YouTube description: "The launch, the legendary six words, the incomparable VKTRS. That's all followed by the first network promo, Pat Benatar's 'You Better Run,' the debut by the original VJs, Superman 2 ad, Dolby commercial, and Mark Goodman doing the first ever intro of a video. 1 August 1981. Nothing in TV will ever again capture this kind of magic."
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
bookofjoe's Favorite Thing: It's what's for breakfast!
I forget where I discovered the existence of these mini Hershey Bars but no matter: they're perfect with my morning coffee.
Just the right size, each scored bar breaks nicely into 4 pieces which, if you keep yours in the freezer like I do, will last a surprisingly long time.
25 mini bars cost $8.99.
Monday, April 6, 2026
LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching
Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers — spending a year living in a used minivan and traveling the U.S. to compete in a "Big Year."
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
Why Was This 2,000-Year-Old Sling Bullet Inscribed With the Word 'Learn'?
From the Smithsonian:
...........................................
The artifact is the first sling bullet of its kind unearthed at the ancient city of Hippos, though archaeologists have found dozens of other examples without inscriptions at the site.
The city overlooking the Sea of Galilee was the site of several battles thousands of years ago.
Last year a team from the University of Haifa discovered this sling bullet made of lead and inscribed with the word "learn" in Greek.
The researchers think the word may be an abbreviated form of a phrase like "learn your lesson."
Sling bullets are almond-shaped projectiles, the earliest examples of which were made of stone or clay.
When this newly discovered artifact was made during the Hellenistic period,
Attackers would place the bullet in a leather pouch before flinging it at the enemy.
Researchers have so far found 69 bullets at Hippos, most dating to the second century B.C.E.
The "learn" bullet measures just over an inch wide.
An analysis of the bullet suggests that it hit something.
boj1 v boj2
Ever since Typepad shut down last September 30 after 21 years, resulting in my having to find a new home for boj which turned out to be here on Blogger — it being the least painful and most usable TechnoDolt[ian(!)©®™-friendly alternative platform — I've been kvetching about how much more time and effort (2-5x!) it takes to create a post here compared to Typepad.
But this morning I woke up and smelled the coffee.
1. The Blogger version of boj (top left) looks MUCH better on mobile than the Typepad version did (top right)
2. 70% of my current readers do so on mobile
One more thing: I'm still chuffed six months later that somehow I was able to get the current mobile-friendly version up and running all my myself.
Though without the longtime support and encouragement of Phillip Winn, I'd never have made it to this point.
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Corvette ZR1X — Mano a Mano with McClaren and Ferrari at a Fraction of Their Prices
Lawrence Ulrich's March 22, 2026 New York Times story about the latest Corvette had me at:
"Driving the ZR1X at California's Sonoma Raceway feels like hitching a ride on the Large Hadron Collider, fast enough to rearrange my subatomic particles."
More from the article? Your wish is my demand.
.................................................
Sporting a zero-to-60 sprint in 1.7 seconds, and an Indy-worthy 233-m.p.h. peak, Chevrolet's Corvette ZR1X is silly, even surreal.
This hybrid hypercar could depart from a Manhattan stoplight at 39th Street and nip 160 m.p.h. by 44th Street, a blistering quarter-mile. Theoretically, of course.
When I segue to roads in the Napa Valley, the 'Vette's roaring, twin-turbocharged, 1,064-horsepower V-8 threatens to tear sauvignon and chardonnay vines from their roadside roots. Electrified front wheels, the car's secret sauce, tack on 188 horses more to the all-wheel-drive ZR1X.
The hand-built, titanium-girded racing engine, autographed by a single master technician, is displayed under a transparent pane. (A shout-out to Jeff Smith, my signatory from the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky).
It all sounds intimidating. Yet the ZR1X still feels like a familiar, approachable Corvette.
The hybrid battery fits entirely in the center console, allowing the Corvette to hug the ground like no conventional EV. Press a "Charge +" button and the ZR1X refills that battery over a few miles of cruising. No plug required.
There's even an F1-style "push-to-pass" button on the steering wheel. It summons every joule and kilowatt of thrust — perfect for underdog encounters with haughty Ferrari owners.
If any Chinese automaker built such a giant-slaying hybrid, challenging the world's most exotic cars at a fraction of their price, the spotlight would be blinding.*
The targets of the ZR1X may have seemed too ambitious: hybrids like the Ferrari F80, at an eye-watering $3.7 million, and the $2.1 million McLaren W1. Yet the Corvette generates more power than the Ferrari and virtually matches the McClaren, and its 233-m.p.h. top speed makes it faster than either.
