Didn’t finish: Cronies, by Ken Babbs 📚: Well, I really wanted to like this one, but I realized after 100 pages that it was just turning into a dreadful slog. It’s a “burlesque” tale of the Merry Pranksters and associated bits of the sixties, but the style and storytelling overwhelm any history.

“Devastated”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/8, 1/80s, ISO 320. High Divide Trail through the 2022 Ceder Creek fire scar.

trail through a burned forest

“The Road Ahead”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO 200. FR 5883 near the Fuji Mountain Trail.

photographer's shadow on a gravel road

“Embrace the Rock”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/8, 1/80s, ISO 250. Shot along the Fuji Mountain Trail.

I am so sick of Verizon deciding that it can just install bloatware on my phone whenever it wants.

Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlives

I wonder whether we’re at the point where a will or end-of-life directive should contain instructions about whether one wishes to persist as a digital double. I wonder whether such wishes would be legally binding on heirs.

“Warm Morning”

Olympus TG-6 @ 4.5mm, f/2.8, 1/640s, ISO 100. On the trail at Mount Pisgah.

wide trail through meadows with a few trees

Is Earth inside a huge void? ‘Sound of the Big Bang’ hints at possible solution to Hubble tension

Obviously the extraterrestrials have quarantined us due to the prevalence of idiocy on Earth.

Prime “Day” is now 4 days long. Half of my RSS feed has been hijacked by “best Prime Day deal” affiliate links.

I’m so happy I walked away from a decades-long Amazon relationship this year.