Weekend Reading

  • 10 Strikes and You’re Out – the iOS Feature You’re Probably Not Using But Should
    For many years now, iOS has offered an option in the Passcode section of the Settings all: “Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts.
    tldr; the timeout between attempts increases, would take 4 hrs to get through all 10.

  • Wearing glasses may really mean you’re smarter, major study finds
    If you wear glasses I’ve got some good news: you may well be smarter than the average person. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has found that needing to wear glasses is associated with higher levels of intelligence. But you probably knew that already.
    Does having glasses but not wearing them as often as you should, count? (does asking that question rule me out?)

  • Have donut holes gotten smaller? This compelling vintage chart says yes.
    Today is National Doughnut Day, a day with a surprisingly long history — but there’s more to doughnut day than pastry celebration alone.
    Any mention of timbits and you get a slap…

  • What Starbucks anti-bias training day was like, according to employees
    “To be welcomed as a customer means that not only do I allow you in, but it means that I’m glad you’re here, I want to serve you, I want your business. And I don’t draw distinctions between you and other customers in terms of your value.”
    Good and bad sides. Surely the fact it was even needed speaks volumes?

  • Is It Really That Bad to Let Your Dog Sleep in Bed …
    We get it. It’s hard to beat snuggling up in bed with Buster, your big, fluffy, cuddly collie. But you can’t help but wonder: Is canoodling with your pup at nighttime sabotaging your sleep? It’s hard to say no to those puppy dog eyes when they’re begging you to let you share the bed.
    Sharing for a friend (‘at’ a friend?)

  • The Midlife Unraveling
    In my late thirties, my intuition had tried to warn me about the possibility of a midlife struggle. I experienced internal rumblings about the meaning and purpose of my life.
    I am complete in my unravel. Time to start re-ravelling.

  • The miller’s tale: poverty, obesity and the 45p loaf
    Cinnamon Square craft bakery, in a historic building in Rickmansworth, near Watford, has been full of children on their half-term break learning the ancient art of proving and kneading dough.
    The fact that this isn’t surprising or even shocking is very telling.

  • Getting to Know the ‘Power Gut’
    Sometimes, you look at a guy in the gym and think: Huh, he’s got a bit of a gut — bet he doesn’t work out very hard. Then, said guy proceeds to lift a 1978 Volkswagen bus over his head with one arm while still doing lateral lunges. Congratulations, you’ve just met: The Power Gut.
    YASSSSS!! It me!! (not really but I’m so using this as an excuse).

  • 21 Vending Machines From Around The World That Are Already Living In 3018

    AND WHY ARE NONE OF THESE IN GLASGOW!!

  • This baby’s first word was ‘Alexa’
    Mama, dada . . . Alexa? It’s not a classic “baby’s first word,” but it was 1-year-old Joe Brady’s pick.
    OK. Baby repeats sound. Why is this a story? It’s what babies do!

  • Neville Southall: ‘I’ve got a bit of flak because I stick up for sex workers’
    The former Wales and Everton goalkeeper discusses LGBT issues, Theresa May, skeletons, the agony of Loris Karius and why he really dislikes Piers Morgan.
    Southall for PM?

  • Own Goal: The Inside Story of How the USMNT Missed the 2018 World Cup
    Hadn’t even realised they weren’t gonna be there.

  • 17 F*cks You Should Finally Stop Giving When You’re A Grown And Mature Person
    We arrive in this world completely clueless, expecting life to be this pinky, Utopian place where justice is always served, milk flows instead of rivers, and people are actually nice to each other. And, if you ask me, that is a place I truly wish to be in.
    Huzzah! More things to not give a fuck about. Sorry… ‘a f*ck about’.

  • How Chris Froome won Giro d’Italia thanks to ‘spectacular’ stage 19 victory
    It was one of the most dramatic days of sport in recent memory: Chris Froome, after three weeks of injury, uncertain form and struggle, staged a spectacular 80km solo break on stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia to overturn a three-minute deficit and snatch an overall lead that he would never relinquish.
    The more I read this, and other fact checkable articles, the more I’m convinced they aren’t doping, just a level above everyone else.

