one.point.zero

Rare plant heaven in Los Angeles

Colin O'Brien — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 24:00:00 GMT

A fascinating look inside a hidden greenhouse in Los Angeles filled with rare plants. Carlos, their passionate caretaker, gives the tour.

Your phone might really be making you more dumb

Colin O'Brien — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 24:00:00 GMT

The average IQ was increasing year over year until about 2010, when it started declining. One popular hypothesis is the simultaneous decline of print and the increase in short-form and video content that decreases deep thinking.

A really significant feature of books is that if you make a case in print, you have to make it logically add up. You can’t just assert things in the way you can on TikTok or on YouTube… print privileges a whole way of thinking and a whole way of processing the world that is logical, that is more rational, that is more dense information, that is more intellectually challenging.

A computer is not a brain

Colin O'Brien — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 24:00:00 GMT

There's a persistent belief in the tech world, particularly in AI, that the human brain is basically a computer and that once we figure out how it stores and processes information, we'll be able to upload our consciousness to the cloud.

This has always seemed quite reductive to me. As Douglas Rushkoff would say, "What about the squishy bits?"

Anyway, this fascinating article by a senior research psychologist describes how the brain changes in response to experiences rather than simply storing data in a specific group of neurons.

Remember 88x31 buttons on the web?

Colin O'Brien — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 24:00:00 GMT

Are you old enough to remember these? You couldn't visit a web page back in the day without seeing at least one.

Antoinism - A Belgian Religion on the Brink of Disappearance.

Colin O'Brien — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 24:00:00 GMT

Antoinism is a religion that was created in 1910 by a metal worker called Louis-Joseph Antoine from the Liège region of Belgium. Membership is declining sharply, and only 10 temples are left. Most of their temples have been converted to housing. I've walked past one of them a few times and always wondered what the inside was like. This article follows one of their "healers" and gives a fascinating insight into a dying cult.

Following Ed Pratt down the river Thames.

Colin O'Brien — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 24:00:00 GMT

In this age of ragebait and kinetic videos, I find watching each episode of Ed Pratt's journey from source to sea down the river Thames to be online comfort food. You can find the other episodes on his YouTube channel.

Sorry for the mess.

Colin O'Brien — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 24:00:00 GMT

I've been fixing bugs that affected, among other things, the RSS feed. Sorry if some of you are seeing duplicate content. It should be fine from now on.

The mini subway under the U.S. Capitol.

Colin O'Brien — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 24:00:00 GMT

I didn't know the U.S. Capitol had its own mini underground rail network to shuttle people between buildings. I'm always fascinated by these independent networks.

You're still being tracked by apps on your phone.

Colin O'Brien — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 24:00:00 GMT

An interesting deep dive into how your geolocation data gets exfiltrated by advertising networks via apps on your phone and sold to, not only the highest bidder, but basically any data broker, government agency, or other organisation that can afford it.

All of this, of course, despite you setting your phone to not allow these apps to track you.

By the way, the list of apps that do this (Google Docs) contained 2 apps I had installed on my phone. I'd take a look and see what apps you should be removing from yours.

Small changes to the blog.

Colin O'Brien — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 24:00:00 GMT

I just switched this blog from using a dynamic Django-based solution to running as a static site using Eleventy.

I mainly did this in anticipation of some further changes to come. But, basically, I needed something simpler that would encourage me to post more often.

Considering the state of social media and the internet in general, I want to move to publishing on a platform I own, not one I rent or borrow.

Having to go into an admin interface and make a bunch of choices was too much of a barrier. Now, I just have to dump a markdown file into a directory, and it all gets published automatically.

As far as the visitor-facing aspect goes, nothing much should change except being a little faster. If you're reading this via RSS you may see older posts show up again, sorry about that.

The constant aggression of the current internet.

Colin O'Brien — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 24:00:00 GMT

This piece, from Ed Zitron, is one of the best things I've read in a while. It puts into words what I've been feeling about tech recently better than I ever could. He's angry, but rightly so.

The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.

My Life As a Homeless Man in America.

Colin O'Brien — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 24:00:00 GMT

A former Boston Globe reporter on his now homeless life. A tense and depressing read.

Fugees Founder faces prison for being a spy.

Colin O'Brien — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 24:00:00 GMT

This is quite a story. I'm not surprised Hollywood wants to turn it into a film. Fugees founder Pras Michel faces up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of conducting an illegal foreign influence campaign with Malaysian financier Jho Low.

Great accessible road crossing signals

Colin O'Brien — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 24:00:00 GMT

This is a fantastic idea: integrating tactile maps on pedestrian crossing buttons to help sight-impaired people get a lay of the land. These exact signal boxes are used here, but I don't think I've ever seen the map module on them. That's a shame.

BBOYS, A history of breaking.

Colin O'Brien — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 24:00:00 GMT

A great little documentary about the history of breakdancing. It's in multiple parts, check out the channel for the full playlist.

The internet is hostile.

Colin O'Brien — Thu, 02 May 2024 24:00:00 GMT

A perfect summary of the current state of the internet and technology in general.

The first page of Google results are links to pages that have scraped other pages for information from other pages that have been scraped for information. All the sources seem to link back to one another. There is no origin. The photos on the page look weird. The hands are disfigured. There is no image credit.