and poor conditions of donated bodies”. What happen … | Continue reading
[Use your seatbelt, no matter how discouraged you get.]I would love to sit down with the writer of this recall notice to just really unpack the language that was chosen: “The customer may experience some dissatisfaction or be discouraged if they are unable to easily access the se … | Continue reading
[Oops.]Down in Utah, a previously-discussed book ban has now indeed resulted in the Bible being banned.Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/02/1179906120/utah-bible-book-challenge | Continue reading
[It’s also a lot of euthanasia.]12 horses dying at Churchill Downs in a one month span feels like an awful lot. Churchill Downs Inc. said in a statement that there has been no common factor linking the fatalities, and testing of the track surface has not revealed any abnormalitie … | Continue reading
[Today, in bird news…]We add did dumb things as teenagers, but who steals and eats a swan?Link: https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/update-three-charged-in-manlius-swan-death-and-baby-swan-disappearance/ | Continue reading
[Keep your pants on.]It’s a reasonable request which will undoubtedly not be met by everyone.Link: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/27/us/georgia-naked-photo-drivers-license-trnd/index.html | Continue reading
[This just makes me sad.]In 2022, A.A. Milne’s original Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain. In 2023, the character (and his friends) are being used to teach children how to react in the event of a school shooting. It’s nice that America’s public domain laws have been impr … | Continue reading
[Maybe ChatGPT should require a license.]In the latest case of an untruthful artificial intelligence, ChatGPT made up imaginary legal cases which a lawyer then cited as precedent. Yikes. Previously in lying large language models (LLLMs): ChatGPT Is Also a LiarLink: https://mashab … | Continue reading
[OK, it’s also the day many pools open, yes.]Here in America, it’s Memorial Day. Though often discussed as the unofficial “start of summer”, the purpose of this federal holiday is actually to honor U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. Since 2000, we … | Continue reading
[I don’t quite understand why they go to auction if no one takes them for free.]Would you like a free lighthouse? Head over to the terrible domain of disposal.gsa.gov, and one could be yours.Link: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/26/massachusetts-lighthouses-for-sale-giveaway | Continue reading
[Why not?]Let’s be honest, humanity has this coming.Link: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-boats-in-europe-and-appear-to-be-teaching-others-to-do-the-same-but-why | Continue reading
[That is very much not what I want.] Today in stupid Siri bugs, let’s have a look at failed timers. When last I wrote about timers, it was to grouse that the iPhone is incapable of running two timers at once. The Apple Watch, however, is a precision timekeeping device. It’s more … | Continue reading
[Stay out of the danger zone.]The next time you need to generate some secure passwords, consider getting yourself some Kenny Log-ins.Link: https://www.kennylog-in.com | Continue reading
[This poor dog can surely do better.]The police report for this whole mess is pretty brutal. The man, whom police didn’t name, appeared intoxicated, and when asked by an officer if he’d been drinking, he ran away, the post said…He was apprehended about 20 yards from the vehicle, … | Continue reading