Was just talking to @bradbarrish about the recent Unread update. I mentioned I switched to Lire because of Miniflux support, but I was eager to try out the new Unread, since they added that with the update. Just saw that Lire has an update now, too. I love that RSS is still thriving even in 2026.

It’s Never Too Late to Learn

I was never a particularly academic kid - in fact, I was mostly disengaged in school and really didn’t try. I was clever, but I never applied myself. I was too busy being a stupid teenager. As a result, my written English was awful (it’s still not great now, but it’s better).

Dude. I relate to this so much! I was a little shithead until I got pretty far into my 20s. I failed English class every year of high school and barely graduated. And now in my 30s I write for fun.

Villagers in India tie technician to cell tower over poor 5G

Allegedly, the villagers tied the worker up as a last resort after having to deal with unstable 4G in their area despite paying for 5G for over two years and making frequent complaints about the matter.

Thought about doing that to the Spectrum guy one time…

Miami U. researcher says armadillos have likely arrived in Ohio

“A lady found him in the morning in her driveway, and she posted that on Facebook, saying, ‘Hey, I have a dead armadillo. Do you think that’s interesting?’ And I emailed her and said, ‘Yes, that’s very interesting. I’m going to be there in five minutes. I’m going to come pick it up,” Tereza Jezkova, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, tells WVXU.

This is the most exciting thing to happen in Ohio all year — and it holds a lot more weight than the dead “mountain lion” spotted a couple months back.

‘I Felt Super Violated’: Men Wearing Meta Glasses on Dates Is an Instant Red Flag

The next day, checking her Instagram, McAnuff noticed she’d been tagged in one of his story posts. To her surprise, it was footage of them at the bar and on the subway together, en route to a basketball game uptown.

Imagine if someone followed you around with their phone out, recording the entire date. You would immediately tell them to fuck off. The sole purpose of pervert glasses is to be a creep and do shit like this without raising any suspicion. I don’t care about the light; they’re gross by design.

It Turns Out Chihuahuas Are Actually Part Coyote

Unlike some other lap dogs, Chihuahuas are known for their independent, proud, and self-assured natures, despite their size. We’d like to think it could be the wild coyote within, though it is difficult to say for sure.

Honestly I think coyotes are more chill than these little monsters.

New Sonic cartoon and Crazy Taxi movie in the works for Netflix

Crazy Taxi will see a feature film written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who penned the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun. It will be produced by Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher and Sega’s Toru Nakahara, the producers of the Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie franchise.

Idk, man. Sonic, I get. There’s only so much you can do with giving people taxi rides though. But then again, regular Taxi was a great show and it wasn’t even crazy.

Why is Cheddar Cheese Orange?

Because cheesemakers add orange coloring during the cheesemaking process. It’s the result of hundreds of years of tradition, dating back to the time when cheddar cheese in England was made with milk from cows whose beta-carotene-rich diet produced an orange tint in the milk. Today, orange cheddar cheese is colored with annatto, the fruit of the achiote tree, while white cheddar is made without any added color.

I saw someone post a link to something like this the other day (maybe on Bluesky?) and I keep thinking about it lol never knew it was just added coloring.

Honestly, the fact that Apple is two years behind on releasing its AI, and that it isn’t as cutting-edge as other models is the right way to do it imo. As someone who isn’t a hardcore AI power user, this is enough for me. I don’t think they ever set out to be a ChatGPT killer.

Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats

OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors who read a massive stream of real users’ ChatGPT prompts, with the prompts sometimes including sensitive personal information, 404 Media has learned.

I can’t say I’m surprised but this is pretty fucking creepy nonetheless. Imagine how many people at Meta probably have access to pervert glasses feeds too. None of this shit is private.

Speaking of taking spiders outside, I went out to my car to grab something last night and noticed a jumping spider crawling on my arm. I frantically (thought I) shook it off, then went back inside. 15 minutes later he comes rappelling down from my hair and onto the floor. I took him back outside.

NASA-backed scientists turn plastic waste into edible cookies

Scientists have engineered yeast to turn PET plastic and agricultural waste into ingredients for protein-rich, 3D-printed cookies called µBites. Developed partly for NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge, the system can produce proteins, fats, vitamins, and even vanilla flavoring from waste materials.

My first instinct was to make a joke about eating more microplastics, but it reminds me of those NileRed YouTube videos where he turns random stuff into food.

Grammy Winners Turnstile Earn Spot as Five Guys Featured Artist

Five Guys, the burger restaurant, selected the 2026 Grammy-winning Baltimore hardcore group as its featured artist on September 4th.

Well they’ve finally arrived. For real though, Turnstile has been blowing up over the last few years. They’ve come a long way since that show they played at the ice skating rink in my home town circa 2013.

A message from Drew Curtis via Fark:

Every year I make a point to visit the 9/11/2001 thread. It’s interesting what stands out 25 years later.

