January 15
Tôi có thể mượn bàn đạp hiệu ứng fuzz của bạn được không?
What was the name of YOUR zine?
That is definitely, y'know, Coke
YouTuber LabCoatz uses ⚛🧪 science ⚗️⚛ to make a Coca-Cola clone.
Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call
Wikipedia is 25 years old - this is a great summary of the state of its user community I am an editor for The Signpost, which is Wikipedia's community newspaper. I think this story is of general interest to anyone who follows Internet culture. I did not write this, but I thought this was unusually important to share.
Are You Dead Yet?
An indie app, called Are You Dead Yet? is going viral in China. (ungated) The premise is simple: it asks users to tap a button every day, and if this action is missed more than two days in a row, an emergency contact is alerted. Since going viral, the name of the app has been changed to Demumu (rhymes with Labubu), imitators have cropped up, and much has been discussed about the rise of the "singles" economy and isolation of young adults as many live and work on their own.
I do not want to play Valheim with Greg anymore
Tareq Baconi interviewed by Ta-Nehisi Coates on Fire in Every Direction
"I'm landing in London heartbroken and angry and full of grief. I feel that I can't be a queer person in Jordan. I'm feeling excised from my community and from my society. I latch on to the promise of this thing that says, 'Oh come here. We accept gay people,' you know, 'We're all liberal and we're all wonderful.' I'm seventeen, eighteen, and I drink the Kool-Aid. I let myself be swept up in this. It's coming from a place of wanting to feel held and accepted and feeling like where I want to be held and accepted won't hold me and accept me so I have to look elsewhere. I'm not yet aware that this elsewhere doesn't hold or accept. It does the complete opposite. It takes me a minute." —Tareq Baconi interviewed by Ta-Nehisi Coates (YouTube, 1:12:09) [more inside]
He senses possibilities in the little fissures of history, & enters them
Schiller has made a career of ubiquity, a profession of proximity. For decades—as a photographer, researcher, reporter, writer, packager, director, producer, publisher, fixer—he materialized wherever and whenever events happened, then pushed, maneuvered, or burrowed his way to their lucrative core, often becoming a player in the process. Perhaps the best terms for him are “insinuator” and “ingratiator.” He hasn’t slowed down, but he has showed signs of becoming slightly less outlandish. from The Oddest Couple in American Literature Part I, Part II, Part III [Airmail; ungated I, II, III]
January 14
Goat's headbutt frenzy causes thousands of dollars in damage
Goat's headbutt frenzy causes thousands of dollars in damage. After finding his shopfront smashed, Shane Martin checked his CCTV to find that a feral goat was the culprit.
Smoking Romaine & Iceberg
"Just coffee, black."
Making the rounds on TikTok (@jasonkpargin, 2½ minutes) and Bluesky (repost by Brian Hughes) is an insightful short video about a boomer meme, "Just coffee, black," that explains why some older folks get upset at innocent things. [more inside]
"I need to understand how hard that system is to use"
As he prepares to likely depart his role as New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission Commissioner, David Do concludes his "Commissioner Cab" video series. While in office, he went through the regular processes to get a taxi driver license and drive TLC-licensed vehicles (previously). TLC last week posted a 6-minute "Reflections From The Road" video: "Commissioner Do recalls some of his tougher moments, the challenges of making government work faster and that TLC drivers are highly trained, highly skilled professionals who deserve respect from all New Yorkers." [more inside]
What You're Watching Isn't What You're Really Watching
McSweeney's CW: graphic description of violence
The Winganon Space Capsule
[Atlas Obscura] [Wikipedia] In 1959, a cement mixer with a full load of cement wrecked near Winganon, Oklahoma. By the time a tow truck came to haul it away, all of cement had hardened inside of mixer. The tow truck was not able to remove all wreckage at same time because of weight, and decided to haul only cab/frame and would come back for detached mixer later, which never happened. Today, 67 years later, it still sits where it fell. In 2011, local artists Heather and Barry Thomas decided to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary by painting it and adding "rocket thrusters" to make it look like a space capsule.
