It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
How Trump Willed ‘Phase One’ of a Gaza Ceasefire Deal Across the Finish Line
President Donald Trump says both sides have agreed to the “first phase” of the plan to end the conflict in Gaza. It includes a ceasefire and the release of all Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
President Donald Trump had been sitting in the State Dining Room for an hour and twenty-two minutes Wednesday, listening patiently as a panel of right-wing influencers recounted various tales of violence at the hands of Antifa, when an unexpected visitor arrived at the door.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stepping into the room from the Cross Hall, whispered a few words to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before Trump asked him the question he’d spent the last hour or so quietly wondering: “Any news from the Middle East?”
Indeed there was, Rubio told him. But he would have to wait to deliver it until reporters had departed.
Trump didn’t seem in any particular hurry. As he called on the next participant to speak, a visibly anxious Rubio grabbed a notepad and pen to scribble out a message.
“Very close,” he wrote, underlining the words for emphasis. “Need you to approve a Truth social post soon so you can announce deal first.”
The deal Trump would announce two hours later appeared to be a breakthrough. Israel and Hamas agreed to a release of all the hostages held in Gaza for an exchange of Palestinian prisoners, as well as a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the besieged enclave.
After months of false hope, stalled progress and entrenched positions, the agreement was a clear victory for a president who has, in recent weeks, seemed intent on willing his plan into reality.
A.I. Video Generators Are Now So Good You Can No Longer Trust Your Eyes
Welcome to the era of fakery. The widespread use of instant video generators like Sora will bring an end to visuals as proof.
This month, OpenAI, the maker of the popular ChatGPT chatbot, graced the internet with a technology that most of us probably weren’t ready for. The company released an app called Sora, which lets users instantly generate realistic-looking videos with artificial intelligence by typing a simple description, such as “police bodycam footage of a dog being arrested for stealing rib-eye at Costco.”
Sora, a free app on iPhones, has been as entertaining as it is has been disturbing. Since its release, lots of early adopters have posted videos for fun, like phony cellphone footage of a raccoon on an airplane or fights between Hollywood celebrities in the style of Japanese anime. (I, for one, enjoyed fabricating videos of a cat floating to heaven and a dog climbing rocks at a bouldering gym.)
Yet others have used the tool for more nefarious purposes, like spreading disinformation, including fake security footage of crimes that never happened.
The arrival of Sora, along with similar A.I.-powered video generators released by Meta and Google this year, has major implications. The tech could represent the end of visual fact — the idea that video could serve as an objective record of reality — as we know it. Society as a whole will have to treat videos with as much skepticism as people already do words.
Marion Irvine, the ‘Running Nun’ Who Won Races in Her 50s, Dies at Age 95
As a 54-year-old guy getting back into working out over the last year, and a product (partially) of the Sisters of Mercy, I love this story.
She started running at 48, won a Nike sponsorship and finished marathons inside three hours.
She was 48 years old, overweight and addicted to cigarettes.
When Sister Marion Irvine, a Dominican nun and school principal in San Rafael, Calif., decided to try jogging on Memorial Day in 1978, she didn’t own running shorts. So she rummaged through the school’s lost-and-found and grabbed a pair of men’s shorts.
Sister Marion’s plan was to jog 2 miles. Almost immediately, she was gasping for breath. She ended up walking about half way. Afterward, in the shower, she felt sore all over.
And she had a prophetic thought: “I bet I can do better tomorrow.”
Within two years, she was winning races against much younger runners. A Nike sponsorship paid for shoes and travel. In December 1983, at age 54, she ran a marathon in two hours and 51 minutes to qualify for the 1984 Olympic trials. Though she didn’t make the Olympic team, her time set a record for women over 50.
Sister Marion, who died Aug. 30 at the Dominican Convent in San Rafael, Calif., at the age of 95, was a media sensation in the 1980s, featured on national TV programs and known as “the Running Nun” or “Flying Nun.” On the cover of the Runner magazine in 1984, she was decked out in a singlet and tights. A 1986 documentary, “Silver into Gold,” featured her improbable story.
“It was the idea that I was old, I was a nun, and I was fast,” she said, recalling her unsought celebrity at a runners’ gathering last year.
How an Adoptee Discovered a Trove of Documents in a Nun’s Basement
Second story mentioning nuns today. Hmmm.
The April 1975 Operation Babylift effort matched more than 2,800 infants and children evacuated from Vietnam with adoptive families. Today, the adoptees are searching for clues to their past—and reflecting on the complicated legacy of their evacuation.
