Friday, November 21, 2025

The funniest part of the latest XKCD cartoon isn't on XKCD

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Don't get me wrong, it's a funny gag ...  ... but not as funny as this detail about the strip revealed in the Explain XKCD blog.   ...
1 comment:
Thursday, November 20, 2025

Cacti, Goats, Charcoal -- we do it all

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There are lots of questions about scalability and the best way to take advantage of this, but at the very least, if you live in the Southwes...
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

After you've cleaned your room, you can go outside and play with Foamy.

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Christina Cauterucci writing for Slate: But opposition to pet vaccines seems to have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts say that s...
Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Edison on the power grid of the future

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Edison (who never learned to drive) loved riding in fast cars but hated the fuel that powered them.  From a 1910 interview . … said Edison a...
1 comment:
Monday, November 17, 2025

Actually a P/E ratio of 200 would be an enormous improvement

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   As we've said before, anyone with even a passing interest in business, finance, or the economy should sign up for Allison Morrow'...
Friday, November 14, 2025

Finally, a piece of data visualization that truly captures the moment.

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   Given that this is from the Financial Times, it’s very probable the intent here is satiric. Unfortunately, these are very strange times,...
Thursday, November 13, 2025

We really should set aside more time for cool math

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One of the disadvantages of having so much to talk about (literally thousands of items in the draft folder waiting for completion) is that s...
Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Reason 53 Why Wikipedia Is Better Than Mainstream Media: They Actually Fix Their Mistakes

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A few days ago, we did a post about an absolute train wreck (spaceship wreck? Hyperloop wreck?) of a book review/essay in The New Yorker tha...
Tuesday, November 11, 2025

More from the vaunted fact-checkers of the New Yorker

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[See here and here for previous examples of us watching the New Yorker watchmen.] Calling to mind the great Dianne Wiest line from Parenth...
Monday, November 10, 2025

One of the most challenging parts of living in profoundly abnormal times is avoiding a false sense of normalcy.

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    We’ve said before that it’s essential to take note of these Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether moments—not only because of their real signi...
1 comment:
Friday, November 7, 2025

Having robots follow criminals around to prevent all crime sounds like a perfectly workable plan that's not at all dystopian

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One of these days, we need to have a long, hard discussion about the extent to which the establishment press ( The New York Times , The Atl...
Thursday, November 6, 2025

"But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi. "

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Giving the devil his due, good story from the New York Times on how Silicon Valley used the narrative that promised unlimited opportunities...
Wednesday, November 5, 2025

"Indefensible on any artistic level but..."

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 Picking back up on our film criticism thread—specifically, critics versus reviewers. As previously discussed, the defining difference betwe...
2 comments:
Tuesday, November 4, 2025

If Mamdani wins, please keep your think pieces to yourself

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Another big endorsement for Andrew Cuomo. And it only cost $959 million in tax breaks. [image or embed] — Zohran Kwame Mamdani ( @zohrankmam...
1 comment:
Monday, November 3, 2025

I don't think the administration is going to try to suppress the vote in L.A. (because I don’t think they can).

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  L.A. County is home to more than nine million people, spread over 4,000 square miles. Registered voters received their ballots a month ago...