"I feel like this is some kind of rule of improvement: in order to get better, you must feel uncomfortable. And if you get to a point where you feel comfortable, you need to force yourself out of that situation." https://illiteracyhasdownsides.com/2020/06/13/how-to-get-worse-at-starcraft-ii/

"Despite Ritchie’s much-deserved computing fame, his dissertation—the intellectual and biographical fork-in-the-road separating an academic career in computer science from the one at Bell Labs leading to C and Unix—was lost." https://computerhistory.org/blog/discovering-dennis-ritchies-lost-dissertation/

There's no point in me writing an Amazon review of The Martian, but I just finished it and... well, this is 5-stars for sure. I appreciate it especially because it's about a smart person using science to solve problems, with an upbeat attitude... and his "social distancing" makes my lockdown seem minor.

If you're looking for something geeky that'll make you feel good, consider this as a candidate.

Also now I have to watch the movie again.
https://amzn.to/2VpKzVk

#cosobookclub

In the midst of Australia’s record-breaking fire season, seven wild platypuses were whisked away to safety from the parched Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in Canberra. Now the unusual critters have returned home — newly kitted out with implanted tracking devices. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/science/platypuses-australia-wildfires.html

JPMorgan analyzed data from 30 million Chase cardholders and Johns Hopkins University’s case tracker and found that higher restaurant spending in a state predicted a rise in new infections there three weeks later. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/26/this-chart-shows-the-link-between-restaurant-spending-and-new-coronavirus-cases.html

How to tell a raven from a crow. https://www.birdandmoon.com

Woodstock ‘99 website is still operational and feels like getting into a Time Machine http://www.woodstock1999.com/

The radical history of gay liberation, Stonewall and Pride #longread
"Within a single lifetime, homosexuality has moved from being a crime and a psychiatric disorder, punished in the US by imprisonment, chemical castration, social ostracisation and a lifetime as a registered sex offender, to a socially and legally recognised sexual identity."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/25/party-and-protest-lgbtq-radical-history-gay-liberation-stonewall-pride

The German government developed a privacy-friendly contact tracing app. It's entirely open source, so the code can not only be inspected by experts, but may also be used and modified for other projects, for instance a US tracing app.

https://www.coronawarn.app/en/

"Parler has found itself in the right place and the right time, as many right-wingers are joining the site after defecting—or occasionally being ejected—from Twitter. " https://www.fastcompany.com/90522049/i-joined-parler-the-right-wing-echo-chambers-new-favorite-alt-twitter

Pencils weren't always yellow. We have the marketing genius of a 19th-century Czech manufacturer to thank for their now-ubiquitous hue. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-little-known-reason-pencils-yellow

A bearded dragon decided to take a 10-day, four kilometer hike before being found and reunited with its owner. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bearded-dragon-lost-winnipeg-st-boniface-wayward-1.5624792

Facebook to Warn Users Who Are About to Share Articles More Than 3 Months Old

...okay, this makes some sense. (Did I just say that?!)

https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-to-warn-users-who-are-about-to-share-articles-over-3-months-old/

London tube map made from a working circuit board https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2020/06/23/check-out-this-london-tube-map-made-from-a-working-circuit-board/

Swoon. This is gorgeous. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/4fq4hrgxvn/wax-print

If you're SO over sourdough and want a new home project... ($) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-12/building-your-own-bbq-grill-is-the-backyard-project-of-the-summer

I Am Liesl Von Trapp and I Owe the Resistance an Apology. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-liesl-von-trapp-and-i-owe-the-resistance-an-apology

A Renaissance painting reveals how breeding changed watermelons (2015) https://www.vox.com/2015/7/28/9050469/watermelon-breeding-paintings