We need a plan for communicating after the end of democracy
Watching the news tonight, I get a sense that it’s already over. What Pam Bondi said about judges and about the Supreme Court put the focus right where it belongs. Do you really believe the Supreme Court is going to rule against Trump? I do not. We should be prepared for that.
Try to imagine that situation and what we can bring with us from this time to the time after they make that decision. I think we’re going to need to have a central channel for news. I’ve been begging the Democrats to restart the channel that Kamala Harris had during the campaign. There was a time when I thought that they were doing just that, but it hasn’t materialized. The worst thing to happen is we lose our form of government at the same time as we lose any ability to communicate in a central fashion from the opposition to the people. So I beg everyone put the focus on getting that channel going. It’s the most important thing we can do.
However, if the past is precedent, nobody is going to listen to this. I don’t know how to get through. We need Timothy Snyder. We need Heather Cox Richardson, and we also need a plan for how we are going to communicate after democracy is done.
to see what has become of his beloved Scadden Arps once the most feared law firm in New York. I rented a room from Barry's son James in the early 1980s on the upper west side of nyc and loved the guy and the whole nyc vibe.
When it comes to point where I feel sorry for people like Barry masters of the universe. Such a disappointment. You don't think federal judges who are our very last hope are watching. Is it gonna come down to seniors picketing at social security centers and that's it. That is the resistance. That is today's heroes?
Want to share a post on Scripting News, where I started with a picture of a man and woman looking at the screen of a computer, and asked for renderings through different situations.
As if Leonardo painted it.
As if it were on the cover of a John Steinbeck book.
An illustration in Huckleberry Finn.
With Caputo and Chapman in Orange is the New Black.
That seems to be the plan, anyway. In the spirit of that heartless joke Ronald Reagan used to tell, about how he hated the frightening thought of a person coming from the government to help. In the old video clips, he took such pleasure trotting out those ugly words.
After my brother died in a workplace accident, a person from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, asked to speak with my parents about what had happened. In the course of their meeting at the house, the OSHA man said, "Each of our regulations was written in someone's blood."
Building over decades a web of protections for workers was the job of OSHA. The glib Reagan joke, the selfish and deceptive destruction of the worthiest work of this kind of government agency — things like this come too easily to some of our fellow Americans.
Tearing things down takes little time at all. Building something worthy often takes a lifetime, and sometimes saves many a life.
Though suspiciously perfected. As TV series go, Reacher is candy. But we enjoy it. If you do too, this Q&A with its star, Alan Ritchson, is worth a watch. Seems like a good guy.
A good look. If you're ever tempted to get old-fashioned free over-the-air signals for your TV, the way to tell exactly what you might get is RabbitEars.info. Where we live here in Bloomington, the only station you'll get with actual rabbit ears (or a loop thing, or a straightened paper clip) is the local PBS station. All the rest require an outside antenna, which will look like a fish skeleton on your house. But I got and built one anyway. By compromise with my wife, it's on a pole next to the garage where most people won't see it. It pulls in most of the Indy signals listed here. The model is felicitously named DAT BOSS MIX LR antenna High-VHF/UHF (Repack Ready) antenna, which (speaking of old fashioned) comes in a kit and takes an hour to build.
And just one for New Jersey!iLoveFood says the best pizza in Indiana is Mother Bear's here in Bloomington. Problem: it isn't. Osteria Rago's is better. Not that MB's is bad. It's good. Just not better than Osteria's. I'm also betting there must be a better pizza than both somewhere in Indianapolis. iLoveFood also names top pizzas for all fifty states, and has four entries for California and only three for New York.
Be your own tool. Unbelievable MacOS Apps That are Worth More Than They Cost has some good selections, but dig down in the comments and links to similar pieces below. My own fave is the path tool, which I believe is not defaulted in the Finder toolbar, but should be if it isn't. Find it and others by right- or control-clicking on the toolbar and selecting Customize.
So let's ask ourselves a simple question: Why did this Signal thing happen? Why did a set of people representing the highest security authorities of our nation started exchanging on Signal, randomly adding a reporter, and started describing a military operation that was going to happen soon?
I watched on the news today an elected Democrat proposing what I truly believe is the single rational explanation: Testosterone. (I will try to find the interview and point to it).
Basically, a set of guys getting all fascinated by bombs and missiles and count downs and military engines trajectories and speaking tough. Like a real life movie or war game. Showing off.
Our highest security authorities… Talking tough and rolling on testosterone.
Which brings us to a constant: aggressiveness, a core technique adulated by the Trump people.
So let's learn again.
Remember, Fascists, Authoritarians build teams based on loyalty to the chief, and not competence: "Mediocracy".
And here we can see in plain sight what can bring a mix of hiring mediocre people who adulate aggressiveness.
A disaster for our country. Horrible, just horrible.
i am blown away by Dave Winer's little publishing buddy that let's me post to mulitple wordpress blogs easily and edit and add pictures and links all for free! I started a wordpress blog and within minutes was using simple interface to post message online.
There comes a time when every activist movement can no longer sustain itself on the energy it has accumulated so far.
It can't get its voice out far enough to do the necessary work.
It can't sustain its voice long enough without exhaustion.
It can't maintain its morale and confidence in the isolation of its small original membership.
It can't take on larger institutions and more powerful political and economic forces on its own.
It can't gather the information needed, build the skills required, fast enough. It can't find some of the tools it needs within the circle of its founding membership.
The activist group realizes it needs more partners if there is to be a chance for its work to continue, a chance to succeed.
If the group has been helping out other kindred groups all along, then allies are probably available. If the group has failed to support others along the way, or if the group has insisted on some sort of purity test before making alliances, it's probably too late, and more powerful forces in society will overwhelm and silence the activist group.
When my students and I used to look at historical episodes of activism, we saw this pattern, and so on behalf of the students who teased out the details in class discussions over the years, I pass along this note.
I had a great meeting with some folks from the Clarke County Democratic Party regarding organizing HANDS OFF — LEESBURG as well as discussing their plans for 2025 events. One takeaway I liked was forming steering committee to coordinate across County Parties mass events of protest (my emphasis).
It looks like the Leesburg event is a go. The mayor will speak. Local police have called to discuss. Now we just need to make the signs and have everyone show up. Ran right up to 200+ attendees then got bit cold feet so shut off sign-ups which I feel is mistake.
Reaching out to local bars and restaurants to see to coupon attendees.
Every morning working on WordLand requires a nice new short test post to work with.
That's NakedJen, one of my best pals. She lives in Utah. She used to tour with the Dead. That's her holding up a sign that means "I need a miracle" if I recall correctly. I've been with her at film festivals where she does that and she seems to be something of a miracle magnet.
I'm going to ask her to try WordLand sooooon.
BTW, there's a new Upload image command coming, that doesn't require you to choose a site. It works with the same site your current post is on. That's clearly where you want the image to go, no need to ask you to do it twice.
From John Naughton who I used to read regularly. about new book
Coyle argues that to understand the current economy, we need different data collected in a different framework of categories and definitions, and she offers some suggestions about what this would entail. Only with a new approach to measurement will we be able to achieve the right kind of growth for the benefit of all.
I’ve pre-ordered it. GDP/GNP are absurd ways of measuring a modern economy. And running it is like driving a car while looking only into the rear-view mirror.
i been invitied for coffee with vice chair of the clarke county virginia democrat party to talk about HANDS OFF Leesburg and other events they are planning for 2025.
For Hands Off Status:
Speakers
1. chief staff Randall punted matter to her personally as political
2. Kaine invited, form
3. Warner invited, form
4. Mayor Burk accepted
5. Representative Subramanyam, waiting on decision
Other to be invitied
Delegate Marty Martinez (29th District)
**General Assembly Building **201 North 9th St. Room 904 Richmond, VA 23219 Phone: 804-698-1029 Email Marty Martinez
Delegate Geary Higgins (30th District)
G****eneral Assembly Building 201 North 9th St. Room 721 Richmond, Virginia 23219 Phone: 804-698-1030 Email Geary Higgins
Local Office P.O. Box 388 Waterford, VA 20197
Miscellaneous
1. Loudoun Dem Party checking what resources they could lend and getting back (Heidi).
And what will we call it? What becomes of democracy when it seems everybody has been herded into separate and opposed algorithmically assembled and maintained tribes, and when most of tech is run by oligarchs (for a few years while tech oligarchy stays a thing), and every status quo will prove transient in a Digital Age that's maybe a decade or two old and will be with us for decades, centuries, and millennia to come? Whatever the answer, it should now be clear that history is happening, big time. And we hardly know if or how any of the old anchor institutions (libraries, universities, journalism) from which Authority long derived in the past will survive in familiar forms.
This morning‘s early morning missive from WordLand..
Talking with friends about What To Do.
I actually have an idea.
We all try to lead a parade, with a big viral idea, if only everyone would follow me, it might just work. A lot of us have that feeling. My advice — it doesn’t work. Lose it. Instead, find a parade you can join, and add your energy, talent and experience to it.
We have a tremendous oversupply of would-be parade leaders, we need to build momentum, and it doesn’t really matter what it is or who leads it. As long as it’s something the press can cover. A movement that begets more motion. A huge march in DC. Demonstrations at Tesla dealers. Blogging in a group. Helping an existing group route around an outage. Making a great list of causes others can join. Reading a blog and finding the thing the blogger is looking for. And so on.
There’s great satisfaction in joining a righteous cause that’s working, my bother, my sister.
This goes back to something observed in standards work. The standard is set by the person who goes second, not the one who goes first. The person who chooses to interop instead of blazing a new incompatible trail. We should celebrate people who support others as much as we do the one who goes first. You need both, and the thirds and fourth adopters to create a movement.
At a time like now when there’s no room for error or individual ego, as Ben Franklin’s so wisely said during America’s revolution, we must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.
PS: one way facebook can cripple a nascent movement, by the algorithm not showing you parades you might like too much. Remember Zuck is trying to ingratiate himself to trump. I find I’m seeing posts of vital interest to me over 24 hours after they were posted, when 165 people have already liked it. Suspicious behavior. We need to own our own social net.
