Monday Link Roundup

Why this rock found during a beach holiday is selling for $20K [Ed. note – It has markings on it that sort of look like the outline of New Zealand. "Both Holly and her mum said they have “no problem if the rock doesn’t sell” and as they are happy to keep it."]

RIP Martin Amis! Never forget how the NYRB refused to review him for thirty years because the founder's son got in trouble for plagiarizing from The Rachel Papers.

"Orcas have attacked and sunk a third boat off the Iberian coast of Europe, and experts now believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population...The spike in aggression towards boats is a recent phenomenon, López Fernandez said. Researchers think that a traumatic event may have triggered a change in the behavior of one orca, which the rest of the population has learned to imitate...

Experts suspect that a female orca they call White Gladis suffered a "critical moment of agony" — a collision with a boat or entrapment during illegal fishing — that flipped a behavioral switch."

You could be forgiven for assuming I would be on the side of the whales here (I know orcas aren't whales, but come on, they're whales), but I feel the same degree of suspicion and enmity for orcas as I do for all non-human primates. We will send more, and bigger boats in a united show of force. White Gladis must be stopped.

New Zealand resists the incursions of Mark Wahlberg (I'm in New Zealand and Australia this week, so local news will continue to be marked as general interest until my return).

"The oldest known evidence of at-scale plans"? Who's to say!

The yogurt here in New Zealand is insanely good. Tastes like the midpoint of really good yogurt and a tub of freshly whipped cream. I'm just walking around with pots of it all day, man. They spell it yoghurt here but I won't hold that against them. You gotta try the Kāpiti brand if you ever get the chance. I'm losing my mind over this. Last night I just had a pot of the caramel toffee flavor and a bag of "snacking carrots" for dinner and it was unreal. I could have gone to a restaurant for dinner but I wanted that instead. These carrots are so much better than our carrots, man. We have been dealt zero aces.

the machines have learned about the omegaverse, impossible to say if this is good or bad

I should say, if you're in Australia, you can come see me tonight at the Wheeler Center in Melbourne, or tomorrow at the same for the Dear Prudence book tour. Or you can see me in Sydney on the night of your choice: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday. Bring yogurt if you have any.

Friend of The Stopgap Nicole Chung talked to Gene Luen Yang, Kelvin Yu, and some of the cast of American Born Chinese.

Oh yeah that'll do it: