Bookmarks 2025-11-06T06:12:23.312Z
by Owen Kibel
24 min read
Bookmarks for 2025-11-06T06:12:23.312Z
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Why Is Mercury Banned On Airplanes? | IFLScience
Added: Nov 5, 2025Wild One-Minute Video Clearly Demonstrates Why Mercury Is Banned On Airplanes
Site: IFLScience
If you've ever wondered why you can't take mercury thermometers on planes, this is why.
There are plenty of items that you are not allowed on planes, and usually for fairly obvious reasons. You cannot, for instance, bring ammunition on board. Nor slingshots, firearms, or harpoon guns. Flammable liquids are also a no no, as well as any item containing its own internal combustion engine. But a ban that sometimes seems weird to people is that you are not allowed to bring a mercury-filled thermometer onto a commercial aircraft. So what is the danger here? Can thermometers be weaponized? Or does "The Man" just not like you knowing the cabin temperature? Well, it's probably easier to just show you the problem. ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites. As you can see, mercury (Hg) and aluminum (Al) do not mix well together. Or they do, but not usefully when your plane is made (largely or partly) of this lightweight metal. "A mercury-aluminum amalgam is a mixture of mercury and aluminum. Aluminium in air is ordinarily protected by a molecule-thin layer of its own oxide (which is not porous to oxygen)," Chem Europe explains. "Mercury coming into contact with this oxide does no harm. However, if any elemental aluminium is exposed (even by a recent scratch), the mercury may combine with it, starting the process described above, and potentially damaging a large part of the aluminium before it finally ends." It is this runaway reaction, known as amalgam corrosion, that is the main problem, meaning that only a small amount of mercury can lead to a lot of damage. "Amalgam corrosion is the combined action of Hg and moisture on susceptible materials, primarily aluminum and tin. The difference between this mode of attack and simple amalgamation is that the corrosion process propagates with minuscule amounts of mercury," a paper on the topic explains. "Amalgam corrosion regenerates the reactant and hence is self-propagating. If sufficient moisture and mercury are present, aluminum structural components can be penetrated fairly rapidly." In short, you can't take mercury thermometers on planes in case they break and begin corroding the aircraft. You wouldn't want it to make a hole; those belong on plane windows.
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I finally stopped seeing outdated videos on YouTube—here’s how
Added: Nov 5, 2025I finally stopped seeing outdated videos on YouTube—here’s how
Site: How-To Geek
These simple fixes reinvigorated my YouTube feed.
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Facing an anti-Zionist mayor: Mamdani's election win puts NY Jews into uncharted waters | The Times of Israel
Added: Nov 5, 2025Facing an anti-Zionist mayor: Mamdani's election win puts NY Jews in uncharted waters | The Times of Israel
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Can AI be truly creative? Added: Nov 5, 2025
Can AI be truly creative?
Chatbots and AI models are challenging ideas about who — or what — can create art, music and more.
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New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Observations Suggest It Has Changed Course And May Have Lost Mass | IFLScience
Added: Nov 5, 2025
Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Has Slightly Changed Course And May Have Lost A Lot Of Mass, NASA Observations Show
Site: IFLScience
Whilst the interstellar visitor was out of view, it appears to have changed course slightly, brightened, and may have lost around 13 percent of its mass.