PPS: this philosophy led me to build on WordPress as a foundation, instead of building my own, which I am fully capable of. It’s working much better this way, so far. Could the be a way toward our own social net? Possibly.
When Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in the Atlantic that "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans" [using a group chat on the Signal platform], the word "Mediocracy" applied to the Trump system started, maybe as a first in recent times, to be illustrated in its full glory.
Fascists, Authoritarians build teams based on loyalty to the chief, and not competence: "Mediocracy".
Now, everyone who is interested in governance knows that. Books were written on that. PhD thesis. A zillion of them. But Trump won in November 2024. Because people not interested in politics (which is the vast majority of people) wants things to be explained. Illustrated. Demonstrated. They are right. Specially that they fell for the biggest propaganda effort the Trump people built. We need to win them back. This is why I strongly believe that what is going to save us are Podcasts for our life interests.
So let's Podcast! Lets relentlessly podcast about life interests and at the same time, show "Mediocracy" each time it becomes blatantly obvious. And with the Trump team, it will happen a lot. Don't be surprised. I am actually telling myself that it may have already happen a ton during the last 2 months, but nobody added a reporter to discover that so quickly.
Meta bet that threading the political needle and protecting its brand from controversy would help Threads grow safely, but instead it alienated the very users it needed most. Meta sent a clear message from the start: user input came second. The result wan’t just backlash, but abandonment once another viable X alternative came along. When social platforms lose the trust of their most active and engaged users, they rebel—and no amount of growth metrics can mask the hollowed-out reality left in the wake.
Threads is still a Meta-property, so I have always remained dubious of its goals.
In the old world, there was one Twitter-like network that mattered: Twitter itself. In the new world, there exists a diaspora of Twitter-like platforms which have each carved out their own vibes. There are pros and cons to the old world and new. I found it much easier, mentally, to have just one place to check, and that place was available through truly excellent native apps for both Mac and iOS. Now that my attention is spread across multiple such networks — (in order of attention) Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and, last and definitely least, but still there, X — I feel more scattered mentally, but I’m also pretty sure I spend less time overall using all of them combined today than I did for Twitter’s peak decade-or-so, and that I’m better off for that.
But so while Threads bursting onto the scene in summer 2023 maybe delayed Bluesky’s blossoming, I suspect Threads might have ultimately helped Bluesky by opening the minds of many Twitter refugees into just trying some new alternatives. One size doesn’t fit all. Nor one social network.
Like Gruber, I am using much less social media. I do find myself using it enough to find new articles to read, but there are better options, like Smashing, that has been started by old friend Otis Chandler. I am on Twitter,BlueSky, Threads and Warpcast.
Are photographers nowadays switching aspect ratios and film simulations so often that they need a dial for quick access? It feels like a reflection of the modern creative mindset: constantly changing things, never sticking with something long enough to master it. There’s always a new, shiny trick that promises to change the game. Except it never does.
I’m starting to feel old-school when I advocate for consistency: the value of committing to a tool, a format, or an aesthetic for some time. If one photo is 3:2 and color while the next is 1:1 and black and white, our work might end up feeling cluttered and directionless. It’s not just about cohesion in a portfolio, it’s about developing a personal vision.
A style doesn’t emerge from constantly switching things. It comes from working within some boundaries, constraints that force us to solve problems through creativity, instead of avoiding them.
I’ve found that working with the 4:3 format has brought valuable consistency to my photography. This aspect ratio helps me focus on composition and, most importantly, teaches me to view the world through a lens of elimination. Whether shooting in color, monochrome or black-and-white, the format makes it easier to nail the compositional elements of each image.
Also, killing surveillance, finally, maybe. Kaliyalays out some good themes for IIW. My faves: S__olving the identities of AI agents and Proof of Personhood and First Person Credentials.
Unsubscribe now and skip the 7-day free trial. Is there a term of art for Substack newsletters that hide half of what's written behind a tease-wall? (Maybe "teasewall" is it.) Look, I do have paid subscriptions to some newsletters, but I'll never have subscriptions to all of them. So I think from now on I'll just drop every half-newsletter with teases me.
New blogging game: Whack-a-Spam. My Real Agency post got covered nicely here in Ars Technica. Then copies of the same Ars story appeared in a dozen faked-up "news" websites, pinging back to my post. I've been marking them all as spam.
Just a thought. Since the redstream is the new mainstream, I suggest we re-brand the old mainstream (NYTimes, WaPo, Atlantic/Time/New York/New Yorker/Wired/etc.) the bluestream, and the WSJ and other econ-oriented rags the finstream.
Tell your algorithm I sent you.Emily Catalano is now every reel Facebook's algorithm suggests to me. I suppose that's because she's the best deadpan comedian since Steven Wright.
What is your DNA worth?23andMe is filing for bankruptcy. I'm a customer, so it concerns me that they have a heap of data about my DNA. While I'd like the world to benefit from that DNA, should it be useful (and, given some of my odd genetics, e.g. this, it might be), I also like to think that my genetic profile is on loan to 23andMe, and not their property. But, I suspect, in a bankruptcy auction, it's theirs.
Advice welcome. Are the scanners in printers all the same? Or as good as standalone scanners? The scanner in my Epson printer is no longer visible to my laptop (no idea why), and I'm looking for a replacement printer or printer/scanner.
i love the quiet of the mornings. I then have to push out and get in my 5-6000 steps before breakfast. i am so bummed out about Trump. It's hard to watch what he is putting this country and our former allies through. I keep coming back to thinking about why? If god is on their side as so they are convinced and we believe he is on ours, which is it? What is the lesson he wants me to take away from this stressful existence.
The layer that I will call "media" which includes socmedia obfuscates truth. It's like your mind can't rest because it can't decide between what is real versus noise. Even with all his bluster and fury these are only executive orders and so we shall see what the federal judiciary believes are the limit (if any) of powers of the presidency.
"The Power of the Powerless" is a 1978 essay Vaclav Havel wrote to help advance the thinking and the courage of individuals and groups trying to live positive, honest lives, faithful to truth as they understood it, self-asserting rather than docile, and trying hard not to cower under the Soviet regime behind the Iron Curtain. This essay has much value in any society where power has been accumulated in places distant from the influence of the citizens, where power is used shamelessly and recklessly by those who have consolidated it, and where the institutions of free civic society have been captured or hollowed out, leaving them unable to serve their vital purposes.
The essay is long and addresses several aspects of political and daily life in such circumstances. Here I will say a few words about the first short section, and I'll paste a version of it in below.
In those early paragraphs, Havel notes that outsiders call people like him dissidents, and says the things dissidents do in that society is dissent. Havel is keen to resist the simplification of these terms. He doesn't care for outsiders to do the naming. People inside the society, living in truth in the crisis, should say who they are and what they are about, Havel asserts there. Don't let outsiders tell you what you should be called. Of course in our political climate aggressive and dismissive naming takes place so often that it's hard to take note of it and push each time it happens. Nevertheless, Havel claims the right of naming for the people living the life. Naming is doubly important because people who love making propaganda are often masters of imposing cunningly misleading names on others.
In addition, Havel begins to talk in specific ways about the circumstances of his country at that time — doing so is necessary for thinking clearly in the pages ahead. And likely most important of all, he begins to ask about the real power of these powerless citizens.
A specter is haunting Eastern Europe: the specter of what in the West is called "dissent." This specter has not appeared out of thin air. It is a natural and inevitable consequence of the present historical phase of the system it is haunting. It was born at a time when this system, for a thousand reasons, can no longer base itself on the unadulterated, brutal, and arbitrary application of power, eliminating all expressions of nonconformity. What is more, the system has become so ossified politically that there is practically no way for such nonconformity to be implemented within its official structures.
Who are these so-called dissidents? Where does their point of view come from, and what importance does it have? What is the significance of the "independent initiatives" in which "dissidents" collaborate, and what real chances do such initiatives have of success? Is it appropriate to refer to "dissidents" as an opposition? If so, what exactly is such an opposition within the framework of this system? What does it do? What role does it play in society? What are its hopes and on what are they based? Is it within the power of the "dissidents"–as a category of sub-citizen outside the power establishment–to have any influence at all on society and the social system? Can they actually change anything?
I think that an examination of these questions–an examination of the potential of the "powerless"–can only begin with an examination of the nature of power in the circumstances in which these powerless people operate.
I often get my writing days started on the kitchen table using a Mac laptop, after breakfast, around 8am, with coffee, writing in WordLand, or even earlier at 3am on my iPad while it’s still dark out, before even getting up. Then I post on my WordPress test blog, which actually goes out via Bluesky on the “Dave Feediverse” channel.. Later, when I’m officially at work, at my big multiple monitor setup in my home office, I might post some of this stuff on my main blog, which I can only post to from my desktop because I work there in software that does not run on the iPad, and can’t be synced with the laptop.
A friend who I won’t name, it’s not about them, rather the inefficiency of our communication channels, uses Facebook and LinkedIn to post, much of it must-read for many reasons, their seniority in the work of our country, intelligence, experience and these days most notably the persons willingness to stick their neck out in defense of our country
Their choice of channel isn’t good for me and the people who are tuned into my channels. In order for our whole communication system to work, I want to receive immediate notification of their post. Often it’s newsworthy on its own. Or in relation to other notable people’s posts. But the choice of Facebook and LinkedIn means in the first case that I might not see the post for 10 or more hours, if I see it at all. This is observable, because Facebook tells the reader how long it’s been since it was posted. Why does it take so long? Impossible to say becaus facebooks alogorithm is hidden from us. Sometimes I am never notified, I can tell when I remember to look at their facebook feed. LinkedIn is even worse because while I have a LinkedIn account I hardly ever use it. It isn’t part of my personal information system. So their posts on LinkedIn have no chance of reaching me.
My point, which I could continue to explain in even more boring detail, is that our communication system is ad hoc, often doesn’t exist, is always inefficient, and is subject to deals made between a tech vendor and a corrupt government to keep us confused and unorganized. And since we’re both sticking our necks out, what a waste!
So, while the government is dealing with a scandal about using a commercial app for highly sensitive government communication, we, their opposition, are no less inept. We have opposite motive, we need distribution for our ideas, and are using the wrong tools when much better ways are available to us. I feel like I’ve written this post many many times.
