The Internet Archive has a blog post reacting to last week’s Anthropic case and its potential effect on libraries:
This decision reinforces the idea that copying for non-commercial, transformative purposes—like making a book searchable, training an AI, or preserving web pages—can be lawful under fair use. That legal protection is essential to modern librarianship.
…our inexperience as young film makers really shows in the film. Many of us were straight out of art school with little experience in animation. But…I keep meeting young people who are very fond of The Black Cauldron.
Here’s a story from the dark ages of video releases. I really wanted to watch it, but the VHS version wasn’t released here until years later. Someone from Europe sent me a copy in exchange for another video release from the US. I brought the tape to a local company to convert from PAL to NTSC. 🤯
Speaking of Texas state parks, over the weekend I dug into confusion about the number of parks. There are two new parks in development, but not yet open:
Going to update my list later, bumping the count from 88 to 90.
Mineral Wells State Park. The hike down to the lake and back was a little steeper and more rocky than we were expecting. Great morning but too hot.
It was only then I could viscerally remember what faith had felt like—this bright feeling in the nerves, a sense of being porous and airy. Reality was clear.
— Catherine Lacey, The Möbius Book (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 17, 2025)
Notes:
Talking head says “apocalyptic beliefs based on biblical prophecy should have no bearing on Middle East policy” and, well, sure, okay, but everyone has an apocalyptic belief nowadays. This is the problem with the supposed “view from nowhere”: it can’t see the nose in front of its face.
Below, a quick roundup of a few of the things I learned over the past few months.
There could be billions more people living on Earth than currently thought, according to a new study which claims rural figures worldwide could be vastly underestimated. (The Independent)
Women tend to outlive men around the world. In 2021, this difference amounted to a 5-year gap in global life expectancy: the average life expectancy was 73.8 years for women versus 68.4 years for men. (Our World In Data)
Researcher Thomas Vilgis, as well as researchers from Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the University of Southern Denmark, have created a process to replicate foie gras without force-feeding, using the bird’s own lipases. (Physics of Fluids)
A major review of over 67,000 animal species by the University of Cambridge has found that targeted conservation measures like habitat protection, captive breeding and reintroductions are successfully restoring populations of endangered animals. (Phys.org)
Renewables accounted for 93% of new power capacity and reached 46% of global generating capacity last year. (IEA)
In a world-first trial, two of four paralyzed men regained significant mobility after receiving injections of neural stem cells. (Nature)
Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being. (PNAS Nexus)
Researchers successfully made miso on the International Space Station (ISS) and found that the miso smelled and tasted similar to miso fermented on Earth — just with a slightly nuttier, more roasted flavor. The team hopes this research will help broaden the culinary options available to astronauts, improving the quality of life for long-term space travelers. (iScience)
A new analysis of a vaccination program in Wales found that the shingles vaccine appeared to lower new dementia diagnoses by 20% — more than any other known intervention. (Stanford)
McMaster researchers have identified lariocidin, the first new class of antibiotics in nearly three decades, effective against drug-resistant bacteria. (Phys.org)
Since 2000, the global under-five mortality rate has fallen by 52 per cent, reflecting decades of investment and collaboration by governments, communities and partners. (UNICEF)
The world used clean power to meet more than 40% of its electricity demand last year. (Guardian)
A rare and large summertime phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in the summer of 2018 was prompted by ash from Kilauea falling on the ocean surface approximately 1,200 miles west of the volcano. (UHawaii)
Forbes’ 39th annual billionaires list revealed that there are now 3,028 billionaires around the world, with a staggering estimated collective wealth of $16.1 trillion. (Forbes)
A strain of flu appears to have disappeared from Earth. No confirmed cases of B Yamagata have been reported worldwide in the last five years, with experts attributing this to COVID-19 measures like social distancing and travel restrictions that likely caused the virus to die out. (Our World in Data)
Bricks haven’t gotten cheaper since [the mid-19th century, despite massive improvements in brickmaking technology. (Construction Physics)
Storms and flooding across Europe last year affected a total of 413,000 people, led to the loss of at least 335 lives and are estimated to have cost at least €18 billion in damages. Last year was the hottest year on record for Europe, with record-high annual temperatures in almost half of the continent. (Euronews)
Around 40 million acres of lawn, an area almost as large as the state of Georgia, carpets the United States. Lawn grass occupies more area than corn. (NOEMA)
People who are given a vaccine for shingles have a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease. (European Society of Cardiology)
