News
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Better News
I learned that a small plane landed on the Hudson near Newburgh, NY* from a notification on my laptop that said the story was from WNYC. So I went there. Found nothing. Then I went to Google News and searched for plane+hudson. Wanting to give some linklove to one of the local news (formerly newspaper)… Continue reading
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Sun Daisies
Some reading for today::: War is a dirty business, by Scott Bateman MBE, on X. HT to Tanya Weiman for her comment here. Catch the lunar eclipse on Tuesday. In case I don’t remind you. Or me. A thank you to Brian Linse for his kind words on Bluesky. Fact: one of the best parties I’ve ever… Continue reading
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War on Peace
You may have noticed there is a war going on. I’m not here to cover it. I’m here to cover, or at least visit, stories about it. See, stories themselves are a problem, both in human nature (we love and live stories) and in journalism, which feeds and is fed on the human appetite for stories,… Continue reading
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Tornado Spotting
I left dinner at the Uptown to stand at the corner of Kirkwood and College in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, to shoot the tornado my phone just told me had formed eight miles west of there. That’s where I was facing when I shot this video, from which I pulled a bunch of screen grabs in… Continue reading
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Weekstart
Or both Monday and Tuesday? If Saturday and Sunday are the weekend, why not call Monday the Weekstart? Smart? Or just good at whatever this is? An AI counterargument to the mirror thesis. And not just because my name gets dropped in it. This Ezra Klein podcast with Cory Doctorow and Tim Wu is required listening.… Continue reading
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Webnesday
The Oligarch Giveth, and The Oligarch Taketh Away The Guardian: ‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers—Former Post executive editor blasts owner Jeff Bezos’s ‘sickening efforts to curry favor’ with Trump This Pew study says 25% of US adults get news regularly from the Washington Post. (Disclosure: I subscribe, and I’m… Continue reading
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Toes Day
Conched Out Conch is big food here on Harbour Island. Because there are a lot of them, I suppose. Ate some battered and fried conch yesterday at the Queen Conch (also the name of this species, aka Aliger gigas), on a dock above the water. Beside the dock on one side is a fenced conch… Continue reading
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Who New?
Might be Winter Every day it snows a little here. Required reading. Seriously. Adrian Gropper: Taking Control of Your Healthcare is More Important Than Ever—Get help from a private AI that works for you – and only you. Announcing the North Atlantic Takeover Organization I avoid politics here, but it’s hard not to hear echoes… Continue reading
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Mittwoch
Overheard Copilot is the new Clippy. Another one bites the sky In NiemanLab, Joshua Benton asks, Will Pittsburgh become America’s most important city without a newspaper? Sure, if you're just counting the size of the city. But the paper itself was kind of a mess anyway, at least as Joshua tells it. I'm guessing that ways will… Continue reading
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The Science Kid
That’s me, with George F. R. Buletza, the principal of Maywood (NJ) Junior High. I was in the 8th grade, five-foot-three and eighty-three pounds, still with hair, no body fat, and obsessed by sciences in general and radio in particular. From my bedroom window I could see the lights atop the towers of New York’s… Continue reading
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Saturdaze
Exceedingly common, turns out I was excited to see and shoot a butterfly (above) that a search (remember that?) tells me is a Common Buckeye. The News in Hues Poynter says Nexstar hopes to get its bid to buy Tegna (politically speaking) red-lit. It’s one more way the Redstream eats the Mainstream. Heavy Earth is two… Continue reading
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Else wares
Not enough water Hotels on the south rim of the Grand Canyon are closed indefinitely. Naturally The most downloaded country song is by an AI. Or Not Says here the AI bubble will burst. Geoffrey Hinton, Big AI’s Cassandra, says otherwise. Continue reading
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Findings
Toward personal AI. Balnce wants to give everyone "their own personal supercomputer. "You can start with a "personal intent navigator" app. I just downloaded mine for the iPhone. (It's mobile only so far.) We'll see how it goes. Closer lookings Johnny Ryan says "the Commission’s (and Germany’s) plan to gut EU digital rules will hurt Europe’s… Continue reading
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Workings
Photos from the 41st IIW. Also from the first Agentic Internet Workshop. Many pix among them are of our group working on MyTerms, which I believe will be the biggest advance for the Web since the Web* itself. Nitin Batjatia: The Coming Illumination: When AI Reveals How Work Really Happens. Related, from an Amazon earnings call, how… Continue reading
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As foretold by Avatar
As a half-Swede (my Mom was one), it is sad to learn that Trump has demolished Yggdrasil, the Ancient Tree of Life. Continue reading
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Questions of Law, not Just Politics
Go to HUD.gov, and you’ll get this: Go to USDA.gov, and you’ll get this: Seems to me these violate the Hatch Act, aka “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.” It was passed in 1939 and amended a couple of times since then. I am not a lawyer, but I know some, and I can… Continue reading
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New Life for LIVE
Colbert’s cancellation looks political, but it’s not. The show was a ratings winner, but a money loser. And the ratings for all of late night, like all of live TV, have been in decline for decades, along with the question, “What’s on?” We live in the Age of Optionality now. Watch or listen to whatever… Continue reading
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Wednesday
Cause for pessimism. There is a stat in basketball called VORP, for Value Over Replacement Player. I’d like one for coaches: VORC, for Value Over Replacement Coach. If such a stat existed, Tom Thibodeau’s VORC would be pretty high. Minnesota and Chicago both fell after he left. Bonus link: Nate Silver, Knicks fan, Thibs non-fan. Not… Continue reading
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Tuesday
Whatever, it's complicated. The Narrow Path Needs a Floorplan: What Happens When You Feed Tristan Harris’s Vision Into the Meta-layer. The path is between the DYSTOPIA of centralized control and the CHAOS of "unchecked decentralized" whatever. The path is called COORDINATION, and involves "global clarity & coordinated action," which is about "co-governance—a path where humanity chooses structure,… Continue reading
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Departments of Correction
Fortunately, we've already got it here: unlimited 2GB/s symmetrical service for $59/month. Bloomington's city fiber rollout has been paused by the mayor. Here's square's story about it, which is also in Bloomdocs—an example of a news commons at work. One more reason to move off Chrome? A URL that begins with chrome-extension://efwhaddfugisallthisjiveepwnj/ before it gets to http:// is not… Continue reading