Grindr Says Claims of Outage at GOP Convention Are “False"

As several LGBTQ+ writers have observed, insinuating that the Republican Party is run by or composed of a cabal of secret gay fascists is a homophobic joke that blames gay people for some of the worst societal ills in the modern United States.

Caelan Conrad posted a really good video on this a while back.

A Man Listed What He Would Actually Buy If He Won the Lottery

He says he would go to the dentist for a routine cleaning, asking himself, “What’s wrong with your teeth? Nothing. Clean them.” He described a planned doctor’s visit, saying he would get blood work done just to see ‘what’s going on in there,’ even though nothing was currently wrong.

‘Merica: where routine healthcare is a fantasy you can fulfill only after winning the lottery.

From FARK:

On this day in history, in 2008, the Large Hadron Collider was powered up, instantly ripping a hole in the space-time continuum and forcing us all into the Stupidest Possible Universe

Liquid Glass GNOME Shell extension uses real refraction shaders

Apple’s Liquid Glass is more than just a blur: it’s a dynamic, translucent interface material that bends light, reflects surroundings and lets interface elements adapt to content and motion through fluid, physics-inspired animations. This extension replicates the aesthetic and its underlying physics…

Linux has always been excellent at replicating the design language of other operating systems 👌

edit: a vibe-coded extension that only works with Ubuntu™

POSSE (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) is a cool idea that works for a lot of indie bloggers… just not me. Occasional cross-posting, sure. But not all the time. A lot of people are so comfortable in their skin that they can be the same person no matter where t...

Why you shouldn’t put a house spider outside

According to Study Finds, most indoor spiders — the common house spider among them — evolved for life indoors: stable temperatures, low airflow, and a steady trickle of small insects. Release one outdoors, and it’s likely to die.

Wolf spiders can get right the fuck back outside, but I do tend to leave the frail little guys alone. My favorites are always the pretty yellow orb weavers who hang out right outside the door and keep the bigger bugs away though, like this one.

I’m holding out for the iPhone that lets you unlock the screen with a digital Casio watch

Using Leaflet for my weeknotes. Made a test post because I thought today was Friday for some reason, but it’s only Thursday. If that’s the dumbest thing that happens today, I can manage. Anyway, I like it so far. You can subscribe via email or ATProto at notes.txtbased.media

From waxy.org:

Morry Kolman made a GTA V mod that adds 235 Flock cameras around Los Santos, earn cash by destroying them

This is ridiculous lol

A shocking 92 percent of US adults are not going to the doctor because it’s too expensive

Those aged 18 to 28 are the most likely to delay or avoid care because of cost (94.2 percent), followed by those aged 29 to 44.

I mean, yeah. Health insurance where I work would cost almost as much as my rent every month and there’s a huge deductible. I can’t even imagine the luxury of actually going to the doctor for something 🤷

The iPhone Duo looks cool and all, but with any folding phone, I could never justify paying so much for something with a crease in the middle of the screen. I can’t even ignore a little speck of dust under a screen protector 😵‍💫

US police fear Meta smart glasses could be used to secretly record them

I feel like this is just a covert viral marketing campaign by Meta to try and make pervert glasses seem punk lmao

John Gruber on the iPhone Air:

The iPhone Air is the nicest phone Apple has ever made, and probably the nicest device Apple has ever made, period. It’s just so goddamn nice.

I’ve had mine for almost exactly a year now, and I agree. It’s the nicest goddamn phone I’ve ever owned, and I still feel that way every day that I wake up and commence the doomscrolling. And yes; I bought the dumb Apple-branded battery pack and I love it, even though it turns the thinnest iPhone ever into the thickest iPhone ever.

Cities Are Slowing Down Speeding Drivers With More Green Lights—and It’s Working

It’s called “rest in red,” and in cities where the approach has been pioneered, it’s both promoting better flow and moderating driver speeds, resulting in fewer accidents.

I could get behind this. The light to turn onto my street stays green long enough to let EXACTLY three cars through, if the first in line punches the gas the second it turns green. I’m definitely speeding if it looks like I can make it. Otherwise I’m sitting there for five minutes waiting to turn left, whether there’s traffic or not.

Scientists Say LLMs Appear to Be Acting as a Cognitive Virus Among Humans

AI’s wide proliferation shares some striking similarities with the ways viruses spread, as an international team of researchers argue in a new paper that has yet to be peer reviewed. They set out to lay out a new theoretical framework about how we’re increasingly becoming hooked on tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, and how it’s changing our collective ways of understanding the world around us.

Thought this was interesting. You either love it or hate it; either way it’s spreading like a virus.

Parents are taking their children to see R-rated horror film Buddy thinking it’s a kids movie

Somewhere inside that success, theater workers and moviegoers started reporting kids as young as eight in the audience for a giant orange mascot’s murder spree. According to TheMirror, some parents blamed the cinema once they realized what they had walked into.

I remember watching Jack Frost when I was about that age. I’m still a little creeped out by snowmen.