So, what works? Substack works here, even though I don’t like how they lock their authors in, it does provide instant and sure notification when a person you closely follow has published. They use email for notification. The people I follow who use substack are a constant presence in the flow of info and ideas that reach me.
Another system that works is WordPress, though its disadvantage is that it’s hard for writers, where Facebook and substack are easy. WordPress has email notification like substack, but it has something even better for me, as someone who has RSS as a primary information flow, they support instant RSS, so my feed reader is notified within a second of their posting, and the existence of such a story goes into my RSS input flow that quickly. But either way is perfect for this stuff.
And I can then push it out through all my outbound channels, including all the main social media apps that have APIs, which is all of them except Facebook who turned theirs off when they were dealing with the press driven Cambridge Analytica outrage.
My point is we can and must clean our act up! We can’t afford this inefficiency. Cold hard truth — we are losing our democracy, our rights, the economy, social safety net, rule of law, education system. Our government is run by clowns, and the clowns are winning in a freaking blowout.
We have made so many mistakes to get ourselves here. We only listen to certain people. We don’t do much listening even so. We’re all competing to lead our own parade, so we are suspicious of any offer of help as self-interested, so we almost never work with each other, we mostly work for ourselves. Even in these times where we urgently need to cooperate, we don’t.
We can and must do much much better, be much smarter. To quote founder Ben Franklin, we must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.
PS: this is one of those 3am WordLand authored posts. It took me 15 minutes of hunting and pecking on its virtual keyboard, typos and all!
PPS: I’m also going to crosspost to Facebook. It’s just the kind of thing that works well there. I’ll only let friends comment, that keeps discourse civilized. And this will probably be a featured piece on my blog, many hours from now, as part of tonight’s email package.
PPPS: After editing, with many typos still here, it’s 875 words and 50 minutes of writing.
1000 words on ethnic food in the East Village in NYC
The East Village in New York City is one of the most dynamic and diverse neighborhoods in America, and nowhere is that diversity more deliciously expressed than in its ethnic food scene. Walking through its narrow streets, you’ll encounter the culinary footprints of countless immigrant communities — Japanese ramen shops, Ukrainian diners, Dominican lunch counters, Indian curry houses, Jewish delis, Filipino street food, and much more. The East Village is more than just a collection of restaurants; it’s a living archive of stories, struggles, and tastes from around the world.
Historically, the East Village has been a landing spot for immigrants. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was home to large populations of Eastern European Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, and Germans. Later waves brought Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and other Latin American communities. In the latter part of the 20th century, it became a center of counterculture and art, attracting bohemians, musicians, and political radicals, many of whom were drawn to the multicultural energy of the neighborhood. That same energy is present in its food.
Let’s start with Ukrainian cuisine, one of the defining elements of East Village food history. Veselka, located at 9th Street and 2nd Avenue, has been a local institution since 1954. Open 24 hours a day, this family-run diner serves pierogi, borscht, stuffed cabbage, and kielbasa — hearty comfort food that reflects the neighborhood’s Eastern European roots. Veselka isn’t just a place to eat; it’s a symbol of continuity, especially as the Ukrainian community in the neighborhood has dwindled over the decades. During times of crisis in Ukraine, Veselka has also served as a gathering spot for the diaspora and supporters.
Moving just a few blocks away, you can step into a completely different world with Japanese food. The East Village has become something of a hub for Japanese cuisine, especially ramen. Places like Ippudo and Rai Rai Ken offer steaming bowls of tonkotsu and shoyu ramen, carefully crafted and deeply satisfying. Small izakayas, or Japanese-style pubs, such as Decibel, offer sake and tapas-style dishes in intimate, often hidden settings. These restaurants reflect both Japan’s rich culinary traditions and its adaptability to the fast-paced NYC lifestyle.
The Latin American presence in the East Village is also vibrant. Puerto Rican and Dominican food can be found in small, no-frills spots where locals grab lunch or dinner at a good price. Dishes like pernil (roast pork), tostones (fried plantains), and arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) are everyday staples that evoke the comfort of home cooking. These flavors connect generations of New Yorkers to their Caribbean heritage.
One of the great things about the East Village is how it allows you to travel the world without ever leaving Manhattan. For Indian food, B&H Dairy offers a fascinating blend: it’s a kosher vegetarian lunch counter that also serves dishes with strong Indian influence, like lentil soups and curries. It’s an old-school joint with a long counter and a loyal following. For a more traditional Indian experience, restaurants along 6th Street — nicknamed "Curry Row" — serve up tikka masalas, samosas, and mango lassis under colorful lights and sitar music.
The East Village is also a center for Jewish culinary heritage. While Katz’s Delicatessen (technically just outside the East Village, on Houston Street) gets a lot of the attention, smaller establishments in the area serve matzo ball soup, knishes, and pastrami sandwiches with old-world flavor and style. The Jewish delis in this part of the city keep alive the Ashkenazi traditions of New York's past.
More recently, Southeast Asian cuisines have carved out a strong presence. Filipino restaurants like Maharlika and Jeepney introduced many New Yorkers to dishes like adobo, sisig, and ube desserts. These spots didn’t just serve food; they sparked conversation about what it means to be Filipino-American in the 21st century. The menus often mix tradition with creativity, blending cultural pride with culinary innovation.
Middle Eastern food also plays a key role in the East Village ecosystem. Small falafel joints and kebab shops, often open late into the night, serve up flavorful wraps and plates with hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabbouleh. These places are not only favorites for locals but also staples for NYU students looking for a cheap, tasty meal at any hour.
One of the more unique aspects of East Village food culture is the way some restaurants resist easy categorization. Take Superiority Burger, for example — a vegetarian spot that plays with international flavors in unexpected ways. Their menu might feature a tofu-coconut curry next to a tahini-dressed salad and a vegan sloppy joe, all executed with finesse. It’s this kind of boundary-blurring creativity that defines modern East Village dining.
The neighborhood is also a haven for pop-ups, food trucks, and fusion concepts. Newcomers often test their ideas in this welcoming environment, hoping to find the same success as long-time establishments. It's not unusual to find a Georgian khachapuri shop next to a vegan Ethiopian café, both thriving thanks to curious and open-minded diners.
Food in the East Village isn't just about taste — it's also about atmosphere. Many of the best places are small, crowded, and buzzing with energy. The experience of eating there is intimate, social, and often a little chaotic, in the best way. Whether you’re sitting at a counter, sharing a communal table, or perched on a stool in a back alley ramen shop, you're part of something special.
Despite rising rents and gentrification pressures, the East Village has held onto much of its character. Community support for immigrant-owned businesses is strong, and many of the oldest restaurants continue to survive thanks to loyal customer bases and a steady stream of adventurous eaters.
In a city famous for its food, the East Village stands out not just for quality or variety, but for heart. Every bite tells a story — of where someone came from, what they brought with them, and how they’ve adapted to life in New York. Eating in the East Village is more than a meal; it’s a kind of travel, a cultural exchange, and a celebration of the incredible diversity that defines both the neighborhood and the city at large.
Jackie Robinson is best known as the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, but his legacy extends beyond the diamond into the realm of military service and civil rights. His courage, discipline, and commitment to equality made him a transformative figure in both baseball and the U.S. Army.
Robinson’s path to baseball history began long before he put on a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Born in 1919 in Cairo, Georgia, and raised in Pasadena, California, he was a standout athlete in multiple sports at UCLA. In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the U.S. Army, at a time when the military was still segregated. He trained at Fort Riley, Kansas, and later became a second lieutenant in the 761st Tank Battalion, an all-Black unit.
During his time in the military, Robinson's sense of justice was tested. In 1944, he was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a military bus — an early stand against racial segregation that prefigured Rosa Parks' more famous protest over a decade later. Though he was eventually acquitted by a court-martial, the incident ended his military career. He was honorably discharged later that year. This experience deepened Robinson’s resolve to challenge racism wherever he encountered it.
After the war, Robinson played one season in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs before being signed by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1946, he played for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ top farm team, where he proved he could handle both the game and the hostility that came with integration. On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in Major League Baseball’s modern era.
Robinson’s entry into the majors was not just symbolic; he was an exceptional talent. In his rookie season, he hit .297, stole 29 bases, and was named Rookie of the Year. Over a ten-year career, he became a six-time All-Star, won the National League MVP in 1949, and led the Dodgers to six pennants and a World Series title in 1955. But his impact went far beyond statistics. He played under intense scrutiny, often enduring verbal abuse, threats, and isolation. His composure and dignity in the face of hatred helped shift public opinion and opened the door for other Black athletes.
Robinson’s time in the military and baseball were deeply interconnected. His experience with discrimination in the Army helped prepare him for the racism he would face in Major League Baseball. Both institutions, steeped in tradition and hierarchy, were resistant to integration. Robinson’s success in challenging both helped accelerate broader social change.
After retiring from baseball, Robinson continued to fight for civil rights, working with the NAACP, supporting Black-owned businesses, and speaking out against inequality. He remains a symbol of perseverance, discipline, and quiet strength — a man who changed not just a game, but a country.
I believe that eventually WordPress will be the hub for writers the way the web itself became the the hub for apps. Initially, the web wasn’t the best place to host apps, the Mac had a much more developed set of meaningful features for app devs, and we already knew the Mac APIs where the web was strange and incomplete. Yet most of the energy in AppLand quickly shifted to the web because of three advantages it had:
1. Anyone could publish for it, there was no platform vendor.
2. The networking model was open and simple, where the Mac's was hidden behind incomplete and poorly written docs.
3. The Mac's networking only worked on the Mac at a time when Windows was becoming dominant, and the web offered simplicity that neither platform could match.
The web made writing network apps a joy, where the Mac made it a slog. No matter how much time you spent developing, it never resulted in success.
There was no question for me when I saw the web, I had to be there.
Substack and Ghost are like Mac and Windows at the dawn of the web. Their big mistake imho is they weren’t built on WordPress, which can and should imho serve as the base platform for writing on the web. If an ecosystem of writing tools is built on the WordPress foundation how could silo’d writing tools hope to compete?
