This is a ~45-minute video with a wide-ranging discussion what it says on the tin—mostly the importance of critical thinking.

Facts, fictions and critical thinking | The Future of Decision Making | Nobel Prize Dialogue Sydney by Nobel Prize (YouTube)

At about 30:00,

“Tim: I also think it’s about what we get cred for. And this is a lot further down the track, but people get cred at the moment for being sure, and [for] being declarative. And that’s good and certainly in activism that can be very, very important. And it can create good change but it’s mostly not at the moment. Mostly it’s causing tribalization. And... [More]”

This is a nearly 100-minute-long interview and discussion about programming-language design and evolution. It gets deep into the weeds on very specific and relatively advanced language features. While a feature may eventually feel quite simple to use, the considerations about how to design it and how to fit it into the landscape of the rest of the language can be very, very complex. There are a lot of moving parts to consider in a language, runtime, community, and ecosystem as established as... [More]

This explanation of an experience that this guy had is a bit overwrought but damn if his enthusiasm isn’t infectious.

Cabel Sasser, Panic − XOXO Festival (2024) by XOXO Festival (YouTube)

Skip forward to about 4:00 for the in-depth analysis of artist Wes Cook’s ouevre. Cabel Sasser is a bit of an acquired taste but his enthusiasm is infectious.

Look at this mural, though. It’s amazing. This was on a wall in the children’s seating area in a McDonald’s in Centralia, Washington. It was painted in 1980. Wes went on to do a lot of other work, mostly in theme... [More]

Fielmann is a vendor of eyeglasses. Their stores are great! The people there are super-friendly and I’ve gotten nothing but great, well-fitted glasses from them. Their prices are absolutely fair and their customer service is top-notch.

However, their online presence is … not good.

Navigation debacle in 2021

Fielmann is also a repeat offender in terrible usability. I wrote about them in Fielmann: an online-store safari, where I described their nearly deliberately obtuse navigation.

Online-account... [More]

Dwindling glaciersThe Umweltverantwortungsinitiative is best translated as “How do you say virtue-signaling in German?” Predictably, it failed. The following are some notes from conversations I had about the initiative with friends.

The referendum is basically Switzerland promising that it will be climate-neutral per citizen as a proportion of its population’s share of the world population.

I am basically for every country on the planet doing this thing but I also think that it has no chance of happening.
... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Labor
• Economy... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Catholic Cowgirl (2024) — 7/10
2. Ford v Ferrari (2019) — 9/10
3. Chocolat (2016) — 7/10
4. The Shining (1980) — 9/10
5. The Instigators (2024) — 5/10
6. The Last Samurai (2003) — 9/10
7. Silo S02 (2024) — 7/10
8. Bad Sisters S02 (2024) — 5/10
9. Max Payne (2008) — 6/10
10. Pain & Gain (2013) — 7/10

Catholic Cowgirl (2024) — 7/10

Katherine is a clean comic, very pretty but not leaning on her looks for her laughs. Her act is pretty... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Economy... [More]

The article Do JavaScript frameworks still need portals? by Ollie Williams (Fully Stacked) explains a bit more about the relationship between dialog, popover, and anchor as well as how these elements have made “portal” support in frameworks obsolete. The following ~20-minute video shows how to use only CSS and HTML to position and display elements, regardless of their nesting in the document.

CSS Popover + Anchor Positioning is Magical by Kevin Powell (YouTube)

The main example uses CSS anchor positioning (MDN), position-try (MDN) and :popover-open (MDN). You can use position-try to direct the browser to adjust... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Economy... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Conclave (2024) — 9/10
2. The Rundown / Bienvenue dans la jungle (2003) — 5/10
3. The Dead Don’t Die (2019) — 5/10
4. Devara Part 1 (2024) — 8/10
5. Disappear Completely (2022) — 8/10
6. Sisu (2022) — 8/10
7. Lumberjack the Monster (2023) — 8/10
8. Dinner in America (2020) — 9/10
9. Shrinking S02 (2024) — 6/10
10. Taxi Driver (1976) — 8/10

Conclave (2024) — 9/10

Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is the dean of the cardinals in the Catholic Church.... [More]

Penn & TellerThe article An Unreasonable Amount of Time by Allen Pike writes about a magic trick that seemed nearly impossible but it worked because Penn had buried 52 cards in a park and waited months for grass to grow back over them,

“Teller [of Penn and Teller] describes the underlying principle like so:”

“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.”

In this case, the trick isn’t dextrous hands or a nimble mind but dedication and planning.

“It can be... [More]”

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Labor
• Economy... [More]

This morning, my partner reported that Utica’s air quality was really. I checked the Real-time Air Quality Index (World Air Quality Index) and could verify that the station in Utica was signaling “very unhealthy” conditions.

You can see that Utica stands out alone as very unhealthy.

Utica Air Quality is 243 (very unhealthy)

Whereas our initial idea was “wow the fires in California have already drifted that far? Over 5000km? Is that even possible?”, you can see that no-one else between California and Utica is similarly affected. It’s not smoke. If you look... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Labor
• Economy... [More]

What is the difference between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and Syria?