.................................................
Get yours here.
*With near 100% certainty Chinese automakers have purchased a number of these cars and as you read these words are reverse engineering the ZR1X.
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
Follow Mars Rover Curiosity Across the Planet, Sol by Sol, Up to Today — Since Its Landing in 2012
This virtual Mars traverse shows every photo it has taken since landing in 2012.
You scroll along the rover's path on a topographical map, alongside actual raw NASA photos.
Fair warning: there goes the sol.
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
Saturday, April 4, 2026
One Train May Hide Another (sign at a railroad crossing in Kenya) — Kenneth Koch
In a poem, one line may hide another line,
As at a crossing, one train may hide another train.
That is, if you are waiting to cross
The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at
Least after the first train is gone. And so when you read
Wait until you have read the next line--
Then it is safe to go on reading.
In a family one sister may conceal another,
So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view
Otherwise in coming to find one you may love another.
One father or one brother may hide the man,
If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love.
So always standing in front of something the other
As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and ideas.
One wish may hide another. And one person's reputation may hide
The reputation of another. One dog may conceal another
On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;
One lilac may hide another and then a lot of lilacs and on the Appia
Antica one tomb
May hide a number of other tombs. In love, one reproach may hide another,
One small complaint may hide a great one.
One injustice may hide another--one colonial may hide another,
One blaring red uniform another, and another, a whole column. One bath
may hide another bath
As when, after bathing, one walks out into the rain.
One idea may hide another: Life is simple
Hide Life is incredibly complex, as in the prose of Gertrude Stein
One sentence hides another and is another as well. And in the laboratory
One invention may hide another invention,
One evening may hide another, one shadow, a nest of shadows.
One dark red, or one blue, or one purple--this is a painting
By someone after Matisse. One waits at the tracks until they pass,
These hidden doubles or, sometimes, likenesses. One identical twin
May hide the other. And there may be even more in there! The obstetrician
Gazes at the Valley of the Var. We used to live there, my wife and I, but
One life hid another life. And now she is gone and I am here.
A vivacious mother hides a gawky daughter. The daughter hides
Her own vivacious daughter in turn. They are in
A railway station and the daughter is holding a bag
Bigger than her mother's bag and successfully hides it.
In offering to pick up the daughter's bag one finds oneself confronted by
the mother's
And has to carry that one, too. So one hitchhiker
May deliberately hide another and one cup of coffee
Another, too, until one is over-excited. One love may hide another love
or the same love
As when "I love you" suddenly rings false and one discovers
The better love lingering behind, as when "I'm full of doubts"
Hides "I'm certain about something and it is that"
And one dream may hide another as is well known, always, too. In the
Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve may hide the real Adam and Eve.
Jerusalem may hide another Jerusalem.
When you come to something, stop to let it pass
So you can see what else is there. At home, no matter where,
Internal tracks pose dangers, too: one memory
Certainly hides another, that being what memory is all about,
The eternal reverse succession of contemplated entities. Reading
A Sentimental Journey look around
When you have finished, for Tristram Shandy, to see
If it is standing there, it should be, stronger
And more profound and theretofore hidden as Santa Maria Maggiore
May be hidden by similar churches inside Rome. One sidewalk
May hide another, as when you're asleep there, and
One song hide another song; a pounding upstairs
Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide another, you sit at the
foot of a tree
With one and when you get up to leave there is another
Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One teacher,
One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman, one man
May hide another. Pause to let the first one pass.
You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It
can be important
To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.
Least after the first train is gone. And so when you read
Wait until you have read the next line--
Then it is safe to go on reading.
In a family one sister may conceal another,
So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view
Otherwise in coming to find one you may love another.
One father or one brother may hide the man,
If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love.
So always standing in front of something the other
As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and ideas.
One wish may hide another. And one person's reputation may hide
The reputation of another. One dog may conceal another
On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;
One lilac may hide another and then a lot of lilacs and on the Appia
Antica one tomb
May hide a number of other tombs. In love, one reproach may hide another,
One small complaint may hide a great one.
One injustice may hide another--one colonial may hide another,
One blaring red uniform another, and another, a whole column. One bath
may hide another bath
As when, after bathing, one walks out into the rain.
