Picture of the Day

Taken at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

LIbrary of Juggling

My heart leaps with joy when I stumble on an old-timey-style site like this.

No cookies opt out/in, no banner ads, no flashing lights, no sounds, no dark patterns.

WYSIWYG.

N.B. The most recent additions were on June 13, 2015.

"The Library of Juggling is on an indefinite hiatus, which means no new tricks will be added. Existing content will continue to be hosted for the foreseeable future."

1999

Wrote Prince:

From "Prince: The Beautiful Ones," published in 2019.

He was 24 when he wrote "1999" in 1982.

You know what song I'm hearing....

Prince was my favorite musician of all time.

I thought he'd be around for a long time: he's the only musician I'd travel to see perform live.

I missed numerous chances.

When he was found dead in an elevator at Paisley Park, his HQ, on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at age 58, I was well and truly shocked.

Antique Hold-To-Light Postcards

I never knew such things existed until I happened on them in Clive Thompson's Linkfest.

From reddit:

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

I started collecting these cards several years ago when I was really interested in collecting antique Coney Island postcards.

Each of the cards has been intricately "carved" out and painted with bright colors allowing those areas to glow when held up to the light, the thicker parts of the paper don't let any light through.

All of the cards pictured are from the early 1900s, most likely between 1903 and 1910, because two of the cards I have depict the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, and 2 of the 4 Coney Island cards pictured depict an area of Coney Island called Dreamland which burned down in 1911.

Making A Giant Zipper To Explain How It Works

'Thumbs Up' Decanter

I first saw this beautiful Riedel decanter back in 2005 and featured it in bookofjoe (above).

The other day I got to wondering if it was still being made and sure enough, it's been popular enough to continue being produced for the past twenty-one years.

Lead-free crystal hand-blown in Austria.

$280.

FunFact: $159.95 in 2005 is worth $266 in today's dollars.

'Powers of 10'

Every ten years or so (see what I did there?) I like to watch this mind-expanding classic film made in 1977.

Back story here.

FunFact: last century, when I lived in LA, I visited Charles & Ray Eames house and studio (below), 

which is open to the public for tours. 

Wonderful.

Highly recommended.

Apply within.

Intertapes — Archive of Found Cassette Tapes

From the website: "Intertapes is an updating collection of found cassettes from around the world. The audio fragments include: voice memos, field recordings, mixtapes, bootlegs, and more."

Fair warning: there goes the day.

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

[via Clive Thompson]

First Fig — Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;

   It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

   It gives a lovely light!

Motion-Induced Blindness

 

From the website:

• You see a rotating array of blue crosses and three yellow dots

• Now fixate on the center by watching the flashing green spot

• Note that the yellow spots disappear once in a while:

• Singly, in pairs, or all three simultaneously

• In reality (!), the three yellow spots are continuously present

More?

Your wish is my demand.

154 others should drive you insane.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

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

Jack Link's Jerky — One To Rule Them All

I've been on a jerky jones for the past month or so, trying a zillion different brands ranging in price from $19.99/lb (Jack Link's) to $44.99/lb (Wild Bill's).

About two weeks ago Episode 1 in this series appeared here.

Long story short: the best of them all is Jack Link's Original (above).

This is confounding to me because it's also the cheapest of them all and available everywhere.

Don't wanna buy a whole pound?

I got you covered: Jack Link's will sell you a 3.25 oz bag for $6.99.

'Gugusse and the Automaton'

From Kottke:

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

The Library of Congress recently discovered a copy of a "long-lost film made in approximately 1897 by George Méliès called "Gugusse and the Automaton" (Gugusse et l'Automate), which "had not been seen by anyone in likely more than a century" and "was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot." It's also one of the first science fiction films ever made.

Up top is a digitized copy of the entire 45-seconds-long film.

How the film was discovered:

Bill McFarland, who found the film, drove the entire box of films in which he found it from his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan to the Library of Congress's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, to have the cache evaluated.

His great-grandfather, William Delisle Frisbee, had been a potato farmer and schoolteacher in western Pennsylvania by day, but by night he was a traveling showman. He drove his horse and buggy from town to town to dazzle the locals with a projector and some of the world's first moving pictures.

He set up shop in a local schoolroom, church, lodge, or civic auditorium and showed magic lantern slides and short films with accompanied by music from a newfangled phonograph. It shocked the viewers.

"They must have been thrilled," McFarland said. "They must have been out of their minds to see this motion picture and hear the Edison phonograph."

Population Around a Point

Human population within a distance, from any point in the world.

"Select a radius and click on the map."

Hey — there's my house!:

15,050 people live within 3km of my house (top).

"The data is the Global Human Settlement Layer population grid for 2025. This release was known to be less accurate for small areas, especially where there has been rapid change in population."

Fair warning: there goes the day.

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

bookofjoe's Favorite Thing: Midori Letter Opener

A lot going on here:

• Super-sharp ceramic blade

• Blade protected by stylish housing

• Dedicated hole for included keychain or yours

• Magnet to affix device to fridge/any ferrous surface

• Extremely elegant and the sound it makes slicing open letters is fo shizzle

$10.99.

More?

Your wish is my demand.

Below,

the director's cut of Part 2 above.

