What the big print giveth, the small print taketh away

Tests that predict your fall risk. Test 1: Stand heel-to-toe with one foot touching the front of the other. Test 2: Balance on one leg. Brazilian researchers say 10 seconds (the old baseline) isn’t enough. Aim for 23 seconds. Every extra second lowers your risk of a fall in the next six months by 5%.

The new Spanish Scrabble world champion. This is wild. Nigel Richards is from New Zealand and doesn’t speak any Spanish. He has an encyclopedic memory, memorizing words as soon as he reads them. He’s also won the Scrabble world championship multiple times in French and English (paywall link). Reminds me … My dog accidentally swallowed some Scrabble tiles. Her next poop could spell disaster. (Oh, that was so good.)

For AirPods that aren’t the default Apple white. ColorWare sells custom-painted earbuds in neutral skin tones with names like “Glaze,” “Toasty” and “Java.” Heads-up: You don’t need to waste money. A colorful AirPod cover is around $5 if you want to jazz yours up.

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Cost to mint a penny. President Trump just told the Treasury to call it quits. The government lost $85 million producing pennies over the last fiscal year at almost four times their face value (paywall link). This makes cents.

For what scientists call the perfect hard-boiled egg. Periodic cooking alternates between hot and cold water every two minutes to achieve cooked whites and creamy yolks. If I had 32 minutes, I wouldn’t be eating a hard-boiled egg. I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon today. I’ll let you know.

Of pirated books used to train Meta’s AI, Llama. The dirty details came out in court docs. Writers are suing Meta for feeding their (stolen) work into the AI. I’m no lawyer, but it sure sounds shady to me.