Meta labels EU digital fines a ‘tariff’ on American firms
Dear Meta,
Being fined for knowingly breaking the law is not a tariff.
Signed, People Who Know How To Read
OpenAI tells judge it would buy Chrome from Google
I can think of few firms I would be less supportive of owning one of the major browsers. Then again, I already stick with poor old Firefox.
“Dodgy Bridge”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/9, 1/15s, ISO 2500. Crossing Fisher Creek at the edge of the Waldo Lake Wilderness.
Finished: The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis 📚. Lewis remains my favorit Christian apologist, and this collection of sermons and addresses from the WWII era was a delight. I especially enjoy “Transposition” which gives much food for thought about our imperfect understanding of religious matters.
Finished: The Harrad Experiment, by Robert H. Rimmer 📚.
Finished: The Harrad Experiment, by Robert H. Rimmer 📚. I was given this copy of the “Sex Manifesto for the Free Love Generation” (as the cover banner proclaims) by a friend’s girlfriend in High School (did I miss something? I’ll never know.). Hadn’t reread it for decades. Well, this story of a co-ed college that encourages premarital sex was certainly exciting for a pubescent boy, but these days, it’s pretty weak sauce. The ending political manifesto, about taking over some state in the PNW to educate a whole generation of free-loving self-actualized people, seems especially quaint now.
Kennedy Declares ‘Sugar Is Poison’ While Announcing Ban on Food Dyes
Too much sugar certainly has health effects, but no, it’s not a poison. More to the point, things aren’t banned just because Prince Kennedy says they are. There’s a process for this sort of thing.
Tesla earnings plunge 71 percent in first quarter
As my children say: “sucks to suck.”
Finished: Taj Mahal by Diana & Michael Preston 📚. This one turned out to be much more than a history of the Taj - the authors place it in the context of several centuries of Moghul dynastic politics. This was history I knew nothing about, and was interesting to learn.
Team Trump Drafts Dystopian Plan to Get Women to Have More Babies
Surprise, surprise - Dobbs was not, in fact, the end of state control of the uterus.
Finished: Immortality Inc. by Robert Sheckley 📚. Sheckley wrote absurdist SF, and I find myself rereading his novels every five years or so. This is one of them. (Mindswap is probably his best, though Dimension of Miracles is in the running too).
Trump blasts Supreme Court while arguing trials for migrants ‘not possible’
Well this is chilling: the President is saying flat-out that due process is too much trouble. This is not just an issue for Venezuelan gang members. Due process is your (and mine) main protection against jackbooted thugs kicking open our doors and rendering us to a US-funded gulag in El Salvador in the middle of the night.
Finished: Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre 📚. The story of the liberation of Paris in 1944, with most attention focused on French general DeGaulle (who comes across as an egocentric jerk) and German general von Choltitz (who comes across as a reluctant hero - but I think his own memoirs were one of the primary sources here). Popular rather than scholarly, but it did fill in some gaps in my knowledge of WWII.
In other “how stupid do they think we are?” news: Emmer disagrees with Van Hollen, says Abrego Garcia was given due process
Presumably Mr. Emmer would feel differently if it were his ass in a gulag in El Salvador.
Alito says the recent Supreme Court order barring further flights under the Alien Enemies Act was not “necessary or appropriate.”
Except, you know, there were buses full of migrants on the way to the airport.
“Pioneer”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens @ f/8, 1/60s, ISO 800. Along the Lake Linton trail.
“Lake Linton”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens plus CPL filter @ 14mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO 320.
“Someone Owes the Government $250”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens @ f/5, 1/50s, ISO 4000. At the 3272' level along OR 242.
“Cool Morning”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/9, 1/4s, ISO 320. Base of Lower Proxy Falls.
“Lil' Buddy”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens @ f/7.1, 1/60s, ISO 2000. On the side of Oregon 242 between Proxy Falls and Linton Lake.
Yes, Trump’s “Special Envoy” really did say the French Presidential palace reminds him of Mar-a-Lago. What a twit. The French are probably regretting their help 250 years ago.