Harvest • July 2025

there’s a lot more here because i consciously thought about adding it to the Harvest this time. the headlines are pretty jam-packed too, so let’s get started.

headlines

summer anime feast 2025

anime fans are eating so good this summer. there are far too many sequels! i’m both excited and overwhelmed — how am i supposed to keep up with all of these (ㅠ﹏ㅠ)

the sequels i’m most excited for (in release order) are Call of the Night, Dandadan, Rascal Does Not Dream series, My Dress-Up Darling, Grand Blue, Dr. Stone, Sakamoto Days, Kaiju No. 8, and the Demon Slayer movie finale!

have you caught up to your favorite ones? i’ll try to cover some of the new ones in the stories section, just the ones i’ve managed to watch and enjoyed so far.

Android earthquake alerts

this is really cool — when was the last time we had a truly global system that helps everyone?

by utilizing the global network of tiny seismometers in Android phones, Google has developed an earthquake early warning system. it gives people a few seconds to prepare — which, in a disaster, could mean the difference between life and death.

see: Google Research Blog | Science

knowledge is everywhere

there’s a good chance you’re reading this on a device with internet access. these days, the average person has more information at their fingertips than ever before — including courses from some of the best universities in the world, for free!

once again, we’re blessed by MIT OpenCourseWare — this time with their Mathematics for Computer Science course, along with a complete YouTube playlist.

if long lectures aren’t your thing, there are many other accessible resources — like Khan Academy or dedicated YouTube channels and playlists.

weaponized payment processors

Steam and itch.io pulled all their adult games in July, marking yet another crackdown on explicit content in digital storefronts. itch.io gave an update on their policy, announcing that all NSFW content has been deindexed — effectively removed from browsing and search. the game count dropped from over 28K to just under 7K. that’s more than 20,000 games, essentially removed.

the Australian group Collective Shout has claimed credit for pressuring payment providers to act. it’s not about the NSFW content. it may be “adult content” today — but what about tomorrow? payment processors have effectively become censorship boards. a duopoly of private financial institutions now dictates what content is allowed in the digital space, and this concentrated power is held by corporations with no democratic oversight.

payment infrastructure is now as essential as the foundation of the internet itself — and there’s no way around it. these companies should be treated like neutral public utilities, not editorial boards. i’m more convinced than ever that we need cryptocurrencies to work conveniently and reach widespread adoption. the alternative is too expensive and inconvenient. sending and receiving money shouldn’t be this hard.

see: Polygon

Intel is near their end game

Intel has announced a 15% workforce reduction — roughly 24,000 employees — as revealed in theCEO letter to employees. they missed basically everything right under their nose for the past 15 years: GPUs, ARM, ASICs, AI — you name it.

but as much as some people are cheering for their downfall, we’re really not better off without Intel. we need them to keep the competition alive and prevent monopolies. i hope they can turn things around and get back on track.

One UI 8 breaking change

Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8 — a sign that the Android ecosystem is shifting toward being more closed off. from a security standpoint, it’s understandable: it’s nearly impossible to protect data on a rooted device. this creates problems for apps that rely on device integrity — most notably banking apps. still, it’s sad to know that repurposing old devices might become impossible in the future.

babies made using three people’s DNA

on a more positive note, eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent an otherwise incurable hereditary condition — mitochondrial disease. the fact that a baby can be created from three different people is mind-blowing. it’s an incredible scientific breakthrough and a huge win for medical research.

mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell — yet despite decades of study, there’s still no cure for mitochondrial disease, which is tragic. the UK has been at the forefront of this research, partly because David Cameron, a former prime minister, lost his newborn to the disease.

the mystery of why we need sleep

on the topic of the powerhouse of the cell, a new paper suggests that It All Comes Down to the Mitochondria. the study shows that “increasing the demand of dFBNs for electrons (by overexpressing the uncoupling proteins Ucp4A or Ucp4C, which short-circuit the proton electrochemical gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane) decreased sleep”, keeping the flies awake longer.

