I pay for Apple News+ partly because the ad experience is better than the open web. If it weren’t for that, I’d prefer Apple just be a payments middleman negotiating micropayments on the open web. It could be a better walled garden—give me Books features like highlights and notes!
A sigh of relief. I think I have a backlog of something on the order of 15,000 suspended sighs of relief—that is, breaths held—but I let that one rip. And gulped in a new one for the Supreme Court appeal to come.
To be fair, I am worried when I see hashtags on my tictacs.
…but I wish this hearing wasn’t so full of grandstanding to promote poor solutions to horrible problems. Not that I am particularly sympathetic to the witnesses.
But what’s new?
Snow day
He whose face shall not be posted surveying the National Mall from the bottom of the sledding track on the Senate side. (Apparently, later, actual Nazis came out. Pretty much since this dude was born, I’ve not gone out to document the actual self-described fascists who come to town, but there have been many. :/ )
Remembering, and onward
Aaron Swartz, ¡Presente! A day late, but not forgotten. Far too late, but let me remember James Dolan in this breath too. I corresponded with Aaron briefly, in headier days. I worked alongside James for one evening in DC. I can’t say I knew them but I saw and understood some of what they were doing and it’s worth. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Dean Allen’s death. I benefit today, with gratitude, from things all three built.
State of the World 2024: Ritual and Solidarity
The 25th annual State of the World thread on The Well has commenced. This is one of my favorite rituals. It can get a little hard on the “catastrophizing,” a little digressive, and it isn’t necessarily the most inclusive… it is what it is, and that is part of what makes it interesting. Not necessarily the be-all end-all on the “state of the world,” just this particular group’s (whoever that happens to be at a given time) sense, as much as they can write it out, as much as you or I might chime in, at that moment.
Fairytale of Gaza
Sky News had a split screen for the funeral of Shane MacGowan and the United Nations Security Council meeting on the UAE resolution for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. Sadly, unsurprisingly, we expect the United States to veto this call. Perhaps these were seen as equal events (make no mistake, I am interested in both) because they’re things one might expect Bono to show up to? (Guess which one he [was actually reported to be]* at!
Christmas is the only time my wife lets me pipe jazz over the household Sonos without objection. I make a playlist and sneak in some things that aren’t on swinging Xmas streams—sometimes tracks that aren’t at all seasonal.
Or I let SomaFM do it for me—they love to play.