‘Twin Peaks’ Returns →

Alan Sepinwall:

* There will be nine episodes, all of them written by Lynch & Frost, all of them directed by Lynch.

* The new episodes will be produced next season to air in 2016, which will be 25 years after the show was canceled.

* Showtime will air the previous two seasons in the lead-up to the new miniseries' debut.

* In the statement, Lynch & Frost said, “The mysterious and special world of 'Twin Peaks' is pulling us back. We’re very excited. May the forest be with you.”

I’d be more excited about this if I hadn’t had to force-feed myself almost all of Season 2. The fact that Lynch is directing all of the episodes is promising, though. And you thought ‘True Detective’ had too many red herrings and dead ends?

Meet the All-Female, All-Volunteer Group Fighting ISIS →

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Elizabeth Griffin:

Ahmed, like many of the YPJ, is fiercely loyal to her fellow-soldiers. She insists, “I love being a YPJ soldier, I love the other soldiers, we are closer than sisters. This is the only life for me. I can’t imagine living any other way.”

This sentiment, says Trieb, is echoed by all members of the YPJ, who live by a code of honesty, morals, and justice. “Their motto is ‘Haval’ or ‘friendship’,” explains Trieb, “and (it) is of utmost importance to them. They treat each other (and treated me) with a sense of solidarity and sisterhood. They address each other as Haval, and when they spoke to me, they would call me 'Haval Erin'. It enforces a constant sense of belonging and support."

The women range in age from 18-40, though there are some younger recruits like the 12-year-old Hevedar Mohammed (pictured below). Recruits under the age of 18 are not permitted to fight, although they go through some physical training and participate in the group by way of carrying out ‘household’ chores. Hevedar, like many YPJ, was inspired to join because of the group’s reputation for developing strong, independent women and because of its positive standing in the community.

Freedom isn’t free.

/via Nick v.d. Kolk

Billy Beane Says The Athletics’ Trades Paid Off →

Barry Petchesky:

Beane spoke in the A’s clubhouse on "pack up your shit for the winter" day yesterday, and if he wants reporters to take anything away from this season's aggressive deadline moves, it's that those trades were made with the express purpose of making the postseason, not necessarily succeeding in it:

"The Angels were going to catch us," Beane told reporters. "They played nearly .700 ball from a certain point. If you go back to my quotes from when we made those trades, despite the fact of where we were, at no point were those trades made for the playoffs. I was adamant about it. I could feel the Angels breathing down our necks.

"What I didn't reveal was that I was also concerned about us, which was the point of the trades."

You know who says stuff like this? Losers. Losers also say stuff like this:

One of the takeaways from Moneyball is that Beane believes the playoffs are a crapshoot, that getting there is the hard part and that every team that makes it has roughly similar chances of winning it all.

Nobody ever does anything great by striving for mediocrity.

Introducing Emoji++ →

David Smith:

Being friends with Casey Liss I have a lot of experience with Emoji, but the way it is implemented in the default iOS keyboard has always driven me a little bit crazy. Why oh why are there six pages, some of which is split into ten sub pages. None of which scroll!

And then don’t even get me started on actually trying to find anything.

Why are shoes(👞) under the face(😃)?
Why are volcanos(🌋) under the flower(🌸)?
Why is the coffee(☕) under the bell(🔔)?
Why is the Union Jack(🇬🇧) under the car(🚘)?!

I feel like I’m always I’m playing a game of memory each time I’m try to craft my perfectly composed Emoji response.

So when iOS 8 introduced the concept of custom keyboard I knew I wanted to replace the built in one with something better. Something faster.

The result is Emoji++. A custom keyboard for iOS 8 that actually makes sense.

Download. Download now.

A Rare Look at Apple’s Design Guru →

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Robert Sullivan:

When you sit down with Ive, he is eager to chat—too eager, maybe, for the Apple time-minders who are always looking around for him—and will take a while to respond to a question, smiling as he says, “This is going to be a kind of oblique answer. . . .” We are talking in a white room, distracted only by a black non-Apple television—itself a signpost to the question, When will Apple make TVs or whatever will replace them? Noticeably, his phone neither rings nor vibrates; he has designed the moment for concentration. He nurses a white mug of tea, and the only thing in the room besides an iPhone is the pair of reading glasses designed by his friend Marc Newson and tucked into the front of his T-shirt: simple, delicate, but clear and strong. “I wish I could articulate this more effectively,” he continues, addressing his ambitions as a designer. “But it is to have that sense that you know there couldn’t possibly be a sane or rational alternative.”

The central focus of this piece is the design of the Apple Watch. As many have pointed out, it probably isn’t a coincidence, after a Paris Fashion Week event featuring the Apple Watch, that Apple chose to make Ive available to Vogue. Apple is wading into the waters of high fashion, there’s no doubt about it.

/via Six Colors

Interstellar Trailer No. 3

At some point, all of the hype finally catches up to this movie, right? I’m still trying to understand how it’s a co-production of Paramount and Warner Bros.

I mean, am I going to pre-order tickets? Of course.

Derek Jeter Announces ‘The Players’ Tribune’ →

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Derek Jeter:

I do think fans deserve more than “no comments” or “I don’t knows.” Those simple answers have always stemmed from a genuine concern that any statement, any opinion or detail, might be distorted. I have a unique perspective. Many of you saw me after that final home game, when the enormity of the moment hit me. I’m not a robot. Neither are the other athletes who at times might seem unapproachable. We all have emotions. We just need to be sure our thoughts will come across the way we intend.

So I’m in the process of building a place where athletes have the tools they need to share what they really think and feel.  We want to have a way to connect directly with our fans, with no filter.

#2 is wasting no time. It sounds like a pretty great idea. Know how I know? I follow about 10 sports blog daily and not a one had an article about this. Nervous much?

But maybe they shouldn't be so worried. Jeets didn’t use the oxford comma in his mission statement, and he did a Q&A on Twitter where he committed the Old Person sin of signing his tweets. Also—that name. Tribune? Really?

The Gist’s Pledge Drive →

I began listening to The Gist after Ira Glass name-dropped it on an episode of This American Life about a month ago and I haven’t missed an episode since. In yesterday’s episode, host Mike Pesca made an announcement. A pledge drive was beginning. But in lieu of the usual ask-for-money event, they’re trying, unsurprisingly, something different. Pesca does want a pledge from his listeners—a pledge to get at least one person in the next week to subscribe to The Gist.

So that’s what I’m asking you to do. Go right now, either in your podcast app of choice, or in iTunes, and subscribe. If you like language, and words, and a unique, honest take on current events (both mainstream and off the beaten path), The Gist is the podcast you should have already been listening to.

First ‘Inherent Vice’ Trailer

Looks tremendous. I’m already working on getting over being annoyed by writers who think they’re movie critics.

Taco Bell vs. US Taco Co.: A Linguist Examines Word Usage in Menus →

Kiera Butler:

Next, Jurafsky picked up on descriptors. "So there's all of those adjectives and participles," he says. "Fluffy." "Seasoned." That's one thing that's common on cheaper restaurant menus—as if the restaurant feels the need to try and convince its diners of the quality of the food. A fancier restaurant, he explains, would take it as a given that the diner expects the eggs to be fluffy and the pico de gallo to be freshly prepared.

My favorite linguistic shading in this piece is the title.