if the paper holds up, i’m curious to see whether it leads to better-targeted wakefulness — and conversely, sleepiness — promoting drugs.

to answer the age-old question, i’ll quote the author: “if you need oxygen, then you need sleep!”

celebrating 20 years of MDN

i couldn’t imagine what the web would be like without MDN. it’s quite possibly the best resource for standards and everything platform-related. i still remember stumbling upon MDN for the first time — it felt like walking into a wizard’s library, filled with all the scrolls i needed to become a wizard.

happy 20th birthday, MDN!

see: MDN Blog

stories

proceed at your own risk — i’m reserving my review until the anime finishes airing and i’ve seen the end, which should be… tonight!?

more

Goodnight Punpun — my first manga that i’ve read and finished. don’t ask me why i picked this as my first one… i even said that i might start reading manga after watching Blue Period last month. i don’t know why i started with this.

The Apothecary Diaries — they wrapped up the second season earlier last month.

You are Ms. Servant. — i watched this on a whim, and ended up looking for the manga right after.

takt op.Destiny — i finally got around to watching this. feels like i’m too late to the party, unfortunately.

Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! — title’s too sus to defend. (๑﹏๑)

Mayonaka Punch — would you look at that, an original anime.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! — finished this in one sitting. fun romcom.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge — let’s just say i’m glad i didn’t have to wait 6 years for the sequel.

films

Oppenheimer — better late than never. easy S-tier.

Superman — the most human portrayal of Superman so far.

The Fantastic 4: First Steps — skipping the introduction was a good direction.

ongoing

Yaiba: Samurai Legend — another 90s remake that flew under the radar — for reasons i could sympathize with. second cour’s airing now. from the author of Detective Conan, with godlike animation from WIT Studio.

City The Animation — it’s out, and it’s a fun watch!

Gachiakuta — banger with a strong first episode.

The Summer Hikaru Died — feels like a fever dream.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity — when was the last time a romance anime got hyped this much?

pieces

i’m repurposing the thumbnail from the video linked in the post to highlight the piece, because the title itself seems absolutely bonkers, initially. i don’t remember when i started watching YouTube videos at 2x speed minimum (sometimes up to 4-6x), which feels surreal to me now. i can’t imagine going back to watching videos at normal speed.

one thing i learned is how good Microsoft is at making their products accessible. i’m one of the few people that uses Windows for development, and i know how unpopular it is among developers. even then, the author still uses it because of how good the accessibility features are. on top of that, Microsoft also treats accessibility bugs in VS Code with the same urgency as visual rendering issues — which i very much appreciate, even if i don’t use the features fully.

anyway, back to the main point of the article: one of the main things that allowed the author to listen at 800 WPM was training with a specific voice — ETI Eloquence — because it has consistent, predictable pronunciation. the more human the voice, the harder it is to listen at high speeds due to natural variation.

i’m curious to see if i could apply the same technique to other areas outside of software development. it could be a great way to absorb more information, faster. not that i desperately need to.

more

Writing is thinking — and to that extent, reading is too. it doesn’t happen if you read passively, but often it broadens your perspective and opens doors to new ideas and concepts that lead to your own thinking. i’m a firm believer that people who read more live more lives than those who don’t, but i digress. it’s important that we do not delegate this act to AI, especially habitually. particularly for young people who are still in their formative years, with so much potential for growth and development.

Checklists are hard (but still a good thing) — checklists aren’t to-do lists. a good checklist is extremely hard to write and takes a lot of time to get right. it’s one of the most powerful tools to avoid and minimize mistakes, which can save you from catastrophic failures in critical systems, and not just software systems. all good automation stems from a well-defined process, designed into a checklist.

Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure in older people by changing oral microbiome — beetroot juice’s key ingredient is nitrate, which is converted in the mouth to nitrite, then into nitric oxide in the stomach. it helps blood vessels dilate and deliver more oxygen to the muscles, faster.

