Monday, June 22, 2026

'I can't do it'



Every year or so I replay James Altucher's genius formulation — which originally appeared in his long-defunct Financial Times column — of how to say no without finding yourself hemming and hawing and abba abba abba-ing.

When someone who's asked you to do something hears this response they're startled and silent.

Then they capitulate without you having to say anything else.

If this doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll cheerfully refund three times what you paid for this advice.

Chili Peppers of the World























From Kottke:

....................................

An amazing visual field guide to the chili peppers of the world by Erik Gauger.

Capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers hot, is an evolutionary filter designed to punish animals and reward birds.

Mammals feel it as pain because mammal digestion destroys seeds.

Birds lack the receptor that detects capsaicin, so they eat the fruit, fly off, and deposit seeds far from the plant from which they ate, a dispersal mechanism.

Humans entered the picture late, and changed almost everything about peppers' forms, flavors, and range. 

But the underlying logic of nature remains in every fruit: a molecule that says no to the animals who won't deliver its parent seeds far from the rooted plant.

Includes hand-drawn illustrations of 176 different peppers, where they originated, their heat levels, and which hot sauces include them.




















Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Sunday, June 21, 2026

11 Great Science Fiction Novels




















Many reading this have never read a science fiction novel.

I know this to be true because over the years I've asked people if they've read any science fiction and many say "No."

If you're willing to dip a proverbial toe in the sci-fi water but have no idea where to start, I'm gonna make it easy for you: below, a list of 11 great sci-fi novels I've enjoyed over the years, most of which I've read more than once.

A book that thrilled me when I was kid, if it's a classic, will enchant me once again, in a different way, 60 years later.

Note: They're in no particular order; these are the first ones that came to mind when I decided to create this post.

• The Demolished Man — Alfred Bester (1953)

• Neuromancer — William Gibson (1984)

• Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson (1992)

• The Martian Chronicles — Ray Bradbury (1950)

• Dragon's Egg — Robert L. Forward (1980)

• Mission of Gravity — Hal Clement (1954)

• Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes (1959)

• Childhood's End — Arthur C. Clarke (1953)

• Darker Than You Think — Jack Williamson (1948)

• A Canticle for Liebowitz — Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)

• The Stars My Destination — Alfred Bester (1956)

The Shoehorn: What's Old is New Again



If, like mine, some of your running shoes employ a sock-like upper, you will have doubtless found that they can be devilishly hard to put on, especially if you're wearing thick socks such as Thor-Los.

After fighting with mine for years, it occurred to me that perhaps an old-fashioned shoehorn could help.

Long story short: mos def!

As any fool can plainly see in the bookofjoe Studios©®™ premiere video up top, the Nike AlphaFly Next% 2 resists my efforts to don it on my own but capitulates nicely without any undue stress or effort on my part when I employ a shoehorn.

You can too!













Two (2) Official bookofjoe shoehorns can be yours for $5.99.

Make a friend's day by giving them one.

The Mysterious Hum Only A Few Perceive










From MedicalXpress:

............................................

Some people occasionally hear a low buzzing or humming sound that doesn't have a clear source. An estimated 2–4% of the world's population hear this. Scientists have been trying to figure out for decades where this sound comes from.

Some people find the sound annoying but can live with it. Others can get sick from this low-frequency sound, which is often also experienced as a vibration.

The humming sound isn't easy to hear outdoors, but it often appears indoors—and is most noticeable when you've gone to sleep at night. If you look out the window to see if there is something with a motor in the neighborhood, there's nothing to see.

And others who are in the same place hear nothing.

First discovered in coastal cities

The phenomenon was first recorded and discussed in the city of Bristol, England in the mid-1970s. Suddenly, the Bristol Evening Post began receiving letter after letters from people who heard an inexplicable sound, and wondered where it came from.

One theory was that the humming sound came from large, industrial fans that were located inside the warehouse of a large department store. However, when the warehouse was closed down a few years later, people continued to hear the sound.

