Forging your own path

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: How this round of tariffs is different and likely here to stay; Shark tales from Ireland; New app lets you know when smart glasses are nearby; and the stories behind The Edge of 17…🎵

Let’s get into it!

Basking sharks are the world’s second largest fish, often growing to lengths of 33 feet. While they live all over the colder waters of the world’s oceans, by far the best place to see them up close is along Ireland’s west and southwest coasts.

These gentle giants feed on zooplankton, which is plentiful in the shallow waters off the shores of Ireland from Donegal Bay to County Cork.

Their name comes from the fact that they often peruse the surface looking for plankton, making it look like they’re actually just trying to catch some—or bask in—sunlight. The Irish name for them is liamhán gréine, or "sun fish".

County Mayo’s Achill Island has long been the most popular place to see them up close. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the island was the world’s largest fishing and processing hub for basking sharks, and was a big part—but not the only part—of why these magnificent creatures were endangered for so long.

Since 2022, it’s been illegal to hunt basking sharks in Ireland, and it remains the place to be for those who want to get up close for a visit.

"Our priority is not to interfere too much with the animals. We tend to lie way back and let them come to us. If we can intercept their path at a safe distance, sometimes they come up and have a look, then move on," says Paddy Byrne, owner and skipper at Sliabh Liag Boat Trips, which offers basking shark excursions around Donegal's Sliabh Liag Cliffs. "They're wild animals, and we're privileged to see them."

Stake recently reported on design features for smart glasses that outwardly indicate they are, indeed, smart glasses, so as to not give off the vibe that the person walking around in them is a creep.

On the other end of the spectrum, an iPhone app cleverly named AntiZuck is exploding in popularity, given its ability to detect and warn the user when smart glasses are in their vicinity.

The app uses a Bluetooth sensor to detect when there may be Meta Ray-Ban glasses, Snap Spectacles, Amazon Echo Frames, and RayNeo smart glasses in the area. Its technology is similar to that used by the Air Drop feature, using only the local device to scan for active Bluetooth in the area without collecting any data from other devices.

The app is free and requires no registration, account creation, subscription, or app tracking. Its creators say it’s constantly being refined, allowing for less friction in the detection of external devices, even when the app itself is not actually open.

On the plus side for Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Marketplace continues to be the most popular and perhaps last-remaining feature on the Facebook-proper platform that keeps young people actively using it.

The problem with Marketplace has always been its confusing place within the broader Facebook ecosystem, and Meta has finally addressed it head-on, creating an app specifically devoted to sellers for managing their listings.

Literally called Seller, the app allows those who list and sell items to track their performance, message potential buyers, and make changes to items for sale. Meta appears to be taking a page out of the books of other ecommerce marketplace platforms, including Amazon and Walmart, providing a holistic and dedicated space for sellers to manage their products.

The launch of Seller is coupled with the launch of a feature called “Facebook Verified,” which allows users to take a selfie inline with the interface, authenticating their identity, and obtaining a clear white checkmark that acts as a badge proving they’re a real person.

Stevie Nicks’ solo career took about 5 minutes and 28 seconds to take off.

When Bella Donna was released in 1981, the word “release” really was appropriate. Stevie had been riding high with Fleetwood Mac for most of the 1970s, but in a band full of immensely talented songwriters, she had increasingly large piles of unrecorded material she needed to get out.

The release of Bella Donna was more like an explosion, and the match that lit the flame was Edge of Seventeen.

“I was starting to get very edgy to do something,” she said in the Timespace liner notes. “I was also starting to feel very unimportant and very sorry for myself. I was ready to begin Bella Donna, and it seemed like it would just never happen.”

It started coming together in 1980, when Nicks was dating iconic producer Jimmy Iovine. The song’s legendary white-winged dove was pivotal, and symbolized a lot of the people close to Stevie at the time who became ill and crossed over.

“The ‘white-winged dove’ in the song is a spirit that is leaving a body, and I felt a great loss at how both Johns were taken,” she told Rolling Stone in 1981, referring to Iovine’s mentor, John Lennon, and her own uncle Jonathan, who died around the same time.

The song’s title? It was inspired by Tom Petty’s wife at the time, Jane, who told Stevie she met Tom at “the age of 17,” which Stevie mistakenly heard as “edge” and asked if she could use it.

Toonin’ in

From Looney Tunes to Jonny Quest, Josie and the Pussycats and more, we’re quizzin’ your knowledge of classic cartoons, with today’s trivia!