April 19
Perhaps they should've sent a poet.
On the Poetics of Space Travel...being able to see the activities of people 250,000 miles away in real time still feels completely science fiction. Every time I see them scrolling while floating, I experience that jolt of surprise: “But surely there’s no 5G?” No: this is a literal Zero G environment. [more inside]
What’s New in Old Books
Some highlights from special collections libraries’ blogs this week.
The Weld-Grimké Quilt What can careful imaging tell us about a 19th century quilt and the women who made it?
Puzzle Vessels Master their secrets if you want to end up with wine in your mouth, not your lap.
Celebrated Pedestrians The golden age of feats of the feet.
Declarations: Printing a New Nation An online exhibition showcasing some of the earliest publications of the Declaration of Independence.
The Weld-Grimké Quilt What can careful imaging tell us about a 19th century quilt and the women who made it?
Puzzle Vessels Master their secrets if you want to end up with wine in your mouth, not your lap.
Celebrated Pedestrians The golden age of feats of the feet.
Declarations: Printing a New Nation An online exhibition showcasing some of the earliest publications of the Declaration of Independence.
Study finds decades of intensive logging worsens bushfire risk
Study finds decades of intensive logging worsens bushfire [forest fire] risk. Scientists have studied satellite images of a Tasmanian bushfire and found regrowth from extensive logging and recent bushfires has absolutely increased the risk of more severe bushfires.
April 18
A star to steer by
How did aviators navigate over long distances before the advent of radio navigation and GPS? The same way sailors did: celestial navigation. In the early days, this meant using a sextant from the cockpit; some airplanes had a dedicated observation "tower." This was eventually replaced by a plexiglass dome and increasingly sophisticated and automated equipment, which may have reached its zenith with the B-52's electromechanical angle computer, an analog computer, which Ken Shirriff (previously 1 2 3 4 5) tears down and analyzes in detail.
"In the middle of the sea, see see the sun"
My Baby
Have You Seen Me Dance Alone
In a Minute
Come Closer
(Sl'yt) "There’s a point, early in the conversation, where Tom Rowlands starts talking about what it felt like to make music with AURORA without any expectation attached to it. No plan. No outcome. No sense of where it needed to go. [more inside]
Have You Seen Me Dance Alone
In a Minute
Come Closer
(Sl'yt) "There’s a point, early in the conversation, where Tom Rowlands starts talking about what it felt like to make music with AURORA without any expectation attached to it. No plan. No outcome. No sense of where it needed to go. [more inside]
The recycling project turning used tennis balls into shoes
The recycling project turning used tennis balls into shoes.
What should be done with all those used tennis balls that get inevitably sent to landfill? Lilian Xu might have found the answer.
When I Discovered Sinatra
From teen prodigy to 11-time Grammy award winner, jazz bassist Christian McBride has played with pretty much everyone. Through his lifetime of live gigs and studio sessions with the legends of jazz and a dizzying array of A-list rock, pop, hip-hop, soul, and classical artists, the Juilliard-trained master has never stopped learning. Which all makes this heartfelt personal reflection of his singular, Ray Brown-inspired, decades-long dive into the deepest wells of Frank Sinatra - and its transformative lessons - all the more rewarding. “You have to listen to singers. You can’t just learn the changes—you have to learn the melody and the lyrics, too.”
The World's Deepest Marathon
On October 25th 2025, 55 intrepid runners took on an extraordinary challenge: to run the deepest marathon ever run. Covering 42.2km within the Garpenberg Zinc Mine in Sweden, they descended to a staggering depth of 1,120 metres below sea level. No one had attempted a marathon at this depth before. Participants endured temperatures of 24°C and 72% humidity, in total silence and ran in complete darkness with only their head torches for light. The Guardian: I won the world’s deepest underground marathon
Fantasma del Espacio de Costa a Costa
Dumber than the average bear
3 Southern California residents sentenced in bear suit insurance fraud scheme. This story is why we need to support professional journalism. The photo and video are the honey on top.
