We could use more of this in 2020…
This site purportedly uses AI to measure the visual aesthetics of your website. I tried it with the one you’re now reading and was told what I knew all along: I’m visually average.
Check out this excellent New York Times profile of Erno Rubik, the man who invented one of the world’s most challenging and beloved puzzles.
Today Bill Gates published this moving tribute to his father. Anyone whose father was their role model can relate to these words.
Check out this amazing interactive visualization of what our planet looked like throughout 750 million years of history.
Global pandemic, authoritarian regimes, wildfires, climate apocalypse - 2020 has been an epically bad year. But according to historians, it’s not the worst year ever.
What proportion of current book sales, would you guess, is represented by ebooks?
Since the onset of the pandemic, not only is my short term sense of time distorted (e.g. I’ve sort of lost hold of the boundary between weekdays and weekends), but I’ve also noticed my sense of long term timing is obscured.
Mark Zuckerberg is now arguably the most powerful person on earth. I don’t remember voting for him. Do you?
Can we talk about the fact that the vast majority of people convicted of domestic and sexual violence are men (96% and 99% respectively, according to a recent study).
Have you heard of unpaired words? They’re words that seem like they should have a partner but don’t. For example…
From the New York Times, a beautifully photographed and moving portrait of one family’s struggle with Covid-19.
Nigel Richards just won the French National Scrabble championship without speaking a word of French.
It’s amazing how much you can learn about real aircraft by studying paper airplanes. John Collins is an accomplished aviator, at least on paper (pun intended). He’s also a great teacher. Watch him break down the art and science of paper airplanes.
This is from a small (50 subjects) but seemingly rigorous study on the mitigating effect of high doses of Vitamin D on Covid-19.
Looking to spruce up your document, slideshow, newsletter, or website? Check out the Noun Project, featuring over two million icons crowdsourced by designers from all over the world. It’s one of those amazing resources that reminds us the internet is not all bad.
A Google Summer intern, Vibert Thio, created this marvelously soothing interactive experience.
Are you using two-factor authentication (2FA) on your most important accounts? You should be, because a simple username/password combination (regardless of how well chosen the password) is simply not strong enough to protect your assets nowadays.
Check out this nice summary of common ways we go wrong interpreting data, including one of my favorites, Simpson’s Paradox.
Here’s another video from the Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series. I particularly love the second song in this set, Everything I Wanted, featuring beautiful harmonies with Billie Eilish and her brother and collaborator, Finneas.
Check out this amazing performance by a French dance troupe, recorded in Berlin in 2016. The piece is entitled Celui Qui Tombe (“The One Who Falls”) and the entire performance takes place on a tilting and rotating stage.
Please take two minutes out of your day to watch Trevor Noah break down why it’s perfectly fine for some people to openly wield assault rifles, while others are shot seven times in the back, based on the speculation that they might be attempting to access a weapon.
This story from the Washington Post is true but almost too weird to believe.
I often speak with students about careers in math and computing and the most common question I hear is “what should I study?". My answer often surprises them.
Have you heard of Zipf’s Law? It’s a surprisingly simple and accurate equation governing the frequency of word use in written prose. It’s been verified across numerous languages, which suggests that it captures something intrinsic and universal about human language.
Check out this list of fascinating questions, along with some pointers to partial answers, from @patrickc. Warning: this is catnip for curious minds.
I’m gonna make Sundays music day. Today’s post features an American electronic pop duo from Durham, North Carolina called Sylvan Esso.
Buster Keaton was one of the biggest stars in the early days of Hollywood. His fame was eclipsed by Charlie Chaplin, his comic rival of the silent film era. But his knack for physical comedy and performing his own (often dangerous) stunts was unparalleled in cinema history.
Check out this amazing optical illusion. Believe it or not, these circles are NOT changing shape.
Check out this amazing short video (in full screen) to experience what it’s like driving through the middle of a wildfire in California.