If you question the choice of WordPress, what would you go with in its place? I argue that whatever it is, it would work much like WordPress, which has a 20+ year head start, is stable, scales, is widely supported, and open source, so if you don't like the company behind it, you can choose not to use their distribution.
With WordLand we are testing the water hopefully proving that it is possible to create a functional writing environment on the WordPress foundation. Why is that such an advantage? Because, like the word processing products of the 80s on various OSes, these apps should be able to share data. One day you may feel like writing something with WordLand and a few days later you might want to try editing the same document using a different editing tool. As long as they both ingest and emit Markdown, they should have no trouble editing each others' documents. This is where the benefit of a common platform becomes insurmountable, because the silos insist you use their editor and only their editor and an open platform with open data formats lets you move between apps that interop. There’s a reason so many word processors thrived in the 80s, because the needs and tastes of writers vary so much, and technically it was possible to move data around in an ad hoc way.
Until WordLand, tools for writers on the WordPress platform were practically nonexistent. I think that can change now, because the middleware that connects WordLand to WordPress is both easy to understand, for developers, and open source under the most liberal license. Any app that connects with WordPress through this API will interop with WordLand so totally that it could replace WordLand.
I would be happy if WordLand played the role of MacWrite in the Mac ecosystem of the 80s. At the outset it was the only writing tool for the Mac, and set the usability pattern for all that followed. As a result the Mac platform, even though initially its appeal was mainly to developers and designers, quickly boomed as a writer's platform. I strongly believe WordPress has this potential.
I think writers need the same variety and open possibilities as developers, and the existing writer's systems are not offering that choice. I believe this is the start of the writers web, that should, if we do it right, and if my intuition is correct, grow like the web itself at inception. My bet is that an expansive approach will yield far more creativity in a very important area, writing, and should quickly become the place writers want to be.
Aggressiveness, a MAGA pre-planned technique – Let’s learn again!
“Stephen, let’s calm down,” said [Brianna] Keilar [CNN], who insisted she wasn’t trying to debate him [Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff].
Observe the attitude, hear the tone of Stephen Miller.
Those are 2 recent examples, among thousands, of sheer aggressiveness, one of the 2 techniques that Trump people use routinely (the other one being doublespeak).
As a reminder, since January 20, we have seen a bombardment of uselessly chocking announcements (through dozens of executive orders or TV speeches or posts).
I am writing this as I continue reading that people are surprised:
That the DOJ counsels have been extraordinarily impolite with the judge that genuinely asked them to provide information about the plane that continued to El Salvador.
They are surprised with J.D. Vance's treatment of Zelinsky in the White House.
They are surprised by Trump's people intimidating national law firms who worked for Democrats
They are surprised by Trump intimidating universities
The student of Trump's people techniques should remember that a) the sheer number b) the explosive nature of the daily ideas and actions are designed on purpose to stop you from absorbing and thinking.
They are pre-planned.
Let's stop being surprised. This is what Trump and his people have programmed for us for the next 4 years.
Let's expect that we will see aggressiveness from the Trump people everywhere everyday. The only thing we need to be doing is to ask ourselves:
What are they trying to stop us from absorbing?
What are they trying to stop us from thinking?
This way we can calmly absorb and think. We should leave aggressiveness to the MAGA people and instead respond strategically, as law abiding citizen.
Remember, they are afraid of us when we simply think.
23andMe is imploding, and you should do whatever you can to protect your genetic data. At the very least, try to delete it. Californians can delete their 23andMe data, according to the California State District Attorney Rob Bonta who today issued a consumer alert. Californians have the right to delete their genetic data under the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) and California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA).
To delete your data, do the following:
Log into your 23andMe account on their website.
Go to the “Settings” section of your profile.
Scroll to a section labeled “23andMe Data” at the bottom of the page.
Click “View” next to “23andMe Data”
Download your data: If you want a copy of your genetic data for personal storage, choose the option to download it to your device before proceeding.
Click “Permanently Delete Data.”
Confirm your request: You’ll receive an email from 23andMe; follow the link in the email to confirm your deletion request..
To destroy your genetic sample, go to the account settings page and navigate to “preferences.”
Revoke permission for using your genetic data in research by withdrawing consent. Go to the “account settings page” and navigate to “Research and Product Consents.”
I keep reading Cory Doctrow’s blog post about making technology policy.
The job of government experts isn’t just to research the correct answers. Even more important is experts’ role in evaluating conflicting claims from interested parties. When administrative agencies make new rules, they have to collect public comments and counter-comments. The best agencies also hold hearings, and the very best go on “listening tours” where they invite the broad public to weigh in (the FTC has done an awful lot of these during Lina Khan’s tenure, to its benefit, and it shows).
I don’t nominate agentic, which is suddenly hot shit:
See, agency is a noun, and agentic is an adjective. And, as Strunk and White taught us,
Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs… it is nouns and verbs, not their assistants, that give good writing its toughness and color.
The word agency is derived from the Latin agere, meaning to do. It speaks of our capacity to act with effect in the world. Or, in the words of the OED (the print version, not the website): Action or instrumentality embodied or personified as concrete existence.
In a chapter of The Intention Economy titled Agency, I say this under a subhead titled The Argument:
Agency is personal. It is the source of confidence behind all intention. By its nature the networked marketplace welcomes full agency for customers. So, because the best vendors are customer driven, there will be many more ways for both vendors and customers to thrive in the networked marketplace, and therefore also in the Intention Economy.
Later I add,
In the Intention Economy, liberated customers enjoy full agency for themselves, and employ agents who respect and apply the powers that customers grant them.
I wrote that (and created the graphic at the top of this page) thirteen years ago, when nobody was talking about agency, but I thought somebody had to.
Now it seems everybody is talking about it. I am sure that’s because we have AI. Or, more specifically, agentic AI. That’s what makes agenticso hot:
So, what will give you real agency—an archimedean lever that gives you enough leverage to move worlds?
Meet IEEE P7012, which “identifies/addresses the manner in which personal privacy terms are proffered and how they can be read and agreed to by machines.” It has been in the works since 2017, and should be ready later this year. (I say this as chair of the standard’s working group.) The nickname for P7012 is MyTerms (much as the nickname for the IEEE’s 802.11 standard is Wi-Fi). The idea behind MyTerms is that the sites and services of the world should agree to your terms, rather than the other way around.
MyTerms creates a new regime for privacy: one based on contract. With each MyTerm you are the first party. Not the website, the service, or the app maker. They are the second party. And terms can be friendly. For example, a prototype term called NoStalking says “Just show me ads not based on tracking me.” This is good for you, because you don’t get tracked, and good for the site because it leaves open the advertising option. NoStalking lives at Customer Commons, much as personal copyrights live at Creative Commons. (Yes, the former is modeled on the latter.)
On the Creative Commons model, agreements take three forms:
The MyTerms standard addresses just the Machine Readable layer. It also doesn’t say exactly what tools should be developed. Basically, it just says,
The person is the first party
The site, service or app is the second party
The person chooses an agreement from a limited roster (resembling Creative Commons’ roster of licenses) listed by a disinterested non-profit
Both sides keep an identical record of what they agreed to
On your side—the first-party side—browser makers can build something into their product, or any developer can make a browser add-on (Firefox) or extension (the rest of them). On the site’s side—the second-party side—CMS makers can build something in, or any developer can make a plug-in (WordPress) or a module (Drupal).
Mobile app toolmakers can also come up with something (or many things).
For the Legal Code and Human Readable layers, we (Customer Commons and ProjectVRM) have been at work on a list of prototypes for the roster of agreements. We’ll present these on April 7 at VRM Day, at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. Discussion will happen both there and through the following three days in the same location at the 40th Internet Identity Workshop (IIW). VRM Day is free. IIW isn’t, but is cheap for a three-day conference that (IMHO) is the most leveraged in the world.
So let’s make this happen and show the world what agency really means.
And, if you’re interested in helping support Customer Commons, use some of that agency to hit the Donate button on its home page. Thanks!
A relatively small release, I wanted to get these features out asap because they're important.
Upload featured image — new command in the context menu. When you choose the command, if the site for the post you're editing has been set (in lower left corner of editor), you can choose an image to become the "featured image" of the post. This means that the post will appear in the metadata for the post, and will be displayed with it in social media apps like Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads etc. WordPress uses the image and excerpt (below) in many other ways.
Set excerpt for post — new command in the context menu. It sets the description of the post in the metadata, also picked up and displayed when someone points to the post on social media.
New sign on screen. Previously, when you go to wordland.social you get a button that says log on to WordPress. A friend pointed out how confusing that is to a first time visitor. Indeed! I added a bit of text there saying Welcome to WordLand and links to the fact sheet for the product on this.how. We're getting there, slowly but surely!
Screen shots are on the announcement in the support repo.
I am thinking of my first dead show about this time March 26, 1973 bout 48 odd years ago what a great playlist. I was hooked from the first everything about the Dead was surreal.
My heart broke when I heard Bob Weir lament the toll being a celebrity took on Jerry Garcia. I amd guilty. Like my John Lennon piece this is a piece of stoneware clay with porcelain of Jerry Garcia. This tiktok shows my workspace where I put a photograph and create.
The clay is pretty software and easy to work with. This is the first time I worked with porcelain on top of stoneware and as you will see I lost the adherence of the eyeglasses even though I scored the clay and applied with water/slip.
This poor piece has been fire twice and I still can't get any color on the porcelain of Jerry's fore head. It's just white. No color. No nothing. The bottom half was buried under the coals and needs to be burned off.
The piece does have a nice blue mouth. The crud at the bottom will burn off in the next firing. I fear the porcelain is more like a cone 12 as seems like needs hot hot temperature to get any color.
I don't think this is fact that color is getting burnt off in successive waves of hot then cooler temperatures which can happen. This piece never really got hot enough and stayed hot enough to let wood ash accumulate and melt.
We'll know soon. Whether or not you're watching St. John's playing Arkansas, right now, in the NCAA's March Madness tournament, take out a minute and a half to take in Jimmy Fallon and the boys singing the Red Storm Shanty. Lou Carnaseca must be glowing in his grave. (Later: they lost.)
That might mean some very different things, more than just the first bullet point below:
Building a coalition committed to kicking out the bums and getting America back to what it was in, say, 2014.