In both cases, a country has taken action to establish what it calls a “buffer zone” in a neighboring country that it finds threatening, out of what it considers to be legitimate “security concerns”. Security concerns arise whenever there is animosity between neighbors.

By dint of their respective overwhelming military advantage, Russia and Israel can force their neighbors to... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Tschugger S01–S02 (2021–2022) — 9/10
2. Tschugger S03 (2024) — 9/10
3. Tschugger S04 (2024) — 9/10
4. Titans S01–S04 (2018–2023) — 7/10
5. Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance (2024) — 5/10
6. One Punch Man S01–S02 (2015–2019) — 9/10
7. End of Watch (2012) — 7/10
8. The Boy and the Heron (2023) — 8/10
9. The Killer (2023) — 6/10
10. Operation Hyacinth (2021) — 7/10

Tschugger S01–S02 (2021–2022) — 9/10

This show is a labor of love by David... [More]

According to the article Did Lyndon B. Johnson Say This About The ‘Lowest White Man’ and ‘Best Colored Man’? by David Emery (Snopes), it was a then-young Bill Moyers himself to whom Johnson said this, presumably in the 60s. Moyers quotes him as having said it in response to “... [More]”

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Economy & Finance
• Science &... [More]

I was recently bragging to a friend about how I’d finally just about conquered a difficult jigsaw puzzle with methodology and techniques, My friend of course asked[1] to which methodologies and techniques I might be referring.

Background

I was raised on jigsaw puzzles. We always had a Christmas puzzle at my house. When I was much younger, we did them throughout the year. As I got older, we only had the Christmas puzzle, but we always had that one.[2] Everyone in my nuclear family did it: mom, dad,... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Labor
• Economy... [More]

There was recently a “favorite Far Side” topic in the comics sub-reddit. I’ve lost the link and don’t feel like searching for it. I downloaded all of the ones that I liked, so consider this article a distillation of—and vast improvement over—that post,

The Far Side was pretty formative for me. Most of these are subversion of expectations, but many have multiple layers, which makes you feel clever for figuring it out. I had a lot of the books and collections and read through them again and... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Terminator Zero S01 (2024) — 6/10
2. Kung Fu Hustle (2004) — 9/10
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) — 7/10
4. Il pianeta delle scimmie (Planet of the Apes) (2001) — 5/10
5. JFK (1991) — 8/10
6. The Century of the Self (2002) — 9/10
7. Last Breath (2019) — 7/10
8. Farha (2021) — 8/10
9. Roma (2018) — 8/10
10. Another Life E01 (2019) — 3/10

Terminator Zero S01 (2024) — 6/10

As with any other Japanese animated feature, this one is... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Thor: Ragnarok (2017) — 9/10
2. School of Rock (2003) — 6/10
3. Nuclear Now (2024) — 8/10
4. Sahara (2005) — 8/10
5. Glassboy (2020) — 6/10
6. The First Men in the Moon (1964) — 7/10
7. Dracula Untold (2014) — 8/10
8. Here Comes the Boom (2012) — 8/10
9. Arctic (2018) — 9/10
10. Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy (2024) — 9/10

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) — 9/10

My review from 2018 stands. It’s a fun super-hero action-movie that’s not trying to be... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) — 7/10
2. Shanghai Knights (2020) — 7/10
3. Cowboys and Aliens (2011) — 5/10
4. Fifth Element (1997) — 10/10
5. Assassin’s Creed (2016) — 5/10
6. The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) — 9/10
7. John Wick 4 (2023) — 8/10
8. Disturbia (2007) — 8/10
9. Split (2016) — 9/10
10. Platform 2 (2024) — 3/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) — 7/10

I don’t have much to add to my review from 2017.

I watched it in German. “Die... [More]”

Chengyu (Wikipedia)

“Chengyu (traditional Chinese: 成語; simplified Chinese: 成语; pinyin: chéngyǔ; trans. “set phrase”) are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four Chinese characters. Chengyu were widely used in Literary Chinese and are still common in written vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language today. According to the most stringent definition, there are about 5,000 chengyu in the Chinese language, though some dictionaries list over... [More]”

This is a long video. It’s a pretty good video, though. It’s quite soothing to listen to and there are really a lot of good movies in there, with lovingly curated clips of all of them. I like to watch these things to see if there’s something I can add to my movie list. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so everything that looked interesting to me … had also already been consumed by me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The video has a pretty clickbait-y title, but the author is someone I’ve... [More]

The interview below is a podcast interview of Mark Blyth by some dude named Chris who sounds like Ira Glass somehow had a child with NPR, then raised it in a box, feeding it only the New York Times for 50 years.[1] Anyway, Chris doesn’t talk a lot because Mark just can’t stop spitting the truth. I only really disagree with Blyth about Biden’s economic accomplishments but otherwise the guy was on absolute fire. Highly recommended. I have, as usual, transcribed the bits I found to be especially... [More]

Some of the features described in the video below sound pretty interesting but they also sounds super-complicated, with deferred-loading, hydration, signals, and event/replay all combined with decisions about whether something loads on the client or the server or whether it’s initially built on the server but then enhanced on the client and then run independently from the server, …

I understand that a lot of this technology is for optimizing large web sites, but It’s honestly questionable... [More]