If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

Probably a petty thing to gripe about, but I used to go to Oxo kitchen tools for good design, and when I went to replace my veggie peeler (right), I found that the new version (left), is light, flimsy-feeling and in all ways uglier. It’s probably cheaper for them to manufacture, though. 🙄

Ran across an older National Geographic and am inspired and thrilled by this article on the application of origami to scientific and commercial projects. 🤩 Gorgeous work. www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/art...

Now that the US has discontinued pennies, it feels somehow more lucky to find one on the ground.

Considering the ancient Greeks overseeing the setup of the Brooklyn Half Marathon and thinking they’d probably be dazzled by the technological changes, but would approve of community-based physical culture. 💪

Did New York City tap water taste like a swimming pool ten years ago? I somehow remembered it tasting better. Seems like someone might have ramped up the chorine treatments since then? 🤨 Or is it just me?

Not into a lot of the overuse of AI I see these days, but I love this project as a path to open up conversations: github.com/0xNyk/counci...

Currently wrestling with storage of media (photos, letters, journals) and wondering if it’s even worth preserving. Maybe we’re not actually well served by looking back? Maybe the fuzzy mush of the brain’s faulty system is enough?

If you’re feeling dragged down by the world, I can recommend a wander through the tool aisles in your local hardware store. There’s something so hopeful about fresh soldering irons, saws, lathes, chisels.

This could be us, Berlin. 😭

If you’re not reading the Aboard newsletter from Paul @ftrain and Rich, you’re missing out on a nuanced conversation about how AI is changing the world. This piece on process v. artifact concisely expresses what I’ve been trying to pin down and a manager and an artist. mailchi.mp/aboard/zkd26...

Been testing a continuous glucose monitor lately and I’m starting to think my ADHD symptoms have just been glucose spikes in disguise. 🥸

Feels pretty counterculture these days to commit to long-form, i.e. listen to an entire album, read a long novel, look at a painting for an unreasonable span of time.

STOP LAUNCHING CRAP WE DON'T NEED OR WANT It's staggeringly depressing how blithely they plan to ruin everything. Everything. I went to a dark site last week so I could say goodbye to the sky. Took a little hand-held photo and guess what? A satellite trail appeared. Just stop!

Am I interested in what 1997 thought 2027 would be like? Yes. Am I 563 pages interested? Hmmm… 🤔

Just sci-fi from 1954 accurately predicting the present again. From “Childhood’s End,” by Arthur C. Clarke

On my way to try the parkrun at Etna 🌋 so it’s an appropriate moment to thank @regcoppinger.bsky.social for introducing me to this wonderful concept/community/movement/obsession. www.parkrun.com.de/hasenheide/n...

I‘m realizing this year that advent calendars are essentially a program executed each year that distracts everyone from the fact that it’s damp, colder, and darker each day. By the time epiphany rolls in, the spring program is triggered and the snowdrops emerge. Brilliant design.

There are a few little heuristics that just continue to be bangers and honestly, woe to all who fail to heed them. “Form follows function” hit me up today, as did “Why Wasn’t I Consulted?” (WWIC). Honored to know @ftrain IRL. Go read the essay in case you missed it in 2011. www.ftrain.com/wwic

The problem with making physical artwork is figuring out how to store it. But it seems like Ed is becoming part of the household now.

Happy birthday to the only two women with elements named after them on the periodic table: #MarieCurie & #LiseMeitner. As I do every year, I will once again repeat my proposal that November 7 should be International #WomenInSTEM Day! #histSTM #chemistry #physics #OnThisDay #OTD #PeriodicTable👩‍🔬🗃️📜

“It would be some relief to our condition and our frailty if all things were as slow in their perishing as they were in their coming into being; but as it is, the growth of things is a tardy process and their undoing is a rapid matter.” Seneca spilling the T. This is just a stoic feed now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

An artwork is incomplete without the bridge between the work and the audience, so I’m so pleased my book (in both language editions) is connecting with a bookworm. 🐛

Refreshingly practical agentic AI talk by Slavik Dimitrovich at the AWS session in Berlin this morning. “The value of AI isn’t guaranteed, but the monthly bill is.”🤖

