"SPACE JUNK is a brand new publication examining the intersection of youth culture and space exploration. Bringing together voices from across science, art, and speculative fiction, it positions itself as both document and provocation — a record of a generation reimagining humanity's relationship to space."
Pilot Issue: $42.
I learned of the existence of SPACE JUNK in an April 9, 2026 New York Times article by Steven Kurutz.
Read it here.
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So many!
Best article EVER about why your shower is so nasty — and how to clean it!
Jeanne Huber, writing in the Washington Post Home section, cast the scales — as it were — from my eyes with the sensational revelation that it most likely isn't mildew that's making the grout black: it's manganese!
Who knew?
Like every other person on the planet with the same problem I've repeatedly, over the years, tried any number of bleaching solutions purported to remove the black stuff, which we all know is mildew.
Not.
As Huber wrote in the opening sentence of her explosive article, "If bleach doesn't help, it's probably not mildew."
But bless her heart, she doesn't just leave us there dangling: she then tells us to lift the lid on the toilet's tank — stay with me here — and look at the inside walls.
She writes, "Water laden with manganese usually makes tanks black on the interior."
Bingo — all my toilet tanks are jet black on the inside.
w00t!
She then goes on to outline in detail how to create a quick and dirty — and cheap — manganese remover and provides escalating steps to increase the power of your attack should a light artillery–equivalent not be sufficient to eliminate the threat.
I am so stoked: what a great way to start the week.
Here's the article in full.
Q. The grout around my tub is turning black, and a bleach solution doesn't seem to help. What's going on, and is there a way to make it white again?
A. If bleach doesn't help, it's probably not mildew.
Black stains could be caused by manganese, a mineral, in your water.
Because shower walls are usually left to dry on their own, the manganese stays behind when the water evaporates.
Over time, it builds up and becomes especially noticeable on grout, which absorbs more water (and therefore more minerals) than the surrounding tile.
There are a few ways to investigate whether this might be the cause.
Lift the lid on your toilet's tank.
Water laden with manganese usually makes tanks black on the interior.
You can also contact your water supplier and ask for a copy of the annual testing report, which is known as a "consumer confidence report."
It may also be available on the water supplier's Web site.
Or, if you have a private well, you can arrange to have the water tested.
Water with more than 0.05 milligrams of manganese per liter is capable of staining, unless your house has a treatment system designed to remove the mineral before the water flows out of the taps and shower head.
A high iron concentration, over 0.5 milligrams per liter, can also stain, but the color is red or reddish brown.
Having manganese or iron, or both, in your water doesn't make it unsafe to drink.
But dealing with the visual effects of these minerals is definitely a hassle.
You may have noticed stains in your dishwasher or on your laundry as well.
Acidic cleaners help remove manganese and iron stains.
White vinegar (dilute acetic acid) and lemon juice (citric acid) are commonly suggested because they are relatively benign and because you may already have them on hand.
They do indeed work well for many cleaning jobs around the house, but they aren't very effective on shower walls because of the simple fact that they are liquids and run off before they have time to work.
Instead, try making a paste of cream of tartar (the acidic potassium salt of tartaric acid) mixed with hydrogen peroxide, which is also slightly acidic.
Use hydrogen peroxide as it is sold at drugstores, which means it is already diluted in water to a safe level and contains just 3 percent actual hydrogen peroxide.
With an old toothbrush, apply the paste to the grout and wait 20 minutes or so, then rinse with clear water.
If you see some improvement, repeat the procedure until the stains have faded.
Don't expect the quick results you get when you douse mildew with a bleach solution.
But cream of tartar plus hydrogen peroxide does often work if you give it time and use it several times.
If you're in a rush, you may conclude that you need a more powerful cleaner.
Commercial grout cleaners often contain oxalic acid, phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, which are all quite dangerous in high concentrations (as is hydrogen peroxide).
Although you might be able to buy these acids straight, using a packaged cleaner is a lot safer.
The acid or acids are already diluted, and there are instructions tailored to that concentration, which affects the length of time that the product can be left on a surface without etching it.
Plus, there may be additional ingredients such as detergents or chelating agents, which help tie up minerals so they don't stain.
Bar Keepers Friend and Zud are two powdered cleaners that contain oxalic acid in concentrations that are generally considered safe to use.
Products sold specifically as grout cleaners are often more potent.
If you buy something more powerful, read the full label before you leave the store so you're sure the product is one you feel comfortable using.
Many of the hazardous chemicals found in a typical home are products that were purchased but never used, presumably because the buyers decided too late that the risks weren't worth it.
If ingredients aren't listed, choose another product or ask to see the manufacturer's safety data sheet, which the store should be able to supply.
Products without any hazard warning are considered safest, followed by those with a label that reads "warning" or "caution."
Products with "danger" or "poison" labels are most hazardous.
"Nontoxic" means nothing on a label.
Follow the instructions exactly, including donning any safety gear (such as goggles and rubber gloves) that the label recommends.
You may decide that removing the stains and restoring white grout is just not worth the bother.
There is still something you can do.
Consider staining the grout with a product known as a grout colorant.
Black stains on white look a lot worse than black along with tan or gray.
Colorants are easy to apply, and they don't scrub off.
All of this assumes that your grout, while stained, is still intact and that the tiles are all fully stuck to the wall.
If the grout is crumbling, it needs to be removed and replaced.
You can buy a little tool called a grout saw to make the process easier.
If any tiles are loose, there is probably also an underlying moisture issue that needs to be addressed.
But if you're lucky, stains are your only issue.
Once you have removed the mineral deposits or tinted the grout to make the stains less noticeable, apply a grout sealer, which will reduce the amount of water the grout absorbs and therefore help keep it from staining again.
********************
• You will find cream of tartar in the spice rack at your local supermarket. Huber assumed people would know that but I'll bet some don't. Maybe most.
• If you decide to go nuclear in your shower stall cleaning effort, open a window and turn on the ceiling exhaust fan, if such avenues of vapor egress exist. It seems to me a shame to have someone come upon your fume–riddled corpse lying there in your spic-and-span shower, considering all the trouble you went to to finally de–grunge that space.
• While you're at it, lose the icky shower curtain liner (they're not expensive) — and maybe the shower curtain as well — and really start fresh.
The creator of this website processes the film he finds in old cameras.
"You are seeing them for the first time, as they were lost by the photographers who took the images."
Talk about a working time machine....
Why?
Because the sign warns of the danger posed by the sign itself.
An excellent exemplar of the word "meta."
"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]
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 is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web"
Fair warning: there goes the day.
"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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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."
Miller surfs year-round on the St. Lawrence River. In winter, he tests his skills among the ice floes and chilly current.
"This fully functioning brass compass guides you to the Olive Garden in Times Square."
Limited edition.
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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[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.
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....
"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....
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
[via Kottke]
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?
"Each London Underground line has its own distinctive sound. Can you tell them apart?"
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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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