April 2019 diversions

Politics:

A detail-rich history of the defeat of ISIS by the Kurds:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-trump-betrayed-the-general-who-defeated-isis?fbclid=IwAR3DC9LYZQQP_2rgyLSkBofQiOrf1jnoPxqj7lgjvCrO_CUZJlcDfYmiHfw

Bad headline, odd for The Root. Story is about how Muller report gives extensive details on Russian misinformation ops during the 2016 election, including impersonation of liberal activists. Nothing not already known but now it's in the report.
https://www.theroot.com/mueller-report-reveals-how-black-activists-white-tears-1834150537?utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=theroot_twitter&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR2_o0lQPZ3F7S4_6KeSUa2y4VWBeiK50PbUjR6PxQ3cQ8Z-l2ZVBVsjZxU

Weird Nixonesque corruption at the state level:
https://www.king5.com/mobile/article/news/local/spokane-county/lawmakers-respond-to-explosive-allegations-against-rep-matt-shea/293-34ec3bd6-5046-48f8-9655-fa2fa23c4ad3?fbclid=IwAR1VUoQVcZkBposSNxtcQhoyAdO0An4A_Q9EQZYs3extekl3E0GPgJ6rU-s

Why did I spend so long reading this long article about the bad actors in Parkland?
https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/parkland/


Best links ever:

The eclipse video from Columbia SC:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgLK3ASHUQ

Sim Gretina These Lumps:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4QxCmNaNo

Sim Gretina Inside And Out:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TcUxaiZJGqU



Other interesting comics advertised on Gifts of Wandering Ice:

Middleways: I've seen this before, I think it's a spy/fantasy combination, fairly good art with some pretty rough edges: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/middleways/1

Just Another Day: lovingly drawn fantasy artwork that became too difficult to do as a comic and is now an illustrated story: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/just-another-day/1

Fragile, a mastery of manga art style so perfect that it is indistinguishable from any other similar comic: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/fragile/1

Out Of Time: A completely gorgeous website design for a comic with such rough art that I'm not sure I can read it. But I have to respect the artist for making it happen. http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/out-of-time-3/1

UNEARTH. Let's see what this classic has been up to recently: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/unearth-a-retro-sci-fi-graphic-novel/1

Ha ha blocked by GSFC for being marked as "gaming". The ad for this so cleverly mocked the comic's own art that I have to check this out later: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/mischief-in-maytia/1

Retroblade, a super-polished sci-fi time travel mystic crystals adventure with fun tech and characters. Too bad it seems to be on infinite hiatus: http://www.comic-rocket.com/read/retroblade/1

Diversions:

A video of starting a 1911 race car. The video is 9 minutes of agonizing fiddling, but from the comments I learned that what is being done is priming the engine and then hitting a "tremblor" button to produce a single spark to get the whole thing running. The car has been insanely over-restored; everything is clean and gleaming chrome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMa3_tT5mKA

The soil used to bury the Terra Cotta Army perfectly preserved their bronze weapons. Note the 4 month test compared to the effects of the same test using British soil!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/heres-the-real-reason-why-terracotta-army-weapons-are-so-well-preserved/?fbclid=IwAR3o3TgMu9EvjKfPfyKN9Bm-5LF1PI3c8gvzQLuOGAUw0tOaoDlAZcgAZUI

The fix for "your security settings do not allow you to download files from this location". Download options setting in IE: https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=Your-current-security-settings-do-not-allow-this-file-to-be-downloaded-in-Internet-Explorer

Another mind-bogglingly pristine Egyptian tomb discovered. It's astonishing that there are any left to discover:
https://www.boredpanda.com/4000-years-old-tomb-discovered-egypt-painted/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR0cWL4miNsXbbNCa7Or671TNtXxnVxHN5C5L18YKO456Pyo85e96ob00E0

A fascinating article about how somebody realized that egyptian statue breakoffs were actually desecration and what it means:
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/egyptian-statues-broken-noses-artsy/index.html