New observations of comet 3I/ATLAS have shown that our interstellar visitor may have lost a significant amount of mass following its close encounter with the Sun. For those who haven't heard of 3I/ATLAS, on July 1, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) spotted an object zipping its way through our Solar System at high speeds. Follow-up observations showed that it was on an escape trajectory. With an eccentricity greater than 1, it was determined to be an interstellar visitor, the third we have spotted so far after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Contrary to conspiracy theories going around the Internet, a lot of telescopes are keeping a close eye on it and reporting their results. Take a look at this long list of observations on the Minor Planet Center website if you don't believe us. It's an interesting comet, which may be a 10-billion-year-old time capsule from an earlier age of the universe. Studying it could tell us about the environment it came from, and give us a sense of the interstellar medium. In short, it's pretty cool, even though it isn't an alien spacecraft and shows distinct cometary behavior. For a brief time, 3I/ATLAS was briefly obscured from our view by the Sun. During this time, we got a view of it from around Mars, being imaged by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). But now our interstellar visitor is back from behind the Sun, and observations can resume. Of particular interest to astronomers is how the object has been affected by radiation from the Sun as it made its closest approach, known as perihelion. So far, we have already had some surprises, with the object demonstrating a rare anti-tail, odd and extreme abundance ratios of iron to nickel, and unusual brightening as it approached perihelion. While its behavior is distinctly cometary, it certainly is an interesting object, appearing slightly different from comets bound to our Solar System. The latest observations, from October 31 to November 4, show that the object has likely lost a significant amount of mass during its encounter with our host star. It has also changed course slightly, undergoing non-gravitational acceleration, or acceleration not accounted for by gravity alone. As explained by Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb in a blog post, 3I/ATLAS has undergone a "radial acceleration away from the Sun of 1.1x10^{-6} au per day squared", as well as a "transverse acceleration relative to the Sun’s direction of 3.7x10^{-7} au per day squared". That might sound odd, but it is not unexpected, nor a sign that it is an alien spaceship. As comets are heated, they lose mass by outgassing, where the volatile ices on their surface vaporize, and conservation of momentum tells us the object undergoes a resulting acceleration. Extrapolating from the latest observations (though we should note that there are always margins of error in observations), it is possible to estimate how much mass has been lost due to outgassing. "The reported non-gravitational acceleration amounts to 94 kilometers per day squared at perihelion. These values combine to imply that 3I/ATLAS lost a fraction of its mass equal to: ~13% divided by v in units of 300 meters per second, where a value of v~300 meters per second corresponds to the characteristic thermal speed of molecules at the surface temperature of 3I/ATLAS near perihelion," Loeb writes. "This ejection speed would be the maximum expected value for a natural comet, thus implying that 3I/ATLAS must have lost more than 13% of its mass near perihelion in the natural scenario." That's a lot of mass to lose, but not unheard of for a comet. We also need to stress uncertainties in astronomical observations, which are refined with more observations, and the fact that this is only the third interstellar object we have observed. Its composition appears to differ a little from our Solar System comets, and more observations will hopefully provide clues as to how it reacted to its passage through our part of the galaxy. If it has lost this much mass (or close to it), we should see a significant cloud of gas in further observations, as well as a significant brightening. The latest observations show that it has brightened significantly, and by a factor of around 5 in the Green-band, indicating that the object continues to act like a comet, albeit one that can give us clues about another part of our own galaxy. Stay tuned for more updates as the world turns its telescopes ( amateur and professional ) to the object once more.
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THE WITCH IS GONE - YouTube Added: Nov 6, 2025
Nancy Pelosi QUITS, Democrats Formally Endorse Socialism, Right Loses it Over Fuentes | Tim Pool
Site: YouTube
Say goodbye to a vile witch nancy pelosiBecome A Memberhttp://youtube.com/timcastnews/joinThe Green Room - https://rumble.com/playlists/aa56qw_g-j0BUY CAST B...
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NYC Fire Chief Resigns After Zohran Mamdani Win, NYC Is Doomed
Site: YouTube
CULTURE WAR LIVE TICKETS HERE: https://www.dccomedyloft.com/shows/334903SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.y...
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FAA To STOP Flights Over Shutdown, May CLOSE Airspace, Thanksgiving Travel APOCALYPSE | Timcast IRL
Site: YouTube
Go to http://kars4kids.org/timpool or call 1-877-KARS4KIDS for the quick and easy way to donate your car!Shop Beam’s Black Friday Sale! Get up to 50% off wit...
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How Aristotle's Victory Over Democritus Delayed Scientific Progress - GreekReporter.com Added: Nov 6, 2025
How Aristotle's Victory Over Democritus Delayed Scientific Progress - GreekReporter.com
Site: GreekReporter.com
The monumental debate between Democritus and Aristotle shaped 2,000 years of science and revolutionized our understanding of the universe.
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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From vibe coding to context engineering: 2025 in software development – MIT Technology Review Added: Nov 6, 2025
From vibe coding to context engineering: 2025 in software development – MIT Technology Review
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Artificial intelligence understands feelings better than people, study finds - The Brighter Side of News
Added: Nov 6, 2025Artificial intelligence understands feelings better than people, study finds
Site: The Brighter Side of News
Artificial intelligence outperforms humans in emotional intelligence tests, reshaping psychology and affective computing.
