Happy Friday! If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format differs from the rest of the week. On Fridays, I pause to write the "Weekender," my  "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! — Dan

The Weekender, December 6, 2024

Hi!

It’s been a busy week for me and I don’t have a lot to share. One mea culpa though — Wednesday’s was a re-run, which I thought I hadn’t shared since the original publication date, but apparently I did last year, too. I guess I really like the story!

Anyway, sorry about that, and I hope you have a great weekend. Let’s jump to the Week in Review.

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Temperature You Can Hear?: Can you hear the difference between cold water and warm water being poured? Probably.

Tuesday: The Famous Symbol with the Hidden N and D: The history of the peace symbol ☮

Wednesday: Green Light, Red Light: An intentionally upside-down traffic light.

Thursday: Another Brick in the Nose: Meet the LEGO brick that came back after more than two decades.

A Few Dollars = A Big Difference

Now I Know is supported by readers like you. Yes, you! Many of my readers donate a few dollars a month to help Now I Know grow and thrive. And in exchange, they get an ad-free version!

Interested in supporting Now I Know? Click here! 

And thanks! — Dan

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “Certain names make ChatGPT grind to a halt, and we know why” (Ars Technica, 6 minutes, December 2024). Earlier this week, the story of David Mayer went viral. Who is David Mayer? Not sure — but for some reason, when you asked ChatGPT to talk about him, the bot errored out. You couldn’t even trick it to say that name, as I tried here. This story explains why.

2) “Bad influence” (The Verge, 32 minutes, November 2024). She’s an Instagram/YouTube influencer who makes a living around reviewing stuff on Amazon. To help her build a rapport with her audience, she creates a certain aesthetic — the article describes it as an “avalanche of beige and neutrals. Everything around me — the rugs, the art, the books on the shelves — are shades of white, black, or cream.” And then she’s sued by another influencer with the same business model and aesthetic, claiming some sort of IP infringement. It’s hard to describe the similarity so I’ve grabbed a side-by-side screenshot from the article, below. In any event, it’s a legal morass and an interesting story as a result.

3) “How the ‘Star Trek’ Punch Became the Worst Fight Move on TV” (Vice, 7 minutes, September 2017). If you’re not a fan of Star Trek, you should be — it’s great. But don’t take fighting advice from it. Star Trek characters tend to use a very odd, and likely ineffective, way of punching — a weird double-fisted punch that is kind of like swinging an axe, minus the axe. This is the story of how it came to be.

Have a great weekend!

Dan