Turns out home inspection is a scam, correlates with my experiences:
https://www.checkbook.org/national/home-inspectors/articles/We-Got-12-Home-Inspections-and-Were-Astonished-at-How-Poorly-Many-of-the-Inspectors-Performed-7029/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1555600861&utm_campaign=brand_awareness&fbclid=IwAR1pBIKRYgjlkEi9GpXVxiRE9fxXVsHnx13q7mhZIlhQW142gnmX9-22Q3A

There's a rabbit rescue in Columbia that has been operating since 1997?
https://www.friendsofrabbits.org/info/index

I discovered that Jeff Rowland's outlet these days in on Twitter. Man does he tweet a lot:
https://mobile.twitter.com/wigu

The Vikings combed their hair story:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/57736431_10157165809970917_5117842476832391168_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=7af4fcdaecc6208cb8e146e7812b2592&oe=5D7251CA

Raspberry Pi Beowulf cluster misinterpreted by commenters:
https://m.slashdot.org/story/354846

The Yodeller who sued Yahoo. Indie musician gets ripped off by Yahoo, gets a settlement and ends up as practically their employee until the company goes bankrupt:
https://thehustle.co/the-yodeler-who-sued-yahoo/

VI has a wiki page on fandom:
https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Search_and_replace

The Firestone Primewell tires for the Echo:
https://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/tires/search-results/
https://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/tires/brands/primewell/ps830850/95872


Space news:

The destruction of the DM-1 capsule:
https://twitter.com/Astronut099/status/1119825093742530560

A great SpaceX overview video of a falcon 9 typical mission, amazingly still unlisted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4TXCZG_NEY

Info about the Bereshet crash. It was the IMU:
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/SpaceIL-reveals-preliminary-reasons-behind-Beresheet-crash-587117

The astronautix page about Nova, which is often misrepresented by space nerds. The actual story is much more interesting:
http://www.astronautix.com/n/nova.html

Find files, list contents with line length maxium

I needed to parse a directory tree and list all the files of a particular type, list the directory name, print the first few lines of each file, with long line lengths trimmed. I also wanted to only get the particular types of lines out of that initial listing, which are ones with the date in the first few characters.

Here is my massive final command:

find . -name "*.csv" -exec echo {} \; -exec head -n 21 {} \; | cut -c -70 | grep 2018 | grep -v DATE | grep -v UTEND

The beautiful parts of this were: 1) two -exec functions for my find command. Yep you can do that. 2) The cut command 3) a chain of greps to get the date and cut out other lines that had the date that I didn't want.

Word 2016 section break on even number of pages

There is a section break type called "Section Break Even Page" which will do it.

However according to this article, the padding page is completely blank, with no headers or footers. That does seem rather weak. The article lists some tricks to get around this:

https://mobile.twitter.com/fellowgritty?lang=en

March diversions

Politics:

Trump's aides can't stop writing memos to protect themselves:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/trump-aides-keep-documenting-their-actions-safety-net/583966/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=the-atlantic-fb-test-822-1-&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1mttFGyV6rZoVNPsSdVILRCel0oT3lBz0zA3qXaNhufz_v4rPVVOkrEn0

Some analysis of the "He's not worth it" interview:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna982196

It's no surprise that McConnel and his ilk are using numbers they know to be fabricated to fight the New Green Deal:
https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/03/10/republican-green-new-deal-attack-1250859

Just because there isn't a month where it isn't appropriate to check in with Fellow Worker Gritty:
https://mobile.twitter.com/fellowgritty?lang=en

Beto steps in it the day after announcing his campaign:
https://nypost.com/2019/03/16/im-incredibly-embarrassed-beto-orourkes-campaign-swing-turns-into-apology-tour/amp/

There was a livestream of the New Zealand shooting and people keep reposting it to YouTube:
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/15/tech/new-zealand-shooting-video-facebook-youtube/index.html

