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Pesto and The Indianapolis Airport
Payton Mitchell & John Green
October 04, 2024
Hello!
Greetings from the Indianapolis Airport, where I've found myself a lot during this Pizzamas. Pizzamas, which ends today, is such a silly and wonderful thing in Nerdfighteria and I'm so grateful to Hank and his colleagues at dftba.com for coming up with the idea. Even after a decade of Pizzamas, I haven't gotten used to the wonderful ridiculousness of seeing different versions of me portrayed on t-shirts designed by amazingly talented independent artists each year, and this year's shirts especially delighted me.
Nerdfighteria just generates so much awesome and the truth is, Hank and I are a very small part of that. Currently, some Nerdfighters are celebrating October by making different works of Nerdfighteria-adjacent art every day; others are fighting TB by encouraging their elected representatives to expand funding; and many others are enriching Nerdfighteria through their comments and posts from Reddit to Discord to YouTube. This sprawling thing we've built together is the great joy of my professional life, and Pizzamas is—despite (gestures broadly)—a joyful reminder of what we've built and are building together.
Thanks for being awesome.
John
You can always email us at [email protected]
This Week in Stuff
There was a beautiful memorial service for a duck named Long Boi, complete with a choir and bronze statue.
Earth currently has a temporary mini-moon!
There’s a Twitter account dedicated to prompting and sharing Nerdfighter art! The 3rd annual October Art Challenge just began. (This account is not affiliated with Hank and John—we just love it.)
The internet has fallen in love with a baby King Penguin named Pesto who is already bigger than his parents.
It’s SPOOKY LAKE MONTH! Geo will teach us about a new spooky lake every day of October.
Me 12am October 1st
— Rachel Eaton @ Realta (@rayleearts)
9:26 PM • Oct 1, 2024
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
Almost every new car sold in Norway is electric
Hannah Ritchie
New petrol and diesel cars are becoming a rarity in Norway.
In 2023, 93% of new cars sold in the country were electric. This is shown in the chart, based on data from the International Energy Agency.
This is a rapid increase from a decade ago when just 6% of new cars were electric.
Here, “electric cars” include fully battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars (which have a smaller battery and also have a combustion engine). But in Norway, battery-electric cars now dominate: in 2023, 85% were fully electric, compared to just 8% of plug-in hybrids.
Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here.
This Week at Complexly
Introducing Eons: Surviving Deep Time! Season 2 of the Eons podcast is a long-form exploration of a question we’re often asked: how long could a human survive if they were dropped into a particular period of the geologic past? Episode 1 is available now wherever you get your podcasts!
Introducing Study Hall's New Sustainability Series!
If seeing the devastating effects of climate change every day makes you feel frustrated and powerless, join us and climate scientist Miriam Nielsen as we explore what’s at stake if we don’t act—and the transformative impact we can make for future generations if we do.
Throughout this 30-episode series, we'll learn how creating a sustainable future is not just about protecting the environment—it’s about building healthier, more just societies. New episodes every Wednesday!
And if you want to earn college credit while you learn how to save the planet, check out the Study Hall Sustainability 101 course.
We worked with toy designer David Silva of Creative Beast Studio on these 1/18th scale, articulated figures that were built using data from the latest scientific discoveries and painted with colors inspired by modern-day creatures living in similar environments. Transport the engaging, educational content from Eons directly into your hands with these woolly mammoths!
When you back today, you help us get to our stretch goals faster, which include more creatures, more colors, and more excitement! This is a crowd-funding campaign, meaning we can only make these figures if we hit our goal. We hope you're excited— we sure are! This campaign has been extended until October 10th!
What do we do with the money generated from pre-roll advertisements on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel? Well, half of it goes to Partners in Health, one quarter goes to Complexly's new and developing educational video projects, and the other quarter goes into a fund that is used to help creators make online educational/informational/super awesome projects!
If you're an online creator making stuff that helps make the world a better place, you can apply for a grant from the fund by filling out this form. To be eligible for this year's grants, make sure you apply by November 3, 2024.
Some Games to Play!
Moviedle (by Likewise)
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
This Gubbins postcard was made by Sarah. Send yours to [email protected]
If you post your results on social media, we’d love it if you post a link for folks to subscribe to “We’re Here” (https://werehere.beehiiv.com/subscribe)
We’re Here Pasta Party
Last week, we asked you to tell us about the best pasta you’ve ever had. A lot of folks sent recipes, so we’re sharing some with you! Be sure to let us know how it goes if you decide to make any of these for yourself.
Baked Ziti
2-12 ounce boxes of jumbo shell noodles
2 sticks of butter
1 medium or large onion diced
1 bundle of garlic chopped or 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 green bell pepper
1 to 1.5 cups of spaghetti sauce
12 to 14 slices of american cheese
Preheat oven to 350. Boil noodles until soft, drain. Simmer onion, garlic and pepper in butter until it begins to soften, approximately 10 minutes on medium heat. Divide all ingredients into two baking dishes and stir. Bake for 15 minutes and stir. Bake for 15 more minutes and stir. Bake 15 more minutes and serve.
Clam Pasta
Sauté garlic (I do a lot 5-6 cloves) in olive oil gently. Add clam juice and a glass-ish of dry white whine and let it reduce 30-45 minutes. Add chili flakes if you like a little spice.
When sauce has reduce to taste you like, add clams to warm. (I use 3-4 cans of snow's chopped, not minced).
Mix all of that sauce with cooked pasta, parsley leaves, parmesan.
Pesto Spaghetti
We used Jaimie Oliver's recipe for fresh pasta: combine 600 grams of flour (preferably Tipo 00 flour) and 6 eggs, knead well and shape into a ball. Let it rest in the fridge. Then roll out into the desired shape. If you don't have a pasta machine you can use a rolling pin, but the machine makes it super easy!
Make pesto out of a green (we used Indian cress from the garden), garlic, parmesan cheese (or something similar), oil and nuts (we used walnuts). Sauce liberally and bon appetit!
Pasta & Stroganoff
1 lb ground beef
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups beef broth
8 oz sour cream
12 oz egg noodles
Melt butter in saucepan and sauté onions and mushrooms until tender. Meanwhile, cook ground beef in another pot until no longer pink, and drain grease.
Return meat to pot and add flour. Cook briefly to remove raw flour taste, then slowly stir in beef broth. Simmer until sauce thickens.
Add cooked onions and mushrooms to mixture and stir in sour cream. Do not return to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over egg noodles, cooked according to package directions.
Abomination Pasta
You make one of those terrible easy mac instant pastas, and then you get every ingredient from your fridge and your freezer (Even if it requires pre-cooking before going in the pasta!), you then chuck it in the pasta, then you chuck in every spice you have. If the cheese is not melting you can chuck this abomination into the microwave for a minute. This pasta should taste incredible and should be large enough to feed a village, due to all the ingredients. You can then go further if you want to by chucking it into a wrap, sandwich, pizza, etc.
Picky Eater Pasta
1. Boil noodles (preferable a familiar noodle like spaghetti) to normal al dente
2. Drain noodles
3. Put still warm noodles in bowl with a pat of butter
4. Stir until butter has melted and coated all the noodles
5. Eat, very yummy!
See you again soon!
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