Larry David does an absolutely wonderful job of skewering Bill Maher in this opinion piece in the NYT: My Dinner With Adolf.

But it wasn’t just a one-way street, with the Führer dominating the conversation. He was quite inquisitive and asked me a lot of questions about myself. I told him I had just gone through a brutal breakup with my girlfriend because every time I went someplace without her, she was always insistent that I tell her everything I talked about. I can’t stand having to remember every detail of every conversation. Hitler said he could relate — he hated that, too. “What am I, a secretary?” 

If you're confused as to the context, this is from last week:

I've hated Maher for decades. This feckless horseshit is an excellent example of his dangerous stupidity.

The excellent notes app Voicenotes (iOS, Android, Web) has launched a new feature called Pages which allows users to publish audio notes to a web page where they'll appear in reverse chronological order for anyone with the page address to listen to them. Visitors can also subscribe to a Page and be notified when new content is added. Listeners do not need to have the Voicenotes app.

This is a wonderful service for poets, diarists, or anyone else keen on sharing their thoughts with friends, family, lovers, or other subscribers.

Pages is just an added-on aspect — it's not the app's main purpose, just a very lovely frill. Voicenotes is an comprehensive note-taking app that I use multiple times a day. It's the easiest way I've found to record thoughts and ideas before they're gone.

For now, the app does have a free tier, though I suspect they'll be getting rid of it soon. You can sign up for a monthly or annual subscription and if you sign up with this link, I'll get a small kickback should you decide to become a subscriber. Play with it for 15 minutes and I'll be you'll be hooked.

I always find the videos by Bill Hammack (a/k/a EngineerGuy) explaining everyday items to be fascinating. He consistently manages to explain the complex ideas behind simple items in an understandable way.

Here's one on the common soda can, which he calls ingenious:

And one on the soda bottle ("Masterful"):

Carole Cadwalladr’s recent Ted Talk, “This is a Digital Coup” is worth a listen. If you’re unfamiliar with Cadwalladr’s work, she’s one of the main reporters who broke the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook story (and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer for it) almost a decade ago. She was sued for her last Ted Talk, and is visibly nervous during this one, though the courts vindicated her.

I don't know what YouTube user Hoog has to do with the AnyDesk software, but this video was extremely well done: How To Disable a Robot Dog:

Nardwuar does bizarre and entertaining interview with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. I'm all for it.

Below is a video compilation of some of Pau Buscató's street photography. Buscató is based in Spain and is known for his impeccable timing. Absolutely tremendous stuff that will have have you smiling and gasping.

Don't feel like watching a video? Here are a few of my favorites:

More on Buscató's website.

Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three separate births last fall and this winter—effectively for the first time de-extincting a line of beasts whose live gene pool long ago vanished.

From this interesting cover story in Time about how Colossal has de-extincted The Dire Wolf.

The NYtimes also did a piece.

(Of course, they haven't really recreated the Dire Wolf. Sill interesting.)

In somewhat unrelated news, I've been reading Magic Pill, a book about Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs. There's a little bit of trivia that I found fascinating. When the scientists were stumped because they couldn't get the GLP-1 in the drug to last more than a few hours after injection, they discovered that the Monitor Lizard's GLP-1 could sustain... but they couldn't get their hands on a Monitor Lizard as there's no legal market for them. One of the scientists managed to convince a rogue zookeeper to sell him one for $250. ("You understand I'm going to euthanize this animal, right?" "Do you have the $250 or not?") Without that illegal transaction, there might not have been any Ozempic.

People who lack the empathy to care about animals at all — I encountered many when I was a vegetarian — I've often been surprised that their selfishness does not translate to "maybe we shouldn't let them go extinct because we can use them!"

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