Binary Star
The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular...
The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular almanac about the countries of the world) from the web. Fuck this. All these assholes do is pillage & destroy.
Measles Is Causing Brain Swelling in Children in South...
Measles Is Causing Brain Swelling in Children in South Carolina. 876 measles cases in the state so far, and some children have developed encephalitis. “Among children who get measles encephalitis, 10 to 15 percent die.”
Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell
Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell
Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA:
One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset.
There's not even a hint as to why they decided to stop maintaining t...
Voxtral transcribes at the speed of sound
Voxtral transcribes at the speed of sound
Mistral just released Voxtral Transcribe 2 - a family of two new models, one open weights, for transcribing audio to text. This is the latest in their Whisper-like model family, and a sequel to the original Voxtral which they release...
Michelangelo’s First Painting, Made at Age 12
The Torment of Saint Anthony is the earliest surviving work attributed to Michelangelo, painted by him in 1487 or 1488 when he was 12 or 13 years old. This is an intense painting, the kind of thing that would have resulted in Michelangelo’s parents visiting the principal’s office had the young man painted this in a contemporary 7th grade art class.
Until 2009, it was believed the painting was a copy of a documented Michelangelo original, but a restoration and x-ray & infrared scans of the work showed evidence that the painting was done by the future master.
Michelangelo’s work was based on Martin Schongauer’s engraving Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons. This video provides a great overview of the history of the painting:
Tags: art · Michelangelo · video
The Tour Down Under’s winner won despite being...
The Tour Down Under’s winner won despite being blasted off his bike by kangaroos. “Two of them blasted through the peloton when we were doing probably 50 kph and…went left, right, left right, left right and I ended up hitting its backside.”
“Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster...
“Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster boat skipper who fished off the New England coast wearing earrings, hot-pink lipstick and an occasional scowl for more than 80 years, until she was 103, died on Jan. 21 in Rockport, Maine. She was 105.”
Shared Claude is a website anyone can change via LLM...
Shared Claude is a website anyone can change via LLM chat. “Text the number below to shape this website in real-time.” (Does anyone remember Metababy?)
Wow, these paper flowers from 11th-century China are...
Wow, these paper flowers from 11th-century China are amazingly well-preserved.
How Do They…?
I was poking around on YouTube for “how to” videos (one of my favorite video genres) the other day when I hit a small jackpot: a bunch of How Do They…? videos from the National Film Board of Canada. A favorite shows how chain link fences are made:
[This is a vintage post originally from Sep 2013.]
Tags: how to · timeless posts · video
An almost 2-hour mashup mix by dk darkly of music from...
Russia continues bombing as peace talks with Ukraine begin
With little optimism about the outcome of the latest peace talks, Ukraine says it will focus on military matters. Its team said it's trying to get a sense of what Moscow and Washington were "really ready for." Also: dozens are feared to have been killed by gunmen in central ...
03.02.2026
A Lovely 3500-Year-Old Drawing of a Sparrow
From the collection of the Met, an Egyptian artist’s sketch of a sparrow circa 1479–1458 BCE. Much of the art that filters down to us from ancient civilizations was used for official purposes (state, religion, commerce); it’s nice to see something simpler like this drawing...
The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle ....
The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle. “Laughter and humor are fundamental to how babies learn about and participate in the world.” *Highly recommend* watching the laughing baby videos to brighten up your day.
Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month ....
Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month. Seven! 98 diesel cars & 29 hybrids were also sold, but the rest were EVs. And this comes after Norway cut EV incentives.
Distributing Go binaries like sqlite-scanner through PyPI using go-to-wheel
I've been exploring Go for building small, fast and self-contained binary applications recently. I'm enjoying how there's generally one obvious way to do things and the resulting code is boring and readable - and something that LLMs are very competent at writing. The one cat...
Roxane Gay : “Humanity is, always, enough. We have...
Roxane Gay: “Humanity is, always, enough. We have a right to protest, legally carry a firearm, drive while Black, walk in a neighborhood at night, play in a park, sleep in a bed or do anything else whether we are wonderful people, and beloved or not.”
Good god, this story: Mother Says Asking 13-Year-Old Son...
Good god, this story: Mother Says Asking 13-Year-Old Son to Swim Four Hours to Save Family ‘One of the Hardest Decisions’. “I knew he was the strongest and he could do it.” Australia: a nation of athletes.