March 24
it's not just war zones
Pilot Akseli Meskanen's cockpit is warning him that his Airbus A330 passenger plane is about to crash into the ground... But he's 33,000ft in the air. So what's happening? Why could his aircraft be telling him things that aren't true? from "Pull up! Pull up!" [Sky News]
Thermal tech to protect bilbies and night parrots from feral cats
Thermal tech to protect bilbies and night parrots from feral cats.
Cameras, bioacoustic recorders and thermal scopes are being placed in Queensland's Channel Country in a bid to bring the relentless hunters under control.
We deserve it all
Full Remarks: AOC in Tempe, Arizona - "I am here to remind you of a simple fact. In spite of what Trump wants you to believe, we are not powerless in this moment."
March 23
The Bibliotheca Bible
"The unexpected popularity of the Bibliotheca project on Kickstarter brought a whole genre of Bibles — the multi-volume, reader-friendly kind — out of the archive of past ideas. Before, the conventional wisdom had been that nobody wanted a beautifully designed and produced edition of Scripture separated into volumes so as to do away with the necessity for super-thin pages and super-small print. (Or at least, nobody wanted to pay for it.) When Bibliotheca raised nearly $1.5 million for exactly such an edition, the conventional wisdom was quickly revised." [more inside]
i need a deep dive into 2-hit wonders
If one hit is a miracle, then two hits is a near impossibility. Two-hit artists sit in a weird space ... pop stars a remembered because they are very famous. One-hit wonders are remembered for the opposite. Their un-memorableness makes them great answers to bar trivia questions. Two-hit wonders are stuck in the middle. Some might be able to parlay those two hits into careers, but others are lost in a musical no man’s land, too many hits for trivia, not enough to be legends. Still, there’s got to be a greatest two-hit wonder. from The Greatest Two-Hit Wonders [Can't Get Much Higher]
Erdoğan's endgame: outlawing the Turkish opposition
For more than 20 years, Turkey has experienced steady democratic backsliding under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but the secular Republican People's Party (CHP) founded on the ideals of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has remained fierce. Following the failed 2016 coup attempt that Erdoğan leveraged to push through a constitutional overhaul centralizing power, social democrat Ekrem İmamoğlu emerged as the opposition's brightest star, winning a 2019 Istanbul mayoral race that authorities first nullified, then watched him win again by an even larger margin. Further gains for the CHP in municipal contests last year amid lingering economic dysfunction gave renewed hope that Erdogan could finally be ousted. That hope faded this week as the government launched an unprecedented crackdown, pressuring the cancellation of İmamoğlu's (required) college diploma, jailing him on corruption charges, and investigating over a hundred others. The shock move, which has sparked mass protests in the streets and widespread censorship, threatens to move Turkey firmly from a "competitive authoritarian" system (where the political landscape is merely biased) towards outright autocracy.
Exploring the use of Sensorial Cartography as an Ethnographic Method
[Blurred Spaces] is proposed as part of the Embodied Ecologies project led by Wageningen University, which consists of a major collaborative investigation into how people perceive and feel exposure to toxic products, how human bodies interact with a multiplicity of these products on a daily basis, and how they try to minimise their effects.
Seattle's Draw Bridges
Seattle has nine movable bridges: six road drawbridges (Ballard, Fremont, University, Montlake, First Ave South, South Park), one road swing bridge (Spokane Street Swing Bridge) and two train drawbridges. Seattle Times: Life in the tower: Who controls Seattle’s drawbridges? (archive). Seattle DOT: How do the Fremont and Ballard Bridge Openings work in Seattle? [more inside]
Smoky mouse translocation program helps population grow in southern NSW
Smoky mouse translocation program helps population grow in southern New South Wales (Australia). Ecologists say the smoky mouse is proving it can survive on its own in the state's south, where a repopulation effort for critically endangered rodent is currently underway. Three times larger than a house mouse, with a soft blue-grey fur and bright beady eyes, this rare and cryptic animal has been the focus of a group of ecologists in southern NSW for the past decade.