Same coalition, aimed at ejecting the dangerous ones and getting America back to what it was in 2014, with some new patches applied on the system flaws revealed by the current crisis.
Building a coalition wider than we've seen in recent decades, committing to the needs of the new people joining in (people alienated or left out in recent decades) and patching the American system, for sure, but also expanding on the best parts. New protections to the system, new opportunities for citizens, new rights in place — after all, why should alienated people help restore the kind of America that alienated them in the first place?
Seems likely that Bernie Sanders is trying not to waste this crisis in this larger sense, and people are turning out to his rallies in larger and larger numbers.
we are in uncharted waters. there is no parallel in history to a time when a US president disobeyed a federal court order. Roberts, Alito and Thomas has brought this on themselves starting with Citizen United and ending in Roe and only they can end a renegade president.
Care to report on that, Lucas? If you do, you won’t be the first. That was Farhad Monjoo, here, six years ago in The New York Times. You’ll be the second.
What if it helps everyone do a better job?Steven Wright: “I take my dog for walks outside my apartment… on the ledge. Some people are afraid of heights. I’m afraid of widths.”Somehow that joke (as best I recall it) comes to mind when I consider OpenAI’s Deep Research. Everybody I know who uses it gushes about all the amazing things it can do. I mean, a lot. A company CEO says it produces marvels with sales and usage data, with forecasting, with you-name-it. A law professor says it radically improves her job in almost every way. An innovation director says “It will change your life.” But there is push-back, naturally, on the usual AI threat: it will cost jobs. We’ll see.
One of the reasons that I like reading Om Malik’s blog is because he puts into words what we feel in our guts, in terms of a trend that you see crystalizing but can’t yet put into words:
This is just like how I felt when I experienced Google for the first time—even before it had made it to the market. After that first meeting with Google’s co-founders, established search engines like Yahoo, Lycos, and AltaVista suddenly felt antiquated.
This shift matters more than you might think. Even the browser, that faithful window into the internet for the past three decades, is starting to feel like a relic. We’re moving from a document-centric web to something more fluid, where information flows naturally through conversation rather than being bound by pages or URLs.
The atomization of information is unfolding rapidly. Artificial intelligence doesn’t just search; it synthesizes, contextualizes, and presents information in a user’s preferred format.
I have monitored the agency’s bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement. The list includes:
• During President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, VOA allowed and often encouraged key correspondents to carry out opposition journalism against him. This included an uprising, growing out of VOA’s central newsroom, against Mr. Trump’s choice of chief USAGM executive in 2020.
• That newsroom and the agency have a known left-wing bias. Between 2016 and 2020, some VOA reporters did little to hide their disdain for Mr. Trump in their reports and social media posts.
• Since Amanda Bennett, VOA director from 2016 to mid-2020, returned as USAGM chief in 2022, managers and employees dissed Republicans in Congress who criticized VOA’s inexplicable refusal to refer to Hamas terrorists as terrorists. One agency official called lawmakers “silly.” VOA’s new director has equated congressional critics to troublemakers.
Whatever. I’d rather they fix it than kill it. They wanted it dead, and now it is.
There were four basic rules that I used to run a home daycare in the 2000s. I am sharing what I learned about handling toddlers and their emotions in my podcast. Episode 3 explains “No hitting Mr. Brian”
SoftBank Acquires Ampere by ex-Intel Team for $6.5 billion
Seven years after it was started by ex-Intel folks, SoftBank is acquiring Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion. Ampere was focusing on developing chips for data centers and hyper-scalers. SoftBank wants them to be part of their “AI” push.
Ampere makes high-performance Arm CPUs such as AmpereOne Aurora, which can have as many as 512 Ampere Cores. It uses Arm ISA but had developed its own custom cores. SoftBank had previously acquired struggling AI chip company Graphcore. “SoftBank was rumored to be looking to invest in Ampere alongside Oracle back in 2021 in a deal that would have valued it at $8 billion,” reports Data Center Dynamics. “In 2022, the company confidentially filed for an initial public offering but ultimately never listed.”
The New York Times notes that “the market for microprocessors sold for A.I. will grow to $33 billion by 2030 from $12.5 billion in 2025.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Carlyle Group and Oracle own 60% and 32% stakes in the company. It has been losing money for a while, and revenues have been dropping as well. The New York Times points out that “As of May, Oracle said it held a 29 percent stake in Ampere; it put the value of its investments, after accounting for losses, at $1.5 billion.”
A French Senator articulated what no-one from the Democratic Party was able to say
The silence of our leaders in the Democratic Party is deafening. Wake up!
Claude Malhuret, a French Senator, articulated a few weeks ago what I believe was long due.
Malhuret, a Center Right French Senator, which would be considered Center Left in the US Democratic Party, gave this speech at the French Senate, and I recommend everyone to listen to it, specially in the US (the video is the integral speech, in french, subtitled in english).
It seems that the speech became a worldwide sensation, thanks to an unknown individual who translated it perfectly from French to English (the Senator communicated on the French TV that the translation was truly remarkable and that he did not know the person who did it and he thanked them).
A must listen to.
We need clarity and we need people who can articulate what is happening.
And one million thanks to the unknown person who translated this. Proof that everyone's help is needed.
PS2: Be patient and watch for at least 1 minute, if you are not aware of French politics as the message becomes more understandable by an international audience.
Who Shot This? An anonymous photographer who captured the 60s
From This is Colossal
Between 1966 and 1970, a San Francisco-area photographer captured thousands of images documenting civil rights demonstrations, protests against the Vietnam War, Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park, and so much more. The problem, though, is that no one knows who the photographer is. In total, the collection contains 2,042 processed 35-millimeter color slides and 102 rolls of black-and-white film, meaning there are around 8,400 images in all.
The project, which is now called Who Shot Me—Stories Unprocessed, surpassed its goal on Kickstarter, although there are still opportunities to access some of the rewards. This funding will allow Delzell and the SpeakLocal team to develop the rest of the film and establish a broad platform for disseminating the images. Plans include a database, book, immersive exhibition in San Francisco, and a documentary.
No filters, no followers, no bullshit. Just raw frames capturing the gritty truth of a city in flux. In this era of Instagram influencers and self-proclaimed digital prophets, I don’t think we will ever see something like this happen today. Everyone wants to monetize their content.
Three Canadians—Kim Cameron, Kaliya “Identity Woman” Young, and Dick Hardt—at the Identity Gang meeting in Scottsdale, 20 March 2005
IIW, the Internet Identity Workshop, is the UN of identity. While located in the U.S., it has always represented and welcomed the whole world to work on global problems best addressed in person.
As it happens, IIW was born exactly twenty years ago tomorrow—20 March 2005—at Esther Dyson’s PC Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona. A group of eleven that called itself the Identity Gang gathered around a table there to plot what became (IMHO) the most leveraged conference in the world. Three of the eleven were Canadians. One (Esther) was born in Zurich. As for the rest, I suppose they could have been born anywhere. (I was born in the U.S., but half my ancestors were Swedish. Those on my father’s side were Irish, English, German, French, and God knows.)
All of the Internet’s protocols, from TCP/IP on up, were made to ignore national boundaries. I am inviting participants in the next IIW (April 8 to 10) to do the same: ignore the noise coming from the U.S. government and come join us to work on what’s good for the whole connected world.
If you want to get away from wacky retro nationalism in tech, IIW is the place to do it.
I think the first lift in economic growth will happen fairly quickly. The disruptions will primarily be to owners of existing capital stock such as power plants, rail roads and transmission lines.
To the extent that the existing capital owners are able and willing to deploy capital in an accelerated manner into new technologies, they will survive and thrive. While those who hold back and do not, will be very shortly superseded by those who do.
And this shall hold for countries as well
There are so many AI doomsday scenarios floating around these days. I think it makes sense to look at the recent developments and their impact from the other side.
…these are exciting times in Indiana – two new semiconductor clusters are emerging, one in West Lafayette at Purdue focused on the commercial sector and one at Westgate, near the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, focused on the defense sector.
Our goal is to leverage Purdue’s excellence at scale to work with our partners and create a new, thriving, vibrant, and growing semiconductor hub in the heartland and to connect this growing commercial sector to the emerging defense sector at Westgate.
We look forward to working with our partners in the Midwest to make the Heartland one of the few critical regions of semiconductor manufacturing, design, innovation, and talent development in the United States.
The research reveals that the top 20% of high-income, college-educated Americans have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than the rest of the population—disparities that have widened over the past two decades. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of illness and death in the US, but this emerging research highlights diverging trends; the remaining 80% of the population continues to face higher risks, reflecting the nation’s growing income gap.
Statistical models showed that low-income non-college graduates had 6.34 times the odds of congestive heart failure, 2.11 times the odds of angina, 2.32 times the odds of a heart attack, and 3.17 times the odds of a stroke, compared with their wealthier, college-educated peers.
By the end of 2030 there will be more than 1.614 billion fixed broadband subscribers across the globe). Between mid-2024 and end-2030, global fixed broadband subscribers will grow by 10.2% (compared to our prediction of 14.9% a year ago). Whether it’s challenging economic conditions, regional conflicts or network deployment challenges and competition from 5G, there is a general trend of the growth slowing down.
The highest growth in fixed broadband subscribers (29.6%) will come from the Emerging markets. A number of countries in the Emerging category have been expanding fixed broadband infrastructure, especially focusing on fibre (Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and the Philippines, to name just a few). The demand for ultrafast broadband has been increasing at healthy rates in these generally large and growing populations and economies.
Increasing broadband availability has profound implications for everything from economic development to social change.
Missing Mike. My favorite songwriter and performer is Mike Cross. He was headed to a career in law as an undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill when a music bug bit him, he learned to play fiddle and guitar, and then to perform in local bars and clubs. I couldn’t count how many times I went to hear him play. His songs were—and still are—fun, deep, wise, and catchy. Uncle Josh. The Scottsman. Elma Turl. Nobby. Born in the Country. The Lord’ll Provide. Bounty Hunter. Kentucky Song. A few years ago Mike was bitten by a tick, got Lyme Disease, and has hardly been heard from since. I hope he’s well and can get back out there, showing the next few generations what an amazing gift he is to us all. Bonus fact: The album cover above is by my old friend and business partner Ray Simone. Gone thirteen years, I still miss Ray every day.
