Snack Pantry→

Short animation that explains why 80% of US folks live in the Eastern half of the country →

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1787467244554834373

Geographical determinism will forever be fascinating, and this animation does a great job showing how it’s impacted settlement in the US.

Some potential reasons why humans are, still, superstitious →

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-we-still-superstitious/

In a world where 84% of people are, still, religious, I’m not surprised that superstition remains. I’m also not surprised that it’s somewhat related to our old friend, Placebo. Science can advance as much as it wants, but it will never fully defeat the human brain & behavior.

Not surprisingly, I’m not superstitious. Sure, I’ll knock on wood when others do, and I always have to put my left shoe on first, but that’s only because it feels weird if I don’t. Like I said, the human brain is 💪

Beethoven’s deafness & ailments were likely caused by lead →

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/health/beethoven-deaf-lead-hair.html

I love that science can detect this after so many years (and that scientists are still trying to learn more about Beethoven’s issues & death). The article also gives lots of good little info nuggets about his 9th Symphony, including:

“He set the poem to music in the Ninth, sung by soloists and a chorus — considered the first instance of singing in a symphony.”

I feel like the 9th is one of those things I’ve had somewhat of a connection to my whole life. I distinctly remember my Dad whistling it in the car. I also whistle a lot (without thinking), and one of the most common things I whistle is the 9th. I once started a book that was purely about the 9th, but quickly gave it up. It was just a tad too boring, so I appreciate when articles like this can feed me interesting info in bite-sized servings.

H/T to https://www.threads.net/@davepell for the article & link share via his most excellent https://nextdraft.com/ newsletter

This titanium spork is the only eating utensil you’ll ever need →

https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Peak-Titanium-Spork-Anodized/dp/B000AR2N76/ref=sr_1_10

I love sporks. Proof:

1. I own the URL http://ilovesporks.com/
2. The pic above is from my kitchen, where my beloved is always hanging out, ready for me to easily reach
3. When traveling, that spork is in my backpack
4. I sometimes bring it with my when I’m getting a fast casual bowl, eg. Cava
5. The pic below is my backup spork

So, just stop with your judgement, click the Amazon link above, buy one, and then send me a message in a few weeks about how it changed your life.

The pandemic converted folks into bidet users →

https://wapo.st/3QFaZis

It makes me happy that The Washington Post keeps posting articles about bidets, and even happier that they use such fun photos/GIFs for them. What makes me happiest, however, are bidets.

You see, I am one of pandemic converts. After tiring of buying one precious roll at a time from the pizza place in my building (thank you All Purpose!), I bought a bidet, and have never looked back. Actually, I have, but everything I see there is so clean, clean, clean. Unlike you, heathen.

The reason so many of the new-type couches are so uncomfortable →

https://www.dwell.com/article/dtc-sofa-crisis-32304b9e

My fancy apartment building has the most uncomfortable couches throughout all the common areas. They look amazing, and that’s all they do — to sit in them is to not want to sit in them.

So, I was hoping this article would explain this phenomenon to me (the couches are like this in all the new buildings here in DC), but it’s really just talking about the cheap, Ikea-like couches. I’ve bought my fair share of those, and while not perfect, they’re still more comfortable than the designy ones here in the building.

Easiest, fastest recipe & way to make lentils using an Instant Pot →

https://eyeintim.com/lentils/

LOL, this is my recipe. Yep, I can’t smell & thus can’t really taste, but I “invented” a recipe. I looked up the Instapot timing for lentils, but I’m the mayor of its flavor town. You’ve been warned.

Most salt in the US has iodine added to it because of geographical-based deficiencies →

https://wapo.st/4aXfBZz

I’ve heard of the “rust belt” in the US, but never the “goiter belt”. Also the following quote could have only come from world before the industrialization and globalization of food & trade:

“the soil there didn’t have much iodine. Nor did the freshwater Great Lakes. And so the inhabitants didn’t have much iodine, either”

That it took World War I for people to realize there was a real issue is also incredible. Along with adding fluoride to water, this had to be one of the most successful, top-down dietary health interventions in the US ever. And I now know that I’ll never have an iodine deficiency — salt is the best friend of we anosmiacs.

A great biography of Leonardo de Vinci, written by Walter Isaacson →

https://www.amazon.com/Leonardo-Vinci-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1501139150/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

It took me 6 on-and-off years to read this book, but I finally finished it today. It’s not a page turner, nor the greatest book I’ve ever read, but the entire time I was reading it I was saying to myself “I’m so glad I’m reading about him”. I read the hardcover, which was great to be able to continually turn back to look back at the full-color pictures, which are fantastically numerous.