Aryn Lockhart couldn’t remember the plane crash she’d survived as a baby, but it often occupied her thoughts: popping up when she looked at her tattoo, a decorative cross overlaying a heart—the symbol of the order of nuns who’d cared for her—or at her three kids, adopted as she had been, but in very different times and circumstances.
Like many Babylift adoptees, Lockhart searched for information and found there was little to help fill in the blanks. The orphanages and hospitals that participated in the evacuation had burned their records to protect those left behind. Her trail relied on the memories of those involved. She quit her job directing trade shows and pivoted to working full time on building an adoptee database out of the archive.
One of the manifests listed every child and adult on the flight that crashed outside Saigon on April 4, 1975.
Dress Rehearsal for a Wedding I’ll Never Attend
When I told my 15-year-old daughter I was dying, she asked me to take her wedding dress shopping before I go.
When my teenage daughter enrolled in an acting course at the National Theater of Great Britain during her recent school vacation, I asked my oncologist if I could go with her. “It’s just a week,” I said. “I promise I’ll return. I wouldn’t want to miss out on more chemo.”
“Go,” she said. “Have fun with your daughter.” While you still can, I heard her think.
I wondered how I would survive the trip from our home in southern France to London. My red blood cells had hit a record low, necessitating iron infusions and injections to force my body to create hemoglobin. I was always exhausted. But I forced myself to keep moving. This was important.
This was a trip I might not be able to make again. Three years earlier, cancer blasted through my armor of broccoli and daily exercise and came for my ovaries. There is no cure for my type of ovarian cancer, just treatments — something Tim, Theadora and I have been slow to accept. Other people might die from it, but me? I hadn’t eaten a refined grain since 1984! I had run a marathon and learned how to stand on my hands. Was this all for nothing?
Sharpie Found a Way to Make Pens More Cheaply—By Manufacturing Them in the U.S.
Newell Brands moved production without cutting employee count or raising prices.
Tucked in the foothills of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains is a factory that has figured out a way to manufacture in America that’s cheaper, quicker and better.
It’s the home of a famous American writing implement: the Sharpie marker.
Pen barrels whirl along automated assembly lines that rapidly fill them with ink. At least half a billion Sharpie markers are churned out here every year, each one made of six parts. Only the felt tip is imported, from Japan.
It didn’t used to be this way. Back in 2018, many Sharpies were made abroad. That’s when Chris Peterson, who was the CFO of Sharpie maker Newell Brands, challenged his team to answer a question: How could they keep Newell from becoming obsolete compared with factories in Asia?
“I felt like we had an opportunity to dramatically improve our U.S. manufacturing,” he said.
Peterson is now the CEO. And these days, most Sharpies—in all 93 colors—are made at this 37-year-old factory. Newell did it without reducing the employee count, and without raising prices. But to get to this place took close to $2 billion in investments across the company, thousands of hours of training and a total overhaul of the production process.
The result is a playbook for making low-cost, high-volume products domestically, albeit one that requires long-term planning and a lot of investment.
How Trunk-or-Treat Took Over American Suburbs
Rather than go door-to-door, a lot of kids these days get their Halloween candy by going car-to-car.
Although you might be used to kids walking from doorbell to doorbell every Halloween, in recent years, that tradition has been upstaged by a new one: trunk-or-treat.
Rather than knocking on neighborhood doors, kids (and their parents) pile into a designated parking area—perhaps at a church, a local soccer field, or school—and get candy at each car.
It’s essentially kid-friendly Halloween tailgating. Kids wear their costumes, and adults take the opportunity to decorate their car.
But just how did the phenomenon of trunk-or-treat become so popular in suburban America?
Totally enjoyed all the stories today, Bill! Especially enjoyed reading about the Vietnamese adoptions since one of my nieces came from Viet Nam as a 12 year old (but our family was told she was 6 and the name given was not her real name). Loan is in her early 60's now and would love to reconnect with her 4 siblings but has no idea how to find them but has begun the search.
The nun's story is uplifting and gives hope for what is possible.
The mother daughter story is heart breaking while providing a wonderful memory for her daughter and for us.
Thank you!
Recently, in a Cincinnati suburb, a high school student used AI to make it appear that two homeless men had entered his home while he was alone. His mother saw the video from work and frantically called 911. Police responded to find the ruse. The teen told police he did it as a joke. The teenager has been charged in the case. This stuff is getting out of hand.