Detour Through The Junk Drawer

YouTube Links to the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1960s

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of links to the 100 greatest songs of the 1960s according to Paste Magazine.

YouTube Links to the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1970s

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of links to the 100 greatest songs of the 1970s according to Paste Magazine.

YouTube Links to the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of links to the 100 greatest songs of the 1980s according to Paste Magazine.

100. The Stone Roses — I Wanna Be Adored
99. Iron Maiden — Run to the Hills
98. Laurie Anderson — O Superman
97. Boogie Down Productions — South Bronx
96. Bad Brains — Pay to Cum!
95. Arthur Russell — Being It
94. Squeeze — Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
93. Beastie Boys — Shake Your Rump
92. Tom Tom Club — Genius of Love
91. Electronic — Getting Away With It
90. X — Los Angeles
89. Tracy Chapman — Fast Car
88. Peter Gabriel — In Your Eyes
87. Leonard Cohen — Hallelujah
86. A Flock of Seagulls — Space Age Love Song
85. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale of New York
84. The Gun Club — Mother of Earth
83. Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force — Planet Rock
82. Grace Jones — Pull Up to the Bumper
81. They Might Be Giants — Ana Ng
80. Siouxsie and the Banshees — Cities in Dust
79. Fingers Inc. — Can You Feel It?
78. Mission of Burma — That’s When I Reach For My Revolver
77. Big Country — In a Big Country
76. Julee Cruise — Falling
75. Def Leppard — Photograph
74. Bruce Springsteen — Tougher Than the Rest
73. The B-52’s — Private Idaho
72. Dinosaur Jr. — Little Fury Things
71. The Human League — Don’t You Want Me
70. Diana Ross — I’m Coming Out
69. Pixies — Debaser
68. Fleetwood Mac — Gy***
67. De La Soul — Me, Myself and I
66. Fine Young Cannibals — She Drives Me Crazy
65. Queen & David Bowie — Under Pressure
64. Mariya Takeuchi — Plastic Love
63. Dead Kennedys — Holiday in Cambodia
62. Salt-N-Pepa — Push It
61. Marshall Jefferson — The House Music Anthem (Move Your Body)
60. Orange Juice — Falling and Laughing
59. The Specials — Ghost Town
58. Dexys Midnight Runners — Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
57. Tatsuro Yamashita — Sparkle
56. Glenn Branca — Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar
55. Judas Priest — Electric Eye
54. Jungle Brothers — I’ll House You
53. Depeche Mode — Never Let Me Down Again
52. A Guy Called Gerald — Voodoo Ray
51. Echo & The Bunnymen — The Killing Moon
50. Cocteau Twins — Pandora (For Cindy)
49. U2 — Sunday Bloody Sunday
48. Sparks — Angst In My Pants
47. Ultramagnetic MCs — Critical Beatdown
46. Haruomi Hosono — Sports Men
45. Modern English — I Melt With You
44. George Strait — Amarillo By Morning
43. Minutemen — Corona
42. The Durutti Column — Sketch for Summer
41. Alice Coltrane — Jagadishwar
40. EPMD — You Gots to Chill
39. Fugazi — Waiting Room
38. The Blue Nile — A Walk Across the Rooftops
37. Slick Rick — Children’s Story
36. Hüsker Dü — Celebrated Summer
35. The Jesus and Mary Chain — Just Like Honey
34. Soda Stereo — En la ciudad de la furia
33. Morrissey — Everyday Is Like Sunday
32. Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock — It Takes Two
31. Tom Waits — Downtown Train
30. The Clash — Police On My Back
29. Laura Branigan — Gloria
28. R.E.M. — Fall on Me
27. Michael Jackson — P.Y.T.
26. Luther Vandross — Never Too Much
25. The Go-Go’s — Our Lips Are Sealed
24. Joy Division — Atmosphere
23. N.W.A. — Fuck tha Police
22. This Heat — Paper Hats
21. The Replacements — Kiss Me On the Bus
20. Bronski Beat — Smalltown Boy
19. Sade — Is It a Crime?
18. Talking Heads — The Great Curve
17. Big Daddy Kane — Ain’t No Half-Steppin’
16. The Smiths — William, It Was Really Nothing
15. Whitney Houston — I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
14. Prefab Sprout — Bonny
13. Neneh Cherry — Buffalo Stance
12. Keith Whitley — I’m No Stranger to the Rain
11. Sonic Youth — Teen Age Riot
10. Kate Bush — Suspended In Gaffa
9. Frankie Knuckles / Jamie Principle — Your Love
8. Public Enemy — Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
7. New Order — Temptation
6. Janet Jackson — Escapade
5. Prince — Controversy
4. Tears for Fears — Everybody Wants to Rule the World
3. Eric B. & Rakim — I Know You Got Soul
2. Madonna — Papa Don’t Preach
1. The Cure — Pictures of You

11 Japanese Decluttering Lessons that Almost Everyone Learns Far Too Late

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A bullet list summary of decluttering advice.

Use your best things now. Stop saving “good” dishes, clothes, or possessions for a future special occasion.
Your house may not be too small—you may own too much. Extra storage lets you postpone decisions and accumulate clutter.
Everything you own requires something from you. Possessions create maintenance, cleaning, sorting, and mental work.
Ask better decluttering questions. Instead of “Might I need this someday?”, ask when you last used it and whether losing it would feel like relief.
Don’t store your belongings in other people’s homes indefinitely. Temporary storage should have a clear deadline and plan.
Most clutter is not worth selling. Sell genuinely valuable items; donate inexpensive items quickly instead of spending months trying to recover their cost.
Giving things to someone who will use them makes letting go easier. Think of possessions as continuing their usefulness with another person.
Own only what you can realistically maintain. Your possessions and home should be manageable even on a low-energy day.
Let go of possessions belonging to your former self. Keep what supports your current life, not abandoned hobbies, careers, identities, or expectations.
Declutter while you are physically able to do it yourself. Especially remove obstacles and keep important walking paths safe and clear.
Deal with your possessions before your family has to. Document what matters, who should receive it, and your wishes to prevent confusion and arguments later.

Book Reviews of "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents"

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of book reviews for "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents" by Lindsay C Gibson (2015).