You can’t outrun a bad diet. Food — not lack of exercise — fuels obesity — aside from the sensationalist title, the study compares the energy expenditure of western office workers to that of hunter-gatherers in Africa, which isn’t quite the same baseline. that said, diet is the primary factor in weight management, while exercise supports overall health and fitness. i do think treating diet as a lifestyle has more lasting impact than treating it as a short-term regime.

The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long — by reducing water activity, foods like peanut butter and Nutella stay fresh without refrigeration. honey is often touted as a superfood, not only because of its long shelf life, but also due to its lactic acid bacteria, which outcompete other microbes and give it antimicrobial properties. however, despite these benefits, honey contains trace amounts of Clostridium botulinum (the bacterium behind botulism) and should never be given to infants, whose immune systems aren’t yet ready.

I want to leave tech: what do I do? — nearly every alternative mentioned is still a tech job, just not big tech. but tech itself isn’t the problem. i spent nearly a year seriously trying to leave, only to realize what i actually wanted was (more) ownership and autonomy over the things i work on.

Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists — honestly, this is incredibly useful when prompting for programming. instead of explaining how the API works, i just give it an example of how it’s used. sometimes it even comes up with a better approach than what i had in mind. and if it gets things wrong, that’s often a sign the API is confusing, which means i can either improve the docs or rethink the design.

How the Brain Increases Blood Flow on Demand — the study shows that the brain can rapidly and efficiently increase blood flow to active regions as needed. the insight could improve our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, which is a good step forward.

Signs of Autism Could Be Encoded in The Way You Walk — autistic people may have a different gait such as toe-walking, but i don’t believe that anyone toe-walking is autistic, which isn’t made clear in the article. i walk lightly because i’m sensitive to sound, i don’t like making noise when i’m moving around.

How to Network as an Introvert — i get the intent, but networking struggles are more about social anxiety than introversion. being told to care more about the thing you’re anxious about often makes it worse — we can’t “just get over it” or “care less”, and forcing it often makes things worse. it feels more like dread than anxiety at times, but i digress. if the title were “How to Attend an Event”, it might’ve been an easier sell for me.

Overtourism in Japan, and How it Hurts Small Businesses — framing overtourism as a kind of natural disaster is a pretty good analogy. while i’ll be affected by the system shifting to tax-refunds at the airport, i think it’s a necessary change for the long-term health of Japan’s tourism industry and cultural preservation. i also read that some locals have come up with creative ways to deal with getting TikToked — asking customers to leave negative reviews to prevent overexposure, only accepting payment methods that are not available to foreigners, or offering the real menu only after a few visits via a punch card system.

paywalled

What Scientists Learned Scanning the Bodies of 100,000 Brits — a more in-depth look into how diseases take hold years before symptoms appear. i’m pretty sure it’s been known for a while that “disease doesn’t arrive out of nowhere” and “it accumulates quietly, shaped by genes, environment, and habits”, which i was told that prevention is always better than cure. that said, with the amount of data they’re collecting and analyzing, i wonder if we’ll ever reach a point where we rely on preventative measures too much and erode the body’s ability to defend and heal itself.

This Test Can See a Heart Attack in Your Future — while we’re on the topic, coronary artery calcium testing can reveal plaque in arteries, which is a strong predictor of heart disease. however, there are radiation risks associated with the test, so consulting with a doctor is essential before getting one to weigh the potential benefits against the risks.

Many Lung Cancers Are Now in Nonsmokers — this hits too close to home. why are these non-smokers getting lung cancer? i thought this was just a phenomenon around the area i live in, where (i suspect, because) the air quality is so bad, it’s constantly at the top of the list of most polluted cities in the world.

compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting — while i agree that it can be worse than ignorance, the world right now is so full of information that it’s almost impossible to keep up without some degree of compression. ironically, the post is now fully behind a paywall and only provides a snippet of the first paragraph, which indirectly compresses the content to just the title itself for most readers.

tracks

i’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves.

more

Ego Rock cover by Ado! and the only odd one here, you’ll see. her vocals add so much personality to the song, and i’m glad she still manages to record and upload covers while going on a tour around the world. she may be a world-famous singer now, but the fact that she continues to post vocaloid covers reminds me she’s still an otaku at heart. sadly, this one isn’t available on YTMusic or Spotify.

another one from the same album.

nightmares left a riot in my mind

nobody loves you like i love you oh my dear — who’s keeping score?

nothing left to lose at rock bottom

people pleasing’s never good for your health

i think i lost my mind again

three bangers from the Shame On Me album.