Since then, the sound has been recorded in several places in the United Kingdom, mainly in coastal cities such as Hythe, Plymouth, Southampton, Swansea, but also in London.

The sound is called the hum phenomenon, or simply the hum.

In the 1990s, it cropped up in the United States, first in the city of Taos, New Mexico and in the city of Kokomo, Indiana. The phenomenon has since been recorded worldwide: in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and several European cities. The sound is typically reported in relatively densely populated areas.

A couple of years ago, people in the Oslo area also reported an unexplained humming sound, according to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

Canadian Glen MacPherson began hearing the humming sound when he lived and worked as a teacher on Canada's west coast. When he moved to another city in the same area, the sound disappeared.

He became so interested in the sound phenomenon that he started the interactive World Hum Map [top] and Database Project in 2012, which collects data from places and people where the sound has been noted.

Many different theories

Many different theories have been offered to explain the cause of the phenomenon; everything from acoustic pollution from human-made sources to sounds that nature itself makes—as well as conspiracy theories that the sound is produced by the CIA or even aliens.

There are many human sources of low-frequency sound. These can include ventilation systems, heat pumps, traffic noise, windmills and more. Examples of natural sources include the sound of waves crashing along the coast and wind sweeping through the landscape.

The hum has attracted the interest of hearing and audiology researchers worldwide. Markus Drexl, an NTNU professor, is among this self-selected group.

He and two Ph.D. research fellows and a postdoc have conducted a study of 28 people in Germany who experience hearing an unexplained buzzing or humming. The study is published in the journal PLOS One.

Other explanations for 'the hum'

  1. Military aircraft and submarines

    One theory that has been proposed is that the hum relates to sound waves from US military aircraft that use radio frequencies at the lowest end of the spectrum of sound frequencies to communicate with submarines. These aircraft operate at night, and their movements are top secret. The theory may also explain why many "hum sites" are located on the coast.

  2. Amorous fish

    The Scottish Association for Marine Science has suggested that the noise in the UK coastal town of Hythe could be caused by the mating call of schools of male plainfin midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus). Amorous male fish make loud sounds, sometimes for hours, to attract females.

  3. Waves, volcanic eruptions, or lightning strikes

    In 2015, French researchers suggested that the hum was caused by waves moving along the seafloor. When the waves collide with ridges on the continental shelves, it creates vibrations that are audible to some.

    Other researchers have suggested that vibrations caused by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes could be the cause.

    Yet another theory points to the lightning strikes that strike Earth every day. Lightning strikes build up a massive electromagnetic charge that creates a resonance between Earth's surface and the ionosphere—much like blowing air over the top of a bottle.

  4. Sensitive brains

    Dr. David Baguley, head of the audiology department at Addenbrooke's Hospital in England, has done extensive research into the phenomenon. He believes it is due to sensitive brains that can pick up ultra-low sound frequencies.

    He pointed out that our sense of hearing is greatly affected if we experience a lot of stress, and the brain turns up the volume to detect threatening sounds.

Sounds that can be measured

The researchers tested two hypotheses.

One was that the hum can be measured, both from human-made infrastructure and industry and also from nature itself, which creates low-frequency sounds.

"We know that there are people who hear low-frequency sounds that can actually be measured, even if other people don't hear them. But it's not so easy to find the source of these sound waves, because it's a struggle to localize low-frequency sounds," Drexl said.

These sounds have long wavelengths that can travel over great distances.

Extra good hearing?

The first thing the researchers did was test whether the participants had particularly good hearing for low-frequency sounds that are actually known to exist.

Most did not, except for two participants who had better hearing than average at certain low frequencies.

"Even though the group we tested was small, it still means that the hypothesis of having especially good hearing for low-frequency sounds does not hold for most people," Drexl said.

He adds a small caveat: There are differences in hearing thresholds (microstructures) that make it possible for some people to hear sensitively in a very narrow frequency range, for example between 50 and 51 Hertz. These nuances are not captured by conventional hearing tests.