What exactly it was that makes right wing idiots think that the New Zealand mass shooter was a leftist:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/03/15/killers-manifesto-reveals-white-supremacist-who-admires-communist-china/

The invisible hand of the free market suddenly proves inconvenient:
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/trump-takes-aim-at-gm-google-in-saturday-tweets-11552781288

Making fun of mean-spirited conservative memes:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwjxx/cropped-boomer-memes-best-of-twitter-baby-boomer-memes-turned-into-weird-versions-vgtrn?utm_source=vicefbus&fbclid=IwAR3h4--u2iJtN7Zv4sr3eiM2R1cKuCuM_iQvn6Ev-Kmcu2iRVKKmnaBlfiU

Reasons and methods for not being a tool:
https://blackyouthproject.com/how-targeting-ilhan-omar-instead-of-white-supremacy-furthered-both-anti-semitism-islamophobia/?fbclid=IwAR0hiqHrW6tXLOAbKdLEF4dwWtuBuUee2jWV2D3nuDf8kuhx2Z4lDtZSKCY

Another great artice from Teen Vogue cutting through bullshit:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/fight-racism-model-minority-yassmin-abdel-magied?fbclid=IwAR258RPmx0BXY8iPYT2xkJ-20-UVMI-gYpGi6CH9aiAVYACiBxphcNqrohU

Interesting arguments in the renewed backlash against the Electoral College. Basically that it would blender izz everything:
https://www.thenation.com/article/elizabeth-warren-electoral-college-mississippi/?fbclid=IwAR0Bvch4QqsEJzVB7Zilb6dN9W1li9ApbnTeABZHZyqPI7Jv2sGKsSsKhJM




The Tragic Tale Of How NASA's X-34 Space Planes Ended Up Rotting In Someone's Backyard:
amp.timeinc.net/thedrive/the-war-zone/26546/the-tragic-tale-of-how-nasas-x-34-space-planes-ended-up-rotting-in-someones-backyard?source=dam&__twitter_impression=true

How robo-callers outwitted the government and completely wrecked the Do Not Call list (by faking their caller ID and using robocalling):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-robo-call-moguls-outwitted-the-government-and-completely-wrecked-the-do-not-call-list/2018/01/09/52c769b6-df7a-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?fbclid=IwAR2-VUrgPWeJwEYzi7VaV3asvk-p6D091yvd6FMFf6_IXSQfzXRX41srR4s&utm_term=.95f76471bf9a

The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows (are the bacteria the cause and not the side effect? This article contradicted a couple of days later by another article in the same news feed!):
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/the-case-for-transmissible-alzheimers-grows/?fbclid=IwAR0_iTszVTtQ9C567up7FgClmszRWbMcG0oLwO0AOQjZ0RTOU9tSUBRlWw0&sf207510540=1&utm_campaign=SciAm_&utm_content=organic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook


Halflight may be coming back!
halflightcomics.com/http:/halflightcomics.com/uncategorized/announcements-and-such#comments


Peace And Love remix by Sim Gretina:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r881yf3Mcvs

These Lumps remix by Sim Gretina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4QxCmNaNo

Explanation and original:
https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/These_Lumps

Funny gamer comic about a skeleton character:
https://m.imgur.com/84wQ2uD

The painting of Garnett in "Pool Hopping":
https://www.tvtime.com/en/show/270701/episode/6601757

the girl herself built a peaceful small house in the middle of the mountain forest:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=388171778426589&id=316888752221559&anchor_composer=false

The video is not from this chinese youTube's feed:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A/videos?fbclid=IwAR0Oh8tEdtl9NR8l0fx41yrVw5l56yyjytAqbluO2zE-1_JyJKFrVxiZYfk


Lisa appears in the background of this photo from Rebecca's birthday party that I couldn't go to:
https://scontent.fphl2-3.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/53661802_10218608103183901_8815133037432930304_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent.fphl2-3.fna&oh=be6fd4e09bbef80519d1f6de2a432568&oe=5D2536BB

