I’m actually surprised how well Santa answers these difficult questions in the face of a full on press from the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner.
Where Did These Famous Hip Hop Screeches Come From?
Two of the most famous screeches in music history are from House of Pain’s Jump Around and Cypress Hill’s Insane in the Brain — you likely heard both of them in your mind just reading the names of the songs. This short video explains where those samples came from and which one of them is a horse (and not Prince).
Dollar stores are overcharging their customers at checkout. “Red Baron frozen pizzas,...
Dollar stores are overcharging their customers at checkout. “Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50.”
Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? “When you consider all the...
Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? “When you consider all the impressive work Generation X has made, it’s funny that one of the most persistent stereotypes about them is that they’re slackers.”
Netflix Agrees to Buy Warner Bros., Including HBO, for $83 Billion
Meg James, reporting for The Los Angeles Times (News+ link):
The two companies announced the blockbuster deal early Friday
morning. The takeover would give Netflix such beloved characters
as Batman, Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone.
Fred Flintstone?
“Our mission ha...
Exclusive | The Verge
• Tom Warren
OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 ‘code red’ response to Google is coming next week
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" situation earlier this week, pushing staff to respond quickly to increased competition from Google and Anthropic. Sources familiar with OpenAI's plans tell me that the company is planning its first response to Gemini 3 with its upcoming GPT-5.2 update. I understand GPT-5.2 is ready to be released, […]
Gemini and Mercury Remastered is “a collection of hundreds of newly-restored images...
Gemini and Mercury Remastered is “a collection of hundreds of newly-restored images and untold stories from the NASA archives” about the early manned space programs by the person who did the excellent Apollo Remastered.
Really interesting take on Wake Up Dead Man and the other Knives...
Really interesting take on Wake Up Dead Man and the other Knives Out films. Benoit Blanc’s primary motivation is not solving the murder but protecting the innocent from the rich and powerful.
This brand new piece has been made available as a signed print! A portion of all proceeds go to…
This brand new piece has been made available as a signed print! A portion of all proceeds go to Mind, the UK’s leading mental health charity.
Radiolab
• WNYC Studios
Shell Game: Minimum Viable Company
A year ago we brought you a show called Shell Game where a journalist named Evan Ratliff made an AI copy of himself. Now on season 2 of the show, Evan’s using AI to do more than just mimic himself — he’s starting a company staffed entirely by AI agents, and making a podcast ...
TIL: Subtests in pytest 9.0.0+
TIL: Subtests in pytest 9.0.0+
I spotted an interesting new feature in the release notes for pytest 9.0.0: subtests.
I'm a big user of the pytest.mark.parametrize decorator - see Documentation unit tests from 2018 - so I thought it would be interesting to try out subtests an...
Thoughts on Go vs. Rust vs. Zig
Thoughts on Go vs. Rust vs. Zig
Thoughtful commentary on Go, Rust, and Zig by Sinclair Target. I haven't seen a single comparison that covers all three before and I learned a lot from reading this.One thing that I hadn't noticed before is that none of these three languages implement class-based OOP.
Via Hacker News
Tags: go, object-oriented-programming, programming-languages, rust, zig
★ Alan Dye Was in Tim Cook’s Blind Spot
NBC News, back in March 2018:
Speaking at a town hall event hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and
Recode’s Kara Swisher, Cook said Facebook put profits above all
else when it allegedly allowed user data to be taken through
connected apps. [...]
When asked what he would do i...
The Resonant Computing Manifesto
The Resonant Computing Manifesto
Launched today at WIRED’s The Big Interview event, this manifesto (of which I'm a founding signatory) pushes for a positive framework for thinking about building hyper-personalized AI-powered software.
This part in particular resonates with m...
Pantone choosing a shade of white for its color of the year...
Pantone choosing a shade of white for its color of the year is a little too on the nose, especially when you consider they chose a color called Mocha Mousse last year.
Django 6.0 released
Django 6.0 released
Django 6.0 includes a flurry of neat features, but the two that most caught my eye are background workers and template partials.
Background workers started out as DEP (Django Enhancement Proposal) 14, proposed and shepherded by Jake Howard. Jake prototype...
Text a community college librarian
I take tap dance evening classes at the College of San Mateo community college. A neat bonus of this is that I'm now officially a student of that college, which gives me access to their library... including the ability to send text messages to the librarians asking for help ...
Fritolaysia Cuts Off Chiplomatic Relations With Snakistan. “Relations between the two countries...
Fritolaysia Cuts Off Chiplomatic Relations With Snakistan. “Relations between the two countries grew stale in 1994, when Fritolaysian rufflelutionaries crossed zestablished borders and forced Snakistan to dispatch cheesekeeping forces.”
“Change starts with smaller actions, with going against the odds. And the...
“Change starts with smaller actions, with going against the odds. And the strangest possibilities can sometimes lead to the biggest gains. So open every door you can to the future that you want to see.”
“The breakneck speed of New England’s transformation makes it the fastest-heating area...
“The breakneck speed of New England’s transformation makes it the fastest-heating area of the US, bar the Alaskan Arctic, and the pace of its temperature rise has apparently increased in the past five years.”