Supertramp on the brain
I just realized I love Supertramp and always have. WTF. What else do Ilove that I don’t know that I do?
— John Tolva (@Immerito) March 21, 2012
Really the only way to get this out of my head was to mess with it.
Done.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show. Subscribe to the podcast or the newsletter or just read through the archives.
Views From The Tank
Coral and fish photos, water chemistry data, and notes on home reef-keeping. Dive in.
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Marginalia
Stuff I’ve found interesting from around the web lately.
The Cicada’s Love Affair With Prime Numbers
As far back as the seventeen-hundreds, fur trappers for the Hudson’s Bay Company noted that while in some years they would collect an enormous number of Canadian lynx pelts, in the following years hardly any of the wild snow cats could be found—until, some years later, when the trappers found th
On the Implausibility of the Death Star’s Trash Compactor
The Trash Compactor Debate turns on whether the Death Star ejects its trash into space. I, for one, believe it does. Though we never see the Death Star ejecting its trash, we do see another Empire ship, the so-called Star Destroyer, ejecting its trash into space.
When Do We Stop Finding New Music? A Statistical Analysis
I recently tried Spotify's new DJ feature in which an AI bot curates personalized listening sessions, introducing songs while explaining the intention behind its selections (much like a real-life disc jockey).
Chicago Rat Hole Removed By City — But It’s Being Preserved While Its Fate Is Determined
ROSCOE VILLAGE — The Chicago Rat Hole — a rodent-shaped hole in a Roscoe Village sidewalk that took the city and social media by storm earlier this year — was removed by city crews Wednesday morning.
NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth
For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again.
A 600-Year-Old Blueprint for Weathering Climate Change
During the Little Ice Age, Native North Americans devised whole new economic, social, and political structures. Around the year 1300, the Huhugam great chief Siwani ruled over a mighty city near what is now Phoenix, Arizona.
UrbanistAI
UrbanistAI enables human-AI cooperation to reimagine the future of our cities. The big rethink in cities starts with harnessing the power of collective intelligence.
Heinz Is Putting Up Ketchup-Dispensers To Tempt Chicagoans With Forbidden Condiment
CHICAGO — There are some Chicago restaurants that will show you the door if you ask for ketchup. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
The fish doorbell
See a fish? Ring the bell! Welcome to the Fish Doorbell. Will you help fish pass the city boat lock?
Against Disruption: On the Bulletpointization of Books
It’s the beginning of a new year and you might have seen, floating around on social media, lists like 52 Books To Read in 2024 or 42 Books That Will Change Your Life posted by Library Mindset, an account with 4.6 million Instagram followers.