But, perhaps the greatest summary is done by Isaacson himself in the Conclusion, by listing what he/we learn by studying Leonardo:

1. Be curious, relentlessly curious
2. Seek knowledge for its own sake
3. Retain a childlike sense of wonder
4. Observe
5. Start with the details
6. See things unseen
7. Go down rabbit holes
8. Get distrated
9. Respect facts
10. Procrastinate
11. Let the perfect be the enemy of the good
12. Think visually
13. Avoid silos
14. Let your reach exceed your grasp
15. Indulge fantasy
16. Create for yourself, not just for patrons
17. Collaborate
18. Make lists
19. Take notes, on paper
20. Be open to mystery

Musicians perform how they think music sounded in ancient Greece, and scholars discuss how they came up with it →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOK7bU0S1Y

I have no real opinions on this other than I think it’s amazing when people care about stuff like this, and then put in the hard work to figure things out. Humans are amazing.

A helpful, picture-based guide to what trash can be recycled →

https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/recycling-guide-arlington-fairfax-mclean-falls-church-virginia/

This is for Arlington, Virginia, but much of it applies to anywhere in the US. That said, I don’t think I realized that glass isn’t really recycled along with other stuff anymore, in some places. I sure hope my (continuing) ignorance doesn’t mean I’ve been “polluting” my garbage.

It’s Earth Day, so figured this was worth posting. But, I also know that many articles have been written about recycling being a scam and/or a waste. The truth-seeker in me loves that those articles exist, but the hopeful-fella in me knows that trying to reduce waste, and increase material use efficiency, is worth it, no matter how much less effective it is than we were led to believe.

The history of the spelling bee in the US →

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/history-spelling-bee-180971916

That these exist might be the long term effect of the Puritans & bible is pretty amazing. Also amazing, and of course it’s true, but there wasn’t set spelling for words prior to the first dictionary coming out in the 17th century. Turns out that the history of the spelling bee is much more interesting than watching it 🤣

I’ve been doing a lot more writing recently to promote DYDit, and it’s surfaced to me either how bad my spelling has gotten, or, how much I’m now dependent on auto-correct/suggest*. I’ve been playing Scrabble for years & years, but all that really teaches me is all the two-letter words, and how to shamelessly continue using “Qi”, “Za”, and “Xu” as if they’re words we all use every day. So, I’m looking forward to completely offloading my spelling brain to AI in the near future.

*Used 7 times in writing this post

An article on the science of “fear”, including identifying the only two innate human fears →

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/29/health/science-of-fear/index.html

I mean, it’s crazy to think we might only have been born with two fears. That means that pretty much everything we’re afraid is learned, and just in our heads.

This sorta aligns with my belief that fear holds everybody back from accomplishing most of what they want out of life, but that blog post is for another day.

Quick video on how to properly roll up a burrito →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAbpVXEUt_c

Two key moves in here: (1) Fold the top & bottom over first; (2) That tuck

I know this is dumb, but I just watched it for the first time today, and thus learned the proper technique for the first time. This means a confluence of things:

• I’m sometimes sleepwalking through life — I mean, how many Chipotle burrito Artists have I watched & still didn’t remember the super simple steps?

• I’m almost willfully ignorant — Every time before today when I went to make a burrito, I’d try to remember how Chipotle did it, yet never once thought to look it up

• YouTube is one of humanity’s great products — Dumb little videos like this are the bread-and-butter of YouTube (you know you’ve looked up & watched something like this there before) thus showing that YouTube IS human society

A step-by-step article on how Taylor Tomlinson wrote a joke, including performance video snippets as she workshopped it over time →

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/13/arts/television/taylor-tomlinson-have-it-all-netflix.html

Such a well done NYT piece showing how much work & iteration goes into writing & performing a joke, and how specific & detailed it can get, eg. one syllable names are “funnier”. We see comedians on stage & they kinda give the vibe that they’re winging it, but they’re actually doing the opposite — EVERYTHING has been practiced & perfected. She’s put in the work, and has thus been rewarded.

One of the things I wanted to do in 2023 (but, didn’t), was craft a story for The Moth. Partially what I wanted to get out of that was learning how to write a joke. Turns out, it’s hard, and takes tons of focus & work, two things I couldn’t really devote to it last year. It’s still something I want to do, though, and I’m still fascinated with the craft of stand-up.

