Our Junk Drawer
Tedium Shorties
They're too short for 3,000-word stories, but too interesting to not write about at all. Meet Tedium’s shorties—the latest quick hits of news and weirdness from Tedium.
An Xbox in Disguise
“And frankly, having a Mac “Property of Microsoft” in a collection is still pretty fun.”
— Blogger Pierre Dandumont explains the story of the pre-release Xbox 360 development kit, which just so happened to be an Apple Power Mac G5.
Bloody Terrible Idea
We suck young blood: As it turns out, the FDA doesn't like it when startups try to claim that giving old people young people's blood is a good idea to help extend their lives. As TechCrunch notes, one firm that has been doing this, Ambrosia Medical, appears to be skirting some important rules—and they needed the call-out.
More Rare Than it Looks
Kelsey Lewin, a gaming historian and a co-owner of the West Coast gaming chain Pink Gorilla, explains why a Super Mario Bros. cart was sold for more than $100,000 recently.
Home Row Madness
“Unless someone else uses my keyboard, I rarely register that everyone else uses QWERTY.”
— Jon Porter, a reporter for The Verge, discussing what he's learned from a decade of typing in Dvorak, rather than QWERTY. Long story short: It works for him, but it probably won’t work for you.
This Explains A Lot
Amazing discovery of the night: There's an over-the-counter drug sold in Thailand that's essentially the Thai version of Immodium AD. Its name? Tedium. Yes, *Tedium*. If you are in Thailand and have access to this drug, I would like some.
— Ernie Smith (@ShortFormErnie) February 5, 2019
(image via https://t.co/WzkmRKqpR9) pic.twitter.com/md8DKeOLQU
It turns out that if you dig far enough on the internet, you can still find a coincidence that still stuns you.
Matters of Size
There’s a significant clothing market for plus-size women, but not one for plus-size men—and that’s led to the existence of something a big-and-tall fashion blog called Chubstr calls the “fat tax.” The situation highlights some interesting economic questions.
Decaffeinated Comeback
"So many people still wanted it, and they didn't think they could get it anymore."
— June Rust, the cofounder of Eliza’s Quest Foods, the current manufacturers of Postum, discussing the low-key success of the revived brand with Industry Dive. Postum is a caffeine-free coffee substitute whose existence dates to the turn of the 20th century, with its invention credited to C.W. Post himself. However, it was taken off the market by Kraft around 2007.
Cultural Differences, LOL
I am an American living in Germany. My grocery store currently has a temporary “American food” section. Join me for a tour of what Germans think Americans eat. pic.twitter.com/uvnF0Q8Uwo
— Erik Wade (@erik_kaars) January 25, 2019
What Germans think American food looks like. If you think that’s funny, just imagine what Americans think German food looks like.
Different Kind of Thirst
Hidden Valley Ranch’s latest ad reflects on a truth of modern food: I mean, who doesn’t want to chug a bottle of ranch dressing?
Code Collector
Technology writer and novelist Michael Warren Lucas bought a block of ISBN codes (aka the barcodes on the side of books) somewhat recently. On his site, he explains how the process went and why you shouldn’t accept ISBNs from Amazon alone.