Sunday, March 31, 2024

Hilary Mantel's novel about the French Revolution, "A Place of Greater Safety" is $1.99 right now

at Amazon. (The Guardian called it "enthralling.")

Easter cake

Today's news and jokes









Multimedia Easter Egg

Harvard's Caselaw Access Project is making all U.S. case law freely available online

Hundreds of years of opinions.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Here's the latest Super Punch newsletter

Featuring 10 stories I excavated from the first year of my site, my new favorite music, and the best toy I bought this month. I'll pick a subscriber in the next few days to send stickers to.

New Humble Bundle featuring pop culture-inspired cookbooks

Starts with four for $1, including the Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of Willy Wonka

"A fertilizer spill in Iowa this month wiped out much of the aquatic life across a 60-mile stretch of rivers in two states"

"The latest die-off started, Iowa officials said, when a valve was left open over a weekend on a storage tank at ... an agricultural business" 

(The article is a choose-your-own adventure with an early quote calling it "the big one," and a later paragraph saying, "But the biomass affected is likely pretty low as the kill was mostly minnow and chub species.")

Netflix needs to make a series about the murder of the billionaire that wanted to produce The Three-Body Problem Netflix series


Variety from a few years ago.

Today's news and jokes

Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy all increasingly appealing as companies treat digital "purchases" as little better than rentals



Custom action figures of the Green Goblin and other villains from Into the Spider-Verse



Disturbing ski jacket of many gloves looks like the black pit the Mummy falls in

Friday, March 29, 2024

"What You Are Looking For Is in the Library: A Novel" is $2.99

at Amazon.

It sounds extremely charming in this NYTimes review.

Caltrans workers accused of building themselves secret mini-apartments inside train stations

Mercury News:

reportedly featured a kitchen, shower, plumbing and security cameras. Prosecutors said the two defendants worked together to keep the invoices for the work below $3,000 each to avoid scrutiny and skirt procedures meant to discourage such fraud.

(Sounds like they cleared out the apartments after they were discovered instead of turning them into airbnbs.)

ARG featuring interdimensional doors





A news write-up and subreddit.

Links to read some of the 2024 Hugo Award Finalists for free

Not a lot of crossover in these categories with the Nebula nominees.

Best Novelette

Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition”, Gu Shi

"Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C.L. Polk

On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo 

One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker 

Best Short Story

How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark

The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard 

Full list.

New Humble Bundle featuring virtual reality games

The 7th Guest and more.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023 is $1.99 today

at Amazon.

Also, the Dave McKean-illustrated "The Magic of Reality" is also $1.99 

Today's news and jokes





















Polar Bear Claw mules





Green Knight figurine

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Really good shark man



Funny way to depict the Invisible Woman in a simple sculpture



(He takes commissions and has posted many similar sculptures.)

New Humble Bundle featuring printable monsters

Starts with a bunch of zombies for $1.

New Humble Bundle features the Shogun audiobook

Various books by James Clavell, Shogun is $1. (Read most of these when I was very young because they were easily available, and even then thought, "this guy seems really weird about women")

Today's news and jokes





Transparent knife-fighting face shields are cool

@king_pardz Knife Fighting #escrima #arnis #filipinomartialarts #cdo #pekaf #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #knifeskills #knifefighting ♬ original sound - KIN

Hoodie is a "cross between an isolation tank and a bed"



Vollebak's "Alien Hoodie":
- A sculpted 3D hoodie made from multi-dimensional material
- Designed by computers and built by robots
- Zip-up hood with mesh visor and antibacterial lining

If you’re a human interested in buying the hoodie, it’s a cross between an isolation tank and a bed. Built by the machines that build beds, it’s a double-layered, weighted, 3D-knitted hoodie with a padded sculptural texture based on the sand dunes on Mars. It also comes with a big black visor that you can see out through, but no-one can see in – making it perfect for long-haul flights or escaping from the world for a few hours.