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: Book Review — IE Couples Counseling
What Gibson’s Book Gets Right, and What It Doesn’t Tell You — Annie Wright
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: Book Review — Kayla Nelson Therapy
Dreamin’ Reviews: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Caught Dreamin’ Therapy
Growing Up Without Growing Together — Thrive Therapy Houston
A Review: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Slacker’s Muse
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Foreword Reviews
Lindsay C. Gibson’s Blog — Lindsay C. Gibson

Amazon's Profits by Year

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Amazon's profits by year according to macrotrends.net

1994: 0

1995: -0.3 million

1996: -5.8 million

1997: -27.6 million

1998: -124.5 million

1999: -719.0 million

2000: -1.411 billion

2001: -567 million

2002: -149 million

2003: 35 million

2004: 588 million

2005: 359 million

2006: 190 million

2007: 476 million

2008: 645 million

2009: 902 million

2010: 1.152 billion

2011: 631 million

2012: -39 million

2013: 274 million

2014: -241 million

2015: 596 million

2016: 2.371 billion

2017: 3.033 billion

2018: 10.073 billion

2019: 11.588 billion

2020: 21.331 billion

2021: 33.364 billion

2022: -2.722 billion

2023: 30.425 billion

2024: 59.248 billion

2025: 77.670 billion

2014 was basically the culmination of Amazon's "growth first, profits later" strategy colliding with a few expensive bets that didn't pay off immediately.

The biggest factors were:

Heavy spending on fulfillment centers, logistics, technology, and international expansion.
Large investments in AWS data centers while AWS revenue was growing rapidly but was not yet being reported separately. CIO: Amazon opens up about AWS revenues
The failure of the Fire Phone, which led to a roughly $170 million write-down and inventory charge. Harvard: Fire Phone — Amazon's $170 million fiasco
Continued pressure from low retail margins as Amazon prioritized growth and market share over earnings. Amazon's 2014 Form 10-K

What's interesting is that 2014 wasn't really a business collapse. Revenue grew strongly, operating cash flow increased, and AWS was becoming a major business. Amazon lost about $241 million for the full year, but many of the investments made around that period—especially AWS and logistics infrastructure—became major profit drivers later. Amazon's 2014 earnings release

In hindsight, 2014 looks less like a bad year and more like a major investment phase before profits increased sharply: 2014 −$241M → 2015 +$596M → 2016 +$2.37B → 2018 +$10.07B → 2020 +$21.33B → 2024 +$59.25B.

News Articles About the Athens Olympic Meteor Art Installation

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of news articles about the Athens Olympic Meteor art installation in 2004.

Berklee — “Faculty Notes” (Fall 2004) — Describes Mitch Benoff’s Athens Olympic Meteor and its operation during the Games.
Kathimerini — “Olympic Athens Comes Alive With Artwork” (August 13, 2004) — Contemporary article describing the Athens Olympic Meteor on Lycabettus Hill.
Brandeis — “Class of 1968 50th Reunion Yearbook” — Benoff discusses his 400-foot light sculpture for the 2004 Olympics and references the former athensolympicmeteor.com site.
Berklee — “Mitch Benoff” — Biography describing the 400-foot Athens Olympic Meteor created for the 2004 Games.
Costas Kapos & Associates — “Lighting Projects” — Lists the “Olympic Meteor” lighting project on Lycabettus and collaboration with Mitch Benoff.

Battery Status Commands on Windows, macOS, and Linux

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Terminal commands for finding battery status information on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Windows (PowerShell) powershell Get-CimInstance Win32_Battery | Select-Object EstimatedChargeRemaining, EstimatedRunTime Battery percentage only: powershell (Get-CimInstance Win32_Battery).EstimatedChargeRemaining Detailed battery report: powershell powercfg /batteryreport
macOS bash pmset -g batt More detailed battery information: bash system_profiler SPPowerDataType
Linux Using upower: bash upower -i "$(upower -e | grep BAT)" Percentage only: bash upower -i "$(upower -e | grep BAT)" | grep percentage Directly from sysfs: bash cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity If acpi is installed: bash acpi -b

Books About the Dotcom, NFT, and Crypto Bubbles

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of books about the dotcom, NFT, and crypto bubles that I'd like to get around to one day.

Dot-com bubble

Dot.con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era (search) — John Cassidy. Best single-volume narrative of the boom and bust.
Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing (search) — Roger Lowenstein. Strong on Wall Street, corporate excess, and the broader 1990s financial culture.
Irrational Exuberance (search) — Robert J. Shiller. More analytical; explains asset bubbles and market psychology, published right as the dot-com bubble peaked.
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story (search) — Michael Lewis. Character-driven Silicon Valley book centered on Jim Clark and the internet-boom mentality.
Boo Hoo: A Dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe (search) — Ernst Malmsten, Erik Portanger, Charles Drazin. Insider account of Boo.com, one of the era’s most notorious failures.
eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work (search) — Randall Stross. Good for understanding VC behavior and startup financing during the bubble.
The Nudist on the Late Shift: And Other True Tales of Silicon Valley (search) — Po Bronson. Captures the culture and personalities of late-1990s Silicon Valley.

Crypto, NFT, and metaverse bubbles

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall (search) — Zeke Faux. Best overall narrative of the crypto boom, FTX, scams, Tether, NFTs, and the post-2021 collapse.
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (search) — Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman. Strong skeptical account of crypto as speculation, fraud, and casino finance.
Hype Machine: Inside the Cult of Crypto (search) — Joshua Oliver. Good newer account of crypto’s boom-bust cycle, FTX, SBF, Binance, and the industry’s belief system.
The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze (search) — Laura Shin. Best for Ethereum, ICO mania, DAOs, DeFi, and the ideological roots of Web3.
Popping the Crypto Bubble (search) — Stephen Diehl, Jan Akalin, and Darren Tseng. Short, technical, strongly anti-crypto critique of the economics and technology.
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain (search) — David Gerard. Earlier but useful skeptical history of Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, and the 2017 crypto bubble.
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon (search) — Michael Lewis. Narrower focus on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX; useful, but read alongside Number Go Up for a more skeptical frame.
Tracers in the Dark (search) — Andy Greenberg. Not mainly a bubble book, but excellent on crypto crime, blockchain tracing, and the myth of anonymous crypto.
Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform (search) — Rachel O’Dwyer. Good for understanding tokens beyond crypto: platform money, gift cards, loyalty points, and digital economies.
The Everything Token (search) — Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers. Pro-NFT/Web3 framing; useful as a primary-source view of what NFT advocates thought the technology could become.
NFTs Are a Scam / NFTs Are the Future (search) — Bobby Hundreds. Best for the cultural and creator-side argument around NFTs, rather than detached bubble analysis.
The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything (search) — Matthew Ball. Pro-metaverse but serious; useful for understanding why investors and tech firms bought into the thesis.

Books on User Interface Design

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of books about user interface design.

Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited — Steve Krug (search)
The Design of Everyday Things — Don Norman (search)
Refactoring UI — Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger (search)
Don’t Make Me Think — Steve Krug (search)
About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design — Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, Christopher Noessel (search)
Designing Interfaces — Jenifer Tidwell, Charles Brewer, Aynne Valencia (search)
User Interface Design for Programmers — Joel Spolsky (search)
The Elements of User Experience — Jesse James Garrett (search)
Universal Principles of Design — William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler (search)
Laws of UX — Jon Yablonski (search)
Rocket Surgery Made Easy — Steve Krug (search)
The Humane Interface — Jef Raskin (search)
Lean UX — Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden (search)
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People — Susan Weinschenk (search)
Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction — Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp, Jennifer Preece (search)
Designing with the Mind in Mind — Jeff Johnson (search)
Microinteractions — Dan Saffer (search)
Emotional Design — Don Norman (search)
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum — Alan Cooper (search)
Designing for Interaction — Dan Saffer (search)
Designing Web Interfaces — Bill Scott and Theresa Neil (search)
Seductive Interaction Design — Stephen P. Anderson (search)
Designing Visual Interfaces — Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano (search)
Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond — Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Jorge Arango (search)
Web Form Design — Luke Wroblewski (search)
Forms That Work — Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney (search)
Inclusive Design Patterns — Heydon Pickering (search)
A Web for Everyone — Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery (search)
Mismatch — Kat Holmes (search)
Designing for Emotion — Aarron Walter (search)
Mobile First — Luke Wroblewski (search)
Responsive Web Design — Ethan Marcotte (search)
Designing the Obvious — Robert Hoekman Jr. (search)
GUI Bloopers 2.0 — Jeff Johnson (search)
Sketching User Experiences — Bill Buxton (search)
Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design — Giles Colborne (search)
Living with Complexity — Don Norman (search)
Human-Computer Interaction — Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory Abowd, Russell Beale (search)
Universal Methods of Design — Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington (search)
Thinking with Type — Ellen Lupton (search)
The Non-Designer’s Design Book — Robin Williams (search)
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information — Edward Tufte (search)
Envisioning Information — Edward Tufte (search)
Information Dashboard Design — Stephen Few (search)
Show Me the Numbers — Stephen Few (search)
Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann (search)
Designing Connected Products — Claire Rowland et al. (search)
Observing the User Experience — Mike Kuniavsky, Elizabeth Goodman, Andrea Moed (search)
Just Enough Research — Erika Hall (search)
Interviewing Users — Steve Portigal (search)

Checkers/Draughts Variants

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A comparison of American/English, Brazilian, and International checkers/draughts rules.

Rule	American / English	Brazilian	International
Board	8×8	8×8	10×10
Pieces per side	12	12	20
Men move	1 diagonal square forward	Same	Same
Men capture backward	No	Yes	Yes
Kings	1 diagonal square at a time	“Flying” kings: any distance diagonally	Flying kings
Capture required	Yes	Yes	Yes
If several captures exist	Any legal capture sequence	Must capture the maximum number of pieces	Must capture the maximum number of pieces
General character	Compact, relatively restrictive	International-style rules on a small board	Larger board and longer-range tactics

The easiest way to think about it is that Brazilian draughts is essentially International draughts compressed onto an American-sized 8×8 board. Brazilian and International both allow ordinary men to capture backward, use long-range flying kings, and enforce the maximum-capture rule.

American checkers, also called English draughts, is substantially different. Ordinary men only move and capture forward; kings move and capture only one diagonal step/jump at a time; and although capturing is compulsory, you do not have to choose the sequence that captures the most pieces.

There are many other variants:

Russian draughts — 8×8; backward captures and flying kings, but no maximum-capture requirement.
Pool checkers — 8×8; flying kings and backward captures, without International's maximum-capture rule.
Spanish draughts — 8×8; flying kings, forward-only captures for men, and maximum-capture rules.
Italian draughts — 8×8; short-range kings and strict capture priorities.
Canadian draughts — International-style rules on a 12×12 board with 30 pieces per side.
Turkish draughts — pieces move orthogonally rather than diagonally.
Frisian draughts — 10×10; captures can be diagonal, horizontal, or vertical.

And Chinese checkers is not actually a checkers/draughts variant**. It belongs to a different game family and has no capturing.

Chess Sprite Packs and JavaScript Chess Engines

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of image files ("sprites") of chess pieces, along with a list of JavaScript chess engines.

Chess Sprite / 2D Asset Download Links

itch.io

Pixel Chess — DevilsWork.shop — Download page
PIXEL PERFECT: Ultimate Game Component Kit — Rad Potato — Download page
Chess Pixel – Wood — ToffeeCraft — Download page
Chess Pixel – Classical — ToffeeCraft — Download page
Chess Pixel – Ice — ToffeeCraft — Download page
Chess Piece Mega Pack – 115 Sets / 1,380 Sprites — Download page
Chess — greenpixels_ — Download page
Chess Playing Scenarios — Download page
Board Game Pieces — Chequered Ink — Download page
Medieval Asset Pack 16x16 — Download page
2D Pixel Chess Asset Pack – Free Tileset — Download page
Classic Tabletop Game Components — Download page
Board Games: Chess Set — moxica — Download page
Ultimate Pixel Art Chess Pack – 6 Boards / 12 Piece Sets — Download page
Chess Pieces 2D Character Sprites — Download page
Pixel Chess — onepixelmore — Download page
Free 2D Item 16x16 – Chess Pieces — Download page
Chess Pieces 16x16 — dsphynx — Download page
Chess Asset Pack – Checkmate in Pixels — Download page
Chess Set & Chess Pieces 16x16 — PetalByte — Download page
Chess Pieces – Sprite Set — Telepastelic — Download page
Retro/Pixel Art Cactus-Themed Chess Pieces — Download page
Chess Pieces Sprite Pack — EMI EMI GAMES — Download page
Chessboard Pixel Art — Download page
Pixel-art Cartoon Chess — Download page
Chess Pieces 2D Skeleton Sprites — Download page
2D Chess Pieces (Pixel Sprite Sheet) — Download page
Pixel Art Chess Pieces Sprites — Download page
Elves Chess Set — Download page
Assets Free Chess-Animals + ICO Assets — Download page
Tactical Gambit – 467 Isometric Assets for Mecha-Chess — Download page
32x32 Chess Set — Download page
Chess Asset — urais — Download page
Game Night Sprite Set — Download page
Pixel Chess – Free Asset Pack — dani maccari — Download page
2D Chess Pices — unknuffig — Download page
Chess Asset Pack — einav23 — Download page
Chess Peice Dungeon Assets — Download page
8-bit Chess Free Asset Pack — Cosunosuke — Download page
Chess Pieces 16x16 One-bit — BerryArray — Download page
Simple Chess Assets — Download page
16-bit Chess Free Asset Pack — Cosunosuke — Download page
32-bit Chess Asset Pack — Cosunosuke — Download page
Pixel Art Chess Pieces — Toronja — Download page
Chess Assets — Deja View — Download page
Pixel Wooden Chess Asset Pack – 32x32 — Download page
Pixel Epic Chess – Medieval Set — Download page
Pixel Epic Chess – Base Set — Download page
Chess World Tileset — Download page
Isocubic Chess FREE — Download page
Isocubic Chess PREMIUM — Download page
Chess Piece — By.Kelvi — Download page
Avalog Sprites — Download page
Chess Pixel Art Assets — PacificMilk — Download page
470+ Pixel Chess Pieces — Download page
Pixel Chess Pack — SofuAssets — Download page
Pixel Chess — Null Tale — Download page
Pixel Chess Pack — Clavs — Download page
Pixel Chess Assets Pack + GUI — Brysia — Download page
Pixel Art Chess Pieces — Ben — Download page
Pixel Chess 2.0 — From Chris — Download page
2D Pixel Chess — Digital Realms Studio — Download page
Pixel Chess Pieces — SpicyGame — Download page
Chess 2D Pixel Tilemap — Download page
Chess Set (Pixel Art) — GChoc — Download page
2D Chess Pack — Screaming Brain Studios — Download page
Skyel Simple Chess — Download page
Chess Pieces and Board Pack — Joszs — Download page
chess12 — ImMadeOfBees — Download page
CheckM8 – Pixel Chess Kit — Download page
Chess_assetpack_32x32 — Pogopin — Download page
Chess Game Assets — Renderman — Download page
Cat Chess Pieces — Download page
TTrpg Legacy – Too Many Chess — Download page
Heroes Chess — Null Tale — Download page
Unfinished Project: Chess 4X Strategy — Download page
Unusual Squared Chess Pieces — Download page
Chess and Checkers Graphics Set — Download page
Basic Chess Asset (Starter Pack) — Download page
Great Chess Asset (Hundreds of Items) — Download page
Super Chess – Gameboy Chess Asset Pack — Download page
Humans Chess Set — Download page
Demons Chess Set — Download page
Undead Chess Set — Download page

