Posts tagged “philosophy”

• FDA has given two biotechnology companies approval for clinical trials that will transplant organs from genetically modified pigs into patients with kidney failure.
• That “fresh” apple you just grabbed at the grocery store was probably picked a thousand miles away and over a year ago. The latest episode of Radiolab, Forever Fresh, was full of surprising facts about the food industry. (Spoiler: It’s all about plastics.)
• Here are two fascinating links on the importance and function of sleep: Our Sleep, Brain Aging, and Waste Clearance and Scientists Uncover How the Brain Washes Itself During Sleep – both via Jodi Ettenberg
• I’m considering adding my bluesky feed to a (new) sidebar on this site using Robert Devore’s WordPress Plugin.
• How do MAGA voters feel after the first two weeks of idiotic executive orders, flagrant disregard for the Constitution, economic upheaval, and diplomatic absurdities? They’re mostly fine with it, which is as horrible and disturbing as it is unsurprising. It was never about eggs.
• Five VSCode Extensions to Supercharge Your Markdown Writing has me interested in looking into VSCode again. (I’ve been using Nova (née Coda) from Panic forever, but really hate the way it handles remote servers and connections.)
• Rather than understand – or even acknowledge – the paradox of intolerance, the increasingly-popular newsletter / publishing platform Substack has decided to double-down on it.
• “Dr. Potter will not be silenced by UnitedHealthcare‘s attempts to threaten and harass her.” Pop Quiz: Without knowing any of the details about this legal issue, would you root for the health insurance company or the doctor?
• A second grade teacher in Philadelphia is using football to help her students score big in math. Her students take inspiration from their hometown football team — the Eagles — practicing their math skills by counting rushing statistics held by Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. – via George Conway

• On Bill Watterson’s Refusal To License Calvin and Hobbes is a great read. Let’s call this reverse enshittification. – via Links You’ll Love
• “If a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.”
• Do your shoelaces sit crooked? Do you retie your shoes several times a day? These are both signs of a Granny Knot. Learn the trick for keeping your shoes neatly and securely tied. – via Jodi Ettenberg
• Handy tool if you ever deal with email configurations: Quickly view your DomainKeys, DKIM, and SPF validity, and SpamAssassin score with DKIMValidator. – via @ofaolain.com
• Even the best parents of the best kids have had this thought: “Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others.” – Jean de La Bruyère, via Daily Dad
• The International Energy Agency has said the electricity usage of data centers worldwide might double in just four years. US electricity demand alone could jump 20 percent by 2030, driven mostly by AI. – via @longreads.com
• No. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande.

• If you have any Apple devices – a MacBook, an iPhone, etc. – I strongly urge you to subscribe to the Simple Apple Tutorials newsletter published by Gannon Nordberg. Every two weeks, you’ll get one actionable lesson on how to use your Apple tech to be more organized, productive, and stress-free from a former Apple Certified Consultant and Mac Technician of seven years. His latest one, explaining the fastest way to protect all your Mac’s photos and documents, is superb and nearly identical to what I have been telling friends and family forever.
• Short-sightedness is on the rise – including among kids. Here’s what can be done. – via Links You‘ll Love
• Proboscis was one of my mom’s favorite words. Funny the little details you remember sometimes. Mostly because of her, a profound childhood infatuation with Mr. Snuffleupagus, and my maternal grandparents’ shared love of small carved figurines of them, I have always been interested in elephants. If you are also fascinated by regal creatures with prehensile noses, you might enjoy this incredible Royal Society Open Science deep dive into how elephants develop trunk wrinkles through both form and function. – via Curious About Everything
• If You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow: “Renowned for their intelligence, crows can mimic human speech, use tools, and gather for what seem to be funeral rites when [one of them] dies or is killed. They also tenaciously hold grudges. When a murder of crows singles out a person as dangerous, its wrath can be alarming, and can be passed along beyond an individual crow’s life span of up to a dozen or so years, creating multigenerational grudges.” – via kottke
• Stop killing yourself over that project for five minutes and read the divine discontent, an essay by Celine Nguyen on the pursuit of unhappiness: “The most fulfilled people I know tend to have two traits. They’re insatiably curious—about new ideas, experiences, information and people. And they seem to exist in a state of perpetual, self-inflicted unhappiness.” – via personal canon
• A recent study suggests mindfulness isn’t just for mental health. It can support healthier body composition, less body fat, and better weight management. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• Since the start of 2022, in the regular season Penn State is 0-5 versus Michigan and Ohio State, 27-0 versus all other schools. – via TMQ

How can it already be November? It is incredibly unfair how the last three months of each year are only two weeks long. Big election in just a few days. Please vote.

• “In the end, it’s the hard things we love to remember.” – via @heybaskle
• “It seems so obvious that it actually feels insulting to point it out. But it’s not obvious.” As an early GenXer, this essay was quite the gut punch. I urge you to read it. – via Austin Kleon
• The story of Ghost is awe-inspiring and has me reminiscing about the early days of blogging. – via @simondowens
• Beginning in mid-December, the Whitney Museum of American Art will be free for everyone 25 and under.
• Before her death in April of this year, Christine Farrell somehow managed to track down every single DC comic book, tens of thousands of them, going back to 1935. About 500 of the rarest ones were just auctioned. – via @NPR