Here comes the rain again...
Link dump for April 30th
It has been a rainy weekend, with no end in sight. Since my son’s baseball season is in full swing, we pay extra close attention to the forecasts. On a related note:
Apple’s Weather chaos is restarting the weather app market
I was a big fan of Dark Sky. I did like the very specific, albeit not always accurate, notifications about rain arriving in the next few minutes. (It was always just enough time to get the dog out for a quick potty trip.) I had hoped that when Apple bought Dark Sky and incorporated it into the native iOS Weather app, it would retain much of the same functionality. Not only did they screw that up, they managed to hose other people using the Dark Sky API. For better or worse, that means developers have to rethink their approach.
Related: Forecast Advisor (mentioned in the story) can tell you which forecasts have been most accurate for your zip code.
The wonderful wizards of wood
We take wood for granted. Wood is a fascinating area of materials science, and we have plenty of reasons for continuing to study its chemistry and structural engineering.
Related: Baseball bats! I still think that Rule 1.10 is so broad that you can meet the requirements of a baseball bat made out of a single piece of wood, but treat it in such a way to give you a competitive advantage.
This Mom Didn't Know She Was In A $250K Candy Crush Tournament, But She's Killing It
I have always loved video games, even when they were less visual and more text-based (I’m talking TRS-80 here). The nature of the games I play has changed quite a bit since I became a mother. This story of a mom in her late 40s who is excelling at Candy Crush brought back memories of playing 2048 while I was in labor and delivery, and Threes during late night nursing sessions. I am back on an Angry Birds kick, so many years after obsessing over it during long Metro rides to and from work.
If you like video games, you may enjoy reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I’m going to be looking for a Sierra On-Line simulator soon, I just know it.
Related: remember the woman who was the greatest Tetris player in the world and didn’t realize it?
Good Luck Paying for Those $10,000 Obesity Drugs Everyone’s Talking About
GLP-1 drugs have been wildly successful, arguably beyond everyone’s expectations.
Related: “‘Everyone is on Ozempic,” Handler said after jokingly revealing that she’d injected several of her friends with Ozempic and had some at her home. “My anti-aging doctor just hands it out to anybody. I didn’t even know I was on it.”
In a town plagued by an environmental crisis, a local abortion debate consumes public attention
Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia - two cities, or one city straddling two states? A story about abortion rights and an environmental health crisis. It is shameful that the same people who are banning abortion and forcing women to give birth do not give a damn about health.
How Shigeaki Aso became baseball's beloved Glove Guru
I’m shopping for a new glove for my son, which lead me down a rabbit hole. The SI Kids version: Meet Wilson's Master Glove Maker, Shigeaki Aso.
Related: The Last American Baseball Glove Maker Refuses to Die
One area of materials science that fascinates me as much as, if not more than, engineering wood for baseball purposes: engineering leather for baseball purposes.