Happy New Year, everyone. Relish the surge pricing!

1. The Sad Internet in Review.

"Some manifestations of the Sad Internet make a mockery of the pervasive cliché of the magical technology that connects us all, builds community, and generally permits the 'crowd' to find and reward the wonderful. The Sad Internet is a place full of unwatched videos, unliked photographs, unheard music, tweets that no one cared about, and crowdfunding projects that nobody backed. Join us, if you will, for a tour of the Sad Internet."

2. Americans are no longer driving as much as they used to, but Department of Transportation projections for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) haven't kept up with the changes.

"In other words, the projections can be as simple as assuming some level of growth from a base number. So the assumptions are critical. If HPMS growth estimates that show up in recent C&Ps had assumed modern VMT growth trends would continue, they would have come much closer to predicting reality. But the rolled-up trend estimates show essentially the same slope year after year, indicating that agencies providing HPMS data generally have not updated their models and assumptions to account for current conditions, as if they expect the year to be 1980 forever."

3. A landmark brain-controlled computing experiment has come to a rather sad end.

"In 2012, two electrode grids with 96 contact points each were implanted in Scheuermann's motor cortex, which controls voluntary movement. Cables running through two ports in her skull linked them to a computer when she was hooked up to the arm... The grids were surgically removed from Scheuermann's head in October. 'This was a study to see whether the technology could work,' Collinger said, 'and from the beginning, it was planned to be of a limited duration.' Deterioration of the signals could be one reason for the limitation. The implants recorded fewer signals over time -- partly because the brain is a hostile environment for electronics, and partly because tiny movements of the grids may build up scar tissue, according to the MIT Technology Review. Scheuermann apparently had lost the ability to open and close the hand's thumb and fingers, and was able to control the arm only in three to five dimensions by the project's conclusion."

4. Experimental History Is the Best, Making Paper Edition.

"But many people do not realize that prior to the invention of the paper machine around 1800, every piece of paper was made in the world by hand. In Europe, skilled artisans, working in teams of 3, were able to make 1500 or more sheets in a day or about 200 sheets an hour. The following short film documents the work of Tim Barrett and his graduate student co-workers at the University of Iowa Center for the Book as they attempt to replicate some of these historical production methods.

5. Maybe, maybe, ibuprofen makes life last longer.

"The common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen has been associated with a reduced risk of some age-related pathologies. However, a general pro-longevity role for ibuprofen and its mechanistic basis remains unclear. Here we show that ibuprofen increased the lifespan of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster, indicative of conserved eukaryotic longevity effects... These results point to fundamental cell cycle signatures linked with longevity, implicate aromatic amino acid import in aging and identify a largely safe drug that extends lifespan across different kingdoms of life."

cup. For 'cups that cheer' see HACKNEYED PHRASES.

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