Dharma Sangha Aloka
On 10th October 2025, a group of Buddhist monks left Fort Worth TX starting a Walk for Peace to Washington DC. They've just crossed from SC to NC. Aloka the pup paused off-route in Charleston for cruciate ligament tear surgery but is recovering well. Track their progress.
Here’s an example for regular basil pesto
Kitchen work is all about proportions, and nothing beats the slide rule for proportions. The reason I write this article is I just found myself in someone else’s kitchen and they didn’t have a slide rule. Only then did I realise how much I take my kitchen slide rule for granted. from You Need A Kitchen Slide Rule [more inside]
When audience, authorship, and access collapse into one person
On December 5th, YouTuber Markiplier pinned the trailer for his self-financed indie horror film Iron Lung (an adaptation of a video game) at the top of his channel with a message directing his 38 millions fans to an interactive map showing where the film would play. However, fans didn’t just check the map. They called theaters. And called and called. So much that theaters complained. "One of the big circuits said, 'Could you do me a favor? Could you tell [Mark’s] fans to stop calling the theaters? You got to turn those bots off,'" said Bill. "It wasn’t bots." A first-time filmmaker is opening his movie on 2,500 screens without a distributor.
Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage
"Imagine calling yourselves the ‘master race’ but forgetting to secure your own website — maybe try mastering to host WordPress before world domination." Hacktivist Martha Root scraped and then deleted WhiteDate, WhiteChild, and WhiteDeal in real time at the end of a talk at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany. [more inside]
Claudette Colvin, predecessor to Rosa Parks, dies
Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86. Jeannette Theoharis corrects some of the myths and misconceptions about her on BlueSky, including outlining how some in the movement thought Colvin was "too feisty". She recommends Phillip Hoose's book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice to learn more.
Good News: We can eat plastics again
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body “This is really forcing us to re-evaluate everything we think we know about microplastics in the body. Which, it turns out, is really not very much. Many researchers are making extraordinary claims, but not providing even ordinary evidence.”
Can you wear the same pair of socks more than once?
Can you wear the same pair of socks more than once?
One study found socks contained the highest microbial count of any other once-worn clothing item.
"All economic sanctions ultimately function as sanctions on health."
"In their panel analysis, Francisco Rodríguez and colleagues once again demonstrate that sanctions do kill: economic sanctions imposed by the USA or the EU were associated with 564 258 deaths (95% CI 367 838–760 677) annually from 1971 to 2021, higher than the annual number of battle-related casualties (106 000 deaths). This finding aligns with a previous Article in The Lancet Global Health showing the lethal effects of aid sanctions—economic sanctions specifically targeting development assistance in low-income or middle-income countries (LMICs)—which resulted in a 3·1% increase in infant mortality and a 6·4% increase in maternal mortality annually between 1990 and 2019." The Lancet Global Health: The health toll of economic sanctions (referencing Francisco Rodríguez, Silvio Rendón, Mark Weisbrot: Effects of international sanctions on age-specific mortality: a cross-national panel data analysis) [more inside]
Only Carney Could Go To China
Canadian PM Mark Carney is en route for trade talks with Chinese President, Xi Jinping. But first, a meeting with Coastal First Nations in Northern BC. "This is a time for dialogue, for listening" he said before the meeting. Afterwards, Coast Nations gave a press conference to go over what was discussed. "Today, we heard directly from the Prime Minister that his government will seek our free, prior, and informed consent regarding any proposed projects in our territories" - Chief Marilyn Slett.
The visit to China will be the first from a Canadian PM since 2016, and comes as Canada continues to grapple with Chinese tariffs on seafood, canola, pork, and other goods that were slapped on us after we followed the US in placing 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants those tariffs to stay in place, at least unless China is prepared to open up an EV plant in Canada, but unlike SK Premier Scott Moe, Ford is not going along on this trip. [more inside]
the centre(-right) cannot hold
Embracing the Radical Right Is Killing Conservatism as We Knew It - "Mainstream center-right parties in the US and Europe have chased populist voters — only to lose economic credibility and fracture their winning coalitions." [more inside]
There are still more nines to go
I wish I were wrong. I don’t like that cars bring as much danger as they do. I hate and mourn the loss of life from car crashes. Some friends of mine tragically died this way. It’s a terrible thing. I wish we had a solution to autonomous driving, or that we were on the cusp of one. It would be fantastic. It would be one of the best things to happen in the world in my lifetime. But, sadly, we aren’t there yet. from Self-driving cars aren’t nearly a solved problem [Strange Cosmos; ungated]
January 13
Isn't technology great?