One idea may hide another: Life is simple
Hide Life is incredibly complex, as in the prose of Gertrude Stein
One sentence hides another and is another as well. And in the laboratory
One invention may hide another invention,
One evening may hide another, one shadow, a nest of shadows.
One dark red, or one blue, or one purple--this is a painting
By someone after Matisse. One waits at the tracks until they pass,
These hidden doubles or, sometimes, likenesses. One identical twin
May hide the other. And there may be even more in there! The obstetrician
Gazes at the Valley of the Var. We used to live there, my wife and I, but
One life hid another life. And now she is gone and I am here.
A vivacious mother hides a gawky daughter. The daughter hides
Her own vivacious daughter in turn. They are in
A railway station and the daughter is holding a bag
Bigger than her mother's bag and successfully hides it.
In offering to pick up the daughter's bag one finds oneself confronted by
the mother's
And has to carry that one, too. So one hitchhiker
May deliberately hide another and one cup of coffee
Another, too, until one is over-excited. One love may hide another love
or the same love
As when "I love you" suddenly rings false and one discovers
The better love lingering behind, as when "I'm full of doubts"
Hides "I'm certain about something and it is that"
And one dream may hide another as is well known, always, too. In the
Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve may hide the real Adam and Eve.
Jerusalem may hide another Jerusalem.
When you come to something, stop to let it pass
So you can see what else is there. At home, no matter where,
Internal tracks pose dangers, too: one memory
Certainly hides another, that being what memory is all about,
The eternal reverse succession of contemplated entities. Reading
A Sentimental Journey look around
When you have finished, for Tristram Shandy, to see
If it is standing there, it should be, stronger
And more profound and theretofore hidden as Santa Maria Maggiore
May be hidden by similar churches inside Rome. One sidewalk
May hide another, as when you're asleep there, and
One song hide another song; a pounding upstairs
Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide another, you sit at the
foot of a tree
With one and when you get up to leave there is another
Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One teacher,
One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman, one man
May hide another. Pause to let the first one pass.
You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It
can be important
To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.
Blow Dryer Bonnet
Finally.
What took so long?
Res
ipsa
loquitur.
Pink, Blue, Black, Silver: $9.99 (blow dryer not included).
Preparation for anesthesia — Part 1 of 2
Here's a blast from the past.
On April 8, 2008, while I was still a practicing anesthesiologist, I made this video.
YouTube description: "joe — 'World's most popular blogging anesthesiologist' — makes ready his anesthesia cart for a busy day in the OR."
It's my most most popular video ever, accumulating over 115,000 views to date.
Part 2 will post here at this time tomorrow.
Friday, April 3, 2026
The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard
The late Danish designer Jens Quistgaard turned the humble peppermill into an obsessive design exercise, producing dozens of sculptural "table seasoners" as "a meditation on the possibilities of shape for a common household object."
See them all here.
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
It's a miracle! I can livestream from my new Mentra Live glasses directly to YouTube!
That's not the first miracle by any measure.
That was figuring out how to set up and use my new Mentra Live glasses all by myself without any frustration or FAILs.
As a rule any new device in my TechnoDolt©®™ hands doesn't work until after hours of angst and misery on my part.
But I digress.
I pre-ordered these glasses late last year and they arrived last week.
They cost $349.
As usual my fear of not being able to figure out how to use them led me to stare at the unopened box because it you don't open the box you can't FAIL — right?
This morning I overcame the dread and opened the box and followed the instructions: EVERYTHING WORKED!
The app downloaded quickly and did what apps do when they connect to hardware, installing updates and showing me on my phone screen what to do next.
But why are they called Mentra Live?
Because you can livestream with these glasses directly to YouTube as well as to Twitch, X, TikTok, Instagram, and OnlyFans.
I had no idea that was possible when I ordered them; I just wanted to see how they compared to my RayBan Meta and Oakley Meta glasses in terms of video quality.
As you can see up top, in my first-ever YouTube livestream video using Mentra Live glasses, the quality's fine.
It's the ease of use that wows me.
Yes, you can livestream to Instagram and Facebook with Meta's glasses — but NOT YouTube.
Meta keeps things in its walled garden, which is something I want no part of.
Back in 2013 my Google Glass at first had the capability of uploading video directly to YouTube — but NOT live.
For whatever reason they removed that option soon after Glass became available.