OpenGameArt

2D Chess — Download page
2D Chess Pack — Download page
Chess Pieces — Download page
Pixel Chess Pieces — Download page
Chess Pieces and Board Squares — Download page
Chess Pieces and a Board — Download page
Chess Pieces — alternate set — Download page
M484 Chess Set — Download page
Chess Pieces Set — Download page
Chess Pieces — additional set — Download page
Chess Pieces — additional pack — Download page
PIXEL CHESS — Download page
Madware's Chess Set — Download page
Chess Pieces in SVG Format — Download page
Chess Set for GBJam — Download page

GameDev Market

Chess Game Assets — Renderman6 — Download page
Chess Pieces Character Sprite Sheet — Download page
Chess Assets — thehorseman007 — Download page
Skeleton Chess Pieces Character Sprites — Download page
Chess Set Pixel Art — heyjeff — Download page
Isometric Wooden Chess Set — Download page
Pixel Chess — KingWombat — Download page
Pixel Chess / Draughts / Checkers Set — Download page
Chess Pixel — Download page
Chess Pixel – Ice — Download page
Chess Pixel – Wood — Download page

CraftPix

Chess and Checkers Game Kit — Download page

The Spriters Resource — ripped/reference sprite sheets

Chess — Browser Games master page / multiple sets — Sprite sheets
Board & Chess Pieces – Standard/Classic — Sprite sheet
Board & Chess Pieces – Game Room — Sprite sheet
Board & Chess Pieces – Newspaper — Sprite sheet
Board & Chess Pieces – Tournament — Sprite sheet
Board & Chess Pieces – Light — Sprite sheet
The Chessmaster (NES) — Sprite sheets
Chessmaster GB – Cursor, Board & Pieces — Sprite sheet
Chessmaster 2000 – Chess Pieces & Cursor — Sprite sheet
Mind Games Entertainment Pack: Chess — Sprite sheet
Chess – BBC Micro — Sprite sheet
4-in-1 Fun Pak: Chess – Game Boy/GBC — Sprite sheet

A list of JavaScript chess engines, particularly ones that I could use in an offline .html file:

Stockfish.js / Stockfish 18 — strongest practical choice. WASM + Web Worker; full, lite, single-threaded, multi-threaded, and ASM.js builds. The maintainer specifically recommends the ~7 MB lite single-threaded build for typical browser apps. GPL-3.0. GitHub / download
Lozza — pure JavaScript, no WASM. UCI interface, designed to run directly as a Web Worker. Only lozza.js is needed. MIT license. Does not support stop or multithreading. GitHub
tomitankChess — strong pure-JavaScript engine with UCI and direct Web Worker support. Current v7.0 is listed around 3050 Elo by the project; GPL-3.0. GitHub
Tonnetto — lightweight TypeScript/JavaScript engine intended specifically for native browser use. Simple API such as getBestMove(depth). Approximately 1600+ Elo at modest depth. MIT. GitHub
js-chess-engine — zero-dependency TypeScript engine with move generation, game state, FEN, configurable AI, and difficulty levels 1–5. Runs completely client-side. MIT. Probably the easiest option if you want a normal JS API instead of UCI messages. GitHub
P4wn — extremely small pure-JS chess engine specifically designed for embedding and offline HTML applications. CC0/public domain, so licensing is exceptionally permissive. Older and much weaker than Stockfish/tomitank. GitHub
GarboChess-JS — established pure-JavaScript engine using Web Workers; supports FEN and analysis. Most engine code is BSD 3-Clause. Older project, but straightforward to embed. GitHub
WukongJS — pure JavaScript engine with UCI support, browser GUI, and public API; project lists roughly 1876 CCRL Elo. The repository does not prominently declare a standard license, so verify redistribution terms before bundling it commercially. GitHub
Betafish — JavaScript Negamax engine with alpha-beta pruning, PVS, quiescence search, iterative deepening, and tapered evaluation. Author estimates roughly 1800–2000 Elo. MIT. GitHub
Wasabi Chess Engine — AssemblyScript compiled for browser execution, using a Web Worker; includes six difficulty levels and an opening database. Useful if WASM is acceptable. GitHub
Lichess stockfish-web — current Lichess browser builds, including Stockfish 18 and NNUE. Very powerful, but Lichess explicitly says this package is not straightforward to load and recommends nmrugg/stockfish.js for simpler embedding. GitHub

For your use case, I would rank them: Stockfish.js lite-single → Lozza → tomitankChess → Tonnetto → js-chess-engine → P4wn.

