Saying goodbye is easy. Finding new homes for your stuff is the challenge. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/28/a-guide-to-getting-rid-of-almost-everything-decluttering

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been knocked offline for more than a month

"That's a major problem in a nation where the population of around 320,000 people is distributed across dozens of islands north of New Zealand."

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140752192/the-pacific-island-nation-of-vanuatu-has-been-knocked-offline-for-more-than-a-mo

The makers of popular Twitter clients, including Aviary and Tweetbot, have recently set their sights on building similar clients for the growing Mastodon user base. https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/05/third-party-twitter-app-makers-turn-their-attention-to-mastodon/

The fight against measles is one of humanity's greatest achievements of the 21st century. Despite a brief resurgence in 2019, and a fall in vaccination rates during the pandemic, between 2000 and 2021 the annual number of measles deaths fell from 761,000 to 128,000; saving an estimated 56 million lives. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/364731/WER9747-eng-fre.pdf

The Bureau of Land Management gets the $7 entry fee from the 64 daily hikers who are lucky enough to visit Coyote Buttes. The $14,400 in lottery fees that the day’s hopeful hikers pay to Recreation.gov for a shot at a permit all go to Booz Allen. https://doctorow.medium.com/booz-allen-tickemastered-americas-public-lands-8edf4c0dddcc

I have no problem with spending 5 hours editing a gnarly white paper.
But filling in purchase order forms? Expense reports? Tracking my freelance budget? Nope, I never have time for THAT.

The story of Louis Pasteur and the development of the rabies vaccine. https://sciencehistory.org/distillations/biting-back

A rigorous new study from Stanford has found no meaningful association between the age at which kids receive their first smartphones and their wellbeing, as measured by grades, sleep habits and depression symptoms. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/11/children-mobile-phone-age.html

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2022 is gaslighting, "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one's own advantage."
...no it isn't.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year

Peggy Whitson was the first woman to command the International Space Station. At 62, she is planning to return to space in May.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/130634896/the-first-female-space-station-commander-is-going-back-into-space-at-62

Watching how ducks swim in a row is providing clues to shipping goods around the world in more energy efficient ways, and other cool stuff. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/23/velcro-bullet-trains-and-robotic-arms-nature-mother-of-invention-aoe

The Top Conferences for Developers to Attend in 2023

It’s that time of year: Ask the boss for the budget to attend a tech conference! Here are the events that should be on your short list.
https://redis.com/blog/database-developers-conferences-2023/

The Spooky Quest to Build a Google Maps for Graveyards

"Since November 2021, Atlantic Geomatics surveyors have been walking through graveyards, row by row, wearing a Leica Pegasus backpack that contains five 20-megapixel cameras, a GPS receiver, and two laser scanners that take 300,000 measurements a second."

https://www.wired.com/story/google-street-view-for-cemeteries/

"Look, I went through it myself. In the early days I insisted that sites shouldn’t do any moderation at all, including my own. But I learned." https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run-the-content-moderation-learning-curve/

Millions of Alzheimer’s patients have been given hope after a new drug has been shown to slow memory decline by 27% over 18 months. It's the biggest breakthrough in a generation. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63749586

Double batch of noodle kugel in the oven.
A friend had a hip replacement. We're taking Leo enough food for him to graze on it for a few days. (And keeping one batch for us.)