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“A ‘trend’ can be, and often is, entirely a product of people energetically looking for a certain thing”

The point of the phrase “Summer of the Shark” is to remind yourself that a “trend” can be, and often is, entirely a product of people energetically looking for a certain thing, even while the actual rate of the thing is unremarkable, abnormally low, or declining. […] If a self-sustaining hype bubble can form even over something as relatively easy to measure as the number of shark attacks, imagine how common it must be with more nebulous social phenomena.

Read Summer of the Shark post on Scott Aaronson’s blog

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The Brown Derby, a grapefruit + bourbon cocktail

I have a new favourite cocktail, the Brown Derby. Perfect timing for the UK’s first warm(ish) weekend of 2018. ☀️ It’s along the lines of a whisky sour, but with less sugar and a little more floral from the grapefruit. It’s also crazy simple, you can make honey syrup without heating anything if you use warm water.

To make a Brown Derby, combine 1.5oz bourbon, 1.5oz fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice, and 0.5oz honey syrup (1pt honey to 1pt water) in a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garish with a grapefruit twist, or a thin slice of grapefruit against the side of the glass.

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TIL about reef-safe sunscreen

TIL certain sunscreens are likely harmful to coral reefs. Wish I’d known this a month ago… Go for a physical sunscreen instead of a chemical one. Physical sunscreens can be less cosmetically preferable, need to be reapplied often, and can leave a white-ish cast, but they are usually gentler on skin and – here’s the kicker – are much less likely to kill oceanic critters.