January 2026

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Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:20 am
Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, a finding that solves a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth's atmosphere didn't contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly found chemical pathway, reported by researchers from Science Tokyo, shows that HCN could instead have been continuously supplied from abundant amino acids.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 08:44 pm
I've got an upset tummy and have had to cancel tomorrow's plans, which involved having Nikki over to hang out (our last chance to have the house to ourselves before my grandparents return this weekend).

Also, I found out today that my K-pop darlings, CIX, are disbanding. I have deliberately paced myself so that I still have lots of their old videos and past media to savour, but I'll eventually have watched everything... and, well. I knew their contracts were up but this is the first time I'm experiencing this. I've been a k-pop fan for a decade and seen disbandments, but this is the first time it's happening with my faves. My other faves are ATEEZ who have all renewed after their first contract's duration was up, and KaiBaek from EXO who aren't in the same group anymore but are both active and so successful that they'll likely continue to be.

My day could've gone better, ha. The silver lining is that I'm getting to rest.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 04:05 pm
The last of my main holiday photos.

Tags:
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 08:22 am
A few musical links:

1-hour acid techno mix filmed in a Japanese sake brewery. Top comment: “she’s cooking, they’re cooking too.” The channel @Login.jp_ has more mixes played in various Japanese cultural locations both traditional and everyday-modern. (via)

Jon Batiste re-imagines Für Elise. (via)

The O’Reillys and the Paddyhats play an Irish folk-punk cover of The Boxer. (found after YT sidebar served me an atrocious AI-created Irish ‘folk-song’ version)

---L.

Subject quote from The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel, for comparison.
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Thursday, April 30th, 2026 01:00 pm

Posted by Jen

Somewhere in Japan...

Baker #1: "So the couple getting married this weekend wants 'United Forever in Love' written on their wedding cake, but they want it in English. UG. Where's our English dictionary?"

Baker #2: "Oh, please. Just copy a few lines off this old box of Twinkies! No one will ever know."

Before you ask: Yes, this really is the cake from a Japanese wedding. Judy A.'s daughter is an exchange student there, and took the photo. No word on what the couple really wanted their cake to say, but hey, it could have been worse! They could have gotten matching tattoos that said "crazy diarrhea." :D

Thanks for the cultural exchange, Judy!

Thursday, April 30th, 2026 10:20 am
First-time parents are feeling confused, anxious and judged when it comes to managing their young children's screen time, according to new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU). The study published in the Journal of Children and Media, led by Dr. Stephanie Milford, found parents are navigating a flood of conflicting advice, from strict time limits to more flexible approaches, with a lack of clear guidance on what works in everyday life.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 03:00 pm

Posted by Connie Peters, TTAC Creator

Friend of the site Connie Peters has driven the 2026 Ford Explorer Tremor, and she has a video review for your perusal.

Go check it out below — or scroll down a bit more for the transcript.


The TTAC Creators Series tells stories and amplifies creators from all corners of the car world, including culture, dealerships, collections, modified builds and more.

A transcript, summarized by AI and edited by a staffer, is below.


[Image: Video Thumbnail]


Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by   subscribing to our newsletter.

Summary of Transcript:


Overview:

The video reviews the 2026 Ford Explorer Tremor, a new trim that adds light off-road styling and capability to the Explorer lineup, along with a more powerful engine option.


Key Features & Performance:

Powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 producing 400 horsepower and 415 lb-ft of torque, paired with a 10-speed automatic and AWD.

Offers noticeably stronger acceleration and confidence compared to the base 2.3L engine.

Towing capacity is 5,000 lbs.

Includes mild off-road upgrades like all-terrain tires, skid plates, recovery hooks, and unique Tremor styling.


Driving Experience:

Comfortable ride with supportive, adjustable seats (good for different heights).

Engine sounds good and delivers strong performance.

Ford BlueCruise is highlighted as a standout feature for highway driving.


Interior & Tech:

Features a modern infotainment system with Google built-in, Alexa, YouTube, and wireless Apple CarPlay.

Heated/ventilated seats, digital gauge cluster, and multiple storage areas.

No standard wireless charging pad (optional).

Good camera system, though slightly distorted.


Space & Practicality:

Three-row SUV with power-folding rear seats and decent cargo space, plus a deep sub-trunk.

Second row has captain’s chairs with heated seats and charging ports.

Third row is usable, especially for shorter passengers, but has smaller windows and limited amenities.


Pricing & Verdict:

Starts around $55,000 CAD, with the reviewed model at about $70,000 CAD.

Positioned below the Platinum trim.

Best suited for families who want extra power, tech, and light off-road capability, though it’s not meant for serious off-roading.


Bottom line:

A comfortable, tech-filled family SUV with a stronger engine and rugged styling, but only modest off-road upgrades.


Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:00 am
The enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP) carries out transcription, copying DNA into RNA. It's the first step in gene expression, and a process fundamental to all life. But the inner workings of this essential enzyme have long baffled scientists. Trying to work out how it performs its core chemical reaction, which stacks new RNA building blocks one nucleotide at a time, has proven especially difficult.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:00 am
Researchers have uncovered a previously hidden layer of complexity in how genes are activated, showing that water molecules play a direct and essential role in one of the most fundamental processes in biology: DNA transcription.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:00 am
Tropical ecosystems rely on the infrastructure provided by termites. These insects supply plants with vital nutrients by breaking down organic waste, bringing water to the roots by aerating the soil through tunneling, and sustaining the food chain, as they make up an estimated 10–20% of the total biomass of rainforests. But termites were not always the backbone of tropical ecosystems.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:00 am
As the global pollution crisis caused by manufacturing and disposing of single-use plastics continues to grow, researchers have developed a non-toxic plastic alternative derived from the hemp plant—a non-psychoactive type of cannabis.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 10:40 am
An autonomous underwater glider is giving us a new and effective way to track sperm whales by tuning into their clicks and silently following them. To study these large oceanic predators, researchers need to monitor their movements and social interactions for months at a time. But that's not easy, because they swim deep and stay underwater for long periods, making them hard to reach.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 11:04 am
Welp. D&D certainly happened last night.

It started out with us rolling initiative (which was expected considering how the previous game ended), so we knew it would be pretty much nothing but combat. The DM consistently rolled high, though, while the rest of us rolled low on everything including initiative. Add in the fact that all of the enemies had flight capabilities while only two of the group did, two of the people on the ground had no distance attacks, and the other two depended on magic against enemies who cause double spell slots to be expended within 100 feet of them... well, needless to say, things didn't go well.

By the end, the sorcerer/cleric was dead, one paladin was unconscious, the fighter/warlock was unconscious, the NPC who'd banished several enemies from the field lost concentration and those additional enemies returned, the other paladin was in the single digits after being brought back up, and my cleric was at almost full health but 100+ feet away from the rest of the group (as she'd gotten boxed in by some enemies near her who she'd just managed to kill). So the wizard decided to say "fuck it" and pull six cards from the Deck of Many Things mid-combat in the hope of getting something helpful.

Of course, he only got to pull five cards (none of which were particularly helpful), because the fifth one was Donjon and he immediately disappeared to an extradimensional sphere. 🙃

At that point, it was looking like my cleric might be the only character who'd have any chance of surviving as she was far enough away not to have to use double spell slots as the enemies she was fighting were down, and she did have Dimension Door so she could potentially run. The only other PC still on their feet was the paladin, who decided to take a page from the wizard's book and start pulling from the deck as well.

He pulled the Fates, which essentially lets you pick any moment in time and undo it.

... yeah, needless to say we stopped the game at that point, because that's going to be something to figure out before next week. We're definitely going to undo this combat. The question is what specific point in time do we want to pick as the changing point in the hope it will give us a better chance of surviving (and hopefully winning).
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 07:49 am
halitus (HAL-i-tuhs) - n., an exhaled breath; vapor, mist.


From Latin, from hālāre, to breathe/exhale and by extension bad breath, and is also (combined with -osis, noun suffix of state/condition) the stem of halitosis, bad breath -- which TIL wasn't an invention of mouthwash companies in the 1950s, but actually dates to the 1870s. Huh!

---L.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 10:49 am
Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fics/fanvids/fanart/other kinds of fanworks/fancrafts/podfics have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 02:21 pm

Posted by chavenet

The matchbook pulled from a dead man's pocket in a film noir is never just a matchbook, and it's never just a clue to a single, solvable crime. Instead, it's a window onto a whole world of ambition and weakness, pleasure and destruction, that the detective can illuminate but never fully comprehend. The Wienberg collection works in much the same way, assembling a fragmentary image of a Malibu that's largely gone now, burned or bulldozed or simply forgotten, and the ambitions and dreams of a moment in time. There's a particular irony in the fact that it falls to matchbooks—instruments of ignition, made to be used up and thrown away—to preserve the memory of a place that fire has repeatedly erased.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 10:20 am
The southern Appalachians hold an estimated 1.43 million metric tons of lithium oxide, concentrated in the Carolinas, and the northern Appalachians hold an estimated 900,000 metric tons, concentrated in Maine and New Hampshire, according to estimates in a new USGS scientific paper published in Natural Resources Research. The lithium is present in pegmatites, large-grained rocks similar to granite.
Thursday, April 30th, 2026 10:00 am
Scientists at Durham University, working in partnership with Jagiellonian University in Poland, have developed a new nanoscale tool that can capture and precisely position some of the most important proteins in the human body, opening up new possibilities for medicine, imaging, and bioengineering.