June 2025
Intro text
To start off this month, a pug in sheep's clothing.
Random unchecked fact I learned from my work this month:
Cheetos in Japan often have strawberries in them.
Want to make a living as a writer? This is how one writer puts cash in the bank and food on the table. Horse stories in the morning, erotica in the afternoon.
The old newsletter saying of “hit 'em with some microwave facts” leads me to these. On the modern battlefield that is the domestic kitchen, microwaves and plastics are now declared mortal enemies. On the actual battlefield, microwaves are the new defense against drones. I imagine you'd have to be quite strong to throw a microwave at a drone. A young person's game, that.
Science news! A large rockslide happened in Greenland that generated a local tsunami and made the whole globe ring like a large, spherical gong for nine days.
A word I learned this month: grawlix. Use it at parties and amaze your friends. If you're the kind of person who has friends and attends parties. Weirdo.
Some Star Wars news. And also some CIA news. It’s the same news.
Animal news! This one might be a little late - but, a couple of weeks ago, I was obsessed with this live feed of bald eagle chicks Sunny and Gizmo as they began learning to fly. They've both fledged now, so you're just as likely to see an empty nest as cool eagles, but you never know... In more practical news, here's a lesson on dog etiquette; and one on how to survive a grizzly bear attack. Each useful in its own way.
The U.S. is phasing out the penny. Why? The Mint reported losing $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced in the 2024 fiscal year. Because the metals used to make pennies are worth more than the pennies themselves. So, fair enough. But what will be the knock-on effects? (Hint: Higher prices.)
In young human news. AI means we could be seeing the return of paper-and-pen writing in schools. And this science article on why we forget our childhoods explains why the kids will probably not remember anyway.