Curiosity Weekly

A weekly collection of links to interesting things curated by Colin Wright.

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Emoji History: The Missing Years

During my research into vintage Japanese drawing software, I came across some devices that had built in sketch or handwritten memo functions. I bought a couple of them to see if they did anything cool or interesting. These sorts of devices are pre-internet, so there’s not much about them online, and they can’t be emulated, so the only way to find out what they do is to get first hand experience by reading the manual or, better, using one yourself. It’s difficult to find these devices in working condition, as most of them have screen polarisers that have gone bad over time, but if you’re lucky you can find one.

When Children of Public Figures Go Public With Their Dissent

Maddie Block was scrolling on social media last month when she saw a post from a New Mexico state senator about his recent trip to Israel, where he heard remarks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ms. Block, 28, who lives in New York and is a vocal defender of Palestinian rights, was stopped in her tracks. The post dismissed the idea that Israel was committing genocide in its war in Gaza, saying that “Israel does everything possible to avoid killing Gazan civilians.” To Ms. Block, the post amounted to misinformation, and sought to excuse Israel for killing tens of thousands of people in Gaza, she said in an interview.

So she decided to post a TikTok video disagreeing with its author — who also happens to be her father.

“It looks like my dad and a bunch of other, just like, loser politicians from New Mexico went to meet with Netanyahu,” Ms. Block said in a video that has been viewed more than 1.8 million times and gained national media attention.

How Sam Altman Played Hollywood

Hollywood will be happy with the improved guardrails on Sora 2.0, stressed OpenAI’s team, which included COO Brad Lightcap, Sora product lead Rohan Sahai, media partnerships vp Varun Shetty and talent partnerships lead Anna McKean, according to the exec. It turned out that wasn’t the case. “We started exchanging notes with others having similar conversations and realized we’re all hearing different things,” this person says.

Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were told the opposite, or weren’t notified of the distinction. OpenAI’s messaging was haphazard to Hollywood.

This Summer’s Stunning Electric Bill

Surging electricity bills likely stunned many Americans this summer, but maybe they shouldn’t have: The cost of electricity has been trending upward since 2020, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Energy and Information Administration (E.I.A.). For at least 20 percent of U.S. households, the increases have likely been financially burdensome.

Experts recommend that households spend no more than 8 to 10 percent of income on all utilities, while the U.S. Department of Energy considers households that pay more than 6 percent of income on energy to be “energy burdened.” Recently released E.I.A. data shows that the average residential electric bill in the month of July was $204 — 4 percent of the 2024 monthly median household income, according to the latest census data. This leaves households with roughly 2 to 6 percent of their income for other utilities, such as gas, oil and water.

Big Tech’s Big Bet on a Controversial Carbon Removal Tactic

Over the last century, much of the US pulp and paper industry crowded into the southeastern corner of the nation, setting up mills amid sprawling timber forests to strip the fibers from juvenile loblolly, long leaf, and slash pine trees.

Today, after the factories chip the softwood and digest it into pulp, the leftover lignin, spent chemicals, and remaining organic matter form a dark, syrupy by-product known as black liquor. It’s then concentrated into a biofuel and burned, which heats the towering boilers that power the facility—and releases carbon dioxide into the air.

Microsoft, JP MorganChase, and a tech company consortium that includes Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have all recently struck multimillion-dollar deals to pay paper mill owners to capture at least hundreds of thousands of tons of this greenhouse gas by installing carbon scrubbing equipment in their facilities.

The captured carbon dioxide will then be piped down into saline aquifers more than a mile underground, where it should be sequestered permanently.

Towns May Have to Be Abandoned Due to Floods With Millions More Homes in Great Britain at Risk

Millions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.

New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk.

Separately, experts have said that some towns may need to be abandoned as homes and businesses struggle to get insurance in areas repeatedly battered by storms and rising sea levels.

Densely populated areas including London, Manchester and parts of north-east England, are likely to be worst hit. Experts also say London’s flood defences need to be updated urgently to protect the capital from devastating floods.