Drowning in Red. Fifty years ago, when I was getting my nickname while working at WDBS (a sweet little commercial radio station owned by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina), our slogan was “Let the music keep our spirits high”—a line from Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge.” Give it a listen. Take in the lyrics. Then think about the kind and generous purposes behind all the federal programs, agencies, and departments now being demolished. The abandoned alliances and international friendships. The dropped American support for people and organizations trying to do good throughout the world. The Voice of America, silenced. Think about the new political corrections: forbidden words in grant applications, red flags now waving atop corporate giants, weather vanes vectored right. Think about the shaking trap doors under millions of federal employees—especially ones tasked with helping the weak, the old, the foreign, the oppressed, the dark, the gay, the oddly gendered. And then listen to the news. No, not the old bluestream news we still call main. I mean the redstream news that now predominates on TV, in podcasts, on radio. What you will see and hear is one big amen corner for all of it. This is the deluge.
Sounding Good Everywhere. If you like old album rock and Americana rooted in North Carolina, the best thing on radio in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill is That Station, on 95.7 FM. Technically, the station translates (rebroadcasts) WRAL-FM/101.5’s HD2 stream, and rarely mentions its true callsign, which is W239CK. What many listeners may not know is that the signal on 95.7 is only 250 watts from an antenna about 1100 feet up a tower near Apex, while the HD2 stream is coming from WRAL’s 98,000 watt signal pumping out of its antenna almost 2000 feet up a tower southeast of Raleigh. Compare the two signal footprints here and here (thanks to the wonderful RadioLocator.com). Naturally, the station also has an app. That’s what I usually use here in Bloomington, Indiana, although right now I’m digging it on my computer, which has outstanding 2.1 Logitech speakers I picked up for $5 at a yard sale.
In this week’s CrazyStupidTech, I noted that China’s dominance in electric vehicles gives the country a significant advantage over Western rivals. This edge is particularly evident in battery technology.
BYD announced that it has developed a new battery and charging system for its Han L sedan that provides 292 miles of range and can fully charge in 5 minutes. While still in the testing phase, this advancement could help BYD extend its lead over Tesla. For comparison, Tesla’s Superchargers currently add 200 miles of range in 15 minutes. BYD will build a 4,000 ultra-fast charger network across China.
April 5, 2025 was called for by many organizations including Hands Off, Indivisible, Women's March, Portside and so many others to become what I hope will be an amazing Nationwide day of peaceful protests.
I am hoping that in addition to in-person peaceful protests, April 5, 2025 will become the day when non-Trump Podcasts becomes an immense movement reaching millions of people.
Le Monde (in French) today has an excellent article decrypting what is happening in the US and on the significance of April 5, 2025 for the Democrats (translation by Google): "Lacking a guiding principle and figures to embody it, the party relies on grassroots activists."
And if we had any doubt that things are out of the ordinary, WSJ today's article "Trump Escalates Push Against Legal Norms" expressed something of the sort of "Trump is doing things (like firing counsels who help Democrats) that were not expected in the Constitution".
As I wrote yesterday, "the "MAGA" culture is at this point entrenched in many countries worldwide. We thought 8 years ago that it was an accident and that another election will make it disappear. And it did not. This will take time, even if the "Everyone Else" culture win elections in 2 and 4 years. "
We need to get organized for a sustained long effort.
Unlike MAGA, we will do that by strictly following the law and the Constitution. This is our strength. This is what separates us from MAGA.
I am hoping that April 5, 2025 brings us two things:
We create some kind of help and legal support directory we can turn to as individuals when the Trump state comes to intimidate us, scare us, fire us, take our freedom, as I am expecting this will happen illegally to so many people. We will have the law for us because we are law abiding citizen. Remember, "they first came to [put your favorite community here]".
To April 5, 2025 ! I hope it will be a Day to Remember.
Overall, from 2013 to 2023, the share of 20-somethings in San Francisco County dropped from about 18% of the population to about 14% — the largest such decline of any major U.S. county and nearly quadruple the national drop. The data prompts a big question relating to the city’s economic future: Is this the mere ebbs and flows of San Francisco’s demographics at play, or the start of something much grimmer?
In addition to losing 20-somethings over affordability concerns in recent years, San Francisco is believed to have lost plenty of high-earning young tech workers to the only major urban center stateside that’s more expensive than it. The longer San Francisco’s population of 20-somethings declines, the more it could lose the culture that, historically, helped make it special.
When you are young, you want to be with people your age. You want to have fun. And everything else that comes with it. I am not young (in years) anymore but my 20-something friends grumble about the social drought. No matter how you read this, San Francisco is best when it remains a big (small) city.
The quiet AT&T technician who exposed the NSA’s secret internet tap has died
Mark Klein, the AT&T technician who exposed NSA’s mass surveillance of US residents, has passed away. He discovered the NSA had installed secret rooms in AT&T facilities, specifically Room 641A in San Francisco. These rooms contained splitters that copied all internet traffic passing through the facility, effectively creating a massive domestic surveillance operation. The whistleblowing came at considerable personal risk, with Klein facing potential civil and criminal prosecution. His evidence provided a detailed blueprint of how digital surveillance actually works. Many of the systems Klein exposed remain operational, albeit under different legal frameworks.
The world’s leading TV maker instead wants AR glasses and TVs to work together. In a newly-published patent application, Samsung details how AR wearables could be used in conjunction with your TV: As a fancy remote control, capable of casting, switching to media playback mode whenever you sit down in front of the TV, and even collecting viewing suggestions while out and about, Shazam-style.
While patent applications don’t necessarily translate into future products, Samsung’s stab at this does offer an interesting glimpse at how the company envisions tomorrow’s multi-screen world to work – and challenges entertainment companies to figure out how they want to utilize these technologies for their own benefit.
“US AI companies should spend 100% of their time developing and innovating vs hanging out in DC begging for protection from competition. It’s a bad look that unveils a clear lack of self-confidence.”
Ola Electric’s 60% stock plunge reveals the fragility of first-mover advantage in India’s EV market. The meteoric rise and sharp decline of Ola Electric shows the challenges faced by EV startups when competing against established players. Despite reaching a $3 billion valuation and capturing 35% market share, the company’s dominance proved unsustainable, with monthly sales plummeting from 34,000 to 8,647 units within a year. The company’s financial health is deteriorating, with quarterly losses expanding to $65 million, while a mass exodus of senior executives signals deep-rooted organizational challenges.
Journalists showed up at the Voice of America today to broadcast their programs only to be told they had been locked out: Federal officials had embarked on indefinite mass suspensions.
All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.
In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency’s acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination.
She may not, but here is how the USAGM site looks, above the fold, this morning:
Today, in compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law. USAGM and the outlets it oversees will be reduced to their statutory functions and associated personnel will be reduced to the minimum presence and function required by law.
This action will impact the agency’s workforce at USAGM, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and all Grantees. Most USAGM staff affected by this action will be placed on paid-administrative leave beginning Saturday, March 15, 2025, and remain on leave until further notice.
“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. Today we continue the process of doing that by streamlining our operations to what is statutorily required by law,” said USAGM Senior Adviser, Kari Lake. “The US Agency for Global media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.”
A few of the most egregious findings:
Massive national security violations, including spies and terrorist sympathizers and/or supporters infiltrating the agency
Eye-popping self-dealing involving contracts, grants and high-value settlement agreements
Obscene over-spending including a nearly quarter-of-a-billion-dollar lease for a Pennsylvania Avenue high-rise that has no broadcasting facilities to meet the needs of the agency and included a $9 million commission to a private real estate agent with connections
$100s-of-millions being spent on fake news companies
a product that often parrots the talking-points of America’s adversaries
This agency is not salvageable.
From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.
It is unfortunate that the work that was done by self-interested insiders in coordination with outside activist groups and radical Leftist advocacy organizations to “Trump-Proof” the agency made it impossible to reform. In fact, they weren’t just “Trump-Proofing” the agency from political leadership, they were accountability-proofing the agency from the American people. They did all this while spending taxpayer money to create false narratives. These were amplified by biased media counterparts with clear conflicts of interest at the Washington Post, NPR and more, to actively cover up their obscene waste, fraud, and abuse.
“This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States and promoting freedom and democracy. Going forward, I am going to ensure accountability will be the norm and not the exception. I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Agency and its outlets. I look forward to moving forward with modernizing the core mission of telling America’s story throughout the world in a meaningful, impactful and effective way,” Lake added.
Whether you agree with it or not, this is not a news story. It’s the kind of shit one hears from a junta after a coup.
As for Lake’s claim about the “obscenely expensive 15-year lease,” here’s what David Folkenflik reports in his ‘Bloody Saturday’ story:
Lake’s claims of waste on new HQ challenged
On Friday evening, before Trump’s order, Lake posted a video of the new headquarters for USAGM and the Voice of America to argue that it’s an exemplar of profligate spending.
“I’m sitting here on the 13th floor of a shiny, brand-new beautiful skyscraper building that is costing you, the taxpayer, a fortune,” Lake said, as camera footage lingered over features including glass walls, interior waterfalls, and modern conference rooms. “Here’s the kicker: They already have a building that they’re located in, that is paid off, that they could have renovated or updated.”
Former USAGM CFO Grant Turner says she’s got it backwards. According to the USAGM’s announcement last September, the lease, thanks to a slow real estate market caused by the pandemic, stands to save the federal government $150 million over 15 years.
“That’s a bunch of lies and misinformation coming out of her mouth,” said Turner, who left the agency in January. “In fact, it’s probably one of the best deals struck by a tenant in D.C. history.”
Four USAGM and Voice of America staffers backed up Turner’s account on condition of anonymity, citing fears of retribution in the current climate. For one thing, they note, the new building is not new. It’s nearly two decades old — built in 2006, according to the general contractor on the project. For another, the old building wasn’t “paid off” — the agency doesn’t own it. The agency got three years in free rent at the new headquarters, and was drawing staffers out of the old Wilbur J. Cohen building, they said, thus sizeably reducing its footprint and rent paid to the federal government.