March 22
The General Strike
SomaFM
"SomaFM is an independent Internet-only streaming multi-channel radio station, supported entirely with donations from listeners. SomaFM originally started broadcasting out of founder Rusty Hodge's basement garage in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, as a micropower radio station broadcast at the Burning Man festival in 1999. The response to the project was sufficiently positive that Rusty Hodge launched it as a full-time internet radio station in February 2000."* [more inside]
The 24-hour diner contains multitudes
Depending on the time of day, it can be: a hub where decades-long regulars grab their morning coffee; a comfy spot for families to gather over an affordable, hearty meal; and a post-closing-time oasis where the young and buzzed find post-bar grub. In her short documentary Regulars, the US filmmaker Emma Kopkowski spends an entire 24-hour day at Jake’s Diner in Greensboro, North Carolina. There, she encounters a fascinating cast of employees and patrons, each of them with stories to tell and full lives viewers only ever catch a glimpse of. from The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner [Aeon]
Rogan and Vonn are the Latest to Play Footsie with AntiSemites
On March 8, 2025, Palantir co-founder and Trump ally Joe Lonsdale described the fear generated by the antisemitic conspiracy theorists recently hosted on some of America's top podcasts.
For the first time in my lifetime, a lot of successful Jewish friends called me worried this week — names we all know — asking what is going to happen as these libels re-enter the mainstream, and are shared by millions.[more inside]
The HTML Review!
4th issue of the HTML Review is out. Scroll down! This and previous issues available via the archive page, which has more conventional tables of contents. Brought to you by Maxwell Neely-Cohen and Shelby Wilson.
The Great One. Or #2.
calibre e-book manger
calibre is one of the preeminent pieces of open-source software of our time, and it just reached Version 8, so I thought I would make a post about it. [more inside]
Dissolving Certainties
To better understand "the riddles and luminosity of life," Paul Hawken chose to look at the flow of life through the lens of carbon, and the result is a a beautiful, hopeful, and inspiring merger of varying forms of knowledge that provides a welcome bit of relief from "the labyrinth of anxiety, ignorance, and fear the world bequeaths." [more inside]
Ocean cowboys
From aristocratic to mundane
‘The aim of scientific and economic progress was the betterment of the human condition, but any gains challenged established social hierarchies . . . The elite felt threatened by the new middle class, which in turn felt threatened by the rising working poor’. The pineapple was the perfect luxury good to illustrate this, and indeed, Victorian authors sometimes used it as a direct metaphor for social and technological progress. from King of fruits [Works in Progress]
March 21
Trump urges Supreme Court to limit judges' power to impede his agenda
With sweeping actions, Trump tests US constitutional order [ungated] - "With a Congress controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans largely falling in line behind his agenda, federal judges often have emerged as the only constraint on the president's torrent of executive actions since his January inauguration." [more inside]
RIP George Foreman
Storm the wedge-tailed eagle returns to skies after feather transplant
Storm the wedge-tailed eagle returns to skies after feather transplant.
Aptly named, Storm the wedge-tailed eagle has been released back into the wild more than a year after being injured in wild weather in Victoria.
An Ocean in Motion
This short NASA animation explains basics of ocean circulation (about 5 min, with nice clear narration, showing ocean currents visualized, using data from the ECCO model)
“For that money, we could buy up TV stations...not just TV ads."
Via Americans of Conscience Checklist: Rural organizers and grassroots leaders in the U.S. form the Rural Defenders Union to support under-resourced anti-authoritarian actions. [more inside]
....He just looked down at the floor and said, “Alabama, son. Alabama.”
What Happened in Alabama?
"is a [podcast] series born out of personal experiences of intergenerational trauma, and the impacts of [American] Jim Crow [laws] that exist beyond what we understand about segregation.
"But while my dad was happy at church, nightmares interrupted his sleep sometimes. He’d wake up screaming, startling the whole house. It scared me so much as a kid. "One morning, I got the courage to ask him what he was dreaming about...."[more inside]
Harold McGee /Harold McGee/ knows more about food/than either you or me
My Dinners With Harold: How a shy Ph.D. in English literature revolutionized the science of cooking and became revered in the most famous kitchens in the world [more inside]
You're ok with the boss talking about erections at work, right?
How Bryan Johnson, Who Wants to Live Forever, Sought Control via Confidentiality Agreements Another day, another skeevy CEO. This one combines sexual creepiness, drugs, wishing he had Elon's popularity, and oh yeah, he started his own religion. And he's not going to die! [more inside]
It’s always a bad idea for journalists to get too involved with spies
The inspiration behind the scheme was a charming-sounding CIA boss called George Minden, who believed, quite rightly, that the freedom to read good literature was as important to the imprisoned minds of the Soviet empire as any other form of freedom. During most of the 1980s the CIA was run by a rather tiresome, boisterous adventurer called Bill Casey, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981. This was one of Casey’s more sensible efforts, and it was under him that Minden was able to pump books, photocopiers and even printing presses into the Soviet empire. They helped to keep people there in touch with precisely the kind of western culture the high priests of Marxism-Leninism wanted to block out. from ‘It was like fresh air’ [Grauniad] [more inside]
Two Hundred Fifty Things An Architect Should Know
I like this advice to architects e.g.
- 23. How to turn a corner.
- 24. How to design a corner.
- 25. How to sit in a corner.
Liqueurs: where flavor and finesse meet in every sip
These 7 Liqueurs Are Distinctly Canadian and Just a Little Strange Liqueurs are as distinctive as the places they come from and Canadian liqueurs are just as unusual. [more inside]
Dying, slow & fast
“It was a matter of some consternation to Danny’s friends and family that he seemed to be enjoying life so much at the end,” says a friend. “‘Why stop now?’ we begged him. And though I still wish he had given us more time, it is the case that in following this carefully thought-out plan, Danny was able to create a happy ending to a 90-year life, in keeping with his peak-end rule. He could not have achieved this if he had let nature take its course.” from The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions [WSJ; ungated] [CW: suicide, assisted suicide]
March 20
That's no bee
Ethiopian wolves may be pollinating Ethiopian red hot poker plants. The wolves have been observed moving[YT] from plant to plant licking nectar and coincidentally getting a muzzle full of pollen. If the wolves are confirmed to be pollinating these flowers they'd be the largest carnivorous mammals to act as pollinators by far. [more inside]
Crabs could be key to tackling secret army of starfish
Crabs could be key to tackling secret army of starfish destroying the Great Barrier Reef (Australia). Researchers have found crabs are key predators of juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish and could be a hidden link to what controls their destructive spread.
1-800-CALL-ATT
The AT&T Tech Channel on YouTube posts videos from the telecom giant's century-old archives, including some legitimately interesting documentaries. Reconnecting 170,000 Phone Customers in NYC After a Major Fire (1975) and The Life of a Telephone Operator in 1969 are both fascinating time capsules of corporate America. A wide variety of other videos, from interviews with famous Bell Labs alumni to advertisements and trainings, are scattered across the channel's uploads.
Vangelis' "Blade Runner"
Nick Soulsby: The soundtrack to Blade Runner remains a singular achievement; a soundtrack that invoked the past and the future, that remained suspended like Schrödinger’s cat in a state of unresolved being, that plays ancestor to an impressive clutch of modern musical forms while simultaneously sounding like a product of the modern age, or the first fruit of music yet to come. [more inside]
Bleeding your team's colors
The Norwegian Red Cross had a genius ad campaign. They leveraged team loyalty with a series of locally-customized ads to drive recruitment of blood donors -- and it worked really well, with an estimated 16,000 lives saved as a result! [more inside]
Potentially appealing at first, yet predominantly unoriginal and flawed
Over the years of designing and printing business cards and calling cards, there is one famous card that is referenced time and time again. This card’s celebrity status comes from a three-minute movie scene and is visible for about four seconds, yet it has become one of our most requested cards. The card we’re referencing is, of course, Paul Allen’s Pierce & Pierce business card from the 2000 horror/thriller film, American Psycho. We’re going to take a closer look at the design of this simple business card, along with the other four cards featured in the film, and try to distill why it remains such a popular and beloved card. from The Business Cards of American Psycho [Hoban Cards]
Twin foals make for a full house
In an unusual event, a Thoroughbred mare gave birth to healthy twin foals. I saw this and just wanted to share it for the cute picture. And for the fact that it, temporarily, sent me down a rabbit hole I haven't revisited for a while: horse colour genetics, since (I'll admit), I was a bit surprised that one foal was chestnut and one was bay.