100 of the World's oldest color photos. These are amazingly cool.
https://www.boredpanda.com/first-color-photos-vintage-old-autochrome-lumiere-auguste-louis/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&fbclid=IwAR0ik_RHVLhsaM7mJLqXuzCUeDqrdKUxrlHBEBfiRmQo9CGo0S3o52UY8dA



This article about the symbols on the $1 bill does an incomplete job of backing up its assertions, but presents tons of actual historical background about the history of the bill and the symbols, including many that I had never even noticed before:
https://m.ranker.com/list/meanings-of-symbols-on-dollar-bill/hannah-irvine


The Geggy Tah video on YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zfRNZucoCyw


Nobody seems to have done a Google-findable interview with Sim, but this MLP Wikia article has the most complete information I've been able to find so far:
https://mlpfanart.fandom.com/wiki/SimGretina

How to get to the parental controls lockout for our cable box:
https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/tv/programs-features/parental-controls

Russ's announcement of his father's passing:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2367218489976633&id=100000655161224&anchor_composer=false

This kid's movie was playing with no sound at the doctor's office. I was mystified by why it involved seagulls and a cute girl. It turns out they are storks, and the girl is supposed to be 18????
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storks_(film)

A pretty cool looking comic, "Gifts of Wandering Ice":
mildegard.ru/Gifts_of_wandering_ice/English/

Lasalle's Legacy:
http://lasalleslegacy.com/?comic=fallacy-page-26




A fascinating article about midlife crisis with a firm foundation in actual data and research:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-real-roots-of-midlife-crisis

A summarial article about the 737-Max crisis:
https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/the-world-pulls-the-andon-cord-on-the-737-max/

More detailed reporting with some graphs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/world/boeing-737-max-ethiopian-airlines.html

Interesting article about a 3-D printable shape that has 100% audio reflectivity which has great implication for sound control:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90316833/scientists-have-discovered-a-shape-that-blocks-all-sound-even-your-co-workers

A rather weak article about one person's realization that they are an introvert and how they accepted acting accordingly:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/mar/11/how-i-accepted-im-an-introvert-and-learned-to-refuse-invitations-without-guilt

The season finale of "Dr. Pimple Popper" was a nightmare fuel lipoma that I can't stop looking for pictures of:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjrw9HW9YfhAhUhiOAKHZS9B7oQzPwBCAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Ffemail%2Farticle-6808521%2FMan-3-lb-boob-lipoma-arm-seeks-help-Dr-Pimple-Popper.html&psig=AOvVaw0ynRABoiJ9ccJxMPb33I2G&ust=1552868925473317
https://www.thisisinsider.com/dr-pimple-popper-tlc-show-season-finale-shoulder-bump-2019-3
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8637832/dr-pimple-popper-sausage-roll-lump/

The obituary for Russel's Dad:
https://www.hardestyfuneralhome.com/obituary/Russell-E.-Fink/Annapolis-Maryland/1838439

An article on devious attempts to fight the Milk Factory development:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/ph-cf-ho-scenic-legislation-0320-story.html

How Inuit parents teach their children to control their anger;
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/685533353/a-playful-way-to-teach-kids-to-control-their-anger?fbclid=IwAR2GYGtM7_ZfFq5oIQPy1dGy1DDKhj4iw03fXmPAOOggWxNSy6aiwdDrvKI

SpaceX scrapped the composite tank mandrel!:
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-all-in-steel-starship-super-heavy/

Fresh Prince Of Belair as a melodrama:
https://www.fatherly.com/news/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-drama-short-film/?fbclid=IwAR1k6HyWtRL46uLZtaED1gxrrqPxkpaBaRKfKgYYQgNCe_gNsowCKzohXcA

With only one of the first three Raptors available for installation onto the Hopper, the obvious is spelled out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/b291sg/elon_on_twitter_first_really_short_hops_with_one/

