Andy Murdock

Wirecutter gift of the week: a butter-shaped notepad. "An almost uncanny rendering of a stick of butter, once the outer paper of this notepad is unwrapped, it reveal 480 sheets of smooth, non-stick, butter-yellow paper for jotting down notes."

I'm really glad that the world keeps turning and frivolous things keep going on amidst all of the horrible news of the day. But sometimes I get stopped in my tracks by something that makes me wonder what it feels like to, say, write about butter-shaped notepads at this moment in history.

Looking forward to the episode of Shrinking where a character rewears a single piece of clothing instead of having a brand new wardrobe each time.

Google charcuterie

Sori of the filmy fern Cephalomanes javanicum, aka Borneo fern. From Kubah National Park, Sarawak #fernfriday

3 inch tall Heathrow the Hedgehog is in no danger of being eaten by the pitcher plants, but they are similarly sized

Flask-shaped pitcher plants (Nepenthes ampullaria), Heathrow the Hedgehog for scale. #nepenthes #sarawak

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A sandwich consisting of white bread, extra grape jelly, scrambled egg, sausage patty, American cheese and bacon.

This only makes it seem less real but here is Snoop Dogg’s perfect breakfast sandwich

I once had to make an infographic explaining Snoop Dogg’s perfect breakfast sandwich

Cat fountain

Cat statue near old courthouse

More kitties…

Kuching is a real joy. Multiple cat statues all around town. Incredible food culture. But that Ramadan cruise in Pontianak is what it’s all about.

Kuching waterfront

I was reading peacefully on a quiet bench by the river in Kuching when a person in a bear costume walks up pulling a wagon with a speaker blasting EDM, waves at me, then walks away leaving the music playing at me. I’ll miss this place.

Sign that reads “Fresh sugar cane. 100% No sugar added.”

Don’t worry, there’s no added sugar

At least it’s not redundant

Green and yellow toast at Hall’s Kuching

Mark Rothko toast #1: Matcha and Sarawak palm sugar

Nutty Anchovy Cornflake snack bag

I’ve been called worse

I had a very lucky day for #fernfriday. I chanced upon a population of the rare, threatened fern Christensenia aesculifolia. This fern is notable for having the largest stomata of any plant, visible to the naked eye, and permanently open, so it can only grow in dark, humid jungles.

Strangely they were out of cake

Coffeehouse humor getting a little dark here in Kuching: “Our cakes is all made in-house by me. The cakes looked pretty messed up, just like my life.”

How about this snooze fest? Here I am standing on the Equator in Borneo, but the monument is in the wrong place because the Equator moves. Booooring.

No problem

For example, Mentos are a much more effective freshmaker.

A group of men on a river boat all giving the thumbs up around a table with plates of banana cheese

Sometimes when you travel you jump aboard a sunset river cruise during Ramadan and a group of strangers invites you over to break the fast with an iftar mini-feast of banana cheese, fries with spicy ketchup, boiled peanuts and coffee that turns out to be hot chocolate. Sometimes this happens.

There’s a plot to a kid’s book evolving here

Socks just wanna see the world

I need to travel with electrical tape and chip clips

A thick wool sock that I thought I had lost just dropped out of my pants leg in Bogor, Indonesia. Really glad to have one extremely warm sock where it’s 82% humidity.

George H. W. Bush saying “a thousand points of light”

What I discover every time I try to sleep in a new hotel room

Pepe Prawnstocking

Gonzo in 60 Seconds