You can be sure I'm gonna try the Mentra livestream-to-YouTube function when I'm out running.
I think — but I'm not certain, and won't know until I try it — I'll need to have my phone with me for it to work.
One more thing: Mentra Live glasses weight 43 grams, about 20% less than the 53-gram Oakley Meta glasses.
On your face, that difference becomes increasingly apparent the longer you wear them.
Global Sea Floor Map
From BBC Sky at Night Magazine:
........................................
It's a relatively well-known fact that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our own ocean floor.
A new project seeks to map the whole of the ocean floor in unprecedented detail by 2030.
To that end, NASA has released an amazing map (above and below)
showing the terrain of the seabed captured by an Earth-orbiting satellite that uses gravity to detail underwater canyons and ridges.
Because geologic features like seamounts and abyssal hills have more mass than their surroundings, they have a slightly stronger gravitational pull.
This creates small bumps in the surface of the sea above them, and researchers can use this to predict the kind of seafloor feature that produced them.
Thursday, April 2, 2026
NASA's Artemis II Live Views from Orion
YouTube description:
..............................................
As bandwidth allows, this stream will feature live views from Artemis II's Orion spacecraft, without commentary, as it makes its journey around the moon.
This stream began as Artemis II made its ascent into space and will conclude shortly before Orion splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.
Viewers will see a blue screen if there is a loss of signal, or if the bandwidth is needed for mission activities.
Viewers may see what appears to be a black screen when the vehicle is in darkness.
BeyondTheMedspeak: Don't trust if you can't verify
Once upon a time, in the anesthesiology department at UCLA, after finishing my cases for the day, I'd wheel my anesthesia cart back to the workroom and line it up alongside all the other carts to be cleaned for the next day.
Except I did something none of my fellow residents did, namely, I cleaned my own cart and then set it up for the next day's cases.
Everyone else set up their carts in the morning: I liked to do the setup the night before because:
1) It was quiet and peaceful as I was all alone
2) I could set up my syringes just so and fill them with the various drugs I'd be using for the next day's cases
3) Most importantly, because I'd done my setup the night before, I could sleep in an extra 15 minutes, then upon arrival simply wheel my cart into my O.R. without having to be part of the hurly-burly of 20 anesthesiology residents buzzing around the workroom looking for what specialized equipment they'd need for their cases: I'd already done that the night before.
All well and good and I never caught any flak for doing things my way nor did my methodology ever result in a problem.
But I would never do today what I did then.
Why?
It only occurred to me recently — nearly 50 years later — that someone could have easily switched drugs in my pre-filled syringes and put succinycholine, the ultra-fast-acting paralytic agent I used on a daily basis, into any of my drug syringes, such that when I injected what I thought was fentanyl or ephedrine or droperidol, instead I'd be giving a potentially lethal dose of a paralytic.
Then when the patient suddenly stopped breathing in the middle of a case, I'd never have thought of the actual cause but rather would have pursued an entirely different set of differential diagnoses which could well have resulted in patient harm or death.
Almost all the cases of nurse and doctor-related murders over recent decades — and there have been many — involved surreptitious administration of drugs.
Today I wouldn't use drug-filled syringes if they hadn't been in sight since being filled.
Note red cap used to warn of potentially fatal drugs.
TuneJourney
"Discover, listen to, and stream free internet radio from around the world."
"With over 70,000 radio stations in over 11,000 locations, TuneJourney is one of the largest free online radio catalogs on Earth."
But wait — there's more!
"TuneJourney is more than just a radio station aggregator: it's an AI-powered smart player that analyzes live streams as you listen."
"Enable AI talk detection to automatically skip talk and switch stations, keeping the music uninterrupted."
But wait — there's even more!
"
"Explore Radio Garden by rotating the globe."
Fair warning: there goes the day.
Postscript: if stuff like this had been around when I was a kid I would never have gone to sleep!
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Theo Jansen's Latest Strandbeests
Strandbeests are kinetic machine sculptures that move under their own power along a beach.
Some of the latest versions are very fast and can even tow humans behind them.
Theo Jansen's YouTube description of his creations:
........................................
Strandbeest Evolution 2025 provides an update on the evolutionary development which has been ongoing since 1990.
Every spring I go to the beach with a new beast.
During the summer I do all kinds of experiments with the wind, sand, and water.
In fall I grow a bit wiser about how these beasts are can survive the circumstances on the beach.
At that point I declare them extinct and they go to the bone yard.
