Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

Getting warmer, getting warmer, already warm:

Following up on this post’s top link, NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish. (via)

Graph of date of peak cherry blossoms in Kyoto from 812 CE to today. The warmer average temperatures means earlier blooming. (via)

Zoomable map of all hotsprings in the United States, with temperatures. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from Naming of Parts, Henry Reed.

A few beautiful links:

Take Five, solo guitar transcription by Lucas Brar. (via)

Mars in 4K. CW: voiceover. Still worth watching on your best and largest screen. (via)

Superb Owl Sunday VIII. (via janni)

(I actually watched the Super Bowl for the first time in several decades—Eaglet plays flag-football as well as soccer-football, and wanted to see it. Spoiler: they skipped the game’s middle third because football is more boring to watch than play plus “who the heck is Usher?” Confession: I spent a lot of the game scrolling through r/SuperbOwl. As far as plague is concerned, we’re all negative now: Eaglet is back in school this week, though they skipped soccer-football practice yesterday because still tired, and I’m back at work, though not working full days, and janni still hasn’t caught it.)

---L.

Subject quote from Elizabeth, George Brandon Saul.

Link, vaguely united in theme with the post subject:

Star Wars Episode IV: the infographic adaptation. (via)

You’re not imagining it: Google search results really are getting worse, researchers find. Original paper. (via)

A new study suggests it’s not blue light that keeps you awake, but ANY light. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from In Memoriam A.H.H., section 106, Alfred the Tennyson.

A link for you, and a link for you, and a link for you:

Last night’s sunset was amazing, even for here. More pix in comments, and in other posts around the same time.

13-Year-Old Becomes First Person to Ever Beat Tetris on the NES, reaching the “kill screen.” Previously this had only been done by an AI. (via)

https://www.wasthecivilwaraboutslavery.com/. (American Civil War, to be clear.) Spoiler: yes, and citations are provided. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from An Ode in Time of Hesitation, William Vaughn Moody.

Not much of a theme here—just, yanno, some links:

An account of the Darien Scheme, Scotland’s one attempt at colonization (outside of Ireland).

Using reader reviews of All Systems Red as a study of how well people accept using non-gendered pronouns. (via)

Minesweeper Twist, on a non-rectilinear grid. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from Venice, John Addington Symons, and the rest is just as … shady, let’s call it.

Links of varying importance:

Naomi Klein: “Side with the child over the gun every single time, no matter whose gun and no matter whose child.” (via janni)

(I’ll let that sit there for a moment. If you follow only one of these links, let it be that one.)

Wiktionary has started the important task of building out entries for emoji. Did they get to 🍑 and 🍆 quickly? Of course they did 😂

“The human brain uses one mechanism to assess [the number of items when there are] four or fewer items and a different one for when there are five or more.” (via)

---L.

Subject quote from All Quiet Along the Potomac (aka The Picket Guard), Ethel Lynn Beers.

Links to share:

A reminder of the simple rule for comforting people in crisis: Comfort In, Dump Out. (via lost)

The default iPhone alarm trill turned into a piano ballad. Eaglet: “How do people write these things?!” (via)

Ramen.haus serves up rotating pictures of bowls of ramen. That’s it. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from Eat It, Weird Al Yankovic.

Did you know that the 2023 Bulwer-Lytton Contest winners have been announced? Well, now you do. My favorite is the first Dishonorable Mention from the Adventure category:

If there’s a snake in your boot, you dump it out by the creek, and if it’s got feathers, you dump it out in the creek, and if it’s talkin’ at you, you dump it out gently and apologize and keep an eye out for the mama dragon, and tarnation these city slickers don’t know the first thing about stayin’ alive out here.

Mara Lynn Johnstone, Santa Rose, CA

I totally would read that novel.

If, like many, you are grumpy about how self-aware so many entries are, may I direct you to this year’s winners of the Lyttle Lytton Contest? The brevity rule (all of your entries, combined, must be under 200 characters) tends to enforce actual, yanno, badness. Overall winner:

The sorrowful sun sank into the tears that were the waves, and Sammy too began to cry a bit.

W. Oakley

I totally would not read that novel.

---L.

Subject quote from You Don't Love Me Anymore, Weird Al Yankovic.

A few stunning links:

Formulations of quantum mechanics that do not use complex numbers, only real numbers, cannot correctly match all predictions of “standard” quantum mechanics. IOW, imaginary numbers are real. (via lost)

A column about dip hop, in which deaf rappers lay down rhymes in sign, with or without oral rapping as well. (via)

Woodblock printmaker David Bull is creating prints from a series of previously unpublished drawings by Katsushika Hokusai, originally created for a project called “The Great Picture Book of Everything” that was canceled for reasons unknown. The first print (at the top) is of Kannon/Guan-yin riding a dragon’s head. Relevant British Museum website, and search results for all 103 drawings.

Subject quote from Since U Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson.

Arts, arts, arts:

Longboard girls dancing. Longboard guy dancing. (via comments here)

Using Stable Diffusion working anime (and other art-style) QR codes. (via)

Fanmade graphic novel version of the Tumblr collaboration “God of Arepo”. (via)

Arts!

---L.

Subject quote from Halo, Beyoncé.