And the new building’s landlord gave $27 million toward the construction of state-of-the-art studios. That would have been necessary in the technologically archaic Cohen building — absent the existential question now hovering over the networks.
As Scott Adams says, Facts don’t matter. What matters is how much we hate the person talking.
The VOA isn’t one person. But it is a voice, and Trump and Lake clearly hate it.
Now, two questions:
Is the VOA still on the air? I’m asking around, and haven’t heard yet.
If it stays on, will it be in a politically corrected way that sounds like Fox News? Or will it go away completely?
Schismogenesis and Gaining Strength by Stepping back
Like so many others who have been deeply stressed (an understatement) by Trump winning in 2024, I have been using different techniques to stay sane: limiting my exposure to the news to twice a day, watching extremely silly movies, and also stepping back by reading books that takes a long and broad view on society, as reading those books took me somewhere else, relaxed me and gave me strength.
This is where I read first that "cultures are effectively structures of refusal (Chapter 5, p174)" and learned a new word: Schismogenesis.
In the book, "Schismogenesis describes how societies in contact with each other end up joined within a common system of differences, even as they attempt to distinguish themselves from one another… Each society performs a mirror image of the other. In doing so, it becomes an indispensable alter ego, the necessary and ever-present example of what one should never wish to be (Chapter 5, p180)". And they give as a classic example Sparta and Athens, 2 cities easily distinguishable.
What I found remarkable, was the core thesis of the book, which shuttered in a positive way what I though I knew of my view of history. Until now, I had the sense that civilization was mono directional, that people lived first as hunter gatherers, and then "discovered" agriculture from which great states governed by powerful kings and emperors emerged.
The core thesis of the book was that actually, for thousands of years, people had a choice, looked at how others lived, and that in many geographies and time periods, people looked at authoritarian or imperial or top down regimes and decided to abandon this mode of governance (or even agriculture or slaves or kings or palaces) to a more cooperative one, in which in many cases women were treated more equally, external signs of over-the-top richness were frown upon, and decisions had to be discussed and taken collegially. People abandoned on purpose the authoritarian mode of governance because they saw that it was too hard and not worth it.
The book provides many examples in different continents and many striking ones were in the Americas, an illuminating context to how native American societies inspired the American and French revolution ideals of citizen participation and democracy.
Which brings me back to today.
And to the schismogenesis that I believe exist between the "MAGA" culture and the "Everyone Else" culture:
The "MAGA" culture is at this point entrenched in many countries worldwide. We thought 8 years ago that it was an accident and that another election will make it disappear. And it did not. This will take time, even if the "Everyone Else" culture win elections in 2 and 4 years.
The book gives me hope that many in the MAGA side, in time, will look at what is happening and will decide to abandon this mode of governance. Like so many other humans in the past did.
When I went to see the Manila Pen Show’s website, every single one of the exhibitors was linked not to their website but to Instagram. These included some of the more traditional and sedate pen-makers from Japan. Earlier this morning, when reading Die Workwear’s piece about shirts, I realized that almost all the bespoke shirt makers, shoemakers, and others announce their trunk shows and new products on Instagram. And so do others who have something to say, sell, or shill.
That is when it hit me — Instagram has gone from being “a photography community” to being a “visual information network.”
I am responding to Dave Winer's call for posts about his post "The Writer's Web". I never left "The Writer's Web", as my primary web presence is my WordPress blog, where I have all the benefits of not having a tiny little text box, and support for all aspects of Textcasting, as defined by Dave […]
the apps on our phones and laptops offer convenience, they often come at the cost of our personal data with many collecting everything from contact details to real-time locations. But which are the most notorious for doing so?
Facebook/ Messenger and Instagram/Threads take the joint top spot as the most invasive apps when it comes to personal data collection. These apps share a staggering 68.6% of your personal data with third parties, often for targeted advertising purposes.
Ranking as the second most invasive app is LinkedIn..it discloses a striking 37.1% of your information to external entities.
Amazon only uses 25.7% of your personal data to make your shopping experience unique to you, and 25.7% of data is used to personalize advertising.
YouTube… 31.4% of your data is shared with external parties.
Candy Crush Saga, which takes 8.6% of data such as device ID and advertising data to give to external parties.
“The best hiring managers don’t need to know how to code to recognize a world-class engineer. The best investors don’t need to be former founders to spot the next billion-dollar startup. The best taste-makers don’t need to be artists to know which designs will win. They all have something in common. They see what others miss. They break apart a field, find its hidden structure, and spot the signals that separate the best from the rest.”
…the fourth rock from the sun its best-known nickname — the “Red Planet.” But what exactly gives the planet its iconic color? Scientists have wondered this for as long as they’ve studied the planet. Today, they may finally have a concrete answer, and one that ties into Mars’ watery past.
Results from a study published in the journal Nature Communications and led by researchers from Brown University and the University of Bern suggest that the water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite may be the main culprit behind Mars’ reddish dust. The team’s theory — which they reached by analyzing data from Martian orbiters, rovers and laboratory simulations — runs counter to the prevailing theory that a dry, rust-like mineral called hematite is the reason for the planet’s color.
Ferrihydrite is an iron oxide mineral that forms in water-rich environments. On Earth, it is commonly associated with processes like the weathering of volcanic rocks and ash.
In five years, hit songs spend long on the charts (33+ weeks), are more genre-fluid. Artists like Beyoncé venturing into country and hybrid tracks like Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song” represent a new normal. Most importantly, YouTube has done well to establish itself as the read king of music video. The paradox? Fragmentation makes hits stick longer at the top. Welcome to post-streaming music reality.
Weeks on Top 100: 19.4 (2000) → 18.6 (2020) → 33.3 (2025). That is a [79% increase from 2020-2025
YouTube views for Top 10 increased 322% between 2020-2025 from 76.44 million to 322.6 million.
Percentage of consumers watching music videos on YouTube monthly: 50% (2020) → 67% (2024)
Average track length has gone down from 221.5 seconds in 2020 to 219.2 seconds in 2025.
Top genre in 2020 was Hip Hop and is still Hip Hop.
Someone was complaining about a place in the Caribbean, saying, essentially, that people there had grown accustomed to distant, powerful others providing substantially for their local needs. It wasn't a subtle moment in the conversation, and with someone I'd just met I decided not to press for more of the reasoning — if any.
I have not spent much time in the region, so my impressions may be faulty. Anyway, here goes. You meet someone in the Caribbean. The more sophisticated as a user of the colonizer's language the person is, the closer you are standing at that moment to the machinery of wealth. Corporations, museums, strong schools, casinos, posh restaurants, curving beaches . . .
Which is the chicken and which the egg here? Probably both, probably it's a reinforcing loop. Drive away from the place where the colonizer's language is spoken well, and you drive toward poverty, readily visible even from a rented car.
Power begets power. The tools of power beget power and the emblems of power. You can often spot the less-than-powerful by the way they speak. They were brought up and educated outside the palace gates, so the language clues are only natural.
* * *
This is the fifteenth blog post I have composed for akaKenSmith.com using the new WordLand software.
Same goes for The Internet. And The Net. The Web is the Web, not “the web”. We—the writers of the networked world—gave something up when we allowed the bishops of the AP and the Chicago Manual of Style to demote the Web from proper noun to lower-case status, down there with television and radio. Nobody invented “the television,” or “the radio.” Not even “the newspaper.” But somebody—Sir Tim Berners-Lee—invented the World Wide Web. With upper case letters. The WWW was not the www. Is it too late to bring the Web back as a proper noun? I don’t know. I do know that I’m never going to demote it in my own writing.
"And it’s sometimes surprising to me how insightful my younger self could be, which I think is explained largely by the fact that most of my writing is written at peak states of clarity, while most of my life is lived in the moderately muddled middle. I’m a generally wiser 34-year-old than my 25-year-old self was, but when my 25yo self was having a peak experience, he was typically wiser in that moment than I am on average day today. And the great thing about writing, journalling and so on is that we get to integrate our peak state wisdom into our ordinary lives."
Second, who is the salesman? Well, we need the US President to use 30 minutes of his time to introduce the new Tesla models, reading from some notes that the Tesla corporation would have prepared to introduce its latest models.
Third, what is the price? Well, here, the price is Elon Musk paying $100 millions dollars.
Fifth, where do you negotiate the deal? In Air Force One.
Sixth, how do your structure the propaganda to explain that this is not happening? Trump explains that Musk has not been treated nicely as Musk is spending his time for free to fix fraud in the federal government.
This is an amazing hands-on experience on how everything Trump and his friends do is for dollars.
Horrifying. Horrifying.
Let's learn again!
(Edited) Bill Maher, in the March 14, 2025 show, invited a MAGA supporter and asked her about this subject. And of course, Bill was wrong and spoke about real issues (saying something such as "What if Obama did something like, this. Everyone on the other side would be horrified") instead of simply thinking "Dollars" and mentioning that by an amazing coincidence, Elon Musk announced that he was paying those $100 millions dollars 1 day before or after the Tesla-on-the-White-House-Lawn show. And as usual, the MAGA supporter used the Doublespeak technique of Propaganda, to claim that Trump was encouraging an American company, knowing very well about the "Dollars" reality.
“If as a side effect I suffer some, well, look at the world. There are a lot of people suffering worse than me, in the US and out of it. All of this is for them.”
Braden Dennis points out that Apple’s services “gross margins have ticked materially up to 75% now,” prompting Howard Lindzon to remind us that Apple is a “a consumer staple not a technology company.” Tiny, but important difference.
It is starting to happen with two good news today:
Per the Boston Globe: "The former first lady Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health, and business."
Per the Wall Street Journal: "Beyond the Manosphere: A New Wave of Popular Political Podcasts Ascends. Independent podcasters are attracting huge audiences since Trump’s inauguration; MeidasTouch bests Joe Rogan"
Now those are two good news, but for two very good and different reasons:
First, as you may remember, we said that it was extremely important to create podcasts for our life interests, and this is exactly what Michelle Obama and her brother are creating: Entertainment, sports, health, and business are exactly great examples of life interests.
