Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery repair with visible “scars”. For a marketing campaign, Oreo sold tubes of their frosting so people could repair their broken Oreos in the same way. https://kottke.org/24/06/oreo-kintsugi
Great news about HIV protection: “Results from a large clinical trial in Africa showed that a twice-yearly injection of a new antiviral drug gave young women total protection from the virus.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/health/lenacapavir-hiv-prevention-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1k0.48pH.ML6CbYVKmd5v
How heat affects our brains: it makes us dumber, irritable, impulsive, and aggressive (i.e. don’t blame me if the site sucks today, it feels like 97° here and I don’t have A/C). https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/well/mind/heat-affect-brain-emotions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.000._KgR.uR0e2BTcYdLw
A modern approach to habitat restoration: Leave It To Beavers. “At their very most basic, beavers store water. They build dams; think of them sort of as speed bumps in the stream. The pools and eddies they create are entire new spawning areas for fish.” https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/beavers-king-countys-modern-habitat-restoration
New Wallace & Gromit movie coming! Vengeance Most Fowl features the return of Feathers McGraw (scofflaw penguin from The Wrong Trousers) and a “smart” garden gnome built by Wallace that runs amok. Timely! https://kottke.org/24/06/wallace-gromit-vengeance-most-fowl
The kids who were 1st graders when 20 of their classmates were murdered in Newtown, CT are graduating from high school. “There is a whole chunk of our class missing.” More than 4200 mass shootings in the US since then, several of them at schools. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg33zqd5wyeo
Boston Should Rename Its Airport for Bill Russell. “He was Boston’s greatest sports champion, and as a brave and steadfast civil-rights leader across half a century, an even greater man.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/boston-rename-logan-airport-bill-russell/678683/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ2HRQB20CDW0yt6SxjxiV6w
In case you or someone you know needs a little levity or pick-me-up today, might I suggest what might be the cutest thing that’s ever aired on television: a little girl named Joey and Kermit the Frog saying the alphabet. https://kottke.org/24/06/the-cookie-monster-alphabet
World-first tooth-regrowing drug will be given to humans in September. “If successful, this therapy could be available to patients with any permanently missing teeth within six years.” https://newatlas.com/medical/tooth-regrowing-human-trial/
“It’s not your imagination: a disproportionate number of women really do play bass guitar in rock bands.” Research shows there are a few reasons for this, one of which is that bass players are typically in short supply. https://daily.jstor.org/shes-all-about-that-bass/
Announcing the Tiny Awards 2024, a competition to find and celebrate the “small, personal, whimsical, weird and poetic things people are making on what is left of the web”. I’m a judge this year! Pls submit your projects! https://tinyawards.net/