Adam Aaronson:

The International Bartenders Association, or IBA, maintains a list of official cocktails, ones they deem to be “the most requested recipes” at bars all around the world. It’s the closest thing the bartending industry has to a canonical list of cocktails, akin to the American Kennel Club’s registry of dog breeds or a jazz musician’s Real Book of standards. [...]

As of 2025, there are 102 IBA official cocktails, and as of July 12, 2025, I’ve had every one of them.

The journey has taken me to some interesting places, and now that it’s done, I have a little story to tell for each cocktail. I’m not gonna tell you all 102 stories, but I do want to debrief the experience. Drinking all 102 cocktails turned out to be unexpectedly tricky, and for reasons you’ll soon understand, I might be one of the first people in the world to do it.

Fun story, copiously documented with details, locations, photos, and sidenotes. Truly a blogger’s blog post.

My thanks to Drata for sponsoring this week at DF to promote SafeBase. SafeBase eliminates the friction of inbound security reviews. It helps you automate inbound requests, use AI to answer questionnaires, and share your security posture proactively — all through a centralized Trust Center.

Dominic Preston, writing at The Verge, regarding Android fans’ bristling at ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron’s claims that an Android (or web) version of ICEBlock couldn’t provide the same level of privacy as the iOS version:

Aaron told The Verge ICEBlock is built around a single database in iCloud. When a user taps on the map to report ICE sightings, the location data is added to that database, and users within five miles are automatically sent a push notification alerting them. Push notifications require developers to have some way of designating which devices receive them, and while Aaron declined to say precisely how the notifications function, he said alerts are sent through Apple’s system, not ICEBlock’s, letting him avoid keeping his own database of users or their devices. “We utilized iCloud in kind of a creative way,” Aaron said. [...]

But you might have spotted the problem: ICEBlock isn’t collecting device data on iOS, but only because similar data is stored with Apple instead.

Apple maintains a database of which devices and accounts have installed a given app, and Carlos Anso from GrapheneOS told me that it likely also tracks device registrations for push notifications. For either ICEBlock’s iOS app or a hypothetical Android app, law enforcement could demand information directly from the company, cutting ICEBlock out of the loop. Aaron told me that he has “no idea what Apple would store,” and it “has nothing to do with ICEBlock.”

Bruce Schneier linked to this story saying “the ICEBlock tool has vulnerabilities”, but I don’t think that’s a fair description. As far as we know, ICEBlock is as private as possible while still enabling push notifications, and a hypothetical Android version couldn’t be as private. But that privacy does depend on trust in Apple.

Also worth a note: Aaron’s wife, Carolyn Feinstein, was an auditor at the Department of Justice but was fired last month because of her husband’s app.

Carlos Greaves, writing for McSweeney’s:

“The president remained steadfast in his novel interpretation of constitutional law.”

“Faced with the choice between clinging to the letter of the law and marching to the beat of his own legal drum, the president chose the latter.”

Back in 2021 a young engineering student named Ken Pillonel modified his own iPhone X to replace the Lightning port with USB-C, which became a small viral sensation. He’s back at it, with a far more ambitious project: iPhone cases with USB-C ports for the last five or so years of models with Lightning ports. He’s produced three batches of cases so far, but is currently sold out.

Even if you’re not interested in buying one of these cases, Pillonel’s video documenting how he brought the concept to fruition is quite clever and fun.