The ear can produce sounds itself

The cochlea in the inner ear itself produces weak sounds with different frequencies, typically between about 500 and 5000 Hertz. These sounds have no function of their own, but are a by-product of a physiological sound amplification process.

"Most of us don't hear these sounds. However, a few people can actually hear the sounds that the ear itself produces. And these sounds can be measured objectively," Drexl said.

These particular sounds are called oto-acoustic emissions and can be detected by placing a sensitive microphone in the ear canal. In some people, these spontaneous oto-acoustic emissions can be experienced as troublesome tinnitus.

"One hypothesis was that the participants in our group could hear oto-acoustic emissions at low frequencies. That's why we tested whether they had them," says Drexl.

But… the answer was no.

Sounds that cannot be measured

"Then there are people who hear something that cannot be measured objectively.

We believe people in this category have a form of low-frequency tinnitus," Drexl said.

Tinnitus or ringing in the ears is when you hear a sound in the ear or in the head, which is not caused by an external sound source.

Many people experience tinnitus, either permanently or for shorter periods. These individuals first experience the sounds in their ears as a sound coming from outside.

But as the sound persists, even when they move to other places, they gradually become aware that the source of the sound is not external.

Drexl says that based on what is known about hearing and the tests they conducted on study participants, the best explanation is twofold.

A few people who hear the hum actually have particularly good low-frequency hearing. However, for most people, it may be a form of tinnitus, meaning a sound that originates from inside the auditory system.

"Based on our results, although we haven't ruled out cases of physical external sound sources, we suggest that subjective tinnitus in the low-frequency range is often the cause of hearing pulsations of low-frequency sound perceptions," he said.

Better understanding of the entire auditory system

Markus Drexl became interested in the hum phenomenon because he studies low-frequency sounds.

"What we know about the hearing system is mainly based on how we capture and process sound with higher frequencies. We know less about how the auditory system handles and processes low-frequency sound, or infrasound," he said.

Drexl says that over the past decade there has been a growing concern about noise from technical sources in the low-frequency range (between about 20 and 250 Hz) and the infrasound range (below 20 Hz).

"If we want to conduct a thorough assessment of low-frequency sounds and infrasound, we first need a better understanding of how sensory systems process low-frequency sound and infrasound," he said.

More?

Your wish is my demand.

Read the full scientific paper on which the article above is based: titled "On the potential sources of a low-frequency sound percept that only a few people can perceive," it was published March 27, 2026 in PLOS One.


Saturday, June 20, 2026

AirPods/AirPods Pro — One Hack to Identify Them All


Ever stick your AirPods or AirPods Pro in the wrong ear(s)?

I have — many times.

I'm betting most other people have too.

Sometimes I don't realize it till I start running and one or both of the erroneously situated devices fall out.

It's almost impossible to distinguish Left from Right just looking at them: that's because the identifying L and R capital letters are less than 2 mm high and rendered in a light grey that's barely visible against the shiny white body.

No más.

Take a red Sharpie (ultra fine or fine point) and make a little red dot on the bottom of the Right AirPod (watch the boj World Premiere Video©®™ up top to see this hack in action).

R is for Red/Right

From now on just glance at your AirPods and Bob's your uncle.

Red and Rover













This is the only daily comic strip I read and that's been the case for years.

It hits my sweet spot.

Back in the day as a boy I read every comic strip in the Milwaukee Journal every day with close attention: there was a full page of them, two side-by-side columns as best I recall, around 20-30 titles.

"L'il Abner" is the one I recall most vividly; "Mark Trail" and "Blondie" were right up there.

Brian Bassett started "Red and Rover" in 2000 and plans to end it in 2028 when he's 70, two years from now.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group (HORG)























From the website:

.......................................

The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group classified occlupanids by the shape of their oral groove.

