2025-12-04 06:40:33
An irresistible video title: Army of Crabs Protect Spy Robot From Stingray. “A 4-meter stingray can eat 50 crabs a day.”
2025-12-04 06:13:11
“Ugh, this kid is so sweaty!” my son exclaimed as he came under attack in some game he was playing. This was a few years ago; my ears perked up and I asked him what he meant. He explained that “sweaty” was a derogatory term for gamers who were trying super hard to win. Such players were referred to as “sweats”.
Recently I read something — can’t remember what — and came across the word “swot”. I hadn’t heard that before, so I looked it up. “Swot”, a dialect variant of “sweat”, is a derogatory word in informal British English meaning “a person who studies hard, especially one regarded as spending too much time studying”.
I wonder if these two meanings evolved independently from each other; that would be super interesting. Know Your Meme traced “sweaty” back to its use among those who played the FIFA game series in 2014. It’s possible that British gamers smuggled “swot” into gaming terminology and it quickly evolved into “sweat”. I’m not sure how common “swot” is in Britain…or if “sweat” is used interchangeably with “swot”. But if I had to guess, I’d say they weren’t related. If any etymologists out there are looking for a challenge…
Tags: language · video games
2025-12-04 05:21:47
How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. “It’s like Zen. There are times when it is just very relaxing to be standing in front of the machine and slowly cleaning it, tweaking the adjustment so visually things start to really line up.”
2025-12-04 04:25:00
Intertapes is a collection of found cassette tapes — some contain music and others voice memos. Each entry includes images of the tape, a description/track listing, and the actual audio (on Soundcloud).
This one was recorded off of a NYC radio station in 1994 and includes tracks from Mary J. Blige, Wu-Tang, Snoop Dogg, and Heavy D.
This tape found recently in Berlin was also recorded in 1994 by someone named Sven and includes tracks by Underworld & Laurent Garnier.
2025-12-04 03:39:25
“If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more.”
2025-12-04 03:10:21
I love the remix of Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place in the midst of Kelly Lee Owens’ Boiler Room set (~33:50 mark). Had me chair dancing this AM!