Although this eight-minute video’s title is a misnomer—NTP isn’t an obscure system, in that it is incredibly well-documented—it is still a reasonably informative and entertaining explainer.

The Obscure System That Syncs