September 19, 2023
I heard crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch
A surfer wanted to catch waves from Hurricane Lee. A shark bit his face. Around noon, he watched a six-foot-long spinner shark leap out of the water 20 feet away and fall back in, barely missing another surfer. Sumersett was terrified but stayed in the water. Several other surfers, including the one nearly bodied by the spinner shark, seemed unbothered.
He kept surfing.
He saw another shark fin in the afternoon.
Kept surfing.
Around dusk, he watched three sharks “come swimming through the waves like dolphins do.”
Kept surfing.
Five minutes later, he saw three different sharks doing the same thing.
Kept surfing.....
From Unwanted To Sniffing For The Future
Out in the hinterlands of Montana, the nonprofit Working Dogs For Conservation takes dogs from several walks of life - rescues, abandoned at shelters, former law enforcement sniffers - and train them to put their snouts to work in supporting a number of conservation efforts.
Death Stranding: Great views, great tunes
Two of the best things about the game Death Stranding are the beautiful terrain and the beautiful music. [more inside]
She likes to have her belly rubbed. Figs are one of her favorite treats.
San Francisco has the world’s oldest aquarium fish. Now we know her age.
Each Palm Cockatoo methodically designs and decorates its musical tools
The Palm Cockatoo is only found at the top of Cape York in Far North Queensland and drums on trees by fashioning its own musical instruments from wood and seed pods in a bid to attract potential mates or mark its territory. A study led by the Australian National University has shown another side to the parrots, finding that each bird methodically designs and decorates its musical tools according to individual taste. "We already knew that they have highly personalised rhythms when they drum, allowing other birds to recognise who is drumming from a long way away," lead author Professor Robert Heinsohn said. [more inside]
Do you like autumn? Do you enjoy the soundscape in Fallout?
Then this atmospheric animated screensaver, featuring falling leaves and oldies in the background might very well be the right mood for you today!
40 Best Stand-Alone TV Episodes (Slate)
Yes, it's another listicle. That said, I like it for several reasons: it does not ignore pre-2000 shows; it indicates where the episodes can be streamed; and it does, for those series with which I'm familiar, make solid (though, as always, debatable) choices. (As a bonus, Andre Braugher appears twice!)
Of the world’s languages, only 8% have ‘th’ sounds.
Although there are only five written vowels, English has 14-21 different vowel sounds, depending on the dialect. This is a much larger vowel inventory than most languages (the smallest is 3). However the consonant inventory for English is a very typical 22, though it does have "th," a relatively uncommon one. From the World Atlas of Language Structures: Consonant inventories of languages range from a low of 6 consonants to a high of 122 consonants. The more typical consonant inventory size is in the low twenties. [more inside]
“There are things that I will never know, and that’s okay.”
Who Walks Always Beside You? 'Twenty-two years ago, a six-year-old girl—my cousin—got lost in the Arkansas Ozarks, prompting what was at the time the largest search and rescue mission in the state’s history.' (Benjamin Hale writing in Harper's Magazine)
TW: the article contains graphic details about the murder of a three year old, and some other upsetting things.
TW: the article contains graphic details about the murder of a three year old, and some other upsetting things.
Leaked documents from the FTC vs. Microsoft case spilled a lot of beans
It's been a terrible morning for Team Xbox, as a major leak related to the FTC investigation of the Activision Blizzard deal has revealed all kinds of information that Microsoft surely never intended anyone to see. And seriously, this is huge! We now know that Microsoft has been planning an Xbox Series X refresh (potentially arriving in late 2024), and an entire release schedule from Bethesda dated July 2020 (new Bethesda games including DOOM, Dishonored, Fallout & Oblivion) has also been doing the rounds. There's more coming out of this as well, such as a new Xbox controller that appears to be launching alongside the new Xbox Series X revision, and even the revelation that Phil Spencer was interested in acquiring Nintendo back in 2020! The leak also revealed Microsoft's plans to release a new next-generation console in 2028. Via:[Pure Xbox][Polygon][Eurogamer][The Verge]
The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a term for it
Honestly, I was not expecting this
So, it's possible that one of my favorite albums of this year is by... Dr. Noah Drake? All I can do is ask that you check out the newest album from 74-year-old Rick Springfield, Automatic [YT Playlist ~1h total]. He talked to American Songwriter about this album, which blends dance hooks with punk rock. Here's the first single, title track Automatic. But please check out the full album. [more inside]
To resort to such a crude tool shows how afraid and threatened they are
We Analyzed 1,626 Banned Books...Here's What We Found ... [data] ... Eight Authors on How It Feels to Have Their Books Banned [includes fashion notes] [more inside]
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