A sampling of standardized oral groove morphologies are presented here, in hopes of leading the enthusiastic occlupanidologist towards a positive ID of their specimen.

Note that some taxonomic families contain more than shape of oral groove, such as the wide diversity of the Archignathidae.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Post-it Notes Lie-Flat Hack



Res ipsa loquitur.

Latin's not so great? 

No worries: Remove notes from the side rather than the bottom.


Poem 48 — J.H. Prynne


When the heart stops, its business concluded

there’s not much to do, however deluded;

immortal longings, like belongings,

abandon their fate at the turnstile’s gate.




How to Procrastinate When You Don't Feel Like Running



















Alas, I've NEVER felt like running since I started 50 years ago: it's boring.


No runner's high has ever permeated my pea brain and I doubt one ever will.


I've developed a few strategies which work nicely to delay getting off my fat lazy butt and opening the door and getting moving.


Here are a few, in no particular order:


• Decide that you need to untwist your already tied and tightened shoelaces: this is an excellet delaying tactic, as oftimes you first have to unlace your shoes and then relace them without retwisting them. This tactic doesn't work with fancy puffy semi-flat 3D laces because they are hard to twist unintentionally.


• Take off a shoe after you're all laced up and ready with freshly untwisted laces because you feel a tiny grain of sand-sized something or other inside one of your shoes.


• Locate your cat (if you are fortunate enough to have one) and sit or lie down next to it and pet it. Win-win.


• Check in a mirror to see if you need a haircut.


• Check the weather report on your phone/watch/computer: every second you linger inside it's getting hotter and more uncomfortable outside.


• Organize the stuff in your freezer.


• Make your bed.


• Check your spreadsheet to see if it's time to start binging-watching a a multi-episode series you've been looking forward to.


Thursday, June 18, 2026

BeyondTheMedspeak: Do not undergo elective jaw surgery — unless you are prepared for a lifetime of misery and regret

1tmdpubfigure1

No, I am not speaking as a customer but, rather, as one who has over the years aided and abetted the performance of countless such surgeries.

Just as Lord Bismarck remarked, "A person should never see how his laws or his sausages are made," so with the performance of elective jaw surgery.

This is one of the more closely held secrets of modern medicine, one you will not read of anywhere else.

No matter.

I have been there and seen that, as it were, with my very own eyes, and winced and felt the pain–to–be of their hapless patient–victims.

Long story short: it's an inexact art governed more by time constraints and the surgeon's mood than dysfunctional anatomy.

The lower jaw's anatomy is extremely complex.

3tmdpubfigure3

Much happens in a very confined space, culminating in the temporomandibular joint.

When something goes wrong in this confined space with little if any affordances, symptoms can be myriad.

Surgery to correct malocclusion (abnormal bite) is fraught with peril, namely that no one knows how the post–surgical jaw and related TMJ(s) will function — or even if they will function.

Elective jaw surgery to shorten the mandible (lower jawbone) for cosmetic rather than functional purposes is, in my opinion, tip–toeing right along the edge of malpractice.

I attended scores of such surgeries as the anesthesiologist.

Apart from the cost and postoperative misery — for starters, tremendous pain, and your jaw will be wired shut for weeks while the bone heals so you'll be dining through a straw — which are part–and–parcel of such work, the thing you will never know unless you are right there in the O.R. as part of the surgical team — or read bookofjoe — is that the surgeons proceed in an off–the–cuff and ad hoc manner.

For example, the O.R. cut–off time for elective dental surgery at UCLA was 4 p.m.

In practice, that meant the patient had to be out of the room and in the recovery room by that time.

That was so everyone could go home by 5 p.m.

Overtime is expensive.

The penalty for the surgeon who didn't comply was to have his O.R. time reduced.

Not a welcome outcome.

Now, it's not as if the surgeons didn't have plenty of time to do what they needed to do.

2tmdpubfigure2

It's just that, having begun at 8 a.m. with all the time in the world, once they got going with their various bone saws and drills and other stainless–steel, high–priced carpenter's tools and toys and whatnot, time just flew.

