Tap Water, the Torment Nexus, and Sitzpinklers

You can drink the tap water in these countries (there are only about 50 of them, and even within those countries, quality and safety varies):

How to use your phone addiction to actually learn stuff.

We might have spaceplanes soon (at long last)

In which countries are men most likely to sit down to pee? (Also interesting from that piece: the German term “Sitzpinklers,” which means exactly what it sounds like it means)

In addition to many over-the-counter decongestants not working (and slowly but surely being removed from US shelves), nasal congestion doesn’t work the way many people assume.

We’re sorry we created the Torment Nexus. (If you don’t get the reference, here you go)

Dating apps are losing their luster (especially with The Youths):

“More than a decade on, users are abandoning their profiles in search of a better way of meeting like‑minded people. The most up-to-date figures show the world’s most popular dating app, Tinder, saw its users drop by 5% in 2021, while shares in both Bumble and Match Group, which owns Tinder, have declined steadily over the last couple of years.

It is a problem that seems likely to get worse for those companies, as more than 90% of gen Z feel frustrated with dating apps, according to youth research agency Savanta.”

About 4,000 glass plate photo negatives were saved from the trash by a preservationist, and they contain some really wonderful 1860-1930 slice-of-life compositions:

People are (unsurprisingly?) chatting with ChatGPT for hours, which is more than a little reminiscent of the film Her (which I personally love for a lot of reasons).

Confessions of a tableside flambéur.

Interesting: staged photos are winning supposedly candid photo competitions, and judges keep not realizing it, only to retract the awards later (in some cases years later).

Linguistically interesting: the alleged “Crispy R.”

Comics devices (click the concepts for examples of them from a real comics).

I’m a morning person, but some people really don’t care for the concept (which is fair).