  • The US Army’s new algorithm tells you how much caffeine will hit your body’s peak performance
    The Army wants you….awake. Since at least WWII, US military scientists have been tinkering with the human brain to keep pilots, soldiers and staff alert despite lack of sleep. Their enemies have as well: The Nazis infamously plied their ranks with methamphetamines (also known as speed).
    If it isn’t 4 cups don’t even tell me.

  • San Francisco Voters Uphold Ban on Flavored Vaping Products
    The measure is considered the strictest in the nation. Voters backed it despite an expensive advertising campaign funded by a major tobacco company.
    GOOD! Feels like vaping is more popular than smoking these days. Still as inconsiderate, no matter what ‘flavour’ of smoke you belch out into my face.

  • In Praise of Extreme Moderation
    Why does it seem like you can’t throw a paper airplane in some offices without hitting a person who is training for a marathon, planning a 10-day silent meditation retreat, or intending on scaling Kilimanjaro? On top of working 24/7 for a company that doesn’t pay overtime?
    Yes to this. It features a word I’ve used on this blog before many times, “balance”.

  • Impatient former Hong Kong librarian arrested after stealing customers’ personal data to borrow books faster
    A bibliophile who used to work as a librarian in a public library has been arrested for using the personal information of about 130 customers without their permission so that she could quickly borrow their loaned books.
    And I thought having 18 unread books was bad!

  • A New Tech Manifesto
    Six demands, from a citizen to Big Tech.
    Sensible, people focussed, easy to implement. Yes to these.

  • Standing On A Little Ball of Dirt
    “You’re just standing on one little ball of dirt and spinning around one of the stars. From that perspective, do you really care what people think about your clothes or your car?” ― Michael A. Singer
    When a quote lands, a quote lands.

  • Norman, the world’s first psychopath AI
    A research team at MIT’s Media Lab have built what they call the “world’s first psychopath AI”. Meet Norman…it provides creepy captions for Rorschach inkblots. A psychopathic AI is freaky enough, but the kicker is that they used Reddit as the dataset.
    Reddit users eh. Look at the surprise on my face.

  • Emotional eating, binge eating and friends – some definitions
    Howdy comrades! I’ll be writing monthly updates here about how I’m getting on with my binge eating recovery shenanigans since I got home from Green Mountain, as well as sharing some resources that I’ve found helpful.
    I’m definitely somewhere on this scale on any given day.

  • How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Electric Scooters
    I wanted to hate the scooters. I really did. Before going to the Los Angeles region last week for work, I had heard about the area’s invasion by dockless, rent-by-the-minute electric scooters.
    A lot of my posts feature stories from the USA. Why? Because electric scooters will be over here soon enough.

  • LEGO and Augmented Reality
    There’s no doubt in my mind that augmented reality is going to be amazing and that people will build incredible new experiences with Apple’s ARKit, version 2 of which was announced earlier this week at the company’s annual World Wide Developers Conference.
    I had almost these exact thoughts! Ohhh that’s cool but… Also, the proliferation of kits isn’t helping.

  • “The Directors Series” Presents Free Immersive Studies of Stanley Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson & Christopher Nolan
    Humorist and movie critic Joe Queenan once stood outside a theater after a screening of Jurassic Park and asked each exiting viewer if they knew who directed the film they’d just seen. Only five out of the ten who talked to him, he reported, could name Steven Spielberg.
    Be still my aching movie geek. There goes a weekend!

  • Colin Moncrieff – my experience of being a Clowndoctor at Robin House Hospice
    Dr Cous Cous (Colin Moncrieff) regularly visits Robin House – one of the CHAS hospices in Scotland. Here he tells us about his experience of being a Clowndoctor and the rewards he gets from visiting the children at Robin House.
    I’m presuming this all happens before any of the kids have read/seen ‘IT’.

  • Is the Age-Old Quest for a Baldness Cure Reaching Its End?
    A few years ago, Dr. David Weinstein started to lose his hair. “I really was pissed off,” he explained to me recently, in the tidy, tiny conference room of a co-working space in Manhattan.
    Meanwhile, I’m pondering completely shaving my head… embrace the baldness.