At least it did for them.

Part of my job was to inform them at 3 p.m. that they needed to finish up so I could wake the patient up and get her/him to recovery by 4 p.m.

Frequently this would result in abandonment of some crucial part of the procedure or a shortcut to get done in time.

The patient would never know.

I remember when I moved to Virginia from LA and my new dentist looked at my severe crossbite and told me it was one of the worst he'd ever seen.

OK.

I mean, I'd heard that before and had never had any problems eating or whatever so it didn't seem to me that I had a problem worth thinking about.

Then he said I should have it corrected, which meant undergoing the kind of surgery I've just described above.

It was all I could do to keep a straight face while I listened patiently and then replied that I would give it serious thought.

For the next couple years he'd mention it each time I came in for my semi–annual cleaning but after a while I guess he came to realize that I probably wasn't gonna go for it.

I haven't heard a word — or had a problem — since.

Bottom line: if you're considering elective cosmetic jaw surgery, get not only a second but a third, fourth, and even fifth opinion.

Money very well spent.

Forrest_gump_4

And that's all I have to say about that.

Blast From The Past — Talking Heads Live in 1976



Wrote Kottke:

................................

In March 1976, Talking Heads played a show at The Kitchen in NYC; you can watch the entire show recorded from two angles in this video. The band had formed the year before and was more than a year away from recording and releasing their debut album.

It’s a great insight as to what these early Talking Heads shows were like, and with it also being in color, being good quality, and having two angles for most of the show, this is a must-watch.

The band played for about 90 minutes (2 sets plus an encore), working through tracks like Psycho Killer, Thank You For Sending Me An Angel, and Love → Building On Fire. (via Open Culture)

...........................

50 years ago. Staggering.

This Is Up













This real-time graphic lets you check the status of over 100 major sites at once.

Free, the way we like it.

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Mechanical Pencil








































From the website

......................................

Are you curious about why a clicky pen... clicks? How a Zippo lighter flips open? What lives inside a PEZ dispenser?"

You've come to the right place!

I've illustrated tear-downs and break-downs of everyday products that you may have taken for granted.

Take a look inside and see and understand how they work.

Google Launches Search Profiles


















This looked interesting when I read about on June 4, the day it was released.

From the announcement:

......................................

We're launching Search Profiles, a new way for publishers and creators to shape their presence on Search.

Search profiles give publishers and creators a central place to showcase their latest articles, videos, and social posts.

People can easily follow sources from profiles.

Publishers and creators with a sizable following on at least one major social or video platform can claim their Search profile and customize it.

I got all excited thinking I'd have my own easily found customized results page.

Not so fast.

Up top, the requirements for having a Search profile.

Looks like I struck out: I have 10,000+ YouTube subscribers but the minimum is 100,000.

I'll check back from time to time to see if Google has lowered its minimum subscriber requirement for creating a Search Profile.

Wiki Spy














A picture is worth a thousand words.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Why are lip movements and words out of sync on my TV/phone/iPad?
















I've only noticed this asynchrony in recent years and it's getting worse.

It happens when I watch sports/movies/shows/news: everything.

I'm certain I'm not the only person to have noticed this: I'd be very surprised if a lot of — if not most — people have the same problem.

I asked Perplexity Pro for an explanation: it follows.

............................................

Lip‑sync problems are almost always timing mismatches somewhere in the chain: the video and audio are being processed, transmitted, or decoded on slightly different schedules, and your eyes can easily see a delay of even 40–80 ms.[tcl +1]

Below is what’s actually going on and why you’re seeing it so widely across sports, movies, TV, and on different devices.

