Ten Quick Bites 

1. Talk about curious! Woodworker Justin Davies, after learning that, in the 19th century, some bakers would put sawdust in their bread to cut costs, gave it a try. Click here for the results.

2. Boys will be boys. I have twin-girl granddaughters. They were a handful for their parents. Never for K and me. So, I was interested in watching this little video titled: Are your twin girls this wild? Answer: No.

3. From “The Paint Explainer”: An explanation of every known psychological effect over the course of 12 colorful minutes. Click here.

4. Duped again! Since I was a kid, I was told that the human temperature is the same for everybody: 98.6 degrees. It turns out that individual temperatures may vary and the average for all may be cooler than was thought. Click here.

5. An animated evolution of New York City (1524-2023). This is good fun. Especially if you are a New Yorker, as I am. Click here.

6. Kevin Bacon sings “My Sharona” to a reticent alpaca – named Sharona – on his farm. I know what this sounds like, but you may get a kick out of it, as I did. Click here.

7. This guy doesn’t look like he knows how to dance… but in his circle, he’s Fred Astaire to his Ginger Rogers. (Rule 1: Make your partner the star.)

8. Ever wonder what “The Simpsons” characters would look like as real people? Thanks to AI, wonder no more. Click here.

9. A record that you didn’t realize needed to be set: A Louisiana gardener just grew a 44-pound cabbage. Who would have thought? Click here.

10. Aw-shucks moment of the week: I can’t resist these, and I feel compelled to share them. Watch this Golden Retriever and parakeet frolicking. Click here.

Ten Life Hacks I Haven’t Tried Yet 

I came across this in a magazine someone left in an airport. It’s from Bruce Wilson, who self-identifies as a social researcher and world traveler. I thought it was pretty good and worth passing on to you.

1. Start every phone call with “My battery is almost dead.” That way you can hang up on them at any time.

2. Forward spam texts to 7726. Your carrier will respond and ask you what number it came from.

3. Hit the space bar twice for a full stop, and the next letter will be automatically capitalized too.

4. Instead of crossing words out with lines, cross them out with letters, so they won’t be legible.

5. If the person sitting in front of you on a flight reclines their seat all the way back and leaves you with no room, turn on the air con above you to full blast and point it at the top of their head.

6. The best way to charge your phone faster is by switching it to airplane mode before plugging it in.

7. Wet your nail clippers before using them. Your clippings won’t fly everywhere.

8. Boost the range of your key remote by holding it against your chin.

9. If you’d like to use emojis on your Mac desktop, simply press Control + Command + Spacebar to open the emoji menu.

10. To hit a perfect high-five, lock your eyes onto your recipient’s elbow.

Ten Quick Bites…

* Crazy: It costs about three cents to produce a single penny. And the US lost more than $93 million producing pennies in 2022 alone. Click here.

* Scary: Last week, I reported that 2023 was the hottest year on record. Now we have even worse news: January 2024 was the hottest month EVER. Globally, air temperatures averaged 13.14 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous record for a single month, set in 2020, by 0.12 degrees. Click here.

* Racism Reality Check: Remember Dave Chappelle’s bit on the Jussie Smollet “incident”? (If not, you can watch it here.) Now here’s Sunny Hostin talking about her “lived experience” watching her son being called the N word on a Florida beach… followed by The Officer Tatum’s take on it.

* Mind-blowing New Technology: The DJI FlyCart 30 is a rugged aerial delivery drone that can make safe deliveries to the most remote and harshest locations in the world. Watch it at work here.

* Fascinating: In this short video, an architect takes a deep dive into the math behind NYC’s iconic street grid. Click here.

* Remarkable: When I was a kid, I loved building miniature cities and landscapes. They were crude. But they were fun to make. I can’t imagine ever turning that sort of fun into this level of detail. This guy is an artist. A very painstaking artist. Click here.

* Athletes Thinking Outside the Box: A look at five of the world’s weirdest winter sports. Click here.

* Brilliant Toyota Ad: “It was a trap!” Click here.

* Sort of Funny: SNL has been bad, very bad, for ages, but this recent bit was clever.

* Amazing: Another animal/human story that you will not be able to resist being inspired by. Click here.

Quick Bites: Ka-Ching!… Pant! Pant!… Splish-Splash!… OMIGOD!

* Intriguing: First Costco… then Walmart. Why have these major retailers suddenly begun selling gold? Click here.

* Weird: It’s not your imagination. 2023 was the hottest year since scientists began tracking global temperatures 173 years ago. 2023 saw global average temperatures of 14.98 degrees Celsius (58.96 Fahrenheit). That is 0.6 degrees Celsius (2.6 Fahrenheit) warmer than the average global temperature over the last 30 years. It is also about 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.5 Fahrenheit) warmer than global averages in the 50 pre-industrial years prior to 1900.

* Adorable: Capybaras taking a relaxing bath at a Japanese zoo. Click here.

* Impressive: I know. You’ve seen clips like this from me before. You get it. And, yeah, they look staged. So why do I keep including them in my blog posts? I have no excuse except I’m thinking that if I can’t get enough of them some of my readers may feel the same way. So click here to watch a nine-year-old violinist blow everyone away.

