Thu. 1/14 - How We Narrowly Avoided an Emoji Shortage

The workaround the Unicode Consortium used to make sure we still get new emojis in 2021, pandemic or not. Facial hair is biologically useless. So why do some humans have it? And the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule returning this evening will be carrying on it a case of twelve unopened bottles of red wine. But why?

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Links:

• The Emoji That Nearly Weren't (Jennifer Daniel, Substack) via Today In Tabs
• Emoji ZWJ Sequences: Three Letters, Many Possibilities (Emojipedia)
• Facial Hair Is Biologically Useless. So Why Do Humans Have It? (Wired)
• Wild Study Suggests Human Beards Evolved to Absorb Punches to The Head (Science Alert)
• Our Skulls Didn't Evolve to be Punched (National Geographic)
• French wine, vines headed home after year in space (AP)
• Wed. 12/9 - Space Booze: It's... For Science (Kottke Ride Home)
• Kottke.Org
• Jackson Bird on Twitter