“I'm going to learn to love Mycock”
BBC: “For the first 18 years of my life, I had no idea my surname was funny. I grew up in Buxton, a market town in Derbyshire, where Mycock is a popular name. There are more than 2,000 in the UK, give or take ... In the digital world, I have difficulties too: filling out online forms or setting up an email address can see my name rejected and the emails I send often go into spam folders. Searching for my surname is banned on some social media platforms. My mother Patricia had a dreadful time when she took on the surname. Her joy of divorcing my father was twofold as she not only left a somewhat feckless husband, but also de-Mycock-ed herself.”
I found The Da
The first census of Saorstát Éireann = the Irish Free State was taken on 18th April 1926, 3½ years after Independence. 12 hours ago, a searchable index of the citizenry was released. Under GDPR, 1,000+ centenarians were given the option of having their names redacted. Background, context, ExecSumm, quirks on RTE, the state broadcaster.
Colombia approves cull of up to 80 feral hippos
Colombia approves cull of up to 80 feral hippos. Colombian officials have authorised a plan to cull dozens of feral hippos, years after notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar brought in the first ones.
April 17
Is It Time What?
"Never met him"
"No living American historian is as prolific as Blake Whiting. In one week alone last fall, he published 13 books on a host of complex archaeological and historical subjects, ranging from the collapse of Near Eastern civilizations in 1177 BCE to the recent discovery of a huge Silk Road–era city in Central Asia."
Who Is Blake Whiting? The most astonishingly productive historian in recent times is someone you’ll never meet [more inside]
Who Is Blake Whiting? The most astonishingly productive historian in recent times is someone you’ll never meet [more inside]
Folding Ideas on MrBeast
Why was I invited to Beast Studios? (SLYT; 1h18).
What? Dan Olson was invited by MrBeast's team to a tour of Beast Studios? Dan Olson, of the Folding Ideas channel? The "Line goes up" guy? That Dan Olson?
An essay on (in)authenticity and inefficiency. Also the first essay recorded on a bouncy castle, among other firsts.
Private equity: neutering independent vets since 2010.
Too chonk to fail. Private Equity Vet lets you see if your local D.V.M. is just a PE with a lab coat. (previously)
Dear America: Your rights are on the line
We are the federal workers who protect America from discrimination. The federal government is dismantling YOUR right to safe housing and essential services—and silencing us to hide it from you. We break that silence and ask you to stand with us, before it’s too late. Read the letters.
The ordinary people who took their case to the highest court
The ordinary people who took their case to the highest court. From love and freedom to native title and the right to vote, these are some of the High Court cases that have helped define Australia, and the ordinary people behind them.
The Greatest Documentary you've Never Heard Of
Tie Xi Qu. In 1999, filmmaker Wang Bing used a camcorder and walked into a dying factory district in northeast China and spent two years filming what he found. The result was Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - nine hours long, no narration, no score, no interviews. This is one of the most important documentaries ever made, and almost no one has heard of it.
This is a fourteen minute explanation and overview by Youtube Ken D.
Tie Xi Qu is banned in China. It has never been shown on Chinese television. Wang Bing's entire filmography is erased from Chinese internet as of today.
Just the ones that broke through
Read all of that in one breath. A MOIS-operated persona whose unit head was killed three weeks earlier walked into one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the world, exfiltrated 50 TB, then pushed a destructive button that bricked 200,000 endpoints across 79 countries in minutes, postponed surgeries, stated a retaliation motive, absorbed a $10 million FBI bounty, had four of its domains seized, and was operating a replacement site the same day. from We May Be Living Through the Most Consequential Hundred Days in Cyber History, and Almost Nobody Has Noticed [ungated]
April 16
Siberian Steppe Techno-noir Jazz
OTYKEN - TUNDRA (Official Music Video) Siberian folk-pop group Otyken's new steppe techno-noir jazz single, sung in the Dolgan language (indigenous people of the Taimyr Peninsula, Siberia, Russia)
Race to save Brisbane River's very hungry Australian lungfish
Race to save Brisbane River's very hungry Australian lungfish. Researchers hope they have found a way for a fascinating living fossil to once again breed in the Brisbane River, but hunger is making it harder.
