Thursday, October 01, 2026

Friday Links!

Leading off this week, a story of absolute predation: I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler.I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP.

This is terrific: What butterfly wings have in common with barbershop poles.

This is a fascinating read: Fixer, financier, spymaster: how the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon is setting his sights on AI dominance. 

A strange and tragic story: What Killed the Bear Lady? For 28 years, Kay Grayson lived side-by-side with wild black bears in North Carolina's swampy coastal forests, hand-feeding them, defending them against poachers, and letting them in her home. When she went missing last year, the only thing the investigators could find were her clean-picked bones. And that's just the start of the mystery.

A fantastic read: The Bizarre, Murky History of Soviet-Born Tetris. 

From 2019, but riveting: A Paranoid Tech Bro, a Homemade Nuclear Bunker, and a Shocking Death: In the tunnels beneath a placid suburban home, an angel investor turned into an angel of doom.

From Wally, and this is an interesting turn: Choose Your Own Adventure Publisher Launches Adult Imprint. I've noticed these: Uncanny and unappetizing: appetites spoil as AI images take over food menus. Not my favorite genre: 10 Greatest Historical Fiction Books of All Time. An absolutely excellent read: Misunderstanding the Genius of Jules Verne — And Why It Matters to Science Fiction: Our cultural obsession with Verne's predictive abilities ignores the real critical nuance and power of his writing, to everyone's detriment.

posted by Bill Harris @ 10:03 PM

Surmise

DQ Reader Zack has created a word game, and it's quite good. Most new word games are knockoffs on existing ones, but this is unique and makes you think.

It's called Surmise, and the objective is to uncover the rule guiding the puzzle. Some words are "in," others are "out," and it's up to you to discover why. Actually, I don't even need to explain it because he made an excellent, short trailer: Surmise video.

You just go to a website for the daily puzzle. No app and nothing to install. It has plenty of features already, including practice puzzles, the ability to share puzzles with friends, and stat tracking.

If you decide to play, you can enter the code SURMISEBETA to gain full supporter access through the middle of October. 



posted by Bill Harris @ 8:20 AM

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