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.

• Amazon’s Prime Video will start serving ads on January 29 unless you pay extra
  💭 Dear Jeff Bezos and Rings of Power: very kindly go fuck yourselves. Love, Me.
• Reindeer Sleep and Eat Simultaneously, Saving Precious Time in the Short Arctic Summer
  ❝ While the animals chew their cud, they also enter a state of rest

The Daily Dad — Dec 25, 2023

Things you might want to know:

• One of the best Christmas specials is also the hardest to find
  💭 Olive the Other Reindeer has been an annual tradition in my home since its TV debut in 1999. I’m honestly not a big fan of Grown Up Drew Barrymore, but I feel it’s the closest thing to a classic that exists outside the realm of Rankin/Bass and Charles Schulz.
• Coin Tosses Are Not 50/50: Scientists Toss 350757 Coins And Prove Old Theory
  ❝ Look closely at the starting position if you want to win.
• The Crown’s Dominic West had to be corrected over eating asparagus
  ❝ It’s all in the fingers.
• I tried Apple’s alternative iPhone interface in iOS 17 — here’s what happened
  ❝ iOS 17 Assistive Access is a whole new look for your iPhone’s interface
• I tested Blu-ray vs Netflix and Disney Plus on the same movies, and the biggest difference surprised me
  ❝ It’s good ol’ fashioned discs vs the internet

• Every Bethesda Game Ever Released: A Full History
  💭 A minor aside: I owned Sword of Sodan on the Amiga. It was one of those games that Amiga owners would buy —like Shadow of the Beast— that weren’t actually fun in any way, but were so technically impressive that we couldn’t resist.
• The X-Men Will Rise to a New Relaunch Next Summer
  ❝ Mutantkind takes its first real post-Krakoa steps, starting with the vaguely titled From the Ashes.
• Stop Deleting Photos on Your iPhone to Free Up Storage and Do This Instead
  💭 So this article is full of “duh”, but I’ve found that lots of people have a thoroughly “duh” relationship with their phones, so… here ya go.
• I must’ve played at least 100 retro games this year—these are the 5 I’d still recommend to everyone today
  ❝ All of these games from the ‘80s, ’90s and 2000s have aged like fine wine.
• How to dig yourself out of credit card debt
  ❝ Plus, how to make sure you get your fair share of a mortgage investment in the case of a divorce.

The Daily Dad — Dec 23, 2023

Things you might want to know:

• Ryan Gosling Unveils ‘Ken The EP’ With New Christmas Version
  ❝ The EP includes a seasonal spin on his Barbie soundtrack hit, “I’m Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie),” along with a video of Gosling, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt in the studio. Additional “I’m Just Ken” renditions include “In My Feelings Acoustic,” “Purple Disco Machine Remix,” and the original.
• Apple Wants to Partner With Major Publishers to Train AI – MacRumors
  ❝ Apple has approached several major publishers to establish deals that would allow the Cupertino company to train generative artificial intelligence…
• “Fentanyl exposure” is not a thing
  ❝ Illicit use of fentanyl has been linked to overdoses since the 1970s. In this video, Dr. Marino explains why accidental exposure is highly unlikely. Learn more about fentanyl overdose facts in this blog post!
• Google’s ChatGPT competitor Bard is nearly as good — just slower
  💭 For now, Bard is my go-to LLM front-end. It’s frequently wrong or confused —like all LLMs— but provides enough value to pull me back from time to time. And it’s free, which makes its annoyances a little less annoying.
• Police have unlimited warrantless access to Americans’ medical records via Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and other pharmacies
  ❝ U.S pharmacy chains such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid provide police warrantless access to customers’ medical records, reports Ars Technica. Some don’t even have legal professionals review the requests,…

• Raquel Leviss: Why the Heck Did I Return to Vanderpump Rules?!?
  💭 Because you’re a fame-whore, honey. Because you’re a fame-whore.
• The persistence of tradition: the curious case of Henry Symeonis
  ❝ Christmas is a time for tradition, and the University of Oxford is well known for diligently preserving its traditions for centuries. Many of these have long outlived the people who established the…
• Surgeon punches patient during operation
  ❝ A surgeon in China is in trouble after punching a patient three times in the head during an operation. Viral footage of the incident has outraged the nation and already…
• Joe Biden Pardons Federal Marijuana Possession Convictions
  ❝ On Friday, President Joe Biden announced that he’s pardoning federal and D.C. marijuana possession convictions.
• From the Depths of Wikipedia: none of the phrasing from the 2003…
  ❝ From the Depths of Wikipedia: none of the phrasing from the 2003 “Ship of Theseus” page on Wikipedia remains

