Tag: Misc (Page 2 of 11)

Remember the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can? Leonardo DiCaprio starred as Frank W. Abagnale Jr., a man who fooled people into thinking he was an airline pilot, among other things, to live a jet-setting, check-forging, stewardess-banging life.

The movie was wonderful, as I recall. It had just the right breezy tone to fit the times it was set in and dispensed with looking too deeply into the truth of Abagnale’s story in favor of a couple hours of enjoyable entertainment.

Turns out Abagnale’s story was, most likely, not true at all. And people were blowing it apart back in the late 1970s.

This revelation, the subject of a new book, demonstrates both how the world has both changed dramatically and stayed the same in the past 40 years. The reporters who dug into Abagnale’s past in the ‘70s couldn’t get in front of his story because they worked for small, local papers. Well before the Internet, their investigations could not find traction nationally.

And yet, as we see every single day, even with the Internet, it is getting harder and harder to pin down what the truth of any story is.

A prime example of that is what has been occurring in the halls of Congress the past few months, as Republicans continue to reframe the events of January 6 to deny and bury the truth of that day.

Repeat a story often enough, into the official record of the US Congress no less, and you can rewrite history before its first draft is even dry.

The Greatest Hoax on Earth

This was a delightful read. Since it happened in 1977, seems legit. If you could even try to pull it off today – and seems like there’s too much technology to make it possible – I don’t think anyone would believe you.

Also, 17 beers a day does not seem ideal.

The bizarre tale of the world’s last lost tourist, who thought Maine was San Francisco

I’ve spent a lot of time messing with this little tool, which shows you how any shape you draw would float if it were an iceberg.

Iceberger

Go head, fuck around with it for a bit. It’s fun to discover shapes that flip over to find their most buoyant position.

Normally when I see videos like the one I share below, I’ll watch a few minutes and then move on to something else. But I was absolutely mesmerized by this video of a boat traveling the waterways that connect Rotterdam to Amsterdam and watched the whole thing. Multiple times.

I have a medical procedure coming up that I’ve already attempted once and was unable to complete because of a bit of an anxiety attack (more on that in a couple weeks). I will soon be attempting it again with the help (hopefully) of some Xanax. I might ask if I can also watch this on a loop until the procedure is complete. It puts me in a very chill place.

For example, how about all the different kinds of bridges? Something about them makes me happy, especially when they just open up as the boat approaches. It feels more like a model train setup, or a video game, than a time lapse of something real. The first time the boat has to sit and wait for a bridge to open comes as a shock or seems like a glitch in the system. And I love it when the big cargo barges go zooming by them.

Via Kottke

This is just incredible. Not just the story, but also how it was reported. This is A+++ journalism of a style that, sadly, just doesn’t exist anymore.

I have no memory of this, but apparently this story was a bit of a sensation in the 1990s, one of the first viral events on the Internet. It must not have trickled down to those of us who relied on AOL to be our gateway to the World Wide Web back then.

Here we are, another calendar year about to end.

2018 was a wacky, wild year for us.

There were a ton of kid sports: volleyball, basketball, kickball, cross country, soccer, cheer.

There was our first family trip beyond the US borders for spring break in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

There was our first family visit to the ER, when C had a mystery issue in June that, thankfully, has never recurred.

S and I took a trip to New York City, a first for both of us.

Lots of books and music and sports on the TV in between.

We’re going to close the year by taking in our first Pacers game as a family later this afternoon.

Oh, and we bought a new house, moved, and sold two other homes.

Obviously the house thing is the biggest, most impactful event of the year. As I’ve written about often, it’s a big deal to change 15 years of habits. And despite being settled in comfortably it will probably be another six months – at least – before everything locks in mentally.

This was a year of transition for our family, and not just because of the move. It was the last calendar year our girls will all be in the same school, and the final we won’t have at least one daughter in high school or beyond for a long time. It was the last calendar year we had a daughter who was under 10 years old.

Put all that together and while 2018 was rather stressful at times, it was a jumping off point for a lot of (hopefully) great things to come in the years ahead.

As always, I must acknowledge that as I, and my family and friends, get older, it’s a bigger deal that we’re all around and healthy on January 1. Even for those of you I don’t get to see, or “talk” to, that much any more, I’m thankful you’re all still here with me. I hope each of you has a fabulous 2019, that our paths cross at some point, and a year from now we can all celebrate surviving another year.

I love stuff like this: deep explanations into everyday things that are amazingly complex.

We all know that it’s a logistical miracle how fast products can get shipped from one side of the globe to the other. Or even, say, some warehouse in Utah to your front door.

This video breaks down how the major shipping companies in the US manage getting products from point A to B so quickly. So simple yet equally complex.

This is has nothing to do with the Olympics but is a must-watch. It is equally amazing and creepy. The best parts are about halfway through this piece, when you see the ice surface flexing and then cracking after Marten Ajne skates across it.

I can’t ice skate, so I’ve never been tempting to go out on our lake when it freezes over in the winter. And even if I could, I would always be nervous about how thick the ice is, especially since our lake gets very deep very quickly. No way in hell I’d ever try something like this. But it is fascinating to watch and listen to.

Here is one of the greatest things I saw over the holidays.

“Euverus” used the game Cities: Skylines to test how traffic would flow at a 4-way intersection using 30 different road configurations. I love the examples with no controls, especially the little software glitches that allow vehicles to pass through each other. And some of the higher-end examples are just mesmerizing to watch.

I believe we can label this as Good, Clean Fun.

Via Kottke