Quick Bites: A Rabbit Hole You Probably Don’t Want to Go Down… A Survival Tactic You Probably Don’t Need to Know… Tap, Tap, Tappety-Tap! 
 
* A new YouTube rabbit hole: People recording themselves getting fired! Click here and here and here.

* How to safely survive falling into a frozen lake: Click here.

* Tap dancing is coming back!: Watch this!

Quick Bites: Hot Stuff… Dumb Stuff… and an “Impossible” Challenge Smashed 

McDonald’s Under Attack!

You may have seen video clips of McDonald’s customers being harassed by pro-Palestinian protestors. It’s disturbing because… well, what could be more American than eating at McDonald’s?

Have no fear. Google is coming to the rescue of all McDonald’s customers. Google is working with the company to deploy generative AI to ensure that “large orders of fries are delivered hot.”

Meanwhile, here’s a tip from the New York Post to ensure that your fries are scalding-hot every time. Just specify “no salt,” which means they must make a batch especially for you.

An Unfounded and Oddball Allegation About Elon Musk 

I was about to write a short piece to express my astonishment at a piece I read this weekend from the WSJ about Elon Musk. But I saw that Alex Berenson had summed it up succinctly. Click here.

Boy Wonder Smashes 34-Year-Old Game Challenge

Millions of people all over the world play Tetris. As with many computer games, players try to advance their positions using natural intelligence and acquired skills. Since the launch of the standard NES Tetris game in 1989, no player has made it to the “kill screen” – a barrier that was astonishingly broken through on Dec. 31 by a 13-year-old phenom! Click here.

Quick Bites: UFOs?… Airborne Criminal… Just When You Thought Sports Couldn’t Get Crazier… a Powerful Motown Cover 

* I’m not up on my UFO history… although I do know that the topic has been getting more coverage since reports from the US military have confirmed hundreds of UFO sightings. Remember: UFO means “unidentified flying object.” It doesn’t mean visitors from outer space. But you don’t have to have an opinion about the origins of UFOs to enjoy these old paintings that seem to depict ancient sightings of bean-shaped flying objects. Click here.

* “I’ve turned over a new leaf!” That was the pitch that this several-times-convicted felon gave to the judge in his plea to be summarily forgiven for his latest assault. “I don’t drink anymore,” he told the court. “I don’t steal. I’m not violent.”

He was referring to the months he spent outside of jail after his arrest, thanks to one of George Soros’s progressive DAs that believe the only way to correct the “inequity” of the “overrepresentation” of Black Americans in US jails was to, at the very least, give them “free bail” – i.e., let them out of jail until they are convicted.

His plea, to me, sounded sincere. He was calm and spoke with what I took to be evident sincerity. On top of that, he looked like a nice, well-spoken, and possibly unfairly charged man who had truly turned his life around.

He did, that is, until the judge denied his request and told him he’d have to wait in jail until his trial date. Then this happened.

* Follow this lunatic down a snow-covered trail. “This is an insane sport!” said JS when he sent in this clip. “I am not even sure what it’s called. Ski biking?”

* A compelling rendition of the 1974 classic “What’s So Funny ‘Bout” by the great Postmodern Jukebox. Click here.

Quick Bites: Something I Don’t Understand… Something I Never Knew… Something Nobody’s Ever Heard Before
 
* A Question: What do people mean when they characterize the US as a “wealthy” country? How can a sovereign nation that is $33 trillion in debt be considered wealthy?

* Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Jefferson? (From TS) Who knew? Click here.

* 10 Things Black Students DON’T Need. A Black father speaks out at a school meeting. Click here.

* He built a drumophone! Click here.

Quick Bites: Historical Photos… Baby Names… Cleaning the Lincoln Pool 

* Ancient Earth is a very cool tool that lets you input an address and see how the area has changed over the past 750,000 years. Click here.

* Number 3 Son and wife are pregnant and figuring out baby names. Click here for a list I sent them of names to avoid.

* Something you may have never wondered about: How to clean Lincoln’s reflecting pool on the National Mall in DC. Click here.

Quick Bites: TERF Wars… Hero of the Year?… Christmas Carol Mash-up… Regrets

Men are truly taking charge. Transwomen (i.e., biological men who “identify” as women) have succeeded in taking charge of feminism by redefining words we use to speak about women and usurping women’s rights by promoting a slate of “trans rights,” including the right of a biological man with a penis to use public spaces reserved for women (sporting contests, locker rooms, bathrooms, etc.). But recently, they may have taken their crusade one step too far by trying to take over the one remaining place that has, until now, been exclusively for women. I’m talking, of course, about Lesbianism. Click here.

CNN’s Hero of the Year. Really? Is this the best example of a “hero” that CNN could come up with? Click here.

“Deck the Halls” Meets Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” I was sure I wouldn’t like this. But it got to me. Click here.

Ten Hollywood actors who regretted major movie roles they took. Can you guess who they are and what movies they regret? I guessed three of them. Click here.