Dan Sokol has been a This is True reader for more than 25 years. He’s a friend of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. (Woz, as of this month, is a 26-year True reader.)
Explainer
Why Why Why Florida?!
Is Everyone in Florida Crazy?! The short answer: no, even if this week’s issue is all-Florida-based stories. The longer answer: read on.
The Evolution of True’s Logo
This post was inspired by a question from Premium reader James in Toronto, who asked about the logo after he read an old post about how the This is True title came about:
Bill Post for H.U.?
No, a junk food creator didn’t get the nod.
Who Knows Religion Best?
This post was triggered by a story this week by True contributor Alexander Cohen, who properly wrote the slug (story title) in the form of a question:
The Pillars of Creation
…and my idea for an art piece to celebrate it.
The Hubble Space Telescope took the first photo of the “Pillars of Creation” (a section of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation about 7,000 light-years away from Earth) in 1995.
Chuck Shepherd: News of the Weird
Chuck Shepherd started “News of the Weird” as a newspaper column in 1988, and was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate in 1989. Similarly, a year after I started I was offered a contract by their biggest competitor, Creators Syndicate, almost certainly as way to compete with the very popular NotW, but I turned it down.
My Interview with an AI Chatbot about… Thinking
What happens when you talk to an artificial intelligence language model about the value of something it can’t actually do? Thinking, I mean.
You Won’t Believe Your Eyes
Or maybe the second word in the title should be “Shouldn’t”!
Phishing Emails: Be Smarter!
“Phishing” is when scammers send you an email that’s trying to trick you into revealing information, or installing malware on your computer or phone. And a lot of you are falling for it.
How do I know?
When Scams Become Deadly
by Paul Myers
©2022 by Paul Myers, excerpted with permission from his Talkbiz News newsletter.
Memorial Day Story
Some years ago I saw this meme posted on social media on Memorial Day weekend. I didn’t make it, but I wanted to know the story behind it. No one who posted it ever said who James was, or who the woman is, so I researched it.
Zero Gravity Bureaucracy: The Real Story
When NASA first started sending astronauts to space, they knew ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity.
Biohacking with Hardware 1:
the Apollo Neuro Wearable Band
Last May, I wrote that after going to a meeting on biohacking, I’d have more to say on the “tech stuff” I’ve learned about after I play with it a little. “The theory of operation,” I said, “is really interesting!” It has taken much longer to “play with it” than I had hoped before I came up with my conclusions.
The Best of April Fools:
Earlier Generations Did It Better
A lot of sites and publications will be running crazy stories as true to try to trick you today. Not me.
We Just Need a Little More
What do you need to break out of your rut? You might have a business idea, or something you want to do with your life.
How Not to Call 911: A Real World Example
True contributor Alexander Cohen and I had quite the discussion about the Canadian woman desperately trying to get police help when there was an intruder in her home.
Shades of Gray
A Recent Story brought several questions from readers wanting to know why it referred to a Black guy and a white guy — with those specific capitalizations:
Amazon’s New Robot: Evil Wall-E?
My thoughts on Amazon’s new personal robot …and why I’ll NEVER have one in my home.
Our Dr. Brooks
Sometimes, the Lives of Readers intersect with mine in interesting ways. This is one such story, and it started in 1971 — though I didn’t realize the connection until much more recently.