I Do Not Know — E.M. Cioran

I do not know what is right and what is wrong; what is allowed and what is not; I cannot judge and I cannot praise. There are no valid criteria and no consistent principles in the world. It surprises me that some people still concern themselves with a theory of knowledge. To tell the truth, I couldn't care less about the relativity of knowledge, simply because the world does not deserve to be known. At times I feel as if I had total knowledge, exhausting the content of this world; at other times the world around me does not make any sense. Everything then has a bitter taste, there is in me a devilish, monstrous bitterness that renders even death insipid. I realize now for the first time how hard it is to define this bitterness. It may be that I'm wasting my time trying to establish a theoretical basis for it when in fact it originates in a pretheoretical zone. At this moment I do not believe in anything and I have no hope. All forms and expressions that give life its charm seem to me meaningless. I have no feeling either for the future or for the past, while the present seems to me poison. I do not know whether I am desperate or not, since lack of hope does not automatically imply despair. I could be called anything because I stand to lose nothing. I've lost everything! Flowers are blooming and birds are singing all around me! How distant I am from everything!

Best Sign of the Year

Why?

Because the sign warns of the danger posed by the sign itself.

An excellent exemplar of the word "meta."

U.S. Dollar ($) Purchasing Power Since 2000 In Real Time

A penny for your thoughts.

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Hostile Volume

"Hostile Volume is a simple and maddening game where you need to hold the audio volume level at 25%, which gets increasingly difficult with each level."

Fair warning: there goes the day.

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[via Kottke]

The Engineering of Duct Tape

Bill Hammack, aka The Engineer Guy, is an amazing engineering educator and in this video he explains how duct tape is designed to simultaneously do three things well: “a) adhere with light pressure, b) stay in place, yet c) be removable”.

Controlling the stickiness of tape is of utmost importance. In fact, a key element of engineering tape is controlling its stickiness — and only by doing that can tape be wound into a useful roll. If the tape sticks too tightly to itself, we could not use it.

I love the ramp & ball test for tape stickiness near the end… a very elegant and simple bit of engineering:

Pressure sensitive tape predates much of the most elementary molecular understanding of adhesion; tape has been mass produced since the early twentieth century. That engineers developed and refined tape without this knowledge is no surprise — recall that the purpose of the engineering method is to solve problems before we have full scientific knowledge.

.................................... 

[via Kottke]

the html review — issue 05, spring 2026

"The html review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web"

Fair warning: there goes the day.

More here.

Got Rust?

"Only gold and platinum are corrosion-free. All others metals require nuanced techniques to protect them." — Stewart Brand, in his excellent new book "Maintenance of Everything: Part One."

The Rust Store carries over 1,000 items dedicated to preventing and removing rust.

More 

here.

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Can You Identify Famous Guitarists From a Single Note?

 

YouTube description: "In this episode I test your knowledge of 20 of the most famous guitarists by playing an isolated single note (or bend) from their famous solos."

Quantum Foam — Elizabeth Jacobson

Orion Miller is 'The Ice Surfer'

Miller surfs year-round on the St. Lawrence River. In winter, he tests his skills among the ice floes and chilly current.

Olive Garden Compass — 'Not all those who breadstick are lost'

"This fully functioning brass compass guides you to the Olive Garden in Times Square."

Limited edition.

Apply within.

As Slow As Possible

Super-slow versions of three classic video games:

• Pong

• Breakout

• Missile Command

On the slowest setting you have to constantly remind yourself not to close your eyes and fall asleep.

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A Short History of Ruffles

[1960s Ruffles]

The other day while I was out running and engaging in a wide-ranging discussion with Perplexity Pro on my phone about any number of things, I asked "Who invented Ruffles potato chips?

To my surprise I learned it wasn't Frito-Lay, the company that makes them, but rather one George Ronald Pierce.