People will come and listen first to what is important, to every day life , and then the political explanations of how every day is impacted comes as second (or third or even at the 10th step). And I trust former first lady Michelle Obama to provide a political view on actual real information, without the 2 techniques of the Trump people: doublespeak and aggressiveness.
Second, podcasts attracting huge audiences started to exist "Beyond the Manosphere" as the Walls Street Journal puts it. Remember, Hitler had the Radio and Trump had the Podcast. And the podcasts that caused Trump to win was those exact "Manosphere" podcasts.
I was asking to see a list of such non-Trump people podcasts. Now I think that we can start creating such a list!
A nation may be tempted to put on the clothes of past adventures and to play the songs of previous generations, to salute what was saluted in the past, to gather up into a pantomime of courage that recalls the actual courage of the past.
But the past's challenges are past. If a nation is to rouse itself to a new courage, it must do so by turning toward the challenges of the new day. If this can't be done, then what follows is a mere puppet show, a costume drama, a farce even or a shadow play.
Name the challenges of the new day with great care; speak precisely and forthrightly; cast off the shadows of the past and step forward; today is more than dark enough without them.
"I've been writing about it on my blog for many years."
That's a sentence a variety of interesting people might utter or post. It's a reminder that good new thinking and writing slides effortlessly down the screen and out of sight, into the archive, where it might be preserved and maybe located again someday. Maybe.
But it's also a reminder of a structural problem in blog-format web writing that people have understood for many years. Despite other real and substantial virtues, the format by itself leaves posts about a topic more or less isolated from each other down there in the archive.
Writing isolated from other writing on the same topic — that's not the best we can do. Writing that links and builds explicitly on other writing is far better.
Well, related posts can be tagged and categorized at the time of composition, but that takes focused habit-building as well as good insight about what tags make sense now and might be useful later. Related posts can also perhaps be located and pulled together later through time-consuming searching of an archive, which is an unpleasant approach. Using most tools available to us today, both tagging and searching are demoralizing. For most online tools, useful old-fashioned tools like an index or a concordance aren't available.
So many of us miss out on an opportunity. By organizing several posts hidden in the archive we could piece together two valuable resources: 1) the history of something, which can help us know why we are currently blessed by and stuck with the version of it we have today, and 2) and the components of something, which can help us see how it functions on its good and bad days.
In those two ways, organizing several posts from the archive can make fresh analytical thinking and invention possible. But it's not easy to find and organize several posts from the archive.
My wording in italics below (posted here) was misleading, too compressed to be clear, or something like that:
One of the powers of composing on WordLand, I believe, is the ability to inform WordPress pretty much instantly which of your RSS feeds you'd like a post to belong to. Or to more than one RSS feed, as well, if I'm reading the clues properly.
I've gone back over the steps a second time, so I'll try to say what I had in mind more usefully now. To me, it matters because it's a subtle and kind of breathtaking feature with value well worth exploring.
WordLand allows the writer to quickly select WordPress categories.
Each WordPress category comes with its own RSS feed.*
So, in effect, selecting one or more categories in WordLand at the same time selects one or more WordPress RSS feeds for the post.
That's the main point, and a person could stop reading here.
Why is this so interesting?
Quick speculations about that:
If over time a writer focuses on, say, three topics and, as a result, builds three audiences, the writer could easily point posts to each of those audiences via RSS.
If a CoolSocialMediaTool came along that perfectly integrated posting via RSS, a category called CoSoMeTo could instantly post to that CoolSocialMediaTool.
Etc.
How did I test this WordLand / WordPress link for myself?
What I did:
I created a new WordPress blog with two categories. I called them testingOne and testingTwo.
Writing in WordLand, I made three posts. The first post I sent to the new blog's testingOne category. The second post I sent to the testingTwo category, and the third post I sent to both of those categories.
What I expected to happen:
I expected the blog's main page to show all three posts and the RSS feed associated with the blogs main page also to show all three posts.
I expected the two posts that WordLand allowed me to quickly place in the testingOne category to show up on the blog's testingOne category page and also in the RSS feed associated with the testingOne category.
I expected the two posts that WordLand allowed me to quickly place in the testingTwo category to show up on the blog's testingTwo category page and in the RSS feed associated with the testingTwo category.
I'm not saying I haven't overlooked something, but so far all I can see is a very useful feature residing at the intersection of WordLand and WordPress. Many or all other WordLand users may have already noticed it, I couldn't say. And I don't know if the feature is important to the long-term vision for the WordLand and WordPress intersection or not. But it does seem like a happy result of Dave Winer's quest to put an end someday to having to cut and paste your writing into another software space.
This blog post you might have just read to the bottom of is a fuller telling of my inadequate post from the other day.
_____________
*To locate a WordPress RSS feed:
Just add /feed to the end of the main page's URL for an RSS feed containing all posts.
For a category-only feed, click on the category name on any post. The category's blog page will open. Add /feed at the end of that category's URL.
In general, the format for a category's RSS feed is blogsFullUrl/category/coolCategoryName/feed — two examples are linked above.
We have focused on how Trump and his friends use Propaganda to win.
And we will continue learning about it.
But the question is "Why"? Why do they do all of this?
Trump and his friends wants you to believe that there are many reasons, many answers: Saving the country from evil Migrants. No boys in girls toilets. Fraud. Bringing peace. Going to Mars. Saving kids from dying from Measles by avoiding vaccination and taking Vitamin A. Zillions of other reasons.
There is only one answer : Dollars.
Trump Gaza? Some business deal with his real estate friends and son-in-law Jared.
Ukraine? Some billions of rare earth minerals split between Putin and his Russian oligarchs and Trump and his American oligarchs.
Firing federal employees? Any employee who could stop Musk businesses to get federal contracts or Musk getting his bonus as blocked today by a Delaware law.
Cutting federal costs? Finding some dollars to enable big tax cuts to Trump and his billionaire friends.
We will continue pointing to those examples in the future.
Remember, to build their propaganda, they use their preferred techniques (read a hands-on lesson), that we will repeat here:
First, they pick a subject that would strongly emotionally impact anyone
Second, they choose the people they want to portray as evil
So from now on, let's learn to systematically look at the dollars behind any Trump action disguised as propaganda. Look at the dollars because it will illuminate the reasons each individual madness we will hear about every day is happening.
Just look at the dollars.
(updated on March 10, 2025) Corroborating this "spot the Dollars" post, absolutely must see U.S. Senator Chris Murphy's (Democrat) video of the corruption of the first 6 weeks of Trump's White House.
I am blocked from commenting on WordLand Github issues
Some time ago, Dave Winer blocked me from commenting on issues on his Github repos (see this post for more details). Lately, the Github interface for the WordLand support repo seemed to indicate that I could post. However, when I tried to comment on this issue, I got the message "There was a problem saving your […]
Machiavelli tells the oligarch who takes over a society with a custom of liberty: You must destroy that society. If the oligarch does not trash the society's institutions of liberty and isolate the citizens from each other, the memory of liberty will motivate them to cast out the oligarch. From the early pages of Chapter V of The Prince.
One of the powers of composing on WordLand, I believe, is the ability to inform WordPress pretty much instantly which of your RSS feeds you'd like a post to belong to. Or to more than one RSS feed, as well, if I'm reading the clues properly.
I've described this too compactly to reflect the working-together of the two software tools. I'll try to pin down better language.
The mention of a social network built around RSS has come up again. I added my off-the-cuff thoughts on this topic in this post, but I also wanted to review Dave Winer's description on the rssCloud website: There are three sides to the cloud:# The authoring tool. I edit and update a feed. It contains […]
Let’s ask ourselves: Why did Trump spent a long long 2.5 minutes in his address to Congress talking (lying) about millions of people over 100 years old receiving social security checks?
Specifically, Trump said that “Social Security records showed 4.7 million people 100 to 109 were getting checks, 3.6 million 110 to 119 were, that 3.47 million 120 to 129 were, that 3.9 million 130 to 139 were, that 3.5 million 140 to 149 were, that 1.3 million 150 to 159 were — and that even 130,000 people older than 160 years old were getting checks. He also said that several hundred people older than 220 were still getting checks — and that “one person is listed at 360 of age.”
Make an experiment and try to speak for 2.5 minutes: it is a very long time, speaking alone or in front of hundreds of people. And Trump spent this time listing all those numbers. He may not have spent so much time on any other specific subject in his entire address to Congress.
So why?
The answer is simple: Doublespeak. So let’s learn again.
Trump said (lied) that there is a ton of fraud in Social Security. Hearing this, your heartbeat start to go faster. But what he meant to say is that “As you saw, there is a ton of fraud in Social Security so we are going to take back this fraudulent money and use it somewhere else. So do not be surprised that we will be cutting Social Security”.
This is doublespeak: say something that make your emotions go high so you stop thinking. And prepare you for what he wants to come next, which is cutting Social Security.
Amazing masterclass, in front of the entire Congress. Horrifying. Simply horrifying. But we need to learn, so we can block him.
Fascinating to walk though a piece of art and craft built for living in – even got to ring the door bell. (Kudos to one of the other visitors for ding-dong ditching the tour group.) (testing images and WordLand.) Adding … Continue reading →
I am a firm believer in the "river of news" way of reading RSS feeds. Dave Winer has created several "river of news" RSS aggregators (the latest is River5, available on Github). As part of this effort, Dave also created some tools for display of a river of news in a single-page application, using the output […]
I have just watched the video of the Trump/Zelensky meeting and Kaitlan Collins' assessment of the meeting. I think something needs to be done to hold Trump and Vance to account for their disgraceful and disrespectful behavior toward Zelensky. I am trying to think of what I should do. For now, I have labeled the […]
In Dave Winer's initial post today, it appears that he is responding to my WordLand post from yesterday – nice! Since it appears there is an opportunity for dialogue, I will continue with my thoughts about WordLand (HUGE DISCLAIMER: these are my thoughts, and I am not implying that anyone else has these thoughts). I […]
I see mentions on Dave Winer's blog about other WordLand users – that's good. I want to commend Dave Winer for bringing this tool to fruition – more innovation is needed in editors. I saw comments about people saying "what about this? can it do this? that doesn't work the way I wanted…". That's fine […]
The lawlessness, cruelty, and corruption has gone too far. On April 5, we unite to say: Hands Off!