GLP-1's may help a variety of conditions unrelated to obesity
Within days of starting on Zepbound last February, Ms. Schmidt felt her concussion symptoms finally begin to ease. "the survey respondents were enthusiastic. Sixty-five percent of current or past GLP-1 users said they were “very interested” in continuing to take the drugs. More remarkably, 63 percent said that if their GLP-1 failed to help the condition it was initially prescribed to treat, they would either “definitely” or “probably” keep taking it for other benefits." [more inside]
Feelin' 70 Up, I'm feelin' 70 Up
What remains at the heart of the films will be questions of class, education, wealth and the all important thread of whether it holds true to say: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man." from ITV's beloved 7 Up series will end after 62 years with "epic and moving" final chapter 70 Up [Radio Times] [more inside]
Kittenpalooza
Three cat moms and fifteen newborn kittens (so far). Tiny Kittens (Facebook page) a cat rescue based in Langley, BC, found itself this month in an unprecedented situation with five expectant cats, all which were/are due to give birth within a ten day period. The entire pile of 15 (so far) kittens and their three moms are settled in a shared nest, and the cuteness, as they say, is off the charts. You can watch the livestream on Youtube, and take a break from, you know, all this other stuff. [more inside]
Try to keep up
USSOUTHCOM murdered three people in the Pacific bringing their total to 177. US DoD to cancel collective bargaining agreements for civilian employees. GOP Senators block fourth attempt to force end of Iran war. US Army shuts down Soldier for Life media accounts after the organization boosted it's tribute to Senator Duckworth. These stories are among 15 highlighted by Gov Brief Today on April 15th. Gov Brief Today curates a dozen or so stories each day on the actions of the US government (not always military). [more inside]
Here Comes the Pizza
In Boston, the observance of Patriots’ Day includes the running of the Boston Marathon and a home game played by the Red Sox at Fenway Park. During the Patriots’ Day game on April 16, 2007, a foul ball hit down the left field line in the bottom of the seventh inning led to a momentous occasion. (previously) [more inside]
The Unlearned Lesson of the Titanic
Yesterday was the 114th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. From the April 1913 issue of the Atlantic (archive): "Little more than a year has elapsed since the greatest disaster in maritime history upset all our accepted theories of the unsinkability of modern liners... Since that fateful night of April, 1912, what have we done in the way of reform that will go toward averting another such disaster?" By Atlanticus (An officer on an Atlantic passenger steamer)
⍼
Jonathan Chan's multi-year quest to figure out what ⍼ (U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW) means finally has an answer. [more inside]
Hidden costs mean many comedians make zero profit from festival runs
Hidden costs mean many comedians make zero profit from festival runs. Doing a run of shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the pinnacle for a lot of Australian comedians, but the festival's tens of thousands of punters are rarely privy to the behind-the-scenes costs.
🎶We trim your hedges, we fight your wars 🎶
Better Call Saul, but it's set in New Orleans and real.
Fascinating long read from this week's New Yorker. On one level, the slammer conspiracy was an amusing example of New Orleans chicanery at its most baroque, a tale of literal highway robbery so antic and absurd that it seemed like the plot of an Elmore Leonard novel. But, on a deeper level, it was an awful parable of economic desperation in twenty-first-century America. Scores of poor Black Louisianans had volunteered for what was effectively Russian roulette, risking their own lives and the lives of their loved ones in the hope of a onetime payout. The attorneys, by contrast, were well educated and mostly white, and would almost certainly have been loath to climb into a car with Garrison and go looking for a truck to hit.
New ways to be puzzled
The Daily Baffle is a free site with word and logic puzzles in several new-to-the-world formats. [more inside]
Running Amoc
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is declining rapidly. This is Not Good. tl;dr: we're fucked.
“Oh! There is bread! What a fun surprise.”
