“Here Comes the Shroom”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 macro @ f/16, 1/15s, ISO 500. Along the Larison Creek Trail.
“Middle North Falls”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/22, 1/2.5s, ISO 200. Silver Falls State Park.
Exclusive: US CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say
Perhaps they can also fund a study on the connection between abusing dead bears and whales and the inability to comprehend well-supported scientific beliefs.
The US now has a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”
Any bets on how long it takes North Korean hackers to drain it?
Prepare for Discord to Get Way Worse
The IPO to enshittification cycle is apparently on the way. It’ll probably be time to find a new home for our private family chat. Looks like there’s at least one project to extract your content if worst comes to worst.
Ah, Eugene
EUGENE, Ore. – Eugene police responded this morning to 911 reports of a man yelling and doing Tai Chi while appearing to wade deeper into the Willamette River, according to the Eugene Police Department.
A President who touts an image of himself as a “king” or a “dictator,” perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
District Court rulings can be pretty dry, but sometimes worth a read.
Trump Slump continues.
Who could possibly have guessed that the markets would react poorly to high tariff rates that randomly change every day depending on (for all we can tell) whether the President has had a satisfying bowel movement lately?
(Partially) Escaping Big Tech
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I did a lot of work in the Microsoft ecosystem, including subcontracting that put a substantial amount of my code in MS Office products (I’m sure it’s all gone now). Since then, I’ve gotten progressively more disillusioned with the big tech companies. I moved from Microsoft to Apple, and then to Linux. Lately I’ve been reducing my dependence on Google as much as possible, since it seems that their politics do not align well with my own.
It’s hard to distentangle from these companies, though. In particular my phone still runs Android, which (though I find it a better alternative to iOS) still sticks me firmly to Google. I’ve looked at FOSS alternatives but so far none of them seem to be good enough for my day-to-day use (I primarily need texting and GPS-enabled hiking maps), though Purism might be getting close.
I suspect the problem is that I’m just in too small of a niche. Most people who’ve gotten as fed up as I have are probably living off-grid in the woods.
Lab-grown caviar (if they succeed). I’m skeptical that there’s enough overlap between vegetarians and potential caviar eaters to make this a viable business.
From all the photos I’ve seen so far, Apple is pretty shaky on the meaning of “sky blue.” Maybe they need to let their engineers get outside in the daytime more often.
AI-only search results are coming. Do. Not. Want.
Fortunately for me, I’ve pretty much de-googled my life at this point.
Finished The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck. This is part of a longish-term project of working through the entire Biography of Manuel. These days James Branch Cabell is rather obscure, but I enjoy his writing, and I enjoy his normal topics of honor and loyalty and love and chivalry, as well as the metaphysical organization of his curious universe. Plus he has a large vocabulary; I generally need to look up words from his books, a pleasure I rarely get these days (today I learned what a lambrequin is). As a bonus, my copy is a 1928 hardcover, and century-old books just feel and smell like real books to me, in a way that electronic copies simply do not. 📚
Federal board orders USDA to temporarily reinstate dismissed probationary workers
A 45-day reprieve for Forest Service employees (among others), whose firing is a huge threat to public lands in the PNW. I’m happy to see this, though it seems like a tenuous win at best.
Good Planet Sharp Cheddar Olive Oil Cheese Slices - Not even remotely sharp cheddar, but not bad as vegan cheese slices go, and definitely healthier than the usual coconut-oil based products. Pretty far into “ultraprocessed” territory though.
Democracy.io - the easiest way to email your Representative and Senators. I just sent a note requesting a “no” vote on any so-called “Clean” CR that does not assert Congressional rights to determine what money is spent.
RestoredCDC. A snapshot of the Centers for Disease Control website from before it was vandalized by little Donnie, Robbie, and Elon.
It’s always nice to see the internet route around damage.
We already knew that there are more bacterial cells in our body than human cells. Now it turns out that our human cells are full of plastic shards.
Just how much of me is me, anyhow?
(More seriously, the apparent correlation between plastic accumulation and dementia is a bit alarming).
Internet nostalgia + VC + AI = profit?
I’m skeptical but not surprised. We’re at the point where we’re going to see a lot of “what was tried before, BUT WITH AI” startups.
Meanwhile, the coming unicorn crash looms over us all.