Seneca says we need to avoid garbage information. Apparently that was a problem even 2000 years ago. “Measure your life: it just does not have room for so much.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

A nice — though unexpected — alignment between Portuguese (saudade) and German (Sehnsucht) for the concept of "a vague and constant desire for something that does not (and possibly cannot) exist." 😔

my mom taught me there's two kinds of businesses: hot dog stands and art galleries - hot dog stands protect territory and keep competition off their turf - art galleries benefit from more adjacent art galleries, cluster together to amplify reach/support youre an art gallery, not a hot dog stand

“… what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in un-certainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” - Keats

As we enter the era in which companionship, therapy, art, labor and sport are all performed by AI, I wonder when we’ll just fully embrace the idea that “passive consumption” is now the definitive occupation of humanity? Glad I lived in the before times. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“The act of deletion is not a failure of recordkeeping. It is a reassertion of agency.” Thoughts on the limits of PKM and the power of minimalism for the brain. www.joanwestenberg.com/p/i-deleted-...

I always try to keep gratitude in the forefront of my mind, but when it looks like my apartment might be on fire, but it’s actually a different building, the feeling comes pretty readily.

Not going to pass judgement on anyone, but I’m finding that my feelings of mortality surpass any drink or party drug for life-affirming weekend shenanigans. Bonus points for fewer side effects, too. 💃🏻🪩

In case it helps anyone else manage their weird little brain🧠 , I’ve started calling the easily eaten snack-size vegetables my “Strategic Crudités Reserve,” and it’s a tiny game that helps me romanticize (and restock) my radishes, carrots and cherry tomatoes. 🍅🥕🫜

Just realizing I’ve never heard applause for a particularly lovely rendition of the “brief airline safety demonstration,” on a flight, but the choreography on LH1711 was honestly excellent. Wondering if I’m the only person who watched the show?

😱 NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! 🤯 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Wondering how old one needs to be before we stop feeling some lack of agency while in the presence of our parents. Apparently 50 isn’t enough.

Does anyone look at this and NOT have a pareidolia moment? I would be as surprised as this power socket.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” #MarieCurie

Wanna reduce crime? Open more libraries. "we find within the nearby proximity of the library; there is a substantial reduction in frequency of burglaries, vandalism, robberies, fraud, and assaults." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

people will make fun of ancient civilization for consulting oracles and cutting up livers to tell the future and then type “what is the meaning of life?” into ChatGPT

I probably have really strong pareidolia, but maybe that just makes me feel more connection to strange little corners of the world.

Really fun bit of citizen science around sourdough! 🥖 brainbaking.com/post/2025/04...

The most 2025 thing I’ve seen in Italy. 🤖 I’m guessing it’s cutting the grass, but really, the sign is vague enough. It could be doing anything.

The Merlin Bird ID app is your best friend at 6 AM when you absolutely have to know which bird is waking you up. (It was definitely the Wryneck.)

Was unreasonably gleeful this morning to bike through an orchard and find an honesty-box farm stand full of apple juice, apples, and dried apple slices. I think it touches me so much because it makes me think of a utopia filled with trust, honor and delicious farm-fresh produce.

Tourism signage in the South Tyrol shows that folks are still pretty pissed off about the work of the fascist dictatorship almost 100 years ago. Even after fascism recedes, the scars remain.

I’m summiting tomorrow 🏔️and just encountered this quote from Outside writer Meaghen Brown: “We humans are uniquely drawn to summits. And when we get there, we feel the need to do something. We yell, plant flags, leave stones or cairns, waxpoetic.”

As I’m cycling along the Via Claudia Augusta from Germany to Italy, I’m receiving great joy as I encounter and take souvenir photos of the VCA signs, which are full of historical, cultural and geological facts. It’s like Pokémon for long-distance treks. 🤩

Found a wood-fired pizza in a Tyrolean truckstop that beats most of what I find for pizza in the rest of the world. Globalization is a thing, but proximity to the source still matters.

Learned something: if you want to help someone do something, offer them both help and an external excuse for why it requires help. The weather works great for this. Example: “It’s so windy, can I help you with that?”