Animated video of all the SpaceX launches from Cape Canaveral since 2010 →

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1777386291258183708

Since today is Eclipse day here in the US, figured it was a good day for some other space content. I had no idea that there were so many SpaceX launches happening. Seems like we hear about some of them from time-to-time, but they seem to be happening almost every day now. I assume many are for Starlink. I also assume the lights you see dropping in the background are when they’re landing a booster to re-use.

Elon is capable of so much good…

Why airlines charge so much for checked bags →

https://theconversation.com/why-do-airlines-charge-so-much-for-checked-bags-this-obscure-rule-helps-explain-why-225857

I finished doing my taxes today (yep, you still gotta pay taxes, even when you haven’t had a standard, paying job in 15+ months), so this is a great, bitter day to post this article. Economists will tell you incentives are everything, and the US tax code is a leviathan bundle of applied incentives, lobbying, and corruption.

YouTube is the US’s most popular social media site, music destination, and one of the country’s largest cable TV providers →

https://wapo.st/4aAohoE

Everybody with kids knows their kids log tons of time on YouTube, but I don’t think they understand how big & important YouTube really is to ALL people. I’d say 80% of my video content consumption is on YouTube, despite having paid subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime (and no paid subscription to YouTube!)

US Cities that saw just the biggest tourism increases because of the recent eclipse →

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-11/the-us-cities-that-saw-the-biggest-solar-eclipse-tourism-boost-citylab-daily

The Rust Belt should organize eclipses much more often. Also interesting to think about how important the weather forecast was in feeding into this, and just how good weather forecasting has become. Early on, most folks read about/knew who were going to travel for it were headed to the Texas region, but changed their plans about a week out because of the forecasted clouds.

A fashion guy gives style lessons using George Costanza for his examples →

https://twitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1776110738295415190

I don’t care much about fashion at all, but Derek Guy writes in such a interesting, engaging way that I can’t help but read all his posts, especially his threads. He’s so good at them, using lots of pics, historical narratives, & contemporary pop culture references to keep you interested. He has very strong opinions, and is not afraid to get down & dirty with repliers, but somehow always seems to keep the higher ground. Accounts like this are what keep Twitter* interesting, and the internet so special.

*I’ll start calling it X when they change their root domain

ARTICLE: Circle Slash

The history of the red circle with a slash ‘Do Not’ symbol →

https://tedium.co/2024/03/09/red-circle-slash-no-symbol-history

What a journey we’re taken on here: The League of Nations; who invented stoplights; World War II; Ghostbusters.

The article also triggered a memory for me: When I was traveling in Europe last year, I finally realized that all the Stop signs actually said “Stop”. You know, in English, even in countries that weren’t English-speaking. An example from Spain:

And it was yet another time I realized how ubiquitous English is around the world, and how lucky I am to have been born speaking it as my primary (and, still, only 😔)

ARTICLE: Nocebo Effects

A Nocebo is the opposite of a Placebo →

https://quillette.com/2024/03/11/the-placebo-effects-evil-twin

The most powerful drug or treatment ever invented is the Placebo, so to learn of its evil twin was a thrill. Expectations in humans are some of the greatest moments we have, so of course there is a dark side to them. Time-traveling can be fun when you’re thinking about your vacation in a week; not so much when you’re thinking about surgery.

Discussion on the Havana Syndrome appears at the end of the article, and, as always, no conclusions are reached about it. It’s a fascinating topic in that it’s still a mystery after all these years. A good reminder that science can be slow.

ARTICLE: App Monetization

A new report shows that most subscription mobile apps don’t make money →

https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/12/most-subscription-mobile-apps-dont-make-money-new-report-shows/

“Seeing the actual monetization figures could be a shock to those who think they have what it takes to beat the odds.”

Yep. Yep, indeed.

POST: Changed Names

Family names were not changed at Ellis Island →

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/01/no-ones-name-was-changed-at-ellis-island.html

I was listening to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts today and a discussion of this came up. It turns out that we all believed that family names were changed because some of the family members used to actually say this. They figured it was an easier way to explain why they themselves chose to just simplify their names to better assimilate

The surname Gillons is extremely rare in the world, while Gillons is common. Why was it changed? Nobody in our family knows, nor is there any mythology about it. I’ll add that to my list of things to Create this year.

ARTICLE: Pub Names

Why so many Irish Pubs seem to have similar names →

https://wapo.st/3TzoGBA

This article could really just be a social media post with “The tradition of Irish pubs including surnames can be traced back to, well, Ireland. An 1872 law required all pubs to display the owner’s name above the door.”

Still an interesting read, though. Also, most sane, well-adjusted people should understand that the “Shenanigans” & “…Leprechauns” of the bar world are just college/post-college drinking joints, and not “authentic”, right?