Here is the promise you and I must cling to across the thousands of words that follow: At some point within this text, I will reveal to you what—after 555 responses, 13,000 miles of travel, and months of monomaniacal research—I have determined to be the best free restaurant bread in America. [The Atlantic; ungated]
April 15
a pre-paid self-own
tom7/suckerpinch tweaks HTTPS to add minimal security to a website that doesn't need security. Youtube, 35 minutes. tom7 previously
USA Organizing Calendar - April 16 to May 1
From No Kings to May Day: Here's April’s Organizing Calendar. (via 50501) April is being spent on local coordination, skills training, institutional targeting, and building capacity that determines how large and how effective May Day will be when it arrives. We will be going deeper on several of these in the days ahead and how these actions can make a difference in our communities. [more inside]
This op shop fixes donated items to reduce landfill
With most of it not fit to sell, this op shop fixes donated items to reduce landfill. Every year, lots of new textile items are imported to the Australian market...about 1.55 billion of them. Fast fashion is a leading contributor to overproduction and makes reuse difficult. (An op shop is what is called a thrift store in the US or a charity shop in Britain.)
If I could stop time, I wood.
Splendid isolation: how I stopped time by sitting in a forest for 24 hours. "When you’re actually in it, the reality of the solo is, at least at first, one of total boredom. I cannot stress enough how little there is to do when you have confined yourself to the inside of a small circle of stones and sticks in a forest. But it is an instructive kind of boredom, insofar as boredom is the raw and unmediated experience of time. It is considered best practice not to have a watch, and to turn off your phone and keep it somewhere in the bottom of a bag so as to avoid the temptation to constantly check how long you’ve been out and how long you have left. And as you become untethered from your accustomed orientation in time – from always knowing what time it is, how long you have to do the thing you’re doing, when you have to stop doing it to do the next thing – you begin to glimpse a new perspective on the anxiety that arises from that orientation. Because this anxiety, which amounts to a sort of cost-benefit analysis of every passing moment, is a quintessentially modern predicament." [more inside]
Mamdani introduces pied à terre tax
YouTube link Protect this man at all costs
Politics for Joy & Species-Being
Beyond Equality by Jonny Thakkar for The Point "There is something naturally joyous and fulfilling about cooperating with other people... capitalism leaves us intellectually, aesthetically and creatively stunted. ...The point of making things affordable, in other words, is not primarily to rectify injustice but rather to bring about a better life for all. ...If the left is to pull people toward it, it needs to orient itself around a worldview that provides positive, erōs-inducing energy. And the only way to do that, I want to suggest, is to offer a vision of the good life that goes beyond the pursuit of equality."
Samia's just here to slay...
Samia Benchaou is a stylist, a fashion influencer and a hijabi. She was recently profiled in People.
Menace on the Streets
Miata is Always the Answer
Do you want to hear middle-aged mid-western car nerds talk about their love for a car that bucks all the automotive trends for bigger, bulkier, angrier -- and yet, somehow, is still kicking? Of course you do. Let the good folks at Savagegeese soothe you with a five-part docuseries on the everyman's roadster, the Mazda MX-5 Miata:
[more inside]
Rare photos of endemic owl captured in magical remote NT sighting
Rare photos of endemic owl captured in magical remote NT sighting. A traditional owner on a Northern Australian island has captured rare photos of an enchanting masked owl, adding to the limited knowledge base surrounding the endemic and culturally significant bird.
From Typography & Text and Print & Production to Turbo-nerd Shit
I love the web. The classic, real web full of weird things. And that web is out there. You just have to find it. And sometimes, you have to make it yourself. delphitools is a collection of small, focused utilities that respect your privacy and work entirely in your browser. No data leaves your machine, no accounts required, no tracking. Just tools that do what they say. [by Ruby Morgan Voigt]
Memories, in the form of plastic alligators
April 14
The Ngogo chimpanzee war
The Western and Central factions of chimpanzees have been engaged in a violent conflict in the Ngogo hill region of Kibale National Park, Uganda, since 2015. The conflict involves one-sided killing and violence of the Western group against the Central group. Due to the Ngogo chimpanzees formerly constituting a single peaceful community that violently split apart, this conflict has been described as a "civil war". [more inside]
How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts
How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts. Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark.