Research that makes people laugh, then think: "Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners" @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social @arstechnica.com (Plus- Ron Toomer) Have some serious fun: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/26/t...

Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful: ""Is This the End of the Dictionary?" @stefanfatsis.bsky.social @theatlantic.com (Plus- William Faulkner) Look it up: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/25/i...

Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true? "The Climate Change Paradox" @quantamagazine.bsky.social @insideclimatenews.org (Plus- "Don't Worry, Be Happy") Facing reality: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/24/w...

As global warming challenges traditional agriculture, scientists are looking to “probiotics” for crops as a possible new green revolution: "Better Farming Through Endophytes" @ahelt.bsky.social @jstordaily.bsky.social (Plus- John Boyd Orr) Musing on microbes: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/23/i...

The respective vulnerabilities of tyrants and crowds: "Absolute power can be a terrible weakness," from @himself.bsky.social (Plus- “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”) Get it together: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/22/p...

A labor of love: "This trucker built a scale model of NYC over 21 years. It’s drawing museums’ attention" @gothamist.com (Plus- the Great Fire of New York) Get small: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/21/i...

Two scholars predicted political upheaval in America in the 2020s. Their explanation of why it’s here and what we can do to temper it: "Welcome To The 'Turbulent Twenties'" @noemamag.com @raydalioofficial.bsky.social (Plus- jumping the shark) Buckle up: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/20/w...

How social media algorithms are transforming language: "Our viral vocabulary" @etymology.substack.com.web.brid.gy (Plus- International Talk Like a Pirate Day) Pause to parse: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/19/a...

Clive James reviews "the most boring book in the world" @boingboing.net (Plus- Samuel Johnson) Tackling tedium: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/18/h...

A fascinating interactive comparison of what different jobs pay: "Salary and Occupation" @flowingdata.com (Plus- Emperor Norton) Investigating inequality: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/17/a...

Interrogating a defining-- but slippery--concept at the heart of many discussions of global culture or geopolitics: "The Idea of the West" @mereorthodoxy.bsky.social @noemamag.com (Plus- “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”) Pondering a perplexingly plastic paradigm: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/16/i...

If "printer's ink" is the lifeblood of democracy, we have an issue: "Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’" @josieharvey.bsky.social @theguardian.com (Plus- USA Today) Surviving the surfeit: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/15/a...

There's rule-of-law, and then there's rule-by-law: "Banksy mural of a judge beating a protester is scrubbed from London court" @apnews.com (Plus- Hitler at Nuremberg) Protect what's precious: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/14/t...

On geologic byproducts, American automotive lore, and the hidden beauty of the industrial age: "Fordite" @ryantomorrow.bsky.social (Plus- RIP, Henry Hale Bliss) Rethinking remnants: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/13/t...

A remarkable collection of beautiful playing cards (and divination decks) from the past @ebursztein.bsky.social (Plus- Lascaux) Coming up aces: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/12/l...

A question of perspective: "Africa wants its true size on the world map" @bigthink.com (Plus- Joseph Nicollet) Scrutinizing scale: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/11/i...

Physicians (and other scientists) healing themselves: "Metascience Is More Important Now Than Ever" @cbo.bsky.social @undark.org (Plus- Charles Sanders Peirce) Committing to comprehension: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/10/t...

The idea of Abundance is having a moment. But are the folks behind it blowing their chance? "What *Isn't* Abundance?" @davekarpf.bsky.social (Plus- William Bligh) Musing on more: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/09/e...

Whence the witches- did the ever-pragmatic Shakespeare add witches to the Scottish play to please his new patron? "King James I and the Macbeth Witches" @jstordaily.bsky.social (Plus- John Shakespeare) Fire burn, cauldron bubble: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/08/b...

"Borg vibes"- a diagnosis of the malaise that so many of us feel-- and a remedy: "Use this magic bullet to shoot yourself in the foot" @mastroianni.bsky.social ‬ (Plus- "Positively 4th Street") Grappling: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/07/t...

From ochre to lapis lazuli, the entangled histories of our most iconic pigments: "Museum of Color" @stephkrzywonos.bsky.social @emergencemagazine.bsky.social (Plus- Goethe's Theory of Colors) Pondering pigment: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/06/f...

All about our most under-rated (and scantily-understood) sense: "How Smell Guides Our Inner World" @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social @quantamagazine.bsky.social (Plus- National Cheese Pizza Day) Getting to know the nose: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/05/s...

On the dangers of "knowingness" and absolutism: Isaac Asimov's "The Relativity of Wrong" @densediscovery.bsky.social (Plus- the Edsel) Rethink: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/04/t...

Punctuated equilibrium- species/lineages appearing in sudden bursts not through gradual changes- modeled: "The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees" @jakebuehler.bsky.social ‬ @quantamagazine.bsky.social (Plus- Barbara McClintock) Dissecting development: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/03/t...

Per Bergson, laughter solves a serious human conundrum- how to keep our minds and social lives elastic: "Laughter Is Vital" @emilyherring.bsky.social @aeon.co (Plus- Ramón Valdés) Chortle: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/02/w...

Trump's mirror-world New Deal: "The capitalism of fools" @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy (Plus- the Liberty Bell) As we reflect: roughlydaily.com/2025/09/01/u...

Spiritual care and technology are converging across the country, reshaping the theology of trust: "When tech gets religion: How churches use data and AI" @technologyreview.com (Plus- Henry VIII, excommunicated) Pray for guidance: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/31/i...

A great magician- and an estimable escape artist of a different kind: "Ricky Jay’s Thumb" (Plus- Strange Magic) Shuffle and cut: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/30/s...

An absolutely fascinating trip through 20,000 years of eating: "The Food Timeline" @vtliberalarts.bsky.social (Plus- Gilbert Blane) Dig in: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/29/t...

The history of gerrymandering- and what it might suggest for our future: "The Original Gerrymanders" @kevinvrevich.bsky.social ‬ (Plus- the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom) Regretting regression: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/28/i...

On a (history-and context-destroying) potential impact of AI- generation as destruction: "The Erasive Age" from Nicholas Carr (Plus- the Sack of Rome) Husbanding our humanity: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/27/k...

How did Sukunaarchaeum end up with such a strikingly tiny genome? What does it mean for our definition of "life"? "A Rogue New Life Form" @alicesunreports.bsky.social @nautil.us (Plus- Robert Huebner) Looking again at "living": roughlydaily.com/2025/08/26/t...

Heroin, homes, virility aids, brain pills, "blood builder," arsenic complexion wafers, tombstones, guns... "Before Folding 30 Years Ago, the Sears Catalog Sold Some Surprising Products" @smithsonianmag.bsky.social (Plus- instant noodles) Reflecting on retail: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/25/y...

A master as you've likely never seen him: "Chuck Jones' 1965 Oscar-winning cartoon about a lovesick like and a dallying dot" @boingboing.net‬ (Plus- more Chuck Jones) Gorgeous geometry: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/24/t...

A bracing note on the crisis we face: "The Emergency We Cannot Feel: On the Psychological Unreadiness for American Collapse" @brockm.bsky.social @lessig.bsky.social ‬ @rorytruex.bsky.social (Plus- the Proclamation of Rebellion) Facing reality: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/23/y...

Listen to some of the best independent and community radio stations in the US: ldial (Plus- Spam) Tune in: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/22/n...

Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these: "What Does Palantir Actually Do?" @carolinehaskins.bsky.social ‬ @wired.com‬ (Plus- the Winklevoss twins) Bow to Big Brother: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/21/p...

The state of cosmology (and a look at science at work): "A First Time for Everything" @seanmcarroll.bsky.social‬ @nybooks.com (Plus- Fred Hoyle) Wrestling withe reality: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/20/t...

What can we learn from our past? "1910: The Year the Modern World Lost Its Mind" @dkthomp.bsky.social ‬ (Plus- Orville Wright) Looking back to look forward: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/19/w...

The big (but threatened) business of supplying live bait: "The Worm Hunters of Southern Ontario" @royinori.bsky.social @thelocal.to (Plus- the day it rained fish) Wriggle: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/18/m...

47 thoughts on the glory of looking-- and living-- beyond a specialty: "In praise of generalism" @thebeliever.net (Plus- Pierre de Fermat) Widening our irises: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/17/i...

Bowling, America’s most popular declining sport: "Changing Lanes" @thebaffler.com‬ (Plus- Marlene Dietrich) Grab your balls: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/16/y...

The (ultimately constructive) tension between psychoanalysis and pragmatism: "On Getting the Life You Want" @lrb.co.uk (Plus- Stanley Milgram) Deciphering desire: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/15/w...

A sign of our times: Apple emulates The Godfather (Plus- social security) Pondering payola: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/14/s...

A look back to the artistic responses to the fraught times in NYC in the 60s: "Delicate and Dirty" @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social (Plus- South Park) Wondering if history will rhyme: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/13/l...

The state of play one century on: "'It’s a Mess': A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party" @walkingthedot.bsky.social‬ @quantamagazine.bsky.social‬ (Plus- Erwin Schrödinger) Wrestling with reality: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/12/a...

Many hope that AI will adjudicate, even discover, ethical truths. But as Gödel shows, deciding what is right will always be our burden: "The incompleteness of ethics" from @aeon.co ‬ (Plus- Hedy Lamarr) Owning up to it: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/11/t...

Unusual names of racehorses: "And They're Off" (Plus- the Belmont Stakes Trophy) Noodling on nomenclature: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/10/a...

Learning from our elders... tales from the birth of the dominant artistic medium- and the dominant form of entertainment- of the 20th cen: "Allan Dwan’s stories" from @ayjay.bsky.social ‬ (Plus- Pee-wee's Big Adventure) Honoring those on whose shoulders we stand: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/09/p...

Turnabout is foul play: stories of Democratic fundraising, Texas lawmaking, and more. @adambonica.bsky.social‬, @hooks.bsky.social‬, @texasmonthly.bsky.social, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social ‬ (Plus- the Dave Matthews Band bus incident) Appreciate the ironies: roughlydaily.com/2025/08/08/t...