One implementation detail: “offline” is fine as long as you bundle the .js, .wasm, NNUE, etc. locally. For Web Workers/WASM, serving the app from a tiny local HTTP server or PWA is more reliable than opening index.html directly via file://; multi-threaded Stockfish builds additionally require cross-origin-isolation headers.

Free Comic Reader Apps for macOS

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of apps for reading comic book files on a Macbook. The recommended one is YACReader which is also available for Windows and Linux.

YACReader — Free, open source, excellent for CBR/CBZ/PDF, with library management. Native universal build for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
Simple Comic — Free, open source, lightweight and Mac-focused. Good if you just want to open CBR/CBZ files without managing a big library.
Panels — Free download with in-app purchases. More polished Mac interface, supports CBR, CBZ, CB7, PDF, EPUB and iCloud syncing.
OpenComic — Free/open-source alternative available for Mac; worth considering if you prefer a modern interface.

Best fully free choice: YACReader.

AlternativeTo.net List of Comic Reader Apps

Unstore.io List of Comic Reader Apps

List of Common YouTuber Mistakes

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of common YouTuber mistakes. I compiled this list because I want to return to making videos, but needed to keep these issues in mind to avoid making basic mistakes and looking like an amateur.

Saying “uh”, “um”, “like”, and other filler words excessively
Rambling without a script or outline
Taking too long to get to the point
Poor audio quality
Recording with the microphone too far away
Background noise in recordings
Echoey or reverberant rooms
Audio levels that are too quiet or too loud
Distorted/clipping audio
Inconsistent audio volume between clips
Bad lighting
Strong backlighting that silhouettes the subject
Mixed lighting colors
Grainy footage from low light
Overexposed or underexposed video
Leaving autofocus enabled
Out-of-focus footage
Shaky handheld footage
Crooked horizons
Dirty camera lens
Recording in low resolution
Wrong frame rate settings
Too much empty space above the head
Distracting backgrounds
Looking at the screen instead of the lens
Poor eye contact with the camera
Monotone delivery
Speaking too fast
Speaking too slowly
Lack of enthusiasm or energy
Reading directly from notes
Excessive jump cuts
No B-roll
Using irrelevant B-roll
Overusing zooms and effects
Overusing transitions
Overusing stock footage
Text that is too small to read
Cluttered on-screen graphics
Inconsistent branding
Long intros
Long logo animations
Asking for likes and subscribes too early
Weak opening hook
No clear structure
Repeating the same point multiple times
Leaving mistakes in the final edit
Not cutting pauses and dead air
Poor pacing
Overly long videos
Clickbait titles that disappoint viewers
Boring thumbnails
Cluttered thumbnails
Tiny unreadable thumbnail text
Misleading thumbnails
Generic video titles
Ignoring SEO basics
Not adding captions or subtitles
Not checking footage before ending a shoot
Forgetting to record backup audio
Not backing up footage
Inconsistent upload schedule
Ignoring audience retention data
Ignoring viewer feedback
Ending videos abruptly
No clear call to action at the end
Not testing equipment before recording
Battery or storage failures during filming
Wearing noisy clothing or jewelry
Recording with fans, AC units, or appliances running
Poor color correction or white balance
Over-sharpened or over-processed footage
Recording vertically when intending a horizontal video
Recording horizontally when intending a vertical short
Not matching camera and microphone settings between shoots
Publishing without reviewing the final export
Exporting at the wrong bitrate or quality settings
Using copyrighted music without permission
Talking over important visuals
Showing cluttered desktop screens during screen recordings
Leaving notifications visible during recording
Trying to sound perfect instead of sounding natural

What does “counting ears in hamlet” refer to?

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

“Counting ears in Hamlet” usually refers to a literary-analysis exercise: tracking how often Shakespeare uses the words “ear,” “ears,” hearing, listening, and related imagery throughout the play. It matters because the ear is a major motif in Hamlet. King Hamlet is murdered by poison poured into his ear, while Denmark itself is metaphorically “poisoned” by Claudius’s lies—“the whole ear of Denmark” is deceived. Throughout the play, words, rumors, spying, overhearing, and deceptive speech repeatedly enter through people’s ears.

Scholars have literally counted these references. One account notes 25 occurrences of the word “ear” and at least 184 references to eyes, ears, seeing, and hearing in just the first two acts.

So “counting ears” can be somewhat literal: noticing an unusually frequent word and using that pattern to uncover one of Hamlet’s central ideas—language can function like poison, entering the mind through the ear.

List of Books on LLMs for Beginners

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

The ChatGPT response to, "A list of books that teach programming to beginners but also teach what LLMs are and how to integrate LLMs with your code." However, I'm not quite sure how good this list actually is. I've decided to post it anyway.

Learn AI-Assisted Python Programming, 2nd ed. — Leo Porter & Daniel Zingaro — Assumes zero programming experience and teaches Python alongside ChatGPT/Copilot and basic generative-AI concepts.
Google Gemini for Python — Oswald Campesato — Starts with Python fundamentals, then introduces generative AI and integrating Gemini into Python applications.
Generative AI and RAG for Beginners — Oscar Mazzanti — Beginner-oriented coverage of Python, LLMs, LangChain, RAG, databases, and LLM-powered applications.
Python 3 Using ChatGPT/GPT-4 — Oswald Campesato — Covers Python basics, ChatGPT/GPT-4 concepts, prompting, and AI-oriented Python projects.
Coding with AI For Beginners — Rodgers Diaz — Starts with Python basics and progresses into AI, machine learning, deep learning, and NLP.
Learning LangChain — Mayo Oshin & Nuno Campos — Covers LLM APIs, prompts, structured output, RAG, tool calling, and complete LLM applications.
Generative AI with LangChain — Covers LLM fundamentals, chatbots, RAG systems, agents, OpenAI/Anthropic/Google models, and deployment.
LangChain in Your Pocket — Mehul Gupta — Practical guide to LLM applications, including RAG, agents, memory, prompt engineering, and deployment.

List of Jokes Misinterpreted by LLMs as Real

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of news articles discusses occassions where LLMs reported jokes as real.

Eating rocks — Google AI Overview said geologists recommend eating “at least one small rock per day,” apparently drawing from a satirical Onion article.
CIA “black highlighters” — Google AI Overview treated an Onion joke about the CIA using black highlighters to redact documents as factual.
Blinker fluid — Google AI Overview recommended checking or replacing nonexistent “blinker fluid,” apparently sourcing a joke/troll forum response.
Running with scissors is healthy — Google AI Overview described running with scissors as exercise with health benefits, based on a comedy site.
“Responsibilityuns” are a real snack — Google AI treated “Responsibilityuns,” a fictional snack invented by The Onion, as a real competitor to Funyuns.
Why fire trucks are red — Google’s Featured Snippet presented an elaborate Monty Python joke as the factual explanation for why fire trucks are red.
Dogs playing professional sports — Google AI Overview claimed dogs had played in the NBA, NHL, and NFL, confusing mascots and promotional appearances with literal professional athletes.
More Onion-derived “facts” — Reporters documented several AI answers that appeared to treat The Onion as straightforward journalism.

