Timely nuggets of information and ideas we want to share with you.
On September 2, The New York Times released a couple of Bonus Puzzles that will appear every Wednesday. They are versions of the classic games Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword. Wordle in 1 is not as difficult as I thought it would be, Connections 3×3 has three groups instead of four, and Mystery Mini takes a minute to sort out the grid but is ultimately fun. Click here for more Bonus Games descriptions.
Secret Mall Apartment documentary.
This is an amazing true story about eight young artists in Providence, Rhode Island, who secretly built an apartment inside the Providence Place Mall in 2003. They managed to keep it hidden for four years.
It began with artists Michael Townsend and Adriana Valdez-Young, who were part of Providence’s creative community and had watched artists’ spaces disappear as Providence was redeveloped and gentrified. The mall represented the transformation of the city they knew. They discovered an unused 750-square-foot space inside the mall’s enormous structure, and they claimed it.
They stealthily carried in a couch, television, dining table, rugs, artwork, a PlayStation and other household belongings—often sneaking things through the mall after hours. Eventually they hauled in more than two tons of cinderblocks and constructed a wall and locked door to conceal the apartment. They even connected themselves to the mall’s electricity. There was no plumbing, however, so they used the mall’s public restrooms. They lived there, on and off, and entertained, cooked, watched TV, played video games, and worked on their art. It was a sort of clubhouse, but sometimes some of them would stay for weeks. They also filmed the entire four-year episode, with simple cameras. The project was a protest, an art project, and a community of people who were being displaced from their city by rising housing prices. And then they got caught. Jessie Eisenberg is the executive producer and had lived next door to the mall while filming an earlier project. It is charming. Available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Lighthouses and the earth
This is one of the coolest interactive websites I’ve ever seen! If things like lighthouses and the earth fascinate and awe you – you will love this. The right hand image above is a shot of the earth with its winds, currents, terrain, borders and populations available to users as they click on it.
The left hand image shows the lighthouses in Scotland. This site provides an interactive, GPU-rendered web map that displays coastal lighthouses and harbor beacons operating on their actual, true navigation flash cycles. Every light sweeps, occults, or quick-flashes using precise timing data. Users can zoom into specific regional coasts—such as New England (featuring 108 charted lights), the UK, France, Japan, and South Korea—and hover over any individual beacon to view its official name, flash character, and range. It’s amazing!
Pencils with long lasting erasers
I become cranky when I can’t find a single pencil among the hundreds in my house that has a usable eraser. The wooden pencil itself can last for decades, while its eraser is the part that dies first. Why do all erasers get hard and produce dark lines over what I’m trying to erase?
The answer is that if the eraser is natural rubber, it is particularly prone to aging. It will dry out and cease to erase properly.
What we should be looking for are pencils with erasers made from TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) or another aging-resistant synthetic elastomer. Basically, if the pencil description addresses the eraser’s composition at all, that’s a good sign.
Here are the best wooden pencils with longer lasting erasers:
Staedtler Noris pre-sharpened Pencil Set of 12 $8.95.
Ticonderoga #2. A pre-sharpened 12-pack for $2.79.
The best mechanical pencil with durable and replaceable eraser is the Pentel Twist-Erase 111 Mechanical pencil. It has a large twist-up eraser that is replaceable. Pentel specifically describes the eraser as durable and latex-free. Pentel’s Hi-Polymer erasers are specifically designed to resist hardening and cracking and remain soft over time. $7.21 for a pack of two pens.
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