Detroit Post and Tribune (1882): The First Electric Christmas Tree Lights
A former girlfriend told me that Martin Luther invented decorating Christmas trees. She was a good Luthern, but I was skeptical. She also told me that Martin Luther invented bowling. Who’s to say?
That wasn’t the flex that she intended, because putting tiny candles on dry pine trees, inside the house, has a Russian roulette feel to it.
Winter can be bleak and dreary, especially when the snow is old and the sky is overcast. Nature is shades of gray. That can bring a fella down.
It doesn’t bring me down, I’ve got a beagle, but as part of my Continuous Improvement Plan, I added automatic color.
Guardian: Revealed: how big businesses are rolling back public support for Pride
The Guardian analyzed the number of times that ‘Pride’ was mentioned in a social media post by major American and UK companies. The results are hard to believe.
A month ago, after my Keurig shit the bed, I replaced it with a Ninja. When Hertz was the biggest car rental company, Avis advertised that, “We’re number 2, so we try harder.” Maybe Keurig had been slacking.
The Ninja is a good setup. I am not a coffee snob, but figure the Ninja has enough brewing options that anyone should be able to dial it in.
Space: For the 1st time ever, 8 spacecraft are docked to the International Space Station
This is one of those, ‘We really are living in the future’ milestones that it’s easy to miss because it’s getting routine.
The International Space Station has eight docking ports, and all of them are in use.
This is incredible. Jensen went from being the poorest person I’ve ever heard of, to the richest man I’d never heard of.
CBS News: Trump administration moves to roll back fuel economy standards set under Biden
If finalized, the plan would relax fuel economy standards by setting the industry average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon through the 2031 model year, lower than the 50 miles per gallon outlined by a Biden-era rule.
For fifty years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set fuel economy standards that car companies had to meet. It was a type of magical thinking. The NHTSA would issue a new fuel economy standard, and like Captain Picard on Star Trek, say, “Make it so.”
The NHTSA didn’t have to worry about physics, they just had to wish for it. The engineering teams had to figure out how to pull another rabbit out of the same old hat. The rabbits were getting smaller and harder to find.
A few days ago, this symbol showed up on the dashboard of my new Tacoma. I added the red circle to highlight the symbol of interest. The symbol is cryptic and persistent, so the dashboard photo was taken so I could look it up.
What is it trying to tell me?
It looks a little like a teepee or a campfire, so probably something about native Americans.
Pew Research: Americans’ Social Media Use 2025
Polls like this are interesting because social media keeps changing, and most of use don’t want to join everything to figure out which ones are worthwhile.
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