Your taste in music sucks
How Bad Is Your Streaming Music? Our sophisticated A.I. judges your awful taste in music, brought to you by the good people at The Pudding [more inside]
The proof is not in the pudding
Trump Admin Unveils New Legal Standard: ‘We Have No Proof, Which Actually Proves Our Case’
Many deportees lacked any evidence of criminality, but the government argues that really makes them MORE criminals. [more inside]
Many deportees lacked any evidence of criminality, but the government argues that really makes them MORE criminals. [more inside]
Thousands of breeding flying foxes stopping planes from landing
Thousands of breeding flying foxes stopping planes from landing.
Next to Rockhampton Airport is a large botanical garden filled with thousands of flying foxes, and when the sun sets these creatures come alive and cause headaches for incoming flights.
They started on soaps
What do Kathy Bates, Chris Cooper, Leonardo DiCaprio, Morgan Freeman, Allison Janney, Julianne Moore, Brad Pitt, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, J.K. Simmons, Mira Sorvino, Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Bob Thornton, and Marisa Tomei have in common? (Besides being Academy Award winners.) [more inside]
Meta-Streisand
Meta [the other one] is trying to censor Sarah Wynn-Williams' new book Careless People, a "tell-all" about her time as a senior exec at the company. Her publisher stands behind her and the book is now a best-seller. [more inside]
March 19
"Obviously, the OGL fiasco has had some lasting effects ..."
Shannon Appelcline (Designers & Dragons, 3/10/2025), "Is the OGL Era Over?": "what are the continuing effects of the attack on the OGL, both on Wizards itself and on the rest of the industry?" "Dreams for Sale" has alternatives. More RPG news in review: Appelcline's "2024: The Year in Roleplaying"; Bloggies 2024 winners; Origins Award nominees; and today, nominees for the 2024 Indie Groundbreaker Awards. See also roundups of 2024 at "The Indie Game Reading Club," the "Indie RPG Newsletter," and the "Yes, Indie'd" podcast. Other recent RPG fun: Designing Dungeons Course. Either/Orc. Fifty Foot Gnome. Fight or Flight. Helvetia. Les Chroniques de Sainte Clervie. Planet of the Week. Squishy Space (by Mefi's Own Skerples). Utopia on the Tabletop. The World We Left Behind and its associated ballet! (review). Worldwizard (review).
Miles Davis - Fillmore East, New York City, March 7, 1970
On March 7, 1970, Wayne Shorter played his final concert in Miles Davis' electrified band. The Fillmore East had them third on the bill, opening for Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Steve Miller Band. The performance was recorded. [more inside]
Pirate Attempts To Pirate The Village
Hold My Snacks: Pirate’s Booty Founder Attempts a Seaside Coup: A snack food magnate declared himself mayor of the Village of Sea Cliff, on Long Island. The voters said otherwise. "But elections these days don’t always end when they’re over. And so even before the final vote had been counted, that snack food mogul — who professionally uses the title Captain Bootyhead — declared that the election was “rigged” and that he was the mayor of Sea Cliff." [more inside]
I'm not your father, Luc
Maarten Larmuseau of the Laboratory of Human Genetic Genealogy at K.U. Leuven in Belgium traces family trees from archival sources and then invites living members of the family to swab out their mouths to see if their Y-chromosome matches their surname. His research suggests 1% extra-pair paternity (EPP) [leaky paywall Science] aka paternal discrepancy . . . in Flanders. Same story same author Trends in Ecology & Evolution PDF 2016. Rates differ in other cultures.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Answers Dictator Questions
Saltwater crocs feral pig diet may be changing NT waterways
Saltwater crocs feral pig diet may be changing NT waterways. A new study suggests nutrient-rich crocodile poop could be benefiting wetland vegetation in the Top End (Australia) while predation pressure limits feral pig damage.