Finished reading: Rough Sleepers 📚
Tracy Kidder digs into the work of Dr. Jim O’Connell with the unhoused community in Boston. A scary look at the mostly-ignored people in America. And I fear this group is going to grow and be worse off in the next few years.
“Snowdodendron”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 35mm, f/5.2, 1/125s, ISO 320. Along the Eula Ridge trail.
“Actually that IS the trail”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/4.5, 1/800s, ISO 320. Battling my way up Eula Ridge Trail in about a foot of snow.
Trump says he was being a ‘bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours
s/being a bit sarcastic/outright lying
Got up at 3:30 this morning. At my age that counts as sleeping in.
“Turning Over a New Leaf”
Olympus TG6, Ultimaxx .43x Wide Angle Lens, f/4.9, 1/25s, ISO 1600. Along the Eula Ridge Trail.
C.S. Lewis prayed for Hitler and Stalin (among others).
I pray for Trump and Musk. Not that I think it is likely to change them, but it may help change me.
US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza
I guess they think people have forgotten that Hitler & Eichmann wanted to send the Jews to Madagascar.
(I’d love to see a credible plan to stop violence in Palestine, but this isn’t it.)
AI search engines give incorrect answers at an alarming 60% rate, study says
Or, looked at another way, 40% better than the current White House Press Secretary.
Postal Service signs cost-cutting deal with DOGE
Just when you thought mail delivery couldn’t get any worse. Makes me very glad I’m not living in a rural county any more. When DeJoy complains of “unfunded mandates” he’s talking about the centuries-old tradition of delivering to every American.
Got a snail mail fundraising letter from the DNC today, over Kamala Harris’s signature. Given the number of people who directly blame Biden & Harris for the mess we’re in, that seems a pretty questionable fundraising tactic. Certainly reminding me of the last campaign doesn’t encourage me.
Some nitwit legislator in Texas wants to ban (among other things) wearing fake animal ears or meowing in school.
He also seems a bit unclear on how acronyms work.
Amazon Uses Arsenal of AI Weapons Against Workers
Every new technology gets used for porn first, but worker control isn’t far behind.
How Children’s Eating Could Change After $1 Billion Food Cut
State Dept: Let’s ruin kids' nutrition by cutting off foreign aid.
Agriculture Dept: hold my beer.
Trump has decided that Chuck Schumer is ‘not Jewish anymore’
In any other Presidency, this would be top of the news. Now it’s just lost in all the other terrible noise. The Overton Window has pretty much fallen into a black hole.
Just put in a Github pull request for the first time in quite a while - fixing a one-character typo in a README file. The perils of being an editor never end.
Probably just wishful thinking, but one can hope. Smarmiest quote:
After he took his four-year-old son, X, to the White House last month, insiders say Trump asked for the HMS Resolute desk to be disinfected. The boy felt just as at home as his father.
Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over Gutting of Education Department
I assume by now the NYT writers have a daily alarm set to fill in a template starting with “Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over _______”.
Trump Administration Launches All-Out Assault on Environmental Protection
More depressing details on the Trumpian Environmental Non-Protection Agency and their push to get back to the good old days. You know, back when the Cuyahoga River caught fire.
Meta is trying to stop a former employee from promoting her book about Facebook
Cue the Streisand Effect.