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Democrats face possible ACA letdown Added: Nov 6, 2025
Democrats face possible ACA letdown
Site: Axios
A guaranteed vote, but no actual agreement that can be signed into law, would be a tough pill for many Democrats to swallow.
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President Trump Makes an Announcement, Nov. 6, 2025
Site: YouTube
The White House
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President Trump Delivers Remarks at the America Business Forum Miami
Site: YouTube
Miami, FL
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WizTree: The fast & free storage manager that beats windows built-In tools
Added: Nov 6, 2025
This free utility is the best storage management upgrade my PC has ever received
Site: How-To Geek
The best things in life aren't just free. They're free and extremely useful, which fits this software to a T.
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AIRLINE APOCALYPSE, Thanksgiving IS COOKED | Tim Pool
Site: YouTube
Join CrowdHealth to get started today for $99 for your first three months using code TIM at http://joincrowdhealth.com - CrowdHealth is not insurance. Opt ou...
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Federalism will let New Yorkers learn the hard way Added: Nov 6, 2025
Federalism will let New Yorkers learn the hard way
Site: The Hill
President Trump comes up with some of the best nicknames, and his “my little communist” jab at New York City’s next mayor is comedy gold. Zohran Mamdani, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, j…
President Trump comes up with some of the best nicknames, and his “my little communist” jab at New York City’s next mayor is comedy gold. Zohran Mamdani, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, just came out of nowhere to take the reins of America’s largest city. Although that label is more palatable than “communist,” Mamdani still advances some of the most radical ideas of any major American politician. New Yorkers decided that past progressive mayors like John Lindsay, David Dinkins, or Bill de Blasio only failed to solve the city's problems because they weren’t quite far left enough. In the spirit of American democracy and federalism, New Yorkers are now going all in on socialism — choosing to leave behind more traditional Democrats who signal at least some allegiance to economic reality and free markets. Mamdani’s big win New York gives the Democratic Party an even stronger leftward shove, making socialism less a fringe ideal and more a governing philosophy. A common refrain among socialists is that socialism has never been properly tried or implemented — a convenient coping mechanism to dismiss the wreckage that socialist policies have caused throughout history. Proposals like free childcare, $30 minimum wage, even higher taxes, free buses, rent-free municipal housing, and even government-run grocery stores resonated with many New Yorkers. Mamdani now has a mandate to usher in the nation’s largest social experiment in the land of Wall Street. Many of his proposals sound surreal, but rising costs in the city have many residents ready to try more of the “eat the rich” philosophy. They will try to attain the dream of more things being "free" — just so long as somebody else is paying for it. The warnings against Mamdani were bipartisan, too. They don’t just come from conservatives or strong free-market proponents. In the final mayoral debate, second-place finisher and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called Mamdani’s views “Socialist theory colliding with practical reality.” Cuomo is of course right about the collision. But in a federal republic, that could be an essential teachable moment instead of a tragedy. New Yorkers can learn once again from their mistakes so that many non-New Yorkers may also benefit, both from seeing Mamdani’s radical policies fail and from the human capital his city is about to lose to other jurisdictions. Florida and other Southeastern states are now primed to gain even more businesses as residents flee an even higher tax and regulatory environment. In a poll before the election, a little over 25 percent of the city’s residents said they are at least considering escaping in the event of a Mamdani victory. “I already know that if Zohran gets elected, real estate in Palm Beach is going to go up even higher,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Apparently joking, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot proclaimed that his state will impose tariffs on New Yorkers choosing to flee Mamdani’s socialist experiment. At the end of the day, just as federalism provides more freedom to states and localities to pursue their own policies, it likewise remains an essential guardrail against national folly. One city can try socialism; another can pursue market-oriented reforms. That is how a free country learns what works. Federalism offers New Yorkers a chance at another swing at the utopian dream, while limiting much of the damage to the city’s five boroughs. Yes, this will be an expensive civics lesson, but many Americans need another reminder of the ruins and rubble socialism leaves behind it. If nothing else, New York’s experiment may strengthen appreciation elsewhere for the virtues of limited government and economic freedom. Perhaps H.L. Mencken’s aphorism is most accurate: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Ray Nothstine is a senior writer and editor and a Future of Freedom Fellow at the State Policy Network. He manages and edits American Habits.
