RSS Parrot

big asterisk on technology saving us: whales and kerosene

https://maya.land/responses/2025/04/13/technology-save-you-asterisk.html

Published: April 13, 2025 07:00

…fill the gap left by spermaceti. So in one respect, Nordhaus was right: technology did eventually save the whales. But a) it happened more than a century later than he suggested, by which point whale stocks were much lower than in the 1860s, b) the…

I was on people & blogs!

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/31/people-and-blogs.html

Published: March 31, 2025 07:00

This is the 83rd edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Maya and her blog, maya.land

beautiful recreation of argent, that elegant old mac font

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/29/recreation-argent-mac-font.html

Published: March 29, 2025 07:00

Argent Pixel CF is a playful bitmap version of the original dashing Argent typeface. With a pronounced x-height, this unexpectedly readable serif recreates the original font’s distinctive look in a style evocative of early Macintosh typography.

here are some good CSS patterns and opinions I have about them

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/27/css-patterns.html

Published: March 27, 2025 07:00

These are lightweight and easy to use (well-made in their use of CSS variables, too). Let me further pitch you on why you should take them seriously:

elizabeth sandifer on neil gaiman proves necessary reading for some of us

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/25/neil-gaiman-elizabeth-sandifer.html

Published: March 25, 2025 07:00

There are many people out there for whom the recent reporting on the atrocities of Neil Gaiman will have landed as news of a distant evil, or as a taint falling across an enjoyed piece of streamed TV. I wish you all well and nothing here is for you.

how to crochet a death’s-head hawkmoth

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/22/crochet-deaths-head-hawkmoth.html

Published: March 22, 2025 07:00

Am I going to make this?

I do not want this $1300 hoodie but it does raise a question

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/20/1300-hoodie-question.html

Published: March 20, 2025 07:00

Generous hoodie in cotton fleece, featuring a tonal Chloé logo, a kangaroo pocket, and a drawstring finished with a gold-toned snake head and tail.

there could (should?) be more cyberpunk genre romance than there is

https://maya.land/monologues/2025/03/18/cyberpunk-genre-romance.html

Published: March 18, 2025 07:00

I’m not saying that it should exist for me, that I even want to read it – but there’s enough trope overlap that readers are already primed. It’s possible this could kick off on its own, as the whole fairy-romantasy thing did, but I can also imagine this…

french people can’t pass france’s language tests for foreigners seeking citizenship

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/18/dubious-language-tests.html

Published: March 18, 2025 07:00

It sent 10 French volunteers, including a literature student with five years of post-baccalauréat higher education, to sit the tests those seeking French nationality will face. Five failed the written test but passed the oral, while two failed to reach a…

an immoral web font vacuum is a gift to the font hoarder in all of us

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/17/immoral-web-font-vacuum.html

Published: March 17, 2025 07:00

Enter a URL to find, preview, and download web fonts (WOFF/TTF/WOFF2/OTF) present on the page. Does anyone else remember when DVD player software on your computer could stop you from taking screenshots of the content? I don’t know if it still can – but I…

a very methodical thing to read about the inspection paradox

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/16/methodical-inspection-paradox.html

Published: March 16, 2025 07:00

An example of a long-tailed distribution comes up in the context of social networks.  In 1991, Scott Feld presented the “friendship paradox”: the observation that most people have fewer friends than their friends have.  He studied real-life friends, but…

this is not a drill: orisinal is back

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/15/orisinal-is-back.html

Published: March 15, 2025 07:00

Oh my God, it’s back.

an RSS bot in a group chat is our era’s best salon

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/14/blogs-plus-groupchats-salon.html

Published: March 14, 2025 07:00

Okay, I’m being too cute by half with the title. But! Walk with me here.

we misread the great gatsby (lavender taxis were expensive somehow)

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/12/great-gatsby-lavender-taxis.html

Published: March 12, 2025 07:00

Look, this whole thing is interesting and subtle and eye-opening re: things the wider culture has missed about The Great Gatsby, but I’ve got to be real with you. I am mostly just stuck on this one detail:

style stage was a 2020 reinvention of css zen garden

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/10/style-stage-2020-css-zen-garden.html

Published: March 10, 2025 07:00

In 2003, Dave Shea began a legendary project called CSS Zen Garden that provided a demonstration of “what can be accomplished through CSS-based design” until submissions stopped in 2013. Style Stage seeks to rekindle that spirit by providing this page as…

heretic (2024)

https://maya.land/monologues/2025/03/09/heretic-2024.html

Published: March 9, 2025 08:00

IMDb, Letterboxd

metacommentary on advice on morning routines

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/06/advice-routines.html

Published: March 6, 2025 08:00

I like this – some contemplation of how there are disconnects between those advising and those seeking advice, and a recommended alternate method of routine-composition.

one month without social media without result

https://maya.land/responses/2025/03/03/month-without-social-media.html

Published: March 3, 2025 08:00

Literally, it makes no difference what I abstain from, I will always find a way to procrastinate.

bread and whipped cream is odd, even for a Roman engagement

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/27/bread-and-whipped-cream-engagement.html

Published: February 27, 2025 08:00

Lightly sweetened brioche-style buns in the shape of a football, split and filled with whipped cream, maritozzi are the kind of breakfast that encourages you to slow down for a moment.

this instagram account collects skulls in churches

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/24/skulls-in-churches.html

Published: February 24, 2025 08:00

Memento mori! Carnis resurrectionem! Sick carvings!

muppets and k-pop: I guess why not?

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/21/fraggle-rock-kpop-aespa.html

Published: February 21, 2025 08:00

YouTube recommendations have decided I’m an aespa stan so this came into my world. I sort of wish that entertainment for children enforced Israeli fashion rules but that aside, this is cute!

study: drivers in fancy cars really are bigger jerks

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/18/drivers-fancy-cars-jerks.html

Published: February 18, 2025 08:00

In study 2, we tested whether upper-class drivers are more likely to cut off pedestrians at a crosswalk. An observer positioned him- or herself out of plain sight at a marked crosswalk, coded the status of a vehicle, and recorded whether the driver cut off…

type at 40wpm, not 200

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/15/40wpm-avanier.html

Published: February 15, 2025 08:00

If there’s one thing I learned throughout school and work, it’s that you should never visibly operate at your peak even when urgency calls for it. This is because functioning at >=100% regularly, while possibly dazzling to your peers, managers, and…

the same softbank you’ve heard about from investment nonsense also had the first emoji for phones

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/12/softbank-emoji.html

Published: February 12, 2025 08:00

SoftBank is a Japanese carrier which had its own emoji set for the years 1997—2016. SoftBank (known as J-Phone at the time) created the first emoji set known to be featured on an early mobile phone.

in which henry from online has a good bit going, and the audience fails to live up to it

https://maya.land/responses/2025/02/09/henry-from-online-bit-audience.html

Published: February 9, 2025 08:00

I mostly want you to go visit this website as a whole to appreciate its design, because – I mean! It’s got some dungeon pixel energy, that Tasteful Design Sans usage people like these days but also a gorgeous serif, animations…

crypto and meme stocks are a beta cope

https://maya.land/responses/2025/01/26/crypto-meme-stocks-beta-cope.html

Published: January 26, 2025 08:00

(full WSJ link, not archived)