I grew up in a Jewish household. Both my parents were Jewish. Both of their parents were Jewish. And on and on as far back as you can go. How do I know that? According to 23andme, my DNA is 99.7% Eastern European Jew. I’d really love to know more about that .3%!
Depending on your news sources, you may not be fully aware of the industrial level of death and destruction Israel has wrought on Gaza. Here is a summary of the horrifying statistics, courtesy of The Guardian.
Some people see the situation in Gaza as a religious war. Some see it as a territorial dispute. Others see it as Israel’s right to defend itself. But it’s really much simpler than that.
I’ve hesitated to write about this tragedy, because I know this article is going to offend some people. But I’ve decided that staying silent about injustice makes me part of the problem.
Like an old infomercial claim (“It slices! It dices!"), this article’s title sounds too good to be true, but it is true – in one article, I’m going to explain how the web works and you will walk away a better informed human being. All you have to do is give me a few minutes of your time.
Great conversations flow effortlessly and collaboratively. I enjoyed this short piece about applying the rules of improv comedy to improve your conversations.
I really enjoyed seeing Colin Hay perform live in London last Friday night. You’d have to be a certain age to remember Men At Work but whether you know his music or not, he’s a captivating performer - a guitar virtuoso, his voice sounds great, and he’s just an incredibly funny and self-deprecating story teller.
Imagine growing up in an English-only household, in a rural village in Japan, fully immersed, for your entire life, in two very different cultures.
Growing up surrounded by poverty and gang violence, this inspiring and mesmerizing short film tells the story of a young man who found his path to happiness on a surfboard.
What would an alien civilization think of us if the only record of our existence was Google Reviews?
Check out this visual explainer about sound. It’s a beautiful example of how interactive media can make otherwise complex scientific concepts accessible and comprehensible to everyone.
Check out this fascinating thread on Mastadon, which is the distributed messaging app many people have migrated to since Twitter started imploding.
Another case where AI does things we can’t explain: apparently male and female retinas are different enough that a computer can guess your gender just by looking at your eyes.
After 20 years in the Marine Corps, including tours of duty in Afghanistan, Mac returned home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a deep seated hatred toward all Muslims. That’s all he knew, all he’d ever been taught.
I recently heard something amazing: July is the worst month in which to undergo a medical procedure because the risk of a mistake is higher in July than in any other month of the year. But why?
Congratulations, NASA has selected you to visit the planet Zog but before you go, you’d better learn something about their currency. Today’s puzzle is courtesy of The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge.
The best video I saw this week was this incredible fingerstyle guitar rendition of Chicago’s classic hit from 1970 “25 or 6 to 4”.
This is the best thing I watched this week. It looks like a film about technology, but it’s actually a story about people, our egos and frailty, and how we collectively navigate this brave new world.
This short video is not something you watch as much as something you experience. It’s a journey into a world none of us wants to visit, but one that’s become part of our collective reality.
The best thing I read this week was this gripping and beautifully written story about a building engineer who, in 2013, fell five stories from a church attic, shattered half the bones in his body, and somehow managed to survive.
One of the most compelling reads of my week was this odd tale from the New York Times about a compulsion unlike any you’ve heard of before.
I like puzzles that are easy to state and don’t require a lengthy explanation. Today’s puzzle falls into that category.
The answer to each clue is the name of a well known person, where the last name of each answer gives the first name of the next answer (give or take a slight variation). The resulting sequence of answers forms a circular chain, where the bottom of the list connects to the first entry in the same fashion.
In what should surprise no one, human gender identity is more complex and nuanced than the conceptual frameworks on which most of us were raised. Expressing a preferred pronoun helps, but there’s a problem with that approach.
From longreads.com, I found this beautifully written short story, by William Torrey, about a man self-medicating his way through the pandemic, while attempting to keep his increasingly dysfunctional life intact.
Beginning around 2040, the US will experience a sudden jump in the crime rate, especially so in the red states.
By one second. On December 31, 2016, at 11:59:59pm UTC, one second was added to Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), which is the basis for the worldwide system of timekeeping.
I’ve been following this YouTube channel for a few years and it never ceases to amaze me.
I missed my Mom today. I think it’s the first time I’ve genuinely missed her since she died six months ago. That probably sounds harsh. Let me explain…
You and two of your friends (not facebook friends, real world friends, remember those?) are playing a game. The other players in the game are known to be perfectly logical people.