Your fingers wrinkle in the same pattern every time you’re in the water for too long. (Binghamton)
Scientists have turned lead into gold using the Large Hadron Collider. The ALICE scientists calculate that, while they are colliding beams of lead nuclei, they produce about 89,000 gold nuclei per second — by accident. (The Conversation)
By 2027, almost all new homes in England will be legally required to have solar panels installed during construction, under new government plans. (Guardian)
Clownfish have been shown to shrink in order to survive heat stress and avoid social conflict (Newcastle University)
Since 2015, the African Development Bank has facilitated access to drinking water and sanitation for 96.2 million people, largely through the African Water Facility accelerator fund. The fund has improved access to sanitation for 11.3 million people, provided drinking water for 23.2 million, equipped two million hectares for irrigation, and will undertake at least 14 new projects in 2025. (African Development Bank)
The semicolon seems to be in terminal decline, with its usage in English books plummeting by almost half in two decades — from one appearing in every 205 words in 2000 to one use in every 390 words today. (Guardian)
The use and prevalence of hummingbird feeders has changed the size and shape of the Anna’s hummingbird’s beaks: bills get longer and they become more slender, and that helps to have a larger tongue inside that can get more nectar from the feeder at a time. The range of the hummingbird also spread from the southern part of California all the way up the West coast into Canada. (NPR)
People who have been taking antidepressants for more than two years are substantially more likely to experience withdrawal symptoms compared to short-term users when they come off the medication. (UCL)
Ibn al-Shatir was the first astronomer to have successfully challenged the Ptolemaic cosmological system of planets revolving around Earth and corrected the theory’s inaccuracies about two centuries before Copernicus. (Medievalists)
In 2023, seagoing vessels — from oil tankers to container ships — carried more than 12 billion tons of goods: roughly 1.5 tons for every person on Earth. (MIT)
Scientists have discovered a giant planet orbiting a tiny red dwarf star, something they believed wasn t even possible. The planet, TOI-6894b, is about the size of Saturn but orbits a star just a fifth the mass of our Sun. This challenges long-standing ideas about how big planets form, especially around small stars. (UCL/UofWarwick)
Scientists discovered a unique sugar in sea cucumbers that can block Sulf-2, an enzyme that cancer cells use to spread. (UMississippi)
Today is my 44th birthday. Here are some things I want to keep in mind for the year ahead.
Things I never regret: spending time with people I love, trying something new, moving my body, getting outside, learning, writing, getting more sleep.
Knowing what I want to offer is more important than knowing what another person expects.
The best experiences of my life happen when I go for what I want with enthusiasm.
Some things provide a disproportionate amount of joy: Do more of those things.
When I am tired, I will do what is easy.
I can adjust my environment to make different things easy or difficult.
My life is better when I believe in free will.
Feeling safe is not the same as being safe.
I don’t want to reward myself with things that undermine my efforts.
I need both comfort and challenge.
Pushing myself through exhaustion leads to more exhaustion.
I don’t have to know everything about a situation to make a good decision.
Most people really are doing the best they can. This doesn’t mean their best is good enough for me.
My empathy extends beyond my capacity; therefore, my boundaries should not exist at the edges of my empathy.
Thinking about my feelings (or writing about them!) is not the same as feeling them.
Nostalgia is an indulgence.
Jealousy is an arrow, an indicator of what I’m not giving myself.
A good night of sleep changes my entire outlook.
Wanting something is not the same as enjoying it.
Grief is the inverse of gratitude.
Seeking to define my life’s purpose is a waste of time. Life itself is the purpose.
I should ask for help way before I feel like I deserve it. I should ask for help when I first have the thought, “I could use some help.”
Forgiveness is good. But it’s not good to rush into forgiveness to ease the offender’s discomfort.
Sometimes I seek approval when I want connection. This does not usually work out well.
Authority and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. Getting one without the other leads to fucked-up situations.
The only opinions of me that matter come from a very small group of people.
Honoring my feelings does not necessarily mean acting on them.
When I feel self-righteous and sure of myself: tone it down about 25%. When I feel uncertain and hesitant: crank it up about 25%.
Everything is a spectrum. My starting point determines what feels extreme to me.
Death is in the room.
Disagreeing is a skill I can improve.
Growth does not require extremes or dramatic moves, just small steps in the right direction.
Good habits let me put more energy into what I enjoy.
Giving myself adequate solitude is not selfish.
Lack of clarity limits my ability to act because I can only choose from what I can recognize. Precise vocabulary helps with clarity.
When I am overwhelmed I tend to reach for more as a way of feeling in control. What I actually need is less.