Core technical causes

Modern TV, streaming, and mobile playback is a pile‑up of separate digital processes: encoding, transmission, decoding, image processing, and audio processing.[fpdvision +1]

Common low‑level causes:

Video processing is slow, audio is fast: TVs do heavy work on video (upscaling, motion smoothing, noise reduction, HDR tone‑mapping), which adds extra milliseconds of delay, while the audio often goes through a simpler path and arrives earlier.[tcl +1]

Or audio processing is slow: Soundbars/receivers may spend extra time decoding Dolby Digital/Atmos, applying room correction, or virtual surround, so sound comes late relative to the picture.[sony +1]

Different paths for audio vs video: Example: Apple TV → HDMI into TV (video), with audio sent via HDMI‑ARC/eARC to a soundbar; each hop can add its own delay and they rarely match by default.[whizz-experts +2]

Even when everything “works,” those few tens of milliseconds difference are enough to make speech look off, especially on sports where you see lips and impact sounds (bat hitting ball, ball hitting rim) very clearly.[fpdvision +1]

Source/broadcast side problems

Sometimes the desync is already baked into the feed before it ever reaches your devices.[tablotv +1]

Broadcast or stream encoding errors: A TV channel, live sports stream, or DVR/streaming back‑end can have corrupted frames or misaligned audio/video timestamps, which pushes audio ahead or behind video. This is documented with certain OTA DVR streams where bad signal corrupts the multiplex and blows A/V sync.[tablotv]

Ad insertion and stitching: On some streaming services, the transition into or out of ads briefly throws timestamps off so the program resumes out of sync until you pause/rewind or restart the stream.[facebook]

Platform‑specific bugs: Firmware bugs in streaming boxes, TVs, or apps routinely cause accumulating delay until you restart the app/device.[youtube +1]

Because you’re seeing it across “sports/movies/TV/news” and across devices, at least some of what you’re noticing will be upstream issues you can’t fully fix client‑side.[sony +1]

Device and connection factors

Different device/connection choices create different timing behaviors even with the same content.

TV + soundbar/receiver

When a TV sends video to its own panel and audio out over HDMI‑ARC/eARC or optical, paths can get out of sync.[fpdvision +1]

Typical contributors:

ARC/eARC handshake and buffering: The TV buffers audio to send over ARC/eARC; the soundbar then decodes and applies processing, which can add 50–150 ms.[whizz-experts +2]

Audio output mode (Bitstream vs PCM): Bitstream means the TV passes compressed surround formats to the soundbar to decode, which is slower and more error‑prone; switching to PCM often reduces delay because decoding happens once and earlier in the chain.[reddit +1]

“Enhancement” modes: Virtual surround, dialogue enhancement, night mode, or room correction can all increase processing time.[sony +1]

Many TVs and soundbars add a manual Audio/Lip Sync/AV Sync setting so you can delay audio to match the picture, but this only really helps when sound is ahead of video; if the video is behind, those controls can make things worse.[arylic +1]

Streaming boxes and apps (including Apple TV)

Streaming devices have to match the framerate and dynamic range of content to what the TV expects, and that negotiation can affect timing.

Frame‑rate conversion: If a box is outputting everything at, say, 60 Hz while content is 24/30/50 Hz, it has to insert or drop frames; some platforms handle this badly and drift out of sync over time.[whizz-experts +1]

Audio format negotiation: Apple TV, Fire TV, etc. decide whether to send Atmos, Dolby Digital 5.1, or PCM; mismatches between what the box sends and what the TV/soundbar expects can introduce audio lag, especially over ARC.[sony +1]

Wireless audio calibration: Newer Apple TV models rely on an iPhone‑based Wireless Audio Sync calibration to compensate for total chain delay to a TV or receiver; if that calibration is off or never run, you may see systemic lip‑sync error.[youtube +1]

Phones and tablets

On iPhone/iPad/Android, the same principles apply, but the bottlenecks move around.[google]

Software decoding load: Heavy decoding (high bitrate streams, HDR, 4K on some devices) can cause the system to slightly lag either video or audio pipeline.