The Worst Devices of CES 2026 (11 minutes): a music-playing lollipop with a one-use battery, an e-bike that uses DRM for its parts, Amazon Ring the surveillance machine, a treadmill that talks to you while collecting your bio data and sending it home, an Alexa-powered coffeemaker, a cylinder containing a little woman who will be your friend, and Samsung's latest gleaming prone-to-break ad delivery voice recognition video foodtangle, Now With AI™, but without door handles. [more inside]
Pianist hauls baby grand to Aussie landmarks for outdoor performances
Pianist hauls baby grand to Aussie landmarks for moving outdoor performances. Kelvin Smith played a baby grand piano at some incredible sites across Tasmania before bringing his impromptu shows to amazing mainland locations.
At last, your psychoses can be private
One of the problems with the current gen AI fad is that your conversations with chatbots can be read by the company hosting the model.
Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike is taking this on with an end-to-end encrypted bot platform called on by developing Confer
At Gizmodo, Bruce Gil has a high-level recap: “Signal’s Founder Turns His Attention to AI’s Privacy Problem ”
Alternately, you could get the details directly from Marlinspike by reading the three posts on Confer’s blog.
Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike is taking this on with an end-to-end encrypted bot platform called on by developing Confer
At Gizmodo, Bruce Gil has a high-level recap: “Signal’s Founder Turns His Attention to AI’s Privacy Problem ”
Alternately, you could get the details directly from Marlinspike by reading the three posts on Confer’s blog.
“Do equal right to the poor and to the rich”
Over the sample period, we estimate a steady increase in polarization, culminating in an implied party gap of 47 percentage points by 2022. The magnitude of the gap suggests the usefulness of an economic metric for prediction relative to ideologies
such as originalism or textualism. from Ruling for the Rich: the Supreme Court over Time [PDF: abstract][NBER] [more inside]
Hiveworks, no. Chimera, yes!
The Hiveworks Guild Statement on Hiveworks Comics. The Hiveworks Artist Guild consists of around 100 past and present Hiveworks webcomic creators. Their open letter alleges years of poor treatment, financial mismanagement and incompetence by the people running webcomic company/site Hiveworks. Some of the Guild creators have started a new webcomics site, Chimera Comics Collective. [more inside]
Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams Accused of Crypto Pump and Dump
Gizmodo: On Monday, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who just left office following the election of Zohran Mamdani, promoted the launch of a new NYC Token memecoin on the Solana blockchain via a press conference, social media, and interviews. According to Adams, the goal of the crypto token is to help “fight anti-semitism” across the country.
Consider Catbert, who was once handsome and tall as you
Give us this day
Bread Chronicles is a quiet YouTube channel that films pleasant, dialogue-free videos of bread making. They pick larger bakeries and from around the world, and just show their process. [more inside]
The woman who solved problems in her sleep
The woman who solved problems in her sleep and other Aussie inventors honoured in National Archives of Australia exhibition. From the age of 10, Myra Juliet Farrell was inventing things. But most of the time, she'd wake up to find her solutions scrawled on walls and blankets.
"Be Self-Taught"
Undeniably the worst shot I have ever seen taken
I hadn’t thought about this painting in decades, until I rewatched the USA-versus-France gold-medal basketball game of the 2024 Olympics. I watched the last four minutes and thirty seconds of that game more times than I watched anything else in 2024, except Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” music video. During one of these viewings, I watched the game on my phone, and as Steph Curry set his feet—and sat in the chair—to launch that shot, I clicked two buttons on the side of my phone. Before I could see the shot go in for the 114th time, I opened the photo and shifted it to black and white, and I just sat there in my bed weeping. from The Worst Shot Ever Taken by Kiese Laymon [The Believer] [more inside]
January 12
Vision Pro Vision Board: Just let me sit courtside and watch an NBA game
Dear Apple - "All that you need to do, to not just create a good-enough experience but a superior experience, is simply set up the cameras and let me get from the Vision Pro what I can't get from anything else: the feeling that I am actually there. And, I would add, you shouldn't stop with the Lakers: there should be Vision Pro cameras at every NBA game, at every NFL game, at every NHL game, at every MLB game — they should be standard issue at every stadium in the world. There should be Vision Pro cameras at every concert hall and convention center. None of these cameras need a dedicated host or announcers or production crew, because the Vision Pro isn't TV; it's actual presence, and presence is all you need."