More Recent Computer Science Books

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Computer science is young compared to other sciences, but at this point many "classic" CS textbooks are over a quarter century old. Here is a list of general computer science books from the last 15 years.

The Nature of Computation — Cristopher Moore, Stephan Mertens — Oxford University Press — 2011
The Garbage Collection Handbook: The Art of Automatic Memory Management — Richard Jones, Antony Hosking, Eliot Moss — CRC Press — 2012
Understanding Computation: From Simple Machines to Impossible Programs — Tom Stuart — O’Reilly Media — 2013
Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud — Brendan Gregg — Prentice Hall — 2013
Seven Concurrency Models in Seven Weeks — Paul Butcher — Pragmatic Bookshelf — 2014
Effective Modern C++ — Scott Meyers — O’Reilly Media — 2014
Understanding Machine Learning: From Theory to Algorithms — Shai Shalev-Shwartz, Shai Ben-David — Cambridge University Press — 2014
Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective, 3rd Edition — Randal E. Bryant, David R. O’Hallaron — Pearson — 2015
Exercises in Programming Style — Cristina Videira Lopes — Chapman & Hall/CRC — 2015
Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems — Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, Niall Richard Murphy — O’Reilly Media — 2016
Deep Learning — Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, Aaron Courville — MIT Press — 2016
Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann — O’Reilly Media — 2017
Building Evolutionary Architectures — Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua — O’Reilly Media — 2017
Serious Cryptography: A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption — Jean-Philippe Aumasson — No Starch Press — 2017
A Philosophy of Software Design — John K. Ousterhout — Yaknyam Press — 2018
Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces — Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau — Arpaci-Dusseau Books — 2018
The Rust Programming Language — Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols — No Starch Press — 2018
Designing Distributed Systems — Brendan Burns — O’Reilly Media — 2018
The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition — David Thomas, Andrew Hunt — Addison-Wesley Professional — 2019
Algorithms for Optimization — Mykel J. Kochenderfer, Tim A. Wheeler — MIT Press — 2019
Database Internals — Alex Petrov — O’Reilly Media — 2019
Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time — Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright — O’Reilly Media — 2020
Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach — Mark Richards, Neal Ford — O’Reilly Media — 2020
Foundations of Data Science — Avrim Blum, John Hopcroft, Ravindran Kannan — Cambridge University Press — 2020
The Elements of Computing Systems, 2nd Edition — Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken — MIT Press — 2021
Crafting Interpreters — Robert Nystrom — Genever Benning — 2021
The Programmer’s Brain — Felienne Hermans — Manning — 2021
Good Code, Bad Code — Tom Long — Manning — 2021
Real-World Cryptography — David Wong — Manning — 2021
Introduction to Algorithms, 4th Edition — Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein — MIT Press — 2022

List of Perennial, Generic News Stories

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

I was thinking of that Simpsons gag in the episode Bart Gets an Elephant where the radio station manager threatens the DJs with replacement by an automated DJ machine. The electronic DJ quips, "Looks like those clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns." and the credulous human DJ says, "How does he keep up with the news like that?" It made me want to compile a list of perennial, evergreen news stories.

“Kids today don’t respect their elders.”
“Young people don’t want to work anymore.”
“Parents are too permissive these days.”
“Schools aren’t teaching basic skills anymore.”
“College isn’t worth what it costs.”
“Nobody knows how to have a conversation anymore.”
“Technology is making us less social.”
“Phones are destroying attention spans.”
“Social media is making people lonelier.”
“Dating is harder than it used to be.”
“Modern dating has killed romance.”
“People are getting married too late.”
“People don’t know their neighbors anymore.”
“Community ties are disappearing.”
“Customer service isn’t what it used to be.”
“People have forgotten basic manners.”
“Drivers are getting worse.”
“Road rage is getting worse.”
“Air travel has become unbearable.”
“Everything is getting more expensive.”
“The middle class is being squeezed.”
“Young adults can’t afford homes.”
“People aren’t saving enough for retirement.”
“Americans are drowning in debt.”
“Workers are burned out.”
“Meetings are wasting everyone’s time.”
“Employers can’t find qualified workers.”
“Employees are quitting because of bad bosses.”
“Degrees don’t prepare graduates for the workplace.”
“There’s a shortage of skilled tradespeople.”
“Nobody wants to repair things anymore.”
“Products aren’t made to last.”
“Companies are shrinking products while charging more.”
“Scammers are getting more sophisticated.”
“Robocalls are out of control.”
“Privacy is disappearing.”
“Advertising is becoming more intrusive.”
“News audiences don’t trust the media.”
“Political discourse is becoming less civil.”
“People are increasingly divided.”
“Americans are moving away from organized religion.”
“People are having fewer children.”
“Families don’t eat together anymore.”
“Children spend too little time outdoors.”
“Adults aren’t getting enough sleep.”
“People don’t exercise enough.”
“Everyone is too stressed.”
“People are more lonely than ever.”
“Obesity is becoming a bigger problem.”
“Nobody cooks from scratch anymore.”
“People waste too much food.”
“Pets are increasingly treated like children.”
“Handwriting is disappearing.”
“Nobody reads books anymore.”
“Students are getting worse at writing.”
“General knowledge is declining.”
“Popular music isn’t as good as it used to be.”
“Movies have too many sequels and remakes.”
“Celebrity culture has gone too far.”
“Downtowns are dying.”
“Small businesses are being squeezed out.”
“Traffic keeps getting worse.”
“Public transit is unreliable.”
“Housing is becoming unaffordable.”
“People are leaving big cities.”
“People are returning to big cities.”
“Americans are moving to cheaper states.”
“Rural communities are being left behind.”
“Package theft is becoming a bigger problem.”
“Homeowners can’t find reliable contractors.”
“Consumers are paying for subscriptions they forgot about.”
“People have too much stuff.”
“Decluttering has become a necessity.”

List of Period Tracker Apps with End-to-End Encryption

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of period tracker mobile apps that offer end-to-end encryption so that even the cloud storage host cannot access your data.