When your kids are watching caroons from Korea about larva, you are at the end of the internet:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larva_(TV_series)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theslanted.com/2018/08/30502/netflix-larva-island-korean/amp/

Also there is a woman-centric cartoon coming out from the creators of Bojack Horseman:
https://theslanted.com/2019/03/32497/netflix-tuca-bertie-trailer-1/amp/

Women animators take down a serial harasser, as told in too-cute animation:
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/women-in-the-animation-industry-explain-how-they-took-down-chris-savino-171436.html?fbclid=IwAR1tTSwjigVFu2x7kic_jTcvmp_v5yc-a4uytyjBfRYyHRJHdt-fRMYRANs

Incredible photos of the (maybe yearly) Lake Michigan ice shards:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6831897/Lake-Michigan-covered-gorgeous-shards-ice.html?fbclid=IwAR3DtfEhjNXBKohmp8O4WA57K173zjjxDq2Kg4ezutxiMevS25EZhplAS6I

Amazing archeology of sunken ships in the Nile cooborates a contemporary description:
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-stunning-nile-shipwreck-provides-the-first-archaeological-evidence-of-a-boat-described-by-herodotus?fbclid=IwAR3En6kwN0ujN7Jd8CWwztySY2Y05GTRxioKJZIJPQFQq31lUmmEwSqs4Dc

Trainer with autism opens gym specifically for clients with autism (in Tampa Bay, Florida):
https://www.wtsp.com/mobile/article/entertainment/places/bobby-lewis-on-the-road/trainer-with-autism-opens-gym-specifically-for-clients-with-autism/67-16982a0f-65cf-4880-8c0f-0c9b72f25457?fbclid=IwAR3gGeR-lctAeMyJV-UheuUA44tcmToYMAmX3E7EcVCPpyw6rI_bonbNJiQ?fbclid=IwAR3gGeR-lctAeMyJV-UheuUA44tcmToYMAmX3E7EcVCPpyw6rI_bonbNJiQ

A Russian nuclear cruise missle has apparently aleady had a test flight??? (Not an ASAT weapon as reported in a Twitter thread by a conspiracy nut, but helka concerning anyhow):
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/amp26214314/russia-new-test-nuclear-powered-cruise-missile/

Cheesy Pokemon joke, moronic stereotype humor, yummy art:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/54391511_982353558601693_2395652338741149696_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=4a1041aebbd3c6d10f41ea7d42965e0c&oe=5D13805C

FINALLY there is a properly cross-linked Girl Genius wiki:
https://girlgenius.fandom.com/wiki/Queen_Albia

Peak blossom this year:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/cherryblossomwatch.com/peak-bloom-forecast/amp/
https://cherryblossomwatch.com/peak-bloom-forecast/

An informative review of another nice looking movie that I won't get to see this year:
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/3/23/18277617/shazam-movie-review-dc-comics-captain-marvel-zachary-levi-mark-strong

The upcoming electron launch, which shared an acronym with some kind of webserver software:
https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/R3D2?src=hashtag_click

An absolutely bizarre "living fossil" tiny mammal that somehow I'd never heard of before:
https://www.newsweek.com/solenodon-venomous-mammal-survived-asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-848588?fbclid=IwAR25HbSHKqrplu14YKp1PhmxwbrS0Y_VOgbDS-

On top of everything else, Elon is giving talks at schools?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/b49zoj/elon_just_visited_a_school_in_flint_and_showed_a/

A historically fascinating look at a prototyping breadboard for the first iPhone software and accessories:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18263844/apple-iphone-prototype-m68-original-development-board-red?fbclid=IwAR3di0E9D1DqbdbvZyYpMV5dPle_mohCrfnlUjEMOwzxDhpBFkDeqJTOa60

