I used to call these posts with collections of links "link dumps" but I recently found another blog which also included books and television programs which the author enjoyed and I liked that idea. I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often. As you might gather from these links, I find a wide array of topics interesting.
Beer
Goose Island has announced their 2026 lineup for Bourbon County Brand Stout, a series of beers I look forward to each year. BCBS is typically released on Black Friday. Goose Island made the original Bourbon barrel-aged stout. It's often my only Black Friday purchase.
https://newschoolbeer.com/home/2026/7/2026-bourbon-county-stout-lineup-reveal-from-goose-island
Books
I've been reading The Moonshine War by Elmore Leonard which Amazon had offered on sale in the Kindle version. The topic reminds me of my favorite grandfather who used to tell me stories about his father making moonshine. It became the inspiration for an episode of Justified, a TV series based on the character Rayland Givens featured in several of Leonard's novels.
I finished The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield this week. It was an interesting mystery which offered lots of interesting details about space travel. My favorite Hadfield video is of him performing Space Oddity in space (see the link below).
https://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo?si=5ubpZbx29fV3Q0NB
Music
Over the weekend we enjoyed another opportunity to hear a favorite local band called Felix Pickles. This time they performed on the porch of a cool little grocery store called Round Hill Farm to Table Co which had recently revived their practice of offering live music on their porch on Saturdays. They also make very tasty sandwiches. While we were enjoying the music, we saw two groups of 10 or so Porsche cars drive by which I assume was part of a local car club.
Television/Movies
This week we saw a movie called Minions & Monsters which was amusing. We saw it at Alamo Drafthouse, my favorite venue for watching movies. One thing I like about Alamo is the fact that they show 30 minutes of themed short videos like the weird one about a cute version of Cthulhu at the link below during the time most theaters inundate their patrons with annoying advertisements. I like Alamo so much that I refuse to visit other theaters.
https://youtu.be/FOHJUrcVdJk?si=afHowTbq8S0G_sMa
We also saw a movie called The Born Losers which introduces the character Billy Jack, a Vietnam vet who is part Navajo. It was a hokey biker film which I thought was much worse than Billy Jack which the second film in the series.
Links
I love this quote from Tina Fey about not wasting energy to argue with your critics. It rarely pays off.
https://www.tvline.com/2219406/quote-of-the-day-tina-fey-critics/
I started my career as a field engineer (computer mechanic) and have heard many great stories about debugging tough problems. This is a really good one.
https://www.tumblr.com/patrickthomson/2499755681/the-best-debugging-story-ive-ever-heard
Proving Richard Feynman wrong about something is an impressive accomplishment. If you haven't read any of Feynman's books, they're worth seeking out.
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/feynman-and-followers-you-guys-are-off-physicists-disprove-decades-old-richard-feynman-theory-on-silly-sprinklers
It's amazing that we got our first closeup look at the surface of Mars 50 years ago. I'm a sucker for stories about NASA.
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/humanitys-first-look-at-the-surface-of-mars-shared-on-50th-anniversary-of-historic-nasa-landing-space-photo-of-the-week
Everyone I know who is more than a casual user of technology has at least one box of old cables which they're not sure they can get rid of yet. I'm no exception. The few times I've weeded out my old cable collection, I always seem to find a need for one I've discarded.
https://www.engadget.com/2219812/old-cables-worth-keeping/
Slashdot had a story about college students getting caught cheating on a midterm exam by the professor who had included some hidden text within the question which instructed LLMs to include the word "Madagascar" in the response. Apparently the 32 students caught cheating didn't even bother to proofread the answer provided by the LLM before submitting it.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/07/25/2114259/32-of-35-students-caught-using-hilariously-wrong-ai-generated-answers-for-professors-midterm
It's a little depressing that new Imax theaters aren't possible because the parts to manufacture the projectors can no longer be manufactured. It seems ridiculous but I've heard of similar tech failures.
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/why-no-more-imax-70mm-screens-the-odyssey-christopher-nolan-1236813019/
As a fan of John Carpenter's movies, I found this article interesting. The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China are my favorite of his films but there are so many others I enjoy.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jul/20/everything-i-know-about-evil-i-learned-in-that-small-town-john-carpenter-on-terrifying-the-world-with-halloween-the-thing-and-the-fog
This humorous article made me smile. Spoiler alert - the cat was responsible.
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/flight-tracking-news/just-for-fun/investigators-release-preliminary-report-on-lego-747-and-space-shuttle-crash/
How and why Hannibal crossed the Alps with war elephants has long been the topic of debate. Scientists may have finally figured it out.
https://thedebrief.org/scientists-may-have-finally-solved-the-mystery-of-how-and-why-hannibal-took-war-elephants-across-the-alps/
Sadly it doesn't surprise me that the firms which buy up manufacturing businesses experiencing financial difficulties manage to produce substandard products with a previously respected name. Trying to make businesses more profitable by the easiest method available drives out the best employees which hurts the business and using cheaper materials also contributes to producing a bad product.
https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-cookware-got-worse-on-purpose
Bluetooth connected alarm systems in some cars has left them vulnerable to hackers. Apparently once the alarm is hacked, the ignition can be disabled and doors can be unlocked. It's hard to believe that manufacturers don't take security more seriously.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/anyone-in-bluetooth-range-can-unlock-cars-kill-engines-through-alarms-owners-may-never-have-paid-for
