The western 'burbs of Chicago aren't the last place I'd expect to see a JDM luxo-van, but close. Yet there it was.

Imagine waking up to this. Fountaining isn't the largest today, but still the size of a 30-story building www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0t...

The case for streaming keeps eroding. "These services rely on you not having other alternatives. Remind them that you have other options. Invest in physical media. In this age of constant subscriptions and renting, ownership is its own little act of resistance." www.trillmag.com/entertainmen...

When something arrives from interstellar space, it would be strange if there were nothing strange about it. Refreshingly rational discussion about what we know so far. www.planetary.org/articles/stu...

I’d pretty much given up looking for really good pineapple since we came to the mainland, so this was a tasty surprise

Cool to see 3D printing of buildings finally going mainstream: “We’re not just doing one-off demos any more—real production is happening.” www.enr.com/articles/613...

Might be a rut, OK it's definitely a rut, but it’s a tasty rut, and it's a rut I am happy to inhabit: planked grilled miso steelhead, homegrown shiso and oden veg.

There's no spontaneity like forced spontaneity :( "Baristas have been warned that they will be “written up” if they don’t write a personalized message on every single cup, even during peak hours, they said." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/b...

And the thieves are everywhere: "Economists may soon start to think of brainrot as a means of theft. Increasingly, the discipline is modelling attention as a resource, alongside land, labour and capital." www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Fascinating bit of untold history here: www.civilbeat.org?p=1731073&mc...

Didn't know there was a universal hand symbol for 'WTF' www.wsj.com/us-news/flyi...

Some native plants can be mistaken for weeds, but the wildlife knows. This guy spent a good 5 minutes going over these flowers.

Idly fascinated by the NWS' use of the word "interests" as a noun in this context: "...Interests elsewhere in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the central Bahamas should monitor the progress of Erin...." Could have said "people" but chose "interests" -- why? www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh...

Tracks my experience. It's not whether you look at a screen, it's what you're looking at on the screen. "...in some cases, screen use could even help you drift off." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/w...

If you feel a need for more post-apocalypse skills - really, who doesn't nowadays :) - you know why I jumped at the chance when I learned of a beginner blacksmith class nearby. Bending red-hot metal to your will brings a visceral satisfaction that's hard to describe. mscaitlinsschool.com/index.html

That gauzy 2000s-era hope for a digital public forum where serious ideas are discussed constructively from different viewpoints? Not only did it not happen, maybe it *can't* happen. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Our yard bunnies were out for golden hour

What if AI data-center spending is like railroads in the 1870s or fiber-optic cables in the 1990s? As in too much, too soon? The financial tendrils are reaching pretty far already. www.noahpinion.blog/p/will-data-...

Sometimes the best nature fix is the nature fix that's right outside your kitchen window

Best explanation I’ve seen so far of why Hawaii is on high alert for 10-foot tsunami while Japan, much closer to the earthquake epicenter, has gotten less than 2-foot waves. These things are hard to predict — the sea floor isn’t smooth — so better safe than sorry. www.cnn.com/world/live-n...

Tom Lehrer was many things, but for me he was always the quintessential guide to laughing in the face of doom. RIP. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j... www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJAD...

Say what you will about Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, he knows how to play certain segments of the media like a violin.

How hot is it? Well, it's 220°F inside the grill before I even light it. Not optimal grilling weather, but fresh sockeye was on sale, so will try to get it done before the T-storms hit

Brought a few of my Cooke Street aloha shirts when we moved to the mainland, figuring they’d be hard to find in Illinois. Today, in a local Costco…

OK, lasers are cool, killing mosquitos is cool, but $700 worth of cool? Hmm newatlas.com/around-the-h...

Of all the English words that really should have jumped the pond, it is this: *jobsworth*. Met so many of these people over the years, somehow never knew there was a simple, non-profane word for them. www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/e...

Looks like we have another visitor earthsky.org/space/new-in... Trajectory simulation here: bsky.app/profile/did:...

‘NASA currently has no plans to study what will be the most important asteroid encounter since the formation of the space agency.’ Because spending a few million to learn how to stop a civilization-ending threat is just too much? arstechnica.com/features/202...

I’d try it, I can imagine a future in which we’ll need it, but I can’t see paying a premium for it now wapo.st/444Dv4i

Never been a cruise-ship person, but if I were, I'd spring for this one. Just launched. A modern design, with carbon-fiber sails, hearkening back to centuries-old clipper ships: interestingengineering.com/transportati...

Our currant bush is positively cranking this year! Taking all we can use, still plenty left for birds & bunnies

And now for some methane-fueled sea spiders. Not to worry, they're less than half an inch long and not coming for us anyway www.accuweather.com/en/weather-n...

Never gets old: www.staradvertiser.com/2025/06/20/b... Live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...

'McCoy tested 38 major A.I. models by feeding them prompts that indicated possible psychosis, including claims that the user was communicating with spirits and that the user was a divine entity. She found that GPT-4o ... affirmed these claims 68 percent of the time.' www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/t...

Got a nice stroll in at Knoch Knolls Park before the temps get too nasty.

Hell is running out of gas interestingengineering.com/culture/door...

2-decade-old free software powered the drone strike that took out a third of Russia's strategic bomber force www.404media.co/ukraines-mas...

Shades of Hōkūlea: Good to see ancient techniques re-created — in this case, in India www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...

That feeling when NYT teases (behind its premium foodie paywall, no less) a dish “you’ve never considered” when you’ve known about it since childhood.

1,000 feet! volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public/...

"The hawk, in other words, appears to have learned to interpret a traffic signal and take advantage of it, in its quest to hunt. Which is, with all due respect, more impressive than how most humans use a pedestrian crosswalk." www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

'The dirty secret of AI is that it is surely more often used to cut corners and produce lowest-common-denominator work.' www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

10x stronger than steel, from a renewable resource. If this costs out, it could be game-changing interestingengineering.com/innovation/r...

also you all need to see this, because this is something I don't think *anybody* could predict for where this ad goes

The sun's been getting a bit spotty lately. For reference, that larger sunspot right of center is larger than Earth. More info: spaceweather.com/archive.php?...

Happy to have found a place in the N. Illinois 'burbs that carries Hong Kong-style pineapple buns!

Interesting implications for alt-history buffs: “Had the Europeans showed up 300 or 400 years earlier ... some of the big centers like Cahokia could have put a couple thousand warriors on the battlefield instantly. The Europeans wouldn’t have lasted a day.” archaeology.org/issues/may-j...

So if you see anyone with these glasses, just know you're probably being recorded to train AI. And if you see a friend wearing these glasses ... maybe find a different friend? interestingengineering.com/culture/ray-...

If your goal in traveling is to eat stuff that tastes just like home, maybe you shouldn't be traveling? japantoday.com/category/fea...