Third‑party apps and overlays: On phones, additional processing layers (e.g., audio effects, screen recorders, or buggy video players) can throw the streams out of sync; safe‑mode tests are often recommended to isolate app‑level interference.[google]

Because mobile SoCs are doing everything in one integrated system, they will often maintain sync a bit better than a TV plus external audio gear—but they’re still not immune.

Wireless audio (Bluetooth, AirPods, etc.)

Any time the audio leaves the device wirelessly, additional encoding, buffering, and retransmission adds delay.[arylic +1]

Bluetooth codec latency: Standard SBC/AAC Bluetooth adds tens of milliseconds; low‑latency codecs like aptX LL help but are not always supported, and not on all Apple gear.[arylic]

Resync behavior: If packets drop or the RF environment is noisy, the device may slightly resync or rebuffer audio, which can show up as drifting lip‑sync on longer sessions.[fpdvision +1]

Some platforms, including recent Apple TV models, use calibration routines (like the iPhone proximity test) to measure Bluetooth/ARC latency and compensate, but only if you run them.[reddit +1]

Why it feels so universal now

A few structural changes in how we watch content make these issues much more visible than in the analog/broadcast era.

Everything is digital and post‑processed: Old analog TV carried audio and video in one continuous signal chain, with almost no per‑component buffering; modern systems are packets, buffers, and processors stacked on top of each other at every stage.[tcl +1]

Multiple hops and ecosystems: A single viewing setup might involve: streaming app → CDN → ISP → modem/router → streaming device → TV → ARC/eARC → soundbar. Every hop can contribute either jitter or a small fixed delay.[fpdvision]

Bigger, sharper screens: On a 55–77″ 4K panel, we naturally focus on details like lip motion and ball impacts; what was invisible on a 27″ CRT is obvious now.

Live streaming latency tricks: Services will sometimes alter buffering strategies for “low latency” modes in sports, which can affect how they schedule audio vs video at the client.[facebook +1]

So from your perspective, it feels like “everything is out of sync everywhere,” but underneath it’s the cumulative effect of many small, separate timing decisions.

Why it happens on your devices specifically

Given your setup (Apple ecosystem, streaming, sports), the most likely repeating patterns are:

Apple TV + TV + (possibly) external speakers:

TV doing heavy motion smoothing/upscaling for live sports while audio goes through ARC/eARC to a soundbar or receiver.[whizz-experts +2]

Apple TV outputting Dolby Atmos/5.1 while ARC path is marginal, causing extra audio processing delay.[sony +1]

Wireless Audio Sync either not run recently or thrown off by changes in the room/setup.[youtube +1]

iPhone/iPad watching via Bluetooth headphones or AirPods:

Bluetooth codec latency plus additional processing (spatial audio, head tracking, noise cancellation) making the sound lag slightly behind video.[arylic +1]

App/service quirks with sports:

Live sports apps (YouTube TV, ESPN, etc.) occasionally shipping streams with slightly misaligned timestamps or messing up around ad breaks; pausing or rewinding a bit often temporarily “snaps” them back into alignment.[facebook +2]

Put together, it’s not one single “defect” but a series of small mismatches that you, being detail‑oriented and sensitive to timing, are consistently noticing.

..........................................

Even if half of the above is hallucination, the half that's fact is way more than enough to discourage anyone with a modicum of common sense from fiddling around with the advanced controls and calibrations alluded to.

I've decided to live with the asynchrony because trying to fix so many different possible causes can only lead to catastrophe once I start fiddling around with the specialized settings in all my devices.

I urge you to do the same.

Next slide please....

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Helpful Hints from joe-eeze: Get a belt with a plastic buckle


















Wrote one traveler, "I've spent a lot of time going to places like airports and museums with security measures that often flag innocuous things and make you take them off or remove them from your pockets or bags. Get a belt with a plastic buckle online or from an outdoor clothing store and that's one less pain point."

Zillions to choose from here.

I just bought this one in grey: 45 cents + $4.58 shipping from China = $5.03.