• Jan. 6 rioter nabbed in Bumble dating app sting pleads guilty to assaulting officers
  ❝ Her strategy, she said, was to say, “Wow, crazy, tell me more,” on repeat until guys gave her enough to send their information to the FBI.
• South Park: Snow Day! Announces Release Date With New Trailer – IGN
  💭 Given how bad the Beavis & Butthead games were, South Park has had it pretty easy… The Stick of Truth was actually pretty damned good. So there’s at least a chance that Snow Day won’t be complete dog-shit… but I’m limiting my optimism until something bolsters it.
• Facebook Marketplace Is Being Ruined by Zelle Scammers
  ❝ I tried to sell a futon on Facebook Marketplace and nearly all I got were scammers.
• Apple’s Mac Mini M2 falls back to a low of $479
  💭 If you’ve already got a monitor/mouse/keyboard, this is an excellent deal.

• The Gilded Age renewed for a third season
  💭 I was completely unaware that there’s a subset of the audience that hate-watches this show; I’m mystified. Is it great television? Not really. But it’s as good as any latter season of Downton Abbey, and I enjoy seeing Cynthia Nixon play something so un-Miranda. I can understand being bored by TGA, but there’s nothing actually bad about it.
• Starfield will get updates every six weeks beginning in February 2024
  💭 I’m left shockingly cold by the opening minutes of Starfield, and haven’t even bothered to finish lift-off from the starting planet. It all just seems so generic, in contrast to the weirdness of Fallout 4’s opening, or the world-building and Big Plot Stuff that occupied the beginning of Skyrim. There’s only so much they can patch, but I hope they improve it.
• Bluesky posts are finally visible if you’re not logged in
  ❝ Bluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to be logged in to be able to see posts on the platform. The app has a new logo, too.

The Daily Dad — Dec 22, 2023

Things you might want to know:

• Warner Bros. Discovery in talks to merge with Paramount
  ❝ CEOs of each company met yesterday in New York City.
• Microsoft is nixing its Windows mixed reality platform
  💭 …to the collective dismay of absolutely no one. Meta and Valve have the Dabbler and Enthusiast segments of the AR/VR market sewn up, and Apple is about to seize the Luxury segment in a big way, so there’s really nothing left for Microsoft.
• Steam’s winter sale is live, offering major discounts on thousands of games
  ❝ Steam’s annual winter sale is upon us, offering discounts on everything from AAA titles to overlooked indie gems. It lasts from today until January 4.
• Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air M2 falls to a new low of $999
  ❝ The deal knocks $300 off its sticker price.
• UK Supreme Court rules AI can’t be a patent inventor, ‘must be a natural person’
  ❝ The ruling blocks Dr. Stephen Thaler’s years-long attempt to register patents for his AI “creativity machine.”

• Apple reportedly plans Vision Pro launch by February
  ❝ Apple is planning the Vision Pro headset by February, Bloomberg reports. Apple has previously said the device would be released in “early 2024.”
• Sony won’t take away your PlayStation-bought Discovery shows after all
  ❝ Sony has announced that it’s no longer removing shows from Discovery by December 31 like it had previously planned, thanks to updated licensing agreements.
• The Age of Crispr Medicine Is Here
  ❝ The approval of the first Crispr-based therapy is just the beginning. Getting it to patients is the next hurdle.
• Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order
  ❝ Judge says hacker remains a high risk through his skills and motivation to carry out cyber-crime.
• Apple wants AI to run directly on its hardware instead of in the cloud
  ❝ iPhone maker wants to catch up to its rivals when it comes to AI.