From the Douglas County (Nebraska) Historical Society and Wikipedia:

In the late 1940s, George Ronald Pierce began working for Industrial Electrics, owned by Bernhardt Stahmer, at 15th and Chicago Streets.

There he had a hand in several different products, perhaps the most noteworthy of which was a slicer for potato chips.

In 1948, he put the machine on a trailer behind the family car and drove east, showing and selling his company's invention in several states.

He called the chips that it made "Ruffles," a name taken from the ruffled lace collars in fashion in the 16th century — the chips resembled little corrugated waffles.

The uneven surfaces were said to make the resulting chips sturdier and better for dipping.

Stahmer, the company's owner, trademarked these ridged chips as Ruffles in 1948.

He sold the rights to the Frito Company in 1958.

Which charger will charge your Apple device quickest?

Find out here.

If you're anything like me this question keeps you up at night all too often.

I'm here to bring you the answers you need: isn't that why you pay me the big $$$ to read boj?

But I digress.

Long story short: Your charger's wattage matters a lot when the device's battery is 0-50% charged; higher than that, less so.

TMI?

You don't recall what wattage is from your high school physics class?

Perhaps you should've been paying attention rather than passing notes....

File under: "Things that make me go 'hmmm'"

Before we get started: you KNOW what song I'm hearing.

Now back to our regularly scheduled piffle....

Since forever my email in-boxes have been very different on my iPhone and my Mac.

Specifically, some stuff appears in my phone's in-box but not my Mac's; others emails appear in my Mac's inbox and not my phone's.

Sometimes emails appear in both, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

Almost everyone I know would try to "fix" this: me, all that would happen if I tried to do that is 

1) I'd fail

2) I'd end up screwing up my email such that some emails would never appear on either device, or worse:  I'd irreversibly break my MacMail such that I'd have to hire/pay someone to fix it, costing me time (my most valuable commodity) and money.

Status quo works for me.

Catalog of an Entire House/Life

"Over four years, Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins took a photo of every single thing in her house, 'from my daughter's torn sock to my son's Lego, but also my vibrator, my anxiolytics... absolutely everything.'"

12,795 photos of 12,795 objects.

"Explore the entire archive here, indexed and classified by color, material, frequency of use, room, and 'what I would save in a fire.'"

Fair warning....

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[via Kottke]

Ultimate Online Phreak Box

Attention Richard Kashdan: Your upgrade has come in.

Wrote Kottke: "Ultimate Online 'Phreak Box' is a free online blue box, red box, and silver box. (With this and a time machine, you could make free phone calls in the 1970s)."

Read about the OG — "Mark Bernay" aka Richard Kashdan — here and here.

I'm proud of the fact that Richard Kashdan discovered boj back in the day and has checked in from time to time ever since.

Hemingway's 4 Fast Rules for Effective Writing

Back in the day (1917) they comprised the first paragraph of the Kansas City Star Copy Style Sheet.

Then Kansas City Star reporter Ernest Hemingway credited them for teaching him "the best rules for the business of writing."

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

Guess the Tube Line

"Each London Underground line has its own distinctive sound. Can you tell them apart?"

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τοῖς χαλεποῖς νοσήμασι χαλεπὰ φάρμακα

How's your classical Greek?

I'm reminded of Ben Jonson's remark about Shakespeare, to wit: "He had little Latin, and less Greek."

Which, contrary to the common interpretation, was part of Jonson's appreciation of Shakespeare's greatness rather than a dig at him.

But I digress.

The headline up top in English: "For extreme diseases, extreme remedies." — Hippocrates, "Aphorisms" (c. 400 B.C.E.)

All of which serves as a prelude to the introduction of a new pillow which has recently taken over my sleeping space aka bed.

It's the COOP Side Sleeper pillow (above and below).

I've known of its existence for many years but only took a flutter and bought one recently after increasingly broken/inadequate sleep for the past few months with no apparent outside cause.