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What New York’s socialist mayor can teach the rest of America - American Habits
Added: Nov 6, 2025What New York’s socialist mayor can teach the rest of America
Site: American Habits
I published an opinion piece at The Hill on Zohran Mamdani's big win in the New York City mayoral race. Much of the content focuses on Mamdani's socialist policies and worldview and why they are a good lesson for the rest of America on how not to govern. "Federalism offers New Yorkers a chance at...
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Is federalism the cause of our national ills? - American Habits
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Is federalism the cause of our national ills?
Site: American Habits
In two opinion essays for Governing, Stephen Legomsky, a law professor emeritus at Washington University and author of “Reimagining the American Union,” argues that many of the nation’s political problems are a direct result of federalism. The root of those problems, he contends, lies with the states. Yet a closer reading of his essays suggests...
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Tucker Carlson Backs NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Amid Antisemitism Backlash / X Added: Nov 6, 2025
Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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President Trump Makes an Announcement, Nov. 6, 2025
Site: YouTube
The White House
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GitHub - jatinkrmalik/LLMFeeder: Brower extension to convert web pages to clean Markdown and copy to clipboard so you can feed it to your favorite LLM model as context with just 1 click!
Site: GitHub
Brower extension to convert web pages to clean Markdown and copy to clipboard so you can feed it to your favorite LLM model as context with just 1 click! - jatinkrmalik/LLMFeeder
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GitHub - jatinkrmalik/LLMFeeder: Brower extension to convert web pages to clean Markdown and copy to clipboard so you can feed it to your favorite LLM model as context with just 1 click!
Site: GitHub
Brower extension to convert web pages to clean Markdown and copy to clipboard so you can feed it to your favorite LLM model as context with just 1 click! - jatinkrmalik/LLMFeeder
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LLMFeeder - Web to Markdown Converter - Chrome Web Store
Added: Nov 6, 2025LLMFeeder - Web to Markdown Converter - Chrome Web Store
Web to Markdown converter for ChatGPT, Claude & AI. Extract clean content, copy to clipboard. Now with dark mode.
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jatinkrmalik/vocalinux: Voice + Linux 🐧
Added: Nov 6, 2025GitHub - jatinkrmalik/vocalinux: Voice + Linux 🐧
Site: GitHub
Voice + Linux 🐧. Contribute to jatinkrmalik/vocalinux development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Trump Refuses To Cave, Vows To Withhold Food Stamps Until Government Reopens
Site: YouTube
CULTURE WAR LIVE TICKETS HERE: https://www.dccomedyloft.com/shows/334903SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.y...
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Megyn Kelly Tells Audience Member Why Gays and Lesbians are Welcome in the Republican Party
Site: YouTube
Megyn Kelly tells audience member why gays and lesbians are welcome in the Republican party.LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos everyday: https://bit.ly/3Aw93ywW...
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Platforming vs. Interviewing, Gay Conservatives, and Staying Positive: Megyn Kelly's Audience Q&A
Site: YouTube
Megyn Kelly begins the "Megyn Kelly Live" in White Plains, NY by taking audience questions about staying positive after terrible election results, being a ga...
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Zohran Wins BIG With Anti-White Rhetoric, NYC Is COOKED ft. Scott Greer
Site: YouTube
BUY CAST BREW COFFEE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW - https://castbrew.com/Become A Member And Protect Our Work at http://www.timcast.comHost:Tate Brown @realTateBrown ...
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Imagine - Grok
Added: Nov 6, 2025
Grok
Grok is a free AI assistant designed by xAI to maximize truth and objectivity. Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Find the Simplest Thing That Works Added: Nov 6, 2025
Find the Simplest Thing That Works
Site: Naval
We’ve all seen the pictures of the Raptor engine for the SpaceX rockets, and if you look at the various iterations, they go from easy-to-vary to hard-to-vary. Because the most recent version just doesn’t have that many parts that you can fool around with. The earlier versions have a million different parts where you could change the thickness of it, the width of it, the material, and so on. More
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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How Schelling points explain the power of great books - Big Think
Added: Nov 6, 2025Plato meets game theory: How Schelling points explain the power of great books
Site: Big Think
The great books aren’t just classics — they’re cultural Schelling points that give our minds a place to meet up in the world of ideas.
