Boston, 1952 via
Boston, 1952 via
Christmas biscuits, 1890s via
Please enjoy this brief GIF of a bat taking unexpectedly large bites from a banana.
Lark or night owl? Blame your ancestors [Helen Briggs/BBC News] – People have different sleeping schedules because evolution. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were more likely to survive if there was someone awake all the time to watch for predators and stuff.
ME AT 4 AM: That’s interesting. But I need to sleep now.
I’ve got travel apps on my phone that I haven’t used for almost a year – Lyft, airline apps, Yelp, etc. Sometimes I think I should delete them. And then I leave them be, because they are tokens of normal life.
I get Sunnydale and Sunnyvale confused.
I know that one is a seemingly tranquil California community that’s overrun by demons and blood-sucking vampires.
The other is the fictional setting of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Would you like to see a one-minute video of Minnie running around the backyard and digging? Of course you would. 📷
Apple is committed to its Ad Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy protections. Says Apple: “Advertising that respects privacy is not only possible, it was the standard until the growth of the Internet. Some companies that would prefer ATT is never implemented have said that this policy uniquely burdens small businesses by restricting advertising options, but in fact, the current data arms race primarily benefits big businesses with big data sets.”
Facebook is opposed to ATT, saying it could reduce revenue by up to 40%. Cry me a river. If your business model depends on your customers not knowing what you’re doing, your business model stinks.
Apple doubles down on upcoming iOS 14 privacy features, slams Facebook for collecting ‘as much data as possible’ - 9to5Mac [Chance Miller/9to5Mac]
He’s a soul man.
Emailifaction is digital carcinization
Cory describes how messaging systems tend to become email.
When Slack was new, I looked at the initial excitement about it and said to myself, “It’s not the software that’s the problem – it’s the volume. If Slack catches on, people will complain about it as much as they did about email.”
I really wish I’d been wrong about that one.
It’s not that I’m a genius. It’s that I’m old enough, and have been in the industry long enough, to remember when email displaced faxes and streetmail.
In 1992, when I started working remotely, I rented a PO Box and all my professional mail went there. I picked it up every 10 days or month or so and never felt like I missed anything. When I did mail pickup, I often had to lift it by the double armful and strained to carry it to a table where I could sort it. When I was done sorting, the amount of mail I kept was small enough to fold it over and slip it into a pocket.
Peter Thiel has a plan for American decline: Blame Silicon Valley, China, and the PC Left. Examples of the PC left include LGBTQ people, Black Lives Matter, socialists (defined very loosely as anybody with a vaguely progressive agenda), etc.
Finding scapegoats for societal decline has, of course, a long and esteemed pedigree. Goebbels thought highly of it.
Divided Societies In Decline Use Scapegoats To Re-Unify [Ian Welsh]
Let’s imagine Netflix or Amazon Prime does a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” miniseries, following the same characters, today. They’re 40-ish now, pushing middle age. Where are they and what are they doing?
I figure Buffy is general of the Slayers, Willow is a master witch, Giles is in charge of the restored Watcher Council.
Xander is still in Sunnydale. He’s a successful building contractor now, married to Dawn, who is a successful doctor.
What are the characters on Angel doing? I’ve read that if that show had gone on for another season, they were going to make Gunn into vampire.
They all return to Sunnydale for … sure, why not? Their 20th high school reunion.
15 mask hacks to make your mask fit better, from Nebraska Medicine, Omaha, NE.
I’ve seen the tip on making phone facial recognition software work with your mask. I think I’ll try it.
I’m only in a situation where I need a mask for very short periods, once a week or so. I haven’t gotten good at wearing them.
Bribe delivered in an elegant, plain white box unadorned other than a small logo of Tony Soprano.
Apple security chief accused of bribing officers with iPads in exchange for concealed gun permits [Kif Leswing/CNBC]
How do you dress when you work from home? Do you wear the same clothes you’d wear to the office?
Today I learned Frank Zappa went to Grossmont and Mission Bay high schools here in San Diego in the 1950s and played in his first bands here. He shopped at Alan’s Music Center in La Mesa, the town where we live.
”… Zappa experienced his first epiphany with contemporary classical music after he went bought the album ‘The Complete Works of Edgar Varèse, Volume I’ at Alan’s Music Center in La Mesa. He credited the album’s impact for inspiring him to become a composer himself.”
I’m pretty sure Grossmont is where Julie and my kids would have gone to school – if we’d had any kids.
Zappa film a ‘Frank’ look at visionary iconoclast who had his musical epiphany as a teen in San Diego [George Varga/The San Diego Union-Tribune]
I’m no fan of the real life Margaret Thatcher, but her character on The Crown is great. And the royals are awful this season. Charles in particular is astronomically face-punchable.
We’ve watched the first and second episode. I’m enjoying it so far, though the season is darker than previous seasons, both because of how unpleasant the royals are shown to be, and from knowing how the Charles and Diana story turns out.
“… an adequate assessment of my intelligence.”
