Upwork announces $28M profit, slashes staff by 21% https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/upwork-announces-28m-profit-lays-off-21-percent-19861115.php

George Takei Reveals The Origin Of 'Oh My'
TIL...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A_kYMfGc4k

The whole setup was portable and they just hacked into a wire on a telephone pole, asked the operator to clear the line, and sent a photo scan via an analog modem. Ingenious! https://kottke.org/24/03/how-photos-were-transmitted-by-wire-in-the-1930s

Not the article where I expected to find this advice, but here we are.

“If you don’t cannibalize yourself, though, in tech, you’re doomed. Somebody else will do it. If you’re not constantly really rethinking what you’re doing and trying to adopt disruptive technologies—disruptive, that is, to yourself—you will be disrupted, and be gone.” https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/an-oral-history-of-the-aim-away-message-by-the-people-who-were-there/

“I think the world wanted to see this,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts told reporters after the National League Championship Series.

Narrator voice: The world did not, in fact, want to see this.

(The article is otherwise worthwhile.) https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/mlb/dodgers-yankees-world-series-rcna177076

"I would like to assure the gentleman that it is not my intention to ever have this country become short of rice, because, as much as I like potatoes, and in Idaho we do like potatoes, I would hate to see them come to the point where they would have to throw potatoes at weddings."--Then Representative Steven Symms (ID)

Overheard: I like to talk about the old days when we used to get Netflix through the mail.

"I Got Dysentary So You Don't Have To" https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2024/10/21/i-got-dysentery-so-you-dont-have-to/

Secret tomb found under ‘Indiana Jones’ filming location in Petra
"With a film crew, the team excavated the newly uncovered tomb in August. But the real surprise was what lay within the tomb. While many tombs uncovered within Petra are found empty or disturbed, the chamber was filled with complete skeletal remains and grave goods made from bronze, iron and ceramic."
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/12/science/petra-tomb-indiana-jones-discovery/index.html

Researchers found a way to recreate fingerprints from the sounds made when you swipe a screen. (From a while ago, still interesting.) https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/your-fingerprints-can-be-recreated-from-the-sounds-made-when-you-swipe-on-a-touchscreen-researchers-new-side-channel-attack-can-reproduce-partial-fingerprints-to-enable-attacks

The Miraculous Resurrection of Notre-Dame
https://www.gq.com/story/the-miraculous-resurrection-of-notre-dame

The WHO has certified Egypt, home to 100 million people, as malaria-free, marking a century since the country's initial efforts to eliminate the disease. https://www.who.int/news/item/20-10-2024-egypt-is-certified-malaria-free-by-who

Click on Sisyphus to push the rock up the mountain https://kinda.fun/sisyphus

Iftah Gabbai is building a dataset of “hardware synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines” produced since 1896, “compiled through a mix of automated and manual processes, combined with extensive research.” For each of the 2,300+ devices identified, the dataset indicates its name, brand, release year, years in production, device type (synth, sampler, et cetera), form factor, architecture, synth engine used, number of keys, key type, oscillator count, and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omj405hkOt0

Nearly 12,140 km2 of grassland ranches in the United States have now been certified by the Audubon Society as bird-friendly. #GoodNews https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-certification-touts-s-w-lasater-ranch-colorado-beacon-grassland-birds

Hiring in tech is harder than ever. AI isn’t helping

I was inspired to write this one last freelance article after an HR person told me in a job screening, "We got 1,400 applications for this role. You're one of the 10 people we decided to talk with.”

The best part of the story is the M&Ms.
https://www.runtime.news/hiring-in-tech-is-harder-than-ever-ai-isnt-helping/

Engraved on a metal plate, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's 'In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa' has begun its journey to Jupiter's moon via NASA's Europa Clipper. https://blogs.nasa.gov/europaclipper/2024/10/14/in-praise-of-mystery-a-poem-for-europa/

@ProjectShadow ...and on HIM?!

Olivia Nuzzi is out at New York Magazine after relationship with RFK Jr. https://nymag.com/press/article/an-update-to-our-readers.html