Gee, maybe integrating their other services into one platform wasn’t the best idea…
Losing Facebook is bad, but losing WhatsApp is worse – The Verge
What happens when you lose the encrypted messaging app everyone uses?
Links
Heh. “Why Does Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano Look Like a School Science Project?”
Heh. “Why Does Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano Look Like a School Science Project?” And why the type of lava and type of eruption make it (comparatively) safe for people to see it up close.
Across many experiments, participants tried to fix problems by adding stuff
Interesting: “Across many experiments, participants tried to fix problems by adding stuff” even when removing something was a simpler solution.
When asked to fix something, we don’t even think of removing parts
And now I’m reminded of an essay I saw years ago about how people are more likely to ask for a preference to change application behavior than just ask it to change.
school, parenting, covid-adjacent, violence reference
I’m not big on zombies, but I really like Mira Grant’s (Seanan Maguire’s) Newsflesh series. That said, there’s one story I don’t ever want to read again. The one set in a post-Rising elementary school, showing all the anti-zombie precautions the school takes…and then how they all fail horribly in an extended metaphor for school mass shootings.
This picture of individual barriers around each student’s desk…
Laminated hands and car desks: How schools are welcoming kids back
Interesting article on going beyond nature conservation and actively helping species adapt
Interesting article on going beyond nature conservation and actively helping species adapt to introduced predators, changing climate, diseases, etc.
I’d read about the chestnut tree projects a couple of years ago, but the others are new to me.
How Far Should Humans Go to Help Species Adapt?
An Australian project to help threatened marsupials avoid predatory cats is one of a host of ‘assisted evolution’ efforts.
Re-linking to this blog post from a couple of years back for, oh, no specific reason…
Re-linking to this blog post from a couple of years back for, oh, no specific reason…
Free Software and Failed Ideals
Once upon a time, the idea that “only the code mattered” was sold as a way to be inclusive. No one would be shut out if their code was good. But building software is more than code. It’s design. Planning. Discussion. It’s figuring out use cases, misuse cases, and failure modes. It’s interacting with people.
Hmm, it’s one of the posts I’ve already imported to my gemlog too…
Wow. Flying a drone over an erupting volcano.
New blog post, More Clocks than Time
New blog post, More Clocks than Time, inspired by having to change so many of them last night for the switch to DST.
Cross-posted to both web and gemini.
K2R: More Clocks than Time
Gemlog: More Clocks than Time
Walking around the house last night, setting all the clocks to Daylight Saving Time before bed, I found myself thinking: Why do we have so many clocks, anyway?
Four years later, we are all BBC Dad
Four years later, we are all BBC Dad via @verge
There is apparently a version of the Iditarod that people *run on foot* !?!?!?
There is apparently a version of the Iditarod that people *run on foot* !?!?!?
The part where the author’s running partner can’t sleep and is having hallucinations while running is just kind of….what are you DOING?
Ten Days, 350 Miles, and Countless Moose Encounters: What It’s Like Running the Iditarod
How Early Megacities Emerged From the Jungles of Cambodia
Surfing with goats.
It all started when longtime Pismo Beach surfer Dana McGregor would leave his pet goat, Goatee, at home when he would go surfing and she would cry all the time he was gone, much to the annoyance of his neighbors. So, he took her to the beach with him and taught her to surf and quickly became a tourist favorite.
LA Times Photos: Surfing with goats at the San Clemente Pier
A cool high-res photo of the “happy face” crater on Mars
covid vaccine, snowstorm
Oregon healthcare workers stuck on the road in a snowstorm with vaccine doses they knew wouldn’t make it back to the clinic before expiring ended up walking up and down the road knocking on car doors offering the shots to other people stuck in traffic with them.
Linux has been ported to run on Apple’s M1 Macs
Figured it was only a matter of time.
covid testing, variants
Cool: Even without specifically testing for the new covid-variant discovered in the UK, it’s possible to estimate an upper bound for its prevalence using standard tests.
Most covid tests look for several segments of the virus’ genome. Some of them look for one of the segments that’s changed in that variant. They’ll still match on the other segments, but not that one.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/30/22206522/coronavirus-test-variant-contagious-uk-gene
The Plague Year
Link: The Plague Year
You Can Learn a Lot About Human Nature From Takeout Orders
You Can Learn a Lot About Human Nature From Takeout Orders https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/opinion/covid-restaurant-business.html
Food, fire, Christmas
Atlas Obscura profiles an old Christmas party game where you douse raisins or nuts in brandy, light it on fire, and see how many you can eat before you get burned.
Covid vaccine (+)
The Pfizer vaccine is being distributed in vials that each contain 5 doses’ worth. Or rather, at *least* 5 doses, to account for spills. Official guidance is now to go ahead and use the 6th (or even 7th!) dose in a vial if there’s enough left.
I’m reminded of the feeling when I got a 25th or 26th photo on a roll of film.