What's old is old again — but still kinda fun to play with
Note the lighted Apple logo on the back of the screen, a feature from back in the day that Apple retired in 2015.*
Such a small device compared to all the increasingly large screen laptops appearing every year.
When the Neo came out recently I noted comparisons to the 11" MacBook Air in terms of dimensions: in length and width they're very similar.
Sure, the Neo's a zillion times more capable and has a better screen etc. and costs $599 compared to the $999 11" MacBook Air's debut cost (BTW that's $1,440 in 2026 dollars).
Anyhoo, I noodled around on eBay and found a 2012 11" MacBook Air said to be in good condition and working for $40 so I took a flutter.
It just arrived and it looks brand new; I plugged it in to power and waited overnight to see if it actually turned on: YES!
It made the classic Apple sound and started right up.
I played around with it for a while adjusting the settings etc. to my preferences.
Turns out it's just as fast as my MacBook Pro M4 from November 2024 — but it can only access a few websites; most say they're not compatible with my 2011 11" Air running Lion OS 10.7.5 from 2012.
For example, my MacMail doesn't work at all.
Here's a video — "Using Mac OS X Lion in 2025" — that echoes my experience: no YouTube, no Wikipedia, no X, etc.
I tried and failed to update the OS to 10.13.6 El Capitan, which appeared in 2018 and was the final version of OS X before Apple switched to MacOS.
But that's kind of irrelevant since it turns out that my 2011 MacBook Air 13" running El Capitan 10.13.6 (I bought the machine new and updated its OS faithfully over the years), when I tried to create a boj post with it, appeared to do it correctly albeit slowly but to my dismay it turned out that the post as displayed on my 2024 MacBook Air was different from how it looked on the 2011 machine: the spacing of the text was all wrong.
It's hard enough using Blogger to create posts: as I remarked earlier, it now takes me 2-5 times as long to create a new boj post with this setup than it did with Typepad.
Like tears in rain... but I digress.
So, good-bye to using either of these 2011 legacy machines for boj.
Still, good fun for $40.
*Back story here.
Niche Museums — Find Tiny Museums Near You
About Niche Museums
I love seeking out and exploring tiny and niche museums.
Why niche museums? So many reasons:
- Once you start looking, there are museums about everything. And they are everywhere!
- If someone cared enough about something to create a museum, that thing is interesting.
- The smaller the museum is, the more likely you are to meet the person who founded it. These are people you definitely want to meet.
My aim is to add a new museum to this website on a regular basis. The most recently added museum is always the first item on the homepage.
The source code for this website is available on GitHub. You can read more about how it works in niche-museums.com, powered by Datasette.
Simon Willison - @simonw
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Cloud Appreciation Society
Wrote Clive Thompson: "The Cloud Appreciation Society is exactly what it sounds like: A social network where people share photos of remarkable clouds they've seen. To help you identify clouds, they have a free mobile app, a cool old-school cardboard-wheel cloud taxonomizer, and a picture book, 'Cloudspotting for Beginners.'"
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
Monday, March 30, 2026
The City That — From The Air — Looks Like a Person
Wrote Kottke:
...........................
Photographer and drone pilot Pio Andrea Peri captured this overhead photo of the Sicilian city Centuripe, a town of about 5,400 people on the island of Sicily in southern Italy.
Set in the hills between the Dittaino and Salso rivers, some 2,400 feet (about a half mile) above sea level, Centuripe's humanesque form developed organically over centuries along the natural contours of the landscape.
Perched atop hilltops, the city looks like a person from above — even on Google Maps.
...........................
[via daily overview]
How a Tiny Enamel Portrait Miniature is Made: Painting With Glass and Fire
YouTube description:
..............................
How was an enamel portrait miniature made in the 18th century? In this video, watch enamel artist Ruth Ball painstakingly recreate a portrait miniature of Queen Charlotte, based on an original painted in 1781.Enamelling is the delicate process of firing finely ground coloured glass powders onto a thin metal base. Layer by layer, the glass is fused in a kiln to create luminous, durable images. The copper sheet used for the base is less than 1mm thick — just strong enough to support the enamel while preventing warping during firing.
Despite the passage of more than two centuries, the meticulous techniques used to create enamel portrait miniatures have hardly changed since they were first developed. Watch the full process unfold, complete with unintentional ASMR sound — from grinding enamel powders to the final reveal of the completed portrait.
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