From harassment to healing
Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It
In a small Alaska town, American Samoans face prosecution for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. They live in a limbo, created by colonial expansion, that now confuses even public officials—and has made them a new target for policing voter fraud. (from NextDraft)
The largest meteorite on Earth is still exactly where it landed
The Hoba meteorite weighs about 60 metric tons and has never been moved. It lies on a farm in Namibia, right where it fell roughly 80,000 years ago.
[boingboing link]
When Unemployment Became a Political Tool
When Unemployment Became a Political Tool A former Thatcher adviser describes a recurring political logic: unemployment as a feature, not a bug. [more inside]
GoFundMe Ignores Own Rules by Hosting a Legal-Defense Fund for ICE Agent
GoFundMe is allowing a fundraising campaign tied to the potential legal defense of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot a civilian to remain online, despite company rules barring fundraisers connected to violent crimes and past enforcement actions against similar campaigns.
Chains
Arrange words so each connects to the next [Puzzles by Nathan]
America's problems are solved problems
America’s problems are solved problems. Universal healthcare is not some utopian fantasy. It is Tuesday in Toronto. Affordable higher education is not an impossible dream. It is Wednesday in Berlin. Sensible gun regulation is not a violation of natural law. It is Thursday in London. Paid parental leave is not radical. It is Friday in Tallinn, and Monday in Tokyo, and every day in between. There is another America inside this one, visible in the statistics of nations that made different choices. Call it Latent America: the nation that would exist if our democracy functioned to serve the public rather than protect the already powerful. In his newsletter On Data and Democracy, Adam Bonica writes about the Berlin Wall and the optimism of preparation in a time of democratic decay. [more inside]
The economic ouroboros goes round and round
The Enshittifinancial Crisis (wheresyoured.at) A very long and detailed look at the current state of the fusion of the tech and financial worlds, by Edward Zitron, previously: "The Rot Economy." Featuring enshittification, AI, the metaverse, venture capital, private equity, data centers, NVIDIA, magical disappearing deals and plenty of questionable spending and staggeringly large and small numbers. [more inside]
If you are looking for Tommy in your area
vehement loathing of the left
'I want to examine the inherent enmity between socialism and fascism, where it comes from, and why. Obviously, I don’t mean to suggest that socialists are the only, or even the primary victims of fascist evil: millions of queer, disabled, Jewish, Roma, and other groups were also brutally trampled by the fascist jackboot. Still, as Martin Niemöller’s famous poem goes, “First they came for the communists,” and if we want to understand and combat fascism today, it’s vital to know why that is.' Matt McManus in Current Affairs, Why Fascists Always Come for the Socialists First.
Free Thread - Anxiety
This is your free thread. The world is full of Anxiety and Stress/ right now, so how do you keep it in check? [more inside]
Little red Courbet
Matthiesen, who is 82 years old, grew to trust his new acquaintance sufficiently that he allowed Doyle to broker the sale of a 19th-century Gustave Courbet painting, “Mother and Child on a Hammock,” which the London dealer had been trying to sell for $650,000. Through Doyle’s maneuvering, the painting was ultimately sold to none other than rock ’n’ roll legend Jon Landau, the longtime producer and manager for Bruce Springsteen who also ranks as one of the country’s top art collectors with a trove including pieces by Donatello, Titian and Tintoretto. from A Con Artist, a Music-Industry Legend and the Feud Over a Masterpiece [WSJ; ungated]
January 11
I Was Kidnapped by Idiots
I Was Kidnapped by Idiots. By Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in 2023 by an Iranian-backed militia while doing field research in Iraq. "Throughout my 903 days in captivity, I reflected on this odd juxtaposition: my torturers were incredibly ignorant, yet highly skilled at inflicting harm on others."