It took a few nights to get the pillow's firmness right (they give you a big bag of additional original foam cube stuffing 

so you can get its elevation just right after taking some time to look at yourself in a mirror in your preferred side sleeping position and adjust the pillow thickness such that your head is perfectly level).

After yet another in a series of fantastic 8+ hour sleeps, I'm here to tell you this tricked-out pillow is no humbug.

$99.

Not persuaded?

Watch

the video.

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Status Icons and Symbols on Apple Watch

If you're like most people you have no idea what that minuscule colored symbol at the top of your Apple Watch display means.

Yes — there's an icon on it but it's impossible to identify with the naked eye.

I tried using a magnifying glass but all I saw was a grid of colored pixels.

Then I stumbled on this page and all was revealed.

The one I get most frequently is a red dot, which means you've received a notification.

"Swipe down on the watch face to read [and dismiss/delete] notifications."

Pocket Dish Rack

Say what?

From Yanko Design:

Stop worrying about wet dishware: with this innovative dish rack you can dry your dishes wherever you happen to be.

Whether camping or just trying to save space in your kitchen, this collapsible rack will get your dishes dry in no time flat[....]

Patent-pending spring mechanism shrinks the full expanded 14" rack down to 2" in under a second.

Features and Details:

• Ventilation geometry provides optimal airflow

• Designed by Sugata Mono Studio & Ishikawa

• 304 Stainless steel

• Dishwasher-safe

• Made in Japan

$75 (dishes not included).

On the fence?

Watch the video.

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'The Testament of Ann Lee' (born 300 years too early)

I watched this remarkable 2025 film last night.

I find it incomprehensible that leading actress Amanda Seyfried's portrayal of visionary Shaker leader Ann Lee did not receive the Oscar for Best Actress: she wasn't even nominated!

Her performance is staggering.

This morning, not ten hours later, I happened on a scientific paper titled "The neurophenomenology of a self-induced transcendental visionary state: A case study."

Above and below,

brain imaging of the paper's subject before, during, and after her self-induced transcendental visionary state.

Somewhere Ann Lee is smiling.

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

*398 million views since being uploaded to YouTube 15 years ago. Why, that's more than the total of all the views ever of my cat napping!

Best Cartoon of the Year

The Vision Pro is a FAIL*

Two years and one month after Apple's Vision Pro arrived here, I finally bit the bullet and created a boj post using its virtual Mac display feature.

You just read it: the "Liquid Sky" appreciation published earlier today.

Doing so was janky and difficult and unpleasant for a number of reasons.

1) When sitting in a chair, which is necessary if you're going to use the virtual Mac display for typing etc., the Vision Pro even with its long delayed improved head harness is still uncomfortably heavy. 

Tim Cook and all the shills and fanbois who say they wear the device all day for work are lying.

2) The power cord to the battery is still annoying when it brushes your shoulder or back 

3) The resolution of the virtual display is terrible compared to the physical screen: it's fuzzy even up close, and should you wish to have the screen be many feet wide, which you can, reading letters and numbers requires a lot of effort because of the magnified graininess.

4) If you choose to put up multiple virtual windows simultaneously, you find that they're not all identical: the top bar for Chrome:

                   File  Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help

for example, only appears on one screen, so when you add a new tab on a second or third or fourth screen, you have to go back with your cursor to the first screen to get the New Tab option from its drop-down menu.

Annoying and clunky.

*With one exception: Watching movies and shows at home. They look magnificent in the Vision Pro's 6k resolution on the giant virtual screen size you choose — up to 40 feet!

The sound is fantastic and one great thing is that while you're listening at full surround sound volume, others in the room can't hear anything.

Lagniappe: using it in the middle of the day is magical, as you close off all the light and commotion and find yourself in a perfectly dark virtual theater with no phones or sounds of eating and talking etc.

The ideal way to watch is while lying flat with your head supported on a pillow; I use my Plufl, which turns out to be perfect for me and enables my cat to comfortably nap on my lap.