I'm browsing through my older Amazon reviews to see which are (still) popular. My review of Jelly Roll Quilts was upvoted by 53 people. Vainly, I think it's worth it. (The book is still great, too; I've made other quilts from these patterns.) https://amzn.to/3Y0jOHD

If a wine’s vintage is decided by the year the grapes were harvested, wouldn’t it be fitting for France to celebrate the New Year at harvest time? At the turn of the 19th century, that’s just what France did. https://www.messynessychic.com/2024/02/29/happy-new-year-its-the-year-230-according-to-the-french-republican-calendar/

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Jack Kerouac’s List of 30 Beliefs and Techniques for Writing and Life
including:
Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening
Try never get drunk outside yr own house
Be in love with yr life
Something that you feel will find its own form

https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/03/22/jack-kerouac-belief-and-technique-for-modern-prose/

TIL about the BBC Sound Effects Archive https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/

North Korean Hackers Target German Missile Maker with Fake Job Offers https://www.vulnu.com/p/north-korean-hackers-target-german-missile-maker-with-fake-job-offers

Assam's rhino population grows fivefold as poaching drops 86% since 2016
https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/assam-s-rhino-population-grows-fivefold-as-poaching-drops-86-since-2016-124092300450_1.html

As a bandleader, Ellington didn’t just write music and then find the perfect players to play it — he found great players first, and then he wrote music to take advantage of their strengths. https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/human-resources

On the brink of trial, the cable news channel Newsmax on Thursday reached a settlement with voting machine company Smartmatic, bringing an end to a defamation lawsuit that accused the network of spreading multiple false claims surrounding the 2020 election. https://abcnews.go.com/US/newsmax-reaches-settlement-smartmatic-claims-2020-election/story?id=114233659

I could shorten this to: ChatGPT-written prose has a smell.

If you don't have anything to say, ChatGPT won't say it for you. It'll make you THINK that it'll say it for you. The author's conference example captures this quite well.
https://www.ontestautomation.com/i-am-tired-of-ai/

New research is proving that youth activism, in the form of an organized movement of young men who called themselves the Wide Awakes, played a critical role in Abraham Lincoln's election.
I would not mind it if #WideAwake trended.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-wide-awakes-1860-election

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LAPD raid goes bad after gun allegedly sucked onto MRI machine
You think YOU had a bad day?

At one point, an officer walked into an MRI room, past a sign warning that metal was prohibited inside, with his rifle “dangling… in his right hand, with an unsecured strap,” the lawsuit said. The MRI machine’s magnetic force then allegedly sucked his rifle across the room, pinning it against the machine. https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/lapd-cannabis-mri-raid-19789448.php

Michael Jackson Signed Fine Art "This spectacular online-only sale, organised by King’s Auction Inc., features a collection of 76 works signed by the King of Pop." https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/186840842_original-collection-all-lots-art-signed-by-michael-jackson-76-pieces-26-are-double

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It was on this day in 1957 that the musical West Side Story opened on Broadway....

https://thewritersalmanac.substack.com/p/the-writers-almanac-from-thursday-c19

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The coin is set in motion by a motor hidden inside it. A magnetic field generated between the motor and the specially designed base below then causes it to float in the air.
https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/02/08/polish-mint-creates-worlds-first-flying-coin/