Apple Health – Cycle Tracking — End-to-end encrypted when synced through iCloud with two-factor authentication and a device passcode.
HUSH: Period & Cycle Tracker — Claims on-device encryption with keys that never leave the device.
PrivatePeriod Tracker — Local-only by default; optional connected features are advertised as end-to-end encrypted.
Pink Moon Period Tracker — Advertises end-to-end encryption for cycle data.
Opalia — Cycle data stays on-device; optional backups and partner sharing are end-to-end encrypted.
PinkyBloom — Local-first tracking with end-to-end encrypted partner sharing.
ReglFit — Advertises zero-knowledge, on-device encryption.
Euki — Keeps cycle data on-device rather than transmitting it to a server.
Drip — Open-source and keeps period data locally.
Stardust privacy review — Mozilla reported in 2026 that Stardust removed its end-to-end-encryption claims.

Python Language News Sources

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of news sources for the Python programming language.

Python Insider — official CPython/core-development news: releases, interpreter changes, JIT, free-threading, security, and platform support.
Python Software Foundation Blog — governance, funding, community initiatives, elections, infrastructure, strategy, and security.
Python Steering Council meeting summaries — PEP decisions, CPython direction, JIT/free-threading work, and platform-support decisions.
Python.org Blogs — aggregator for Python Insider, the PSF Blog, PyCon Blog, and PyPI Blog.
PyPI Blog — PyPI infrastructure, security, account-policy, and packaging-ecosystem changes.
Python Packaging announcements — packaging standards, PyPI changes, pip developments, Packaging Council news, and major PEPs.
Python Packaging discussions — proposed packaging changes and standards discussions.
CPython Committers — core-development decisions, release milestones, and implementation work.
PEP Index — new, accepted, and finalized Python Enhancement Proposals.
PyCon US Blog — conference announcements, keynotes, Language Summit material, and community developments.
Python Language Summit — reports on topics being discussed by Python core developers.
LWN.net Python coverage — in-depth reporting on CPython internals, PEPs, packaging, governance, and interpreter development.
Real Python — useful discovery source for major Python news and periodic news roundups.
Python Bytes — podcast and discovery feed covering Python ecosystem developments.
EuroPython — conference news, community initiatives, and broader ecosystem developments.
CPython on GitHub — major issues, implementation changes, releases, and PEP-related development.
Python Security — security information affecting Python itself and the broader ecosystem.

Republicans Love Child Marriage

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of news articles where Republicans defend and endorse child marriage.

Republicans Make a Case for Child Marriage (Newsweek, 2023)
Republican Against Child Marriage Ban Calls Teens ‘Ripe, Fertile’ (Newsweek, 2024)
Were all 36 votes against a recently passed bill that bans child marriage cast by Republican lawmakers? (Oklahoma Watch, 2026)
Why Are Some Republican Lawmakers Hellbent on Preserving Child Marriage? (Rolling Stone, 2024)
Child marriage with parental consent is still legal in Wisconsin. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to change that. (Wisconsin Watch, 2026)
36 Republicans vote against law banning child marriages. Some cited the Bible as justification. (LGBTQ Nation, 2026)
Missouri Senate once again overwhelmingly approves child marriage ban (Missouri Independent, 2025)
Missouri bill to ban all child marriages runs into resistance from House Republicans (Kansas City Star, 2024)
‘Shameful.’ Missouri lawmakers fail to ban all child marriages after resistance (Kansas City Star, 2024)
South Dakota's minimum age to marry will stay at 16 (The Dakota Scout, 2024)
Legislative panel shoots down South Dakota bill to raise the age for marriage to 18 (Associated Press, 2024)
VIDEO: NH Republican State Rep Defends Child Marriage (Granite Post, 2024)
Missouri lawmaker suggests 12-year-olds should be able to get married (Washington Post, 2023)
Mike Moon, GOP Missouri Lawmaker, Defends Child's Right to Get Married (Business Insider, 2023)
Wyoming Limiting Child Marriage Sparks Republican Outrage (Newsweek, 2023)
West Virginia Republicans Block Child Marriage Ban (Rolling Stone, 2023)
Why is child marriage still legal in 80% of U.S. states? (Connecticut Mirror, 2023)
GOP’s Idea of Youth: Little League? Proms? Try Working in a Slaughterhouse and Marrying at 10. (The New Republic, 2023)
Tennessee Bill Proposes Eliminating Marriage Age Requirements (Newsweek, 2022)
End child marriage in the U.S.? You might be surprised who's opposed. (NBC News/Euronews, 2019)
This bill would have ended child marriage for those under age in Idaho. The House voted it down (Idaho Statesman, 2019)
Republicans in Louisiana reject measure setting minimum age for marriage (The Independent, 2019)
Louisiana Lawmakers Reject Bill to Set a Minimum Age for Marriage (Time, 2019)
Tennessee GOP kill bill to ban child marriage (The Hill, 2018)

Signage Strategies

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Books on signage strategies for events and locations, as well as official guidance from various Departments of Transportation. I wanted to know what kinds of signs are helpful, unhelpful, and what the appropriate amount of signage is.

Books

Official guidance

Practical articles

The recurring rule for “how much signage?”

There really isn't a good formula such as “one sign per 500 feet” or “20 signs per 1,000 attendees.” The better unit of measurement is the decision point.

A solid event/location system usually looks like:

arrival → orientation → advance direction → decision-point direction → reassurance → destination identification

So, for example:

Parking → Event Entrance → Registration → Hall A/B choice → “Hall A →” → “Hall A”

Helpful signs are those that answer a question exactly when the visitor needs the answer: Am I in the right place? Which direction now? Am I still going the right way? Have I arrived?

Unhelpful signage is typically duplicated information with no navigational purpose, giant directories presented at every intersection, long sentences, inconsistent destination names, signs placed after the turn, signs obscured by crowds, and decorative/sponsor signage that visually competes with operational guidance. FHWA's terminology is useful here: you want enough repeated directional guidance to maintain confidence, while avoiding sign clutter. MUTCD

For a temporary event, I would generally inventory six classes separately: arrival/identity, orientation/maps, directional, reassurance/confirmation, destination identification, and regulatory/safety/accessibility. Doing that tends to reveal both missing signs and unnecessary duplicates much more clearly than simply counting the total number of signs.

South Park is a Safe Space

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

The "everything liberals want annoys me" attitude reminds me: I have a screenshot saved of a Reddit comment from a deleted user that I think was posted in 2014/2015ish about South Park:

Yeah, and Manbearpig was almost ten years ago. What an idiot Al Gore was to think climate change was real.

South Park has always been fundamentally reactionary; those pushing for change are wrong no matter what change they push for. Nothing is a bigger crime to Matt and Trey than Giving a Shit. Their ideology is apathetic-libertarian; whether you're on the left or the right, if you're asking me to change my behavior, you suck.

As it stands, the political left tends to push for more change than the political right does; as it stands, Matt and Trey admit they dislike conservatives and "really fucking hate" liberals. It isn't about left or right; it's about change versus comfort. If you're trying to change something, they think you're annoying. And they think you're lame, because caring about stuff is lame.