OSTs

anime OSTs don’t miss. my playlist this time is filled with older tracks, but it’d be a shame not to include the OP/EDs from the stories section too. Hello and Lucky are especially feel-good, perfect for City’s vibe.

clips

this time, it’s all about the golden balls. keep them cool!

on the topic of balls, there’s a specific muscle only males have.

i guess, might as well…

more

this completely changed how i’ll be treating wounds!

blessed by not one, not two, but three videos from the Institute of Human Anatomy.

buying whole chickens is almost always cheaper than getting individual cuts.

i’m putting this high up in the section for visibility. i don’t judge channels by ownership, but by content. if the direction changes, i’ll just stop watching. Veritasium uploads more frequently now due to the acquisition — and honestly, i still get something from every upload. that pace likely wouldn’t be possible otherwise. that said, let’s move on.

i remember barely getting a video every two months from Veritasium, and now i’m getting two every month. i hope they can keep up with the pace, especially with the quality of the content.

the most literal definition of i can’t trust myself.

Dr. K cooks! it can be your personal assistant, but definitely not your therapist.

what a closing statement.

i never thought i’d care this much about politics, let alone UK Parliament. this video held my attention all the way through — surprisingly informative.

way more info than i expected — the safety protocols alone are insane.

never thought i’d get to see this side of Tokyo.

Sony’s got steel balls, seriously. the checkpoints may seem dangerous, but they improved Afghanistan’s overall safety as i’ve read in one of the comments.

thirty minutes isn’t long enough for a documentary this cinematic!

imagine dooming the planet for short-term profit. the amazon dieback loop is dangerously close — and when it happens, no amount of replanting can fix it.

the flying rivers are very cool though.

how long has it been? well, “since last vsauce video, i have been to rehab three times and now 18 months sober.”

these two are related, i swear.

fascinating.

solitary confinement isn’t solitude.

i don’t know why “more Americans know their astrological sign than their blood type” is so funny, but it is. practically everything your body produces comes from blood. it is the reason why your pee is yellow, and your poop is brown. speaking of poop…

don’t watch this while eating. one of the best short explainers on the digestive system — from intake to, well… output. it’s hard to look at ice cream the same way again.

thank you, Linus, for convincing me to stay away from smart home tech.

an open-source autopilot system that works on any car?!

calling this “a file server” is an understatement. in the demo, the author uploads half a file, cancels it, starts a download in another window — which stalls at the halfway point — then finishes uploading, and the download resumes and completes seamlessly.

coded on his phone with tmux + vim, in his spare time. 🗿

well, would you look at that. a doxing app gets doxxed. Women Dating Safety App ‘Tea’ Breached — 72K images compromised, 13K IDs and selfies, 1.1M+ posts/comments/messages. all because their firebase storage bucket was public, unencrypted, and unprotected. you have to go out of your way to screw up firebase this badly since they give you tons of warnings and even send you emails about it. as roasted by Fireship, “not even AI would screw up firebase this bad”.

we all thought the same thing when we saw how thin it is.

reflections

hey, nice to see you again — or welcome, if you’re new. i know, i can’t believe i’m here either. now that i’m more aware of the things happening around me, and the things that stay with me, i’m excited to see what each Harvest brings.

last month was kind of wild. i don’t know if it was a coincidence or if that’s just how every month is. story-wise, it was pretty depressing. i managed to pair a manga that should not have been paired with the featured story.

note to self, i need to start this way earlier than expected. anyway, see you next time.