PicoBlog

In this month’s rojak, we have a tantalizing and eclectic blend befitting the theme of stories that are not about Southeast Asia and archaeology, but kinda are. Dive into the enigmatic world of a Southeast Asian cloth map, a new species of dwarf crocodile from Thailand's Phu Phan mountains, and the delicate balance between cultural respect and global curiosity. The Rojak is a bonus newsletter for my supporters and paid subscribers.

“I look back at this year, and it still doesn’t feel real.” That’s what Tampa Bay Rays minor league pitcher Andrew Lindsey said to me as we were getting up from our high-top table at The Waverly Café where we had met to talk about his journey from a small-town kid to a fifth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. Lindsey grew up in New Johnsonville, Tenn., a town located right on the Tennessee River.

This week we're joined by Nicolas Mulroney, President and CEO of Bond Bakery Brands. Nicolas shares his transition from a finance career at RBC to leading a thriving baking enterprise, highlighting the pivot that led him from Bay Street to Bakery Street. We talk about the founding of Bond Bakery amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and how his upbringing in a political family shaped his entrepreneurial spirit. Nicolas discusses how technology integrates in his business, he offers insights for budding entrepreneurs, and he outlines his future aspirations for the baking industry in Canada.

It was just another Friday night, and I found myself scrolling through HBO's vast catalog on my TV, feeling bored, grumpy, and yearning for the simpler times when we didn't have 2,486 different streaming platforms and an overwhelming number of movies and TV shows to choose from. When I was just about to give up, something caught my attention: a story I had never heard of before. The kind of bizarre, almost unbelievable real-life tale that I always find so intriguing and fascinating.

It’s a rainy New York Tuesday and I’m writing to you with a snack for your afternoon: a special transcript from our archive. Every once in a while, we receive requests from listeners to release our interviews in written form— a fantastic idea, but something we don’t have time to do for every episode. But now that we have this letter (newsletter? zine? I keep calling it the “digital publication arm” of Thresholds, which is true but sounds weird and corporate) as a container, we’re excited to begin releasing readable versions of our best-loved conversations.

It is becoming more and more common to see inconvenient content disappearing from publications recently converted to the grand cause of advancing ‘trans rights’, whatever that might mean this week. One thing that is certainly not appreciated is a piece describing the fetish-based foundations of The Wachowski Brothers’—sorry, ‘sisters’—ability to be suddenly included on lists like Eleven Famous Female Film Directors You Should Know. I’m sure it’s also no coincidence that the piece heavily features Buck Angel, probably the transiest trans person who ever transed, and also one of the most grounded and compassionate.

Prior to the invention of the smartphone, the process of taking a photograph was considerably more time-consuming and complicated. But long before the first cameras were even conceived, people were already looking for ways to have their likeness depicted and immortalized in whatever medium was available at the time. One such approach, definitely the most popular, involved commissioning painted portraits - a tradition that flourished throughout history and produced several masterpieces.

I’ve recently finished reading the book “The Pathless Path” by . As an additional self-reflection, I decided to use the momentum of almost 6 months since I left Miro to summarise the insights from this book, connect them with thoughts that resonated the most, and share them with everyone who might be experiencing something similar in their lives and career journeys.I divided this story into several parts. Part 1: Preparing to Step Into Uncertainty

Today I am happy to announce that our AI games creator (formerly project FRVR Forge) is now live as an alpha release at beta.frvr.ai; where anyone can play games and early adopters create games by applying for access to the creator tool. Overall the product is very close to what has previously been demonstrated, albeit with a bit of a facelift. Both the creator and play experience is now scalable and should be able to handle millions of daily active users.