(espn.com)

“The condensed 60-game season for the 2020 calendar year for the National League and American League prompted us to think that maybe the shortened Negro League seasons could come under the MLB umbrella, after all,” Thorn said.

More good that came from the pandemic. This had to be an incredibly complex and fascinating research effort. Nice work, MLB!

(engadget.com)

In all, Meta’s researchers uncovered 510 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, 32 Instagram accounts and one group that were tied to the effort, including fake and previously hacked accounts. The accounts posed as “Jewish students, African Americans and ‘concerned’ citizens” and shared posts that praised Israel’s military actions and criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and college protests. They also shared Islamaophobic comments in Canada, saying that “radical Islam poses a threat to liberal values in Canada.”

I’ve really struggled with social media over the last several years. I hate most of the major platforms for the endless scroll and the mindlessness it promotes. And the constant question about the authenticity of every post is…exhausting. I dialed back my Facebook use first, years ago. Weirdly, though, I’m slowly returning to that and dropping Instagram and Twitter/X (I never rally “did” TikTok). Why now for Facebook? I don’t know, really, as I’m just now thinking about it. Maybe it has something to do with the authenticity it provides. My interactions there are, for the most part, with people I’ve actually met in person at some point in my life. There’s something comforting about having those real world relationships as a foundation for online interactions.

Or maybe I’m just getting older.

(theverge.com)

There are some exclusions, like game consoles (due to lobbying from game console manufacturers over piracy concerns), medical devices, ATVs, and motor vehicles, which are also typical for repair rules introduced in other states like California and New York.

OK, I get the medical device exemption, but ATVs? Game consoles? Come on....

(bbc.com)

Pandas have been housed at the Washington DC zoo for over five decades and are a draw for millions of visitors as well as fans from around the world who watch the bears online on the zoo’s panda cam. The animals have long symbolised warm relations with China, which first gifted a pair of giant pandas to the US after Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 trip to Beijing.

It’s nice to see that panda diplomacy is alive and well.

(gizmodo.com)

An Ohio real-estate magnate is planning to take his own two-person submersible down to Titanic wreckage-level depths to show the journey can actually be done safely following the deadly implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible in June of 2023.

I’m happy money is being spent on exploring the ocean, but I’d probably search for treasure from above if I were a billionaire.