.

The mystery of the cover letter: Why do recruiters still ask for them?

This is WONDERFUL reading! You'll laugh, I'm sure.

"I have a tattoo of your logo/founder’s face on my lower back. I have named all of my pets after your various product lines. I am grateful just to be given the opportunity to be rejected by you."
https://www.economist.com/business/2024/09/05/the-mystery-of-the-cover-letter

What Do US Vehicle Regulators Have Against Tiny Cars?

Super-small urban vehicles have found a place in European and Asian cities. But in the US, federal and state rulemakers seem determined to keep minicars at bay.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-04/why-americans-can-t-buy-the-tiny-cars-that-europeans-love

"It’s time to look at some of the best baseball films over the last 35 years and some of the scripts that can teach screenwriters ways to tell a heartwarming tale with lots of supporting characters and memorable moments."

We know it's just an excuse to revisit favorite movies, right?
https://thescriptlab.com/weekly-feature/39564-baseball-movies-scripts-to-read-before-the-world-series/

Maybe they’re not ghosting you after all
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm240jyl09go

This. Emphatically THIS.

"The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity." ..."A recent global survey by Kantar found that a net 26% of marketers plan to decrease their spending on X next year, the steepest pullback from any major global ad platform."

I cannot think of another business example where someone so clearly tanked an organization.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/elon-musk-twitter-x-fidelity/index.html

"He seems to have an inordinate fondness for beetles."
-- John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, British geneticist and writer (1892-1964), when asked late in his life whether his studies had taught him anything about God that he might care to share (JBS Haldane was an atheist. Beetles comprise about a quarter of all known species.)

Voices in praise of solitude, of its ample creative and spiritual rewards, its primal sanities. https://www.themarginalian.org/2024/07/16/solitude/

Oh look, it's another underwear review!

Do I know how to party or what? https://amzn.to/3NeTxzj

A LEGO Turing machine
I can hear some of you shouting, "Shut up and take my money!" https://ideas.lego.com/projects/10a3239f-4562-4d23-ba8e-f4fc94eef5c7

Top 10 cold murder cases solved using modern DNA analysis: https://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/10-cold-cases-solved

In 1996, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts gave the classic Mary Tyler Moore theme song, “Love Is All Around,” a rock-and-roll twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NI8WJ85EVw&t=151s

The imagery is linked to the iconography of Zoroastrianism, the state religion of the Sasanian empire, the last Persian empire before the early Muslim conquests from AD632. Scientific analysis shows that the silver from which it was made came from a mine in modern-day Iran. https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/01/amazing-viking-age-treasure-travelled-half-the-world-to-scotland-analysis-finds

One man's journey from state prison to a revered San Francisco restaurant #upliftingnews

While incarcerated, Thomas fell in love with baking as part of his work in the prison kitchen but never dreamed he’d be able to cook and bake on the outside. Today, he’s honing personal recipes and working four days a week as a prep cook at Flour + Water in San Francisco’s Mission District. https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/mans-journey-prison-san-francisco-restaurant-19763190.php

"Quattrone Center Academic Director Paul Heaton’s new paper explores how he and his co-authors trained a large language model to parse eyewitness confidence statements." https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-carey-law-how-ai-tools-can-help-assess-verbal-eyewitness-statements

The National Wetlands Inventory, maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, provides interactive maps and bulk data containing “geospatially referenced information on the status, extent, characteristics and functions of wetland, riparian, deepwater, and related aquatic habitats.” https://www.fws.gov/program/national-wetlands-inventory

.

.