Actions > words.
Proof > plans.
Creating > criticism.
Most of my decisions are either habitual or emotional. It’s good to keep this in mind.
Increasing my ability to tolerate discomfort (including embarrassment) increases my freedom to do more cool shit.
I am the only measure of my own success.
Happiness is a small-minded goal. A better goal: Experiencing life in all its pain and glory.
There is enough time to do what matters. I get to decide what matters.
Swapped my MacBook for a Framework 13, iPhone for Pixel, left Fosstodon, joined Micro.blog, and canned Kagi & YouTube. Less noise, more life. Here's how it's going...
I've been on one recently and ended up making a number of changes to my tech stack. It all started with me replacing my trusty M1 MacBook Air with a Framework 13. After that, the house of cards came tumbling down: I decided to give my iPhone 16 to my wife and flip to a Pixel 9a.
Shortly after that, I stepped down from Fosstodon and switched to Micro.blog.
Oh, I also cancelled my Kagi and YouTube subscriptions while I was at it – the latter because YouTube is like crack to me.
Oof, that's a lot, right? So to save you reading lots of posts on all these changes in isolation, I thought I'd hit them all up quickly in a single post.
How very efficient of me, hey? Ok, let's jump in...
I already posted my initial thoughts after a week of use, most of which were positive. After using it for a couple of months, I'm extremely happy with my purchase. The screen issue was fixed quickly, as the Framework folks immediately sent me a replacement, and I’ve been able to test the repairability by upgrading the keyboard to the v2, which has no Windows key.
Battery life isn't as good as the MacBook, but it was never going to be. It is, however, more than good enough for my needs. I've been sat on the Framework in the lounge for the last 90 minutes or so, catching up on work emails and writing this post, and I still have 81% battery remaining.
Ubuntu runs perfectly on the Framework – I've had no issues with it and no occasion where I've felt the need for Windows or Mac.
Meh. It's a phone. It's fine. Battery life is good, camera is fine, it doesn't have much bloat on it (except for Google apps that I don't use), and I can do everything on it that I could on my iPhone. It was also half the price of the iPhone and will be supported for 7 years.
The Pixel doesn't wow me, but it does what I need it to do. Having said that, I don't remember the last time any phone wowed me.
iOS frustrated me in certain ways. Android frustrates me in other ways. Neither is perfect, but the significant difference in price is the clincher for me.
I don't miss Fosstodon one bit. I have a lot more free time now, and once everything is fully handed over to Gina, I'll have more money too. 🙃
Micro.blog is a nice little community, and I can still interact with all the peeps on the Fediverse too, so I’m not missing out in that regard. What I have noticed is that I'm spending less time on Micro.blog than I did on Fosstodon. Not because the former is bad – far from it. I think it's a combination of things:
I'm really happy with my decision to switch to Micro.blog. If you're thinking about a move away from the Fedi, I'd consider Micro.blog first. It's a slower pace and has a lot of features that allow for customising the feed to make it more deliberate – or a firehose, if you prefer.
I'm a search Luddite, so I don't need a lot of the power features that Kagi offers. I love what they're trying to achieve over there, but DuckDuckGo is perfectly good for my needs, so I might as well save myself $10/month.
I've been back on DDG for a little over a month now, and I haven't missed Kagi once. Says everything, really.
I was finding that I was spending a shit-tonne of time on YouTube. Like, any time I had a spare 30 seconds, I'd whip my phone out and start wading through the crap that's on YouTube Shorts.
I cancelled my subscription to YT Premium and disabled the app on my phone (can't uninstall it on Android, which is annoying). I've also started deliberately not carrying my phone with me. I have a place in the kitchen where I leave it so I know where it is, but it prevents me from unconsciously pulling it out of my pocket.
I have to say, it's working really well. I very rarely go on YouTube at all now, even when in bed with my iPad. I'm mostly reading my Kindle in bed instead. My iPad isn't long for this world, being around 7 years old at this point, so when it stops getting updates, I don't think I'll replace it.
If I start to miss it, I'll probably buy a Pixel tablet. But something tells me I won't. We'll see...
So there you go – I just saved you around four extra posts to wade through. All in all, I'm happy with the changes I've made to my tech. I'm saving money and will hopefully have hardware that lasts a lot longer.
Overall, I feel like my relationship to all this crap has shifted over the last few months. Before, I felt like I was perpetually online, but now, not so much. They're just tools at this point. Don't get me wrong, they're tools that I enjoy using (especially the Framework – it's bloody lovely), but tools nonetheless.
Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️
