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Fun
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Miscellaneous
In an online conversation the other day, I wanted to use the word “gull” to describe someone who was easily fooled. The intended recipients had probably never heard that word used in that context, but they generally like to learn new words and usages. As I was wondering whether to use it, I suddenly wondered whether I’d remembered the term incorrectly and looked it up to double-check. I looked up sucker (Merriam Webster) and stumbled upon a delightful collection of synonyms for “sucker”:
“chump, dupe, gull, mug... [More]”
Published by marco on in Quotes
“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions–poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed–which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.”
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Quotes
“Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.”
Published by marco on in Quotes
“The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.”
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Books
This is the latest roundup of book titles that my Kindle shows me when I’m not reading it. Long ago, I considered paying to turn off this advertising, but it’s proven to be so entertaining that I’m happy I never gave in and did it. This is a view into what people are reading or what Amazon would like people to be reading or … whatever. I simply observe and catalog. I also sometimes have to hide my Kindle in public places so that no-one calls the police for what they think I’m reading.[1]
Published by marco on in Movies
These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my... [More]
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
... [More]
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Public Policy & Politics
This is an excellent interview with Steven Donziger, who’s a corporate/political prisoner in America. He is an American lawyer who was instrumental in helping an international team get a multi-billion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuador for their poisoning of the environment and reckless endangerment of indigenous peoples.
The interview starts at 28:00.
Lawyer Steven Donziger Under House Arrest for Suing Chevron by Useful Idiots (YouTube)
Ecuador’s indigenous peoples won the judgment, and courts everywhere in the world but in the U.S. have recognized it. Chevron will... [More]
Published by marco on in Technology & Engineering
You would think that the latest version of MacOS would work seamlessly with the latest version of iOS during an upgrade.
I had my iPhone plugged in to my Mac to charge. I noticed on the phone that it wanted to upgrade the OS, but figured I’d do the upgrade through the Mac so I could use the keyboard and mouse to navigate.
Suspiciously, MacOS did not seem to be aware that there was an upgrade pending for the phone. I refreshed the status and then it noticed that there was an upgrade and... [More]
Published by marco on in Technology & Engineering
I’m a former Google Play Music user. I’ve recently moved to YouTube Music.[1], which is not very friendly for people with large playlists:
All of these things make managing a library a pretty big hassle. It’s like they’ve never heard of my use case before.
... [More]
Published by marco on in Programming
The article Introducing C# 10 by Ken Bonny discloses some incremental but very welcome changes to the C# language in the iteration that will be released with .NET 6 in November.
In no particular order:
field in property accesses to manipulate the backing property without having to define it. This is a welcome improvement that will clean up useless boilerplate for properties that need to do something with the value before storing it (e.g. field.Trim())required keyword for properties in any of the... [More]Published by marco on in Technology & Engineering
I finally upgraded to MacOS Big Sur[1] after waiting over nine months. I’d grown quite comfortable with Catalina. My only complaint was an occasionally flaky wireless connection, which seems to be better in Big Sur.
As for Big Sur, there are a lot of smaller improvements. The control panel is nice. The Bluetooth menu is better. The notification center is better, overall.
I thought I’d hate the more rounded look, but I really don’t. I like it. I find the new style more immediately legible and... [More]
Published by marco on in Programming
Out of curiosity, I looked up how dependency injection works in functional languages. I stumbled upon this amazing article series—Six approaches to dependency injection by Scott Wlaschin (F# for Fun and Profit)
—that presents five different techniques—from very simple and easily applicable to more complex, but potentially robust.
The article series applies various abstraction techniques to a program that reads input, processes it, and writes it out again. The reading and writing are impure operations and should be abstracted... [More]
Published by marco on in Sports
I caught the last 30 minutes of Chelsea vs. MCI in the Champions League final last week. It showed both sides of football. Both sides played absolutely brilliantly and it was a nail-biter right up until the last seconds.
It also showed what’s wrong with football — the team in the lead started strategically chewing the scenery on several questionable “contacts”. As a long-time hockey fan, I think it’s just shameful and unnecessary to flop around to defend a lead.
The team was... [More]
Published by marco on in Public Policy & Politics
I honestly don’t remember what Donald Trump’s message was, but I happened to read the latest letter from an American president—this time it’s Joe Biden.
“My fellow American,
“[…]
“A key part of the American Rescue Plan is direct payments of $1,400 per person for most American households. With the $600 direct payment from December, this brings the total relief payment up to $2,000. This fulfills a promise I made to you, and will help get millions of Americans through this crisis.”
The U.S.... [More]
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Science & Nature
Virologist Christian Drosten was very good on his weekly podcast, (88) Impfmission possible by Das Coronavirus-Update von NDR Info (Apple Podcasts). In this episode, he lays down the cold facts: COVID will become endemic in the west. Get vaccinated or get COVID. There is no choice (C).
An English translation follows the German citation.
At 48:00,
“Christian Drosten: Jeder wird immun werden. 100%. Nicht 70% oder 80% sondern 100% in der Bevölkerung werden unweigerlich—ich würde mal sagen, in einem Fenster das von jetzt noch so anderthalb Jahre... [More]”
Published by marco on in Philosophy, Sociology, & Culture
This was a great interview with John McWhorter: ‘The Idea That America Is All About Despising Black People? That’s Fantasy.‘ by Nick Gillespie (Apple Podcasts) He recently wrote a book called Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. I haven’t read it, but I’ve read several essays of his. In one of his essays, he named “The Elect” as the keepers of a new religion online.
The interview was illuminating, with a lot of it transcribed below. Gillespie is a good interviewer, preferring to get out of the way... [More]
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Miscellaneous
I spotted this box of “lane Ground Biscuits” at the local grocer’s.
lane Ground Biscuits overpromises
It may, on the surface, look like a box containing a bag full of pre-crushed cookies. I assume that that’s what “ground biscuits” are. This box was on the shelf next to other boxes of “biscuits”, with a picture of what looked like…cookies.
So far, so good.
What the company that makes it thinks it is, is
“[…] all you need […] to free your imagination and to enjoy in infinite possibilities to be creative, to have fun... [More]”
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.
Published by marco on in Notes
Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.