The Daily Dad — Dec 21, 2023

Things you might want to know:

• Olivia Dunne alleges she’s been ‘shadow banned’ by TikTok as views plummet
  💭 Whenever I see quotes from Livvy Dunne, I’m slightly surprised to remember she has a voice. On my phone, the girl’s always on mute.
• Jonathan Majors Dropped By Marvel After Guilty Verdict, Will No Longer Play Kang The Conqueror In Upcoming Films
  💭 Fuck it, call Eddie Murphy. Kang can be played by literally anyone, while Eddie’s got the balls to step into the middle of a massive franchise-in-motion, the acting chops to deliver solid work, and the ability to bring a winking bit of fun to what would otherwise be an awkward recasting.
• What Happens When Facebook Heats Your Home
  ❝ Big Tech data centers are not only being used to power the internet but also to heat people’s homes. But who’s really winning when Facebook keeps you warm at night?
• Tom Cruise, 61, spotted canoodling with Russian socialite, 36, who has $1M handbag collection: report
  💭 Does a gentleman canoodle before or after finger-banging his lady fair?
• Donald Trump Used to Get Nazi Greeting at Work: Ivana
  💭 I’m less struck by Trump’s everyday fetishization of genocidal lunatics than by the blasé reaction of everyone around him. He was never crazy-rich, after all, and his zero-sum greed was legendary… so kissing his ass wasn’t that profitable. I feel like people just “let it go” because it was impossible to take seriously the actions of such a trivial man.

• The Scott Pilgrim Anime Backlash, Explained
  ❝ Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off doesn’t adapt the source material, and reactions have been mixed
• They Didn’t Ask to Go Viral. Posting on Social Media Without Consent Is Immoral
  💭 Mass-media outlets used to conduct themselves with a level of decorum: they’d illustrate a story about obesity with a sidewalk shot of dozens of fat people, but they’d always crop out or blur the heads. Today’s internet prank fucks and click-chasing scolds have no concept of restraint. And this is why we can’t have nice things.
• Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules
  ❝ Phone-unlocking case law is “total mess,” may be ripe for Supreme Court review.
• Gossip TikToks Are Carving Away Privacy IRL
  💭 This is super-creepy, and is one of those weird little phenomena that are actually more relevant to day-to-day life than the techno-panic over a half-dozen dumbfucks deliriously jerking off to Bin Laden’s manifesto on TikTok.
• Gen Z falls for online scams more than their boomer grandparents do
  💭 Well of course they do. Boomer grandparents get scammed via phone calls, while the Permanently Online get screwed via text. Into every generation are born a host of dumbasses.

• Lara Croft: The Art of Virtual Seduction is the ultimate cringey relic of late ’90s game advertising
  💭 I can honestly say that nothing about ‘90s Lara Croft ever gave me a boner, but the novelty of the character design did make me play the original game for an hour or two more than I would have if Lara had been replaced by a more masculine set of triangles.
• Twitch immediately rescinds its artistic nudity policy
  ❝ Mere days after Twitch updated its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content, the platform has withdrawn the portion of the policy permitting “artistic nudity.”
• The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel
  💭 We had one of these when I was a kid, and their mechanical nature meant that most primordial dads were super-protective of their Space Commands. It was entirely possible to wear out the mechanism, so no one else was allowed to touch The Precious. Naturally, I clicked the fuck out of it anytime he was gone.
• John Waters and David Lynch really love Lana Del Rey
  ❝ This isn’t the first time Waters has praised Del Rey. “She’s very David Lynch to me,” he added in the RS interview. “She infuriates people, but I think she’s in on it. I really want her to hook up with David Lynch, because he produces great albums these days.”
• Next Beeper Mini Fix Requires Users to Have a Mac – MacRumors
  💭 This whole micro-drama is like watching a bored cat playing with an ambitiously stupid mouse.

• Walton Goggins’ Fallout Role Is Far More Interesting Than It May Seem
  ❝ Nolan also revealed that they intentionally dialed back on The Ghoul’s prosthetics in order to ensure that Goggins’ performance comes through all that makeup. As Nolan explains, the team didn’t want to hinder the reasons they cast Goggins in the first place by burying him in makeup.
• Holly Marie Combs Reveals That ‘Charmed’ Co-Star Alyssa Milano Got Shannen Doherty Fired: “By Today’s Standards, It Wouldn’t F***ing Fly”
  ❝ And he said, ‘We didn’t mean to.’ He said that we’ve been backed into this corner. We’re basically in a position where it’s one or the other. We were told that’s her or me, and Alyssa [Milano] has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment.
• 2023 in social media: the case for the fediverse
  ❝ A new kind of social internet is currently forming. Right now it might still look like “Twitter and Reddit, only different,” but that’s only the very beginning of what’s to come. Hopefully.
• GoodLinks Adds Even Deeper Shortcuts Integration with Ability to Retrieve Current Article, Selections, and More
  💭 I’m experimenting with using this as the basis for my Daily Dad workflow… unlike the previous process, I can write these blurbs outside Tumblr and keep them searchable and organized in a dedicated datastore. We’ll see how it works.