It's the same attitude that establishes "u mad" and "butthurt" as the ultimate trump cards in internet arguments: caring is for losers, and if you become personally invested in politics you're part of the problem. Uncritical, detached acceptance of the status quo is the only morally upright posture, and those who draw a distinction between is and ought are all smug bullies, outlandish freaks, and/or closed-minded zealots.

It's a short that teaches its audience to become lazy and self-satisfied, that praises them for being uncritically accepting of their own biases, and that provides them with an endless buffet of thought-terminating cliches suitable for shutting down all manner of challenges to their comfort zones.

South Park is a place where you never have to have your assumptions challenged. It's a place where you're always right, you shouldn't bother to think, and the people asking you to change your mind are annoying busybodies and prigs who should just shut up and leave you alone.

South Park is, if you'll excuse the expression...a "safe space."

Toilet Paper Tube Face Sculptures

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

I thought it was neat how artists made faces out of cardboard toilet paper tubes, so I compiled a list of links about how to make them.

A good starting point is the work of Junior Fritz Jacquet, who creates expressive faces by folding, pinching, and compressing toilet-paper tubes.

Useful resources:

Toilet Paper Roll Faces Lesson — Classroom lesson inspired by Jacquet, with examples and a starter tutorial.
Junior Fritz Jacquet Faces — This Is Colossal — Photos and an overview of his technique.
TP Roll Face Sculpture — YouTube — Short demonstration of shaping a face from a tube.
Cardboard Tube Sculptures — Art Bar — Student face sculptures made from cut and glued tube sections.
Cardboard Tube Relief Sculptures — Middle-school project using folded and shaped cardboard tubes.
Toilet Paper Roll Faces — Pinterest — Collection of examples and variations.

Useful techniques include pinching inward for eye sockets, pushing cardboard outward for the nose, creasing the tube for brows and cheekbones, cutting and overlapping sections for mouths, and adding paint or ink washes after shaping.

Things Trump Joked About That He Actually Did

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of things Trump joked about that he later actually did.

Space Force: In March 2018, Trump said he had floated a “Space Force” while “not really serious,” before deciding it was a good idea. He later signed legislation formally establishing the U.S. Space Force on December 20, 2019.
A French-style military parade: After attending France’s Bastille Day parade in 2017, Trump said, to laughter, that the U.S. might stage something similar and would “have to try and top it.” A large military parade was ultimately held in Washington on June 14, 2025, during Trump’s second term.
“Department of War”: At the June 2025 NATO summit, Trump jokingly referred to Pete Hegseth as “Secretary of War” and suggested they might consider changing the name. On September 5, 2025, Trump signed an executive order authorizing “Department of War” and “Secretary of War” as secondary official titles.
Joe Arpaio pardon: At an August 22, 2017 rally, Trump told the crowd that Arpaio was “going to be just fine” and said he would not act that night. Three days later, Trump pardoned him.

Reddit Recommended VPN Services

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of VPN services recommended by Redditors.

Proton VPN — strongest overall Reddit alternative: privacy-focused, open-source apps, good speeds, streaming, Linux support, and port forwarding on paid plans.
IVPN — probably the closest philosophical alternative to Mullvad. Strong privacy reputation, good Linux support, minimal-data approach. Smaller server network and less streaming-focused.
Windscribe — commonly recommended for price, features, split tunneling, advanced DNS, and avoiding some VPN blocks. Privacy reputation is generally good, though opinions on reliability vary.
AirVPN — niche favorite, particularly for torrenting and technical users. Supports port forwarding, but its network and speeds tend to lag Proton.
NymVPN — increasingly mentioned by privacy-minded Redditors, but still newer and less proven; occasional client quirks are reported.
NordVPN — recommended more for speed and streaming than maximum privacy. Reddit opinion is notably polarized around its marketing, ownership, and pricing practices.
Private Internet Access (PIA) — still has users who describe it as reliable and fast, but it doesn't get the same privacy-community enthusiasm as Proton or IVPN.

For privacy first: IVPN → Proton. For torrenting: Proton → AirVPN. For features/value: Windscribe.

One caution: VPN-related Reddit discussion has substantial affiliate and promotional activity, so recurring recommendations across privacy-focused communities are generally more useful than isolated “best VPN” posts.

Why is Wednesday Spelled Like That?

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Because Wednesday preserves an old spelling even though its pronunciation changed. It comes from Old English Wōdnesdæg, meaning “Woden’s day”—the day named after the Germanic god Woden (Odin). Over centuries: Wōdnesdæg → Wednesday → “Wenzday”. The spelling kept the historical d, but everyday pronunciation dropped that sound. English spelling often preserves these older forms even after pronunciation changes.

Who Coined "Turing Test"?

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

Who coined the term "Turing Test"? Did Alan Turing call his "imitation game" that? (Apparently not, and there's some popular misconceptions about these terms.)

No. Alan Turing did not call it the “Turing test.”

In his 1950 paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Turing called the setup the “imitation game.” He begins the relevant section: “The new form of the problem can be described in terms of a game which we call the ‘imitation game’.”

Turing did sometimes describe the procedure generically as a “test.” In a 1952 BBC discussion, for example, he spoke of “a particular kind of test” to apply to a machine. But he never called it the “Turing test”—that eponymous name was applied later.

As for who actually coined the phrase “Turing test”: there does not seem to be a securely established individual coiner. The historical sources I can find treat it as a name that emerged in the subsequent literature rather than attributing it to a particular person. It was certainly in use by the late 1960s; a 1969 paper, for example, explicitly uses “Turing Test.”

One further wrinkle: Turing's original “imitation game” initially involved an interrogator trying to distinguish a man from a woman. He then asks what happens when a computer takes the man's place. So even equating the modern standardized “Turing test” exactly with Turing's opening game obscures some of what he actually wrote.

Wizard School Management Games on Steam

2026-10-01T11:00:00-04:00

A list of wizard school management games on Steam: Spellcaster University, Wizdom Academy, Mind Over Magic, Songs of Glimmerwick, Witchbrook

Spellcaster University — Build a magic university, recruit students, hire professors, manage magical disciplines, and survive disasters.
Wizdom Academy — Run a 3D wizard academy, constructing buildings, managing mana, training students, and sending expeditions.
Mind Over Magic — Magical-school colony sim with classrooms, dormitories, mage training, research, and supernatural threats.
Songs of Glimmerwick — Cozy RPG/life sim at a magical university, with classes, gardening, exploration, and relationships.
Witchbrook — Upcoming witch-college life sim with classes, friendships, magic, crafting, and town life.