March Community Day:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/03/23/shiny-sceptile-pokemon-go-march-community-day-starts-at-a-different-time-than-usual/#4e816c106ede
https://attackofthefanboy.com/guides/pokemon-go-how-to-get-shiny-treecko-and-sceptile/


John Wolfgang Memorial Group:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/330157727859229?multi_permalinks=331389751069360%2C331383741069961%2C331347394406929%2C331149097760092%2C331341424407526¬if_t=group_activity¬if_id=1553398726741362&ref=m_notif


Postar photo with everybody:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/54523333_10156865604270673_7697582121811968_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=3081a07d1ff7d8f63518a7861a071403&oe=5D190202




The Michael Cohen takedown of the William Barr memo. Look like another ghost write, but epic nonetheless:
https://mobile.twitter.com/speechboy71/status/1110658454266494977

Also, Barr's sordid history for those who forgot;
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/684553791/william-barr-supported-pardons-in-an-earlier-d-c-witch-hunt-iran-contra?fbclid=IwAR33pKBiaVfCqbkTWmirrP9_UQ3P_CVl7jAH5Gh4jqI1n6-KBoT0av7zWTI

Cats and Roombas:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155857179506790&id=59765426789&anchor_composer=false

Robotfest conflicts with hop-a-thon this year:
https://www.robotfest.com

The South Padre Rocketcam:
https://spadre.com

The other South Padre Rocketcam:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo1qWlo9v1Q

The crazy berzerk methane flare on Friday:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=47120.0;attach=1553770;image

The long and well thought out ios article about A Single Oale Rose:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/steven-universe-just-confirmed-a-wild-fan-theory-that-c-1825846053

Finally a guide to Stereolab, which I mostly remember as a chill electronica pioneer:
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/pan478/the-guide-to-getting-into-stereolabs-high-concept-pop

cherry blossom watch:
https://cherryblossomwatch.com/peak-bloom-forecast/

Some interesting research about the placement of Moai on Easter Island:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/scientists-think-theyve-solved-one-mystery-of-easter-islands-statues/?fbclid=IwAR3sYg7Lyd7fkp-WdPj99QW_YJoJEgRtV0-CTAiRvlKshoo_2BUU5RAwbqc

An amazing discovery of many fossils in the Hell Creek area which buttress the Chicxulub theory (the paper was suspiciously written by the same scientist who originated the theory):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/03/29/fossils-show-world-wide-catastrophe-day-dinosaurs-died/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.659fa0ca2617

Microsoft Word 2016 list of tables missing table numbers

My document is having some of the weirdest list of figures issues I've seen so far, thanks most likely to the wonton cutting and pasting that I did early on in my rewrite. The main issues seem due to cuting and pasting text which had a figure with a caption, in which case the new figure number didn't update, and furthermore was invisible to group updating as well. After manually updating the caption number it would respond to group updating, but then I started having a new problem where the caption would appear in the list of figures, without the figure number!

Several useful hints in this forum thread: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_other/lost-references-to-captions-in-cross-references/89e88734-c0c5-4e6f-a0d2-c51b8d17ad14

Insert a check box in Microsoft Word 2016

To make a check box in a document in M$Word, you can either insert a graphic of a square, or a soft-copy clickable check box. The only graphic of a square that I've been able to find is kind of shitty, the soft-copy clickable boxes are actually nicer. This article describes both methods. I've been using the square under "Geometric Shapes" while this article describes finding one in "Wingdings" so maybe this is better:

https://www.top-password.com/blog/insert-a-check-box-in-word-2016/

Excel combine two columns into one single column with values alternated

This answer worked great:

https://superuser.com/questions/539255/how-to-merge-two-excel-columns-into-one-the-other-way

In my case, since my data started at row 24 and I wanted first column first and second column second, I modified the top answer into the following:

=INDEX($A$24:$B$1000,QUOTIENT(ROW()-22,2),IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=0,1,2))

This uses the Index function, with source block, row number out of source block, column number out of source block. For some reason the row offset had to be -22 instead of -24 or even -23.