The Daily Dad

Things you might want to know, for Dec 19, 2023:

• 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users — It’s probably too late and my warnings are pointless, but please kids… don’t give something as valuable as your DNA to a for-profit company that views security as a cost-center. It’s not just the millions of 23andMe suckerscustomers who have lost control of their genetic identity… their family members are compromised, too. Maybe it’s just me, but finding out you’re actually 8% Neanderthal isn’t worth giving the Russian mob the blueprints to your ancestry.
• COMIXOLOGY, RIP — I was there at the start, with my little iPhone 3GS, ready to plow through a digital comic collection in Guided View mode. I was certain Comixology was going to save the comics business, and revitalize the audience. Now here we are at the end, nothing has been achieved, and a decade of progress has disappeared into the Kndle app, never to be seen again. Fucking A.
• Using the iPad Pro as a Portable Monitor for My Nintendo Switch with Orion, a Capture Card, and a Battery Pack — Okay, I eat this kind of shit up. It’s absurd on a practical level, but it’s the kind of thing I’m likely to try, just for the hell of it.
• Here’s what intentionally crashing a plane for YouTube clicks gets you — To paraphrase Robin Williams: the ability to crash a plane for attention is God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much money.
• Facebook Messenger Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption by Default — About fucking time, Zuck. I guess he figures the petabytes of pre-E2E conversations that they can use to train their LLM will suffice, so it’s time to let the peasants have their privacy.

• Noah Hawley: How ‘Twin Peaks’ Influenced My Work — If you were between 16 and 30 in 1990 and had any sort of creative impulse, Twin Peaks influenced your work.
• What Did It Mean That Howard the Duck Was Trapped ‘in a World He Never Made’? — The ‘80s movie and modern MCU cameos don’t do justice to the comic book Howard of the 1970s. He was dark and weird and absurd and (?) sexy and grown-up in a way that other comics on the spinner rack hadn’t been in decades, and I was enthralled.
• The use and misuse of evolutionary psychology in online manosphere communities: The case of female mating strategies
• The Bizarre Cottage Industry of YouTube Obituary Pirates
• Warner Bros. Reverses Course on ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ After Filmmakers Rebel

• ‘Now and Then,’ the Beatles’ Last Song, Is Here, Thanks to Peter Jackson’s AI — The song is very good, and the technical skill and care that went into its recovery is just as interesting. The video is just goofy fun, very much in keeping with The Beatles pre-breakup sensibilties. Overall, a delightful and unexpected treat in a year that was full of absolute bullshit.
• Apple Now Selling Standalone USB-C AirPods Pro Case for $99
• Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid — I feel like most headlines featuring “Texas” or “anti-vax” should always include “pure stupid” as well.
• How TV Executives Ruined Everything
• Humane Debuts $700 AI Pin With ‘Laser Ink Display’ — Do I think this will be a success? No. It’s too niche and weird. But as a signal of life beyond the smartphone, it’s an intriguing development.

• DAK and the Golden Age of Gadget Catalogs — As a household, we didn’t receive a ton of mail as a kid… we saw only a fraction of the junk that hits my physical mailbox these days. But every few months, the DAK catalog would arrive, and I knew I was in for at least a night or two of nerdy, consumerist joy. Page after page of discontinued, misconfigured, or too-oddball-for-the-general-market gadgets were waiting to tempt me with deep discounts on things no one really needed. Sheer bliss, I tell you.
• How to Stop Your Kids From Ruining Your Apple Music Recommendations
• Prince’s Purple Rain puffy shirt is up for auction — You’ve gotta figure Prince’s clothes would fit an American Girl doll.
• Audible’s Moriarty podcast understands what makes Arthur Conan Doyle’s arch-villain survive
• The Real Reason You (Still) Watch Reality TV