A weekly collection of links to interesting things curated by Colin Wright.
How to Be Not Lonely? 'Cohousing' Is an Answer for Some People
"I wound up on the floor crying too," Damgen remembers. "Just holding both my kids, and feeling like, 'Man, this is impossible.'"
It was a turning point. With their extended families far away in other states, she and her husband, Chris Damgen, began asking themselves if there was any way to reconfigure their lives in order to optimize for more support and community.
The answer they found was cohousing.
Undersea Surgeons
In deep-water locations, the cables often have a black outer polyethylene layer. Below is a wrap of metal tape, then another polyethylene layer, a copper sleeve to conduct electricity, and a tangle of stainless steel wires to provide strength. Only then comes a small metal tube holding the fiber-optic lines, which are often coated with glycerine jelly as a last protection against the water.
The UX of LEGO Interface Panels
Piloting an ocean exploration ship or Martian research shuttle is serious business. Let's hope the control panel is up to scratch. Two studs wide and angled at 45°, the ubiquitous "2x2 decorated slope" is a LEGO minifigure's interface to the world.
These iconic, low-resolution designs are the perfect tool to learn the basics of physical interface design. Armed with 52 different bricks, let's see what they can teach us about the design, layout and organisation of complex interfaces.
Is the $11 Billion Online Sportsbook Bubble About to Burst?
“So, ideally you get a pop-up, right? You got like five seconds in the air. God forbid the guy drops the ball.”
I’m sitting in the outfield with Scott Brody, who is not paying the fans around us any mind. He is intently studying the players in the outfield, as well as the cellphones he has in either hand, with sportsbook apps loaded up on each one and ready to fire. “So when that ball’s in the air, you can submit the under on the bet because the guy’s on second base. He’s not gonna score.”
Dying Is a Form of Education
No games have demonstrated this more clearly, or more extravagantly, than the recent works by the Japanese studio FromSoftware—Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and, most recently, Elden Ring. They are complex, idiosyncratic action games, at once dour and ridiculous, maddening and mesmerizing. Playing, you might find yourself guiding your sword-wielding warrior into battle against a giant dragon who throws lightning bolts at you while the soundtrack swells. Or you might send him creeping through a dark sewer, only to fall into a pit filled with giant googly-eyed lizards, choke on the black gas they emit, and lose an hour of progress. Each of these games has been accompanied by a frenzy of commentary and reaction.
Mercedes-Benz Testing New Solar Paint
Among the innovations is a “solar paint,” a PV coating designed for vehicle power generation. This coating consists of “innovative solar modules” just 5 micrometers thick, applied seamlessly to the car body like a wafer-thin paste.
The photovoltaic surface can be applied to any substrate, and the protective layer is a new type of nanoparticle-based paint that allows 94% of solar energy to pass through. At a weight of 50 grams per square meter, Mercedes-Benz is working to ensure the coating can cover all exterior surfaces of a vehicle, regardless of shape or angle.
Mercedes-Benz claims an efficiency of 20% for the solar paint. For a medium-sized off-roader, with a 11 sqm solar panel area, the coating could generate enough energy to cover up to 12,000 km per year, under ideal conditions and based on the solar irradiation at the company's production site in Stuttgart, Germany.
“Unprecedented” Decline in Teen Drug Use Continues, Surprising Experts
"Kids who were in eighth grade at the start of the pandemic will be graduating from high school this year, and this unique cohort has ushered in the lowest rates of substance use we’ve seen in decades," Miech noted.
For alcohol, use in the past 12 months among eighth graders was at 12.9 percent in 2024, similar to 2023 levels, which are all-time lows. For 10th graders, the rate dropped significantly from 30.6 percent in 2023 to 26.1 percent, and for 12th graders, from 45.7 percent to 41.7 percent—both record lows.
For nicotine vaping, rates fell for 10th graders (from 17.5 percent to 15.4 percent) and remained at low levels for eighth and 12th graders. For marijuana, use remained low for eighth and 10th graders and fell significantly for 12th graders (from 29 percent to 25.8 percent). All three grades are at lows not seen since 1990.