The Daily Dad — Dec 31, 2023

Our final installment of 2023:

Paula Abdul Sues American Idol and Producer Nigel Lythgoe Over Sexual Assault Claims
💭 Holy hell. I am shocked. Paula says she has witnesses, so Nigel’s in deep shit. And if the claim is accurate, I would expect a lot of So You Think You Can Dance alums to come forward with complaints… if he was boldly moving on a forty- and fiftysomething B-lister like Paula Abdul, you can bet there will be a bunch of teenaged dancers who have stories, too.
What Are ‘Missed Period Pills,’ and How Do They Work?
❝ Menstrual regulation—sometimes referred to as “missed period pills”—is a new front in women’s battle for bodily autonomy. Here’s how it works and what you need to know.
Florida woman comes home to find her driveway was stolen
❝ A Florida woman came home from work to find she had been robbed — but it wasn’t your usual burglary. Rather than jewels or mail or holiday gifts, someone had…
17 relaxing video games to help you destress
❝ To aid those who could use some help winding down, we’ve rounded up a few games that purposefully deemphasize aggression but aren’t overly cute or so…
I played 20 city builders in 2023, and these are the 4 I loved most
❝ If you’re looking for new city builders, start right here.

Was the Civil War about slavery? YES.
💭 I still remember the day I found out that (a) the “it was about states’ rights” scam was a thing, and (b) virtually everyone I worked with had fallen for it. I was nineteen, and had honestly never heard someone seriously argue the point. It was like a glimpse inside a very stupid alternate reality.
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen accidentally cited fake court cases generated by AI
❝ Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Donald Trump, admitted to mistakenly citing fake court cases generated by Google’s Bard AI chatbot.
Microsoft’s Copilot app is now available on iOS
💭 Microsoft is here to help Michael Cohen make his next mistake.
New Research Reveals Ranged Weapons May Have Happened 10,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought
❝ Humans may have had access to long-ranged weapons 31,000 years ago. according to researchers who performed a ballistic analysis on a collection of ancient flint projectile heads.
Man who is University of Wisconsin chancellor and also a porn star loses one of his jobs
❝ Joe Gow is out as a chancellor of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse after its board of regents learned he had a displeasing side hustle: producing and appearing in “porn”, including…

Smell of women’s tears reduces aggression in men
💭 That is… not my experience. Or that of my penis.
Tom Smothers Made the Variety Show Cool: ‘I Didn’t Want to Do the Standard Bullshit’
❝ Tom Smothers, the counterculture comedian who died at 86, talked making variety shows subversive with pot jokes and politics in this lost interview.
The Cockroach Cure
❝ Forty years ago, scientists did the impossible. Why doesn’t anyone remember?
What happens if you put a black hole into the sun?
💭 Well, duh. Obviously it comes, and washes away the rain.
Online daters love to hate on Hinge. 10 years in, it’s more popular than ever.
❝ Hinge has tried its darnedest to fix online dating. Is the real problem us?

How Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off)
❝ Frank Miller made Daredevil a success – and Marvel was keen to keep him as long as they could.
Millennials value sex more in relationships than Gen Z
💭 I’m suspicious of these kinds of surveys, since they capture how people wish to be perceived rather than how they actually fuck… I’d be surprised if the difference is all that significant. I mean, is Gen Z more concerned with appearing sexually sober than its Millennial elder sibling? Perhaps. But in the end, “horny” and “kinky” will consume all politics. Friction always wins.
‘Hell Camp’: Paris Hilton and the Troubled Teen Industry’s Abuse Epidemic
❝ Netflix documentary ‘Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare’ shines a light on the systemic abuse within youth treatment centers and wilderness programs.
The Sun is shrinking 5 feet per hour
❝ Scientists reveal the Sun is not static but dynamically shrinking, part of a long-term pulsation that might be key to its life-giving energy. Over centuries, it’s a fascinating cosmic breath.
Capybaras + Vaporwave = The Most Relaxing Video Ever
❝ If you need to relax after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I’ve got the perfect video for you. Its YouTube title reads, “1 hour relax with capybaras and…

André Braugher, star of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ and ‘Homicide,’ dies at 61
💭 Easily one of the most important, talented actors of his generation… we would have never had The Wire without Mr. Braugher’s Det. Pembleton and his weekly master-class in The Box. I would say his enormous gifts were wasted on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but he seemed to be enjoying himself, and his fanbase broadened. I’m glad he got to do something so popular, after being so great in obscurity.
This Clever New Idea Could Fix AirTag Stalking While Maximizing Privacy
❝ Apple updated its location-tracking system in an attempt to cut down on AirTag abuse while still preserving privacy. Researchers think they’ve found a better balance.
Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you.
❝ My very minor status as an authority on Hitler comparisons stems from having coined “Godwin’s Law” more than three decades ago.
Swedish Researchers develop ‘electronic soil’ that speeds up plant growth
❝ Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden developed a ‘bioelectronic soil’ that can speed up the growth of plants in controlled agricultural farming…
Popular Slay The Spire mod Downfall was hijacked to spread malware through Steam
❝ Slay The Spire mod Downfall was hijacked to spread malware that steals passwords via Steam.

Doctor Who: Timeless Child Identity & Time Lord Origin Explained (Properly)
❝ The Doctor Who season 12 finale finally explained the mystery of the Timeless Child and rewrote the Doctor’s history in the series’ biggest retcon.
NY Times copyright suit wants OpenAI to delete all GPT instances
💭 In the next few years, generative intelligences will become just sophisticated enough to bring out the lawyers en masse, and one of two things will happen: virtually all of today’s machine learning leaders will be wiped out by lawsuits, or the industry will be rescued via legislation… “if China lets their datasets run wild while we corral our own, they’ll have a competitive advantage!”
Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective
❝ Tesla records reveal the automaker has long known far more about the extent of defects than it has disclosed to consumers and safety regulators.
The Best TV Shows You Missed in 2023—and Where to Watch Them
❝ From creepy Cronenberg adaptations to Cold War spy thrillers, 2023 was awash in great television. Here’s where you can binge it all.
You can climb on giant Little Debbie snack sculptures at this park in Tennessee
💭 I want to take Blossom here, but I’m afraid I’d lose her among all the oversized pastries.