This is a 3D billboard on a Bank of China building in a city in China

 

This is a 3D billboard on a Bank of China building in a city in China. Using an optical illusion, it makes the building look like it is wrapped in metallic ripples and being distorted, creating a stunning dynamic visual effect. pic.twitter.com/LRGI4JBSDK

— China pulse 🇨🇳 (@Eng_china5) March 18, 2026

BeyondTheMedspeak: Is Your Doctor a Quack?

Are you sure?

Because doctors can fool you.

Let me tell you a little story, all the more profound because every word of it is true.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I went to UCLA Medical School.

I got to be friends with some of the members of the class a year ahead of me; I saw them on rotations, in the mail room, what have you.

While in med school and for some years thereafter I lived in an wonderful old Spanish–style apartment building that was walking distance from UCLA.

My downstairs neighbor was a member of the class that finished a year ahead of me; he was a GP in solo private practice in Malibu and liked to drop the names of his famous show business patients.

He had the most beautiful clothes.

He had a Ferrari, bright yellow as I recall, and a Porsche and a string of flight attendant girlfriends over the years, but finally settled down with one in particular who was just nutso.

Screaming, crying, fighting, noise, things being thrown against the wall and breaking, doors slamming so hard the building shook, loud music, the works, it all emanated from their place.

But the apartment and the rent and the location were so great I just didn't want to move so I endured their craziness for years.

Among the other members of this guy's class had been my dorm residence advisor when I was an undergraduate; I remained friends with him, touching base maybe every couple years or so.

Once I mentioned that I was living above his med school classmate and I started going on about what a bozo the guy was and the ex–residence advisor started laughing really hard.

What's so funny? I asked.

He said my neighbor had graduated last in their class: #121 out of 121.

No one could believe UCLA Medical School would actually let him graduate, he was such a doofus.

He knew nothing, screwed up everything and half the time didn't even show up.

But you know the old joke, don't you, about what they call the guy who graduates last in his med school class?

"Doctor."



Anyway.

One day, maybe eight or ten years after I'd graduated, I happened to be reading Los Angeles magazine, the annual issue featuring "The Best Doctors in Los Angeles."

And guess what?

My downstairs neighbor, Dr. Last–in–his–class, who would occasionally tell me about pet treatments out of left field that he used in his practice, was named "The Top GP in Los Angeles."

w00t!

So that's why I asked, at the top of this post, "Are you sure?"

Caveat [doctor] emptor.

'What did they say about me?'

My Top 10 Songs — in 2005

I was strolling down memory lane yesterday and happened on a boj post that appeared on December 15, 2005, headlined My Top 10 Songs.

That's them up top, followed by the number of times I'd listened to each song in the years immediately preceding the post (iTunes launched in 2001 and the iTunes Music Store in 2003).

You know what?

I must be frozen in some kind of musical time-warp because I still love every one of those songs and could happily listen to each on endless replay at max volume.

bookofjoe's Favorite Thing: Double-Barreled Pencil Sharpener

Res ipsa loquitur.

Above and below 

from boj Studios©®™, World Premiere videos demonstrating this wonderful device.

$7.99 (pencil not included).

When kagi met bookofjoe

kagi is a paid ad-free search engine founded in 2018.

Up top, what it has to say about bookofjoe.

Spot on: I'm flattered and impressed.

Apart from the fact that bookofjoe is attributed to one Joe Peach, a long-time commenter on bookofjoe who retired from the Comments section about ten years ago.

And the inception date, which kagi states is 2003, is close: in fact, bookofjoe started on August 24, 2004.

Trust me on this.

The Confidence of Acme Weather

I very much like just-released Acme Weather's approach to users: they don't even ask for a credit card number or email to try it out.

Rather, you download the iPhone app free and use it for two weeks: only then will they ask if you want a year's subscription for $25.

I'm betting they're doing a land office business with their great app and this zero-pressure approach.

If you know you're good that's quite enough.

Assuming you understand marketing.

FunFact: Acme Weather is made by the creators of the Dark Sky weather app, which was excellent and extremely popular, so much so that Apple bought it in March 2020 and integrated its best features into Apple Weather before shutting down Dark Sky on December 31, 2022.

I guess the non-compete clause has timed out.

Quantum Mechanics Made Simple

This Charles Addams cartoon originally appeared in the New Yorker in 1940.

It's remarkable that Addams was able to so elegantly characterize the nature of quantum mechanics just fifteen years after its formulation in 1925-1926.

He also gave a glimpse into the future: it was in 1957 that Hugh Everett III first proposed what's now called the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

'Attraction'

A very strange 2017 Russian sci-fi film about first contact.

mos def not "Arrival II."

Quite entertaining.

They do things differently in Russian cinema.

Understatement.

More on this film here.

FunFact: It became the highest grossing ever Russian sci-fi film.

In Every Language

In Every Language is a Wikipedia search engine that lets you see how different regions of the world depict the same thing. 

Search a word and notice the subtle ways different cultures and collective psyches encode the same idea differently across languages.

Digital Fly

From Marginal Revolution:

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

In 2024, the entire neuronal diagram of the fruit-fly brain – some 140,000 neurons and 50 million connections – was mapped. Later research showed that the map could be used to predict behavior. Now, Eon Systems, a firm with some of the scientists involved in the fruit-fly research and with the goal of uploading a human brain, has announced that they uploaded the fruit fly brain to a digital environment.

The digital fly appears to behave in the digital environment in reasonably fly-like ways. According to the scientists this is not a simulation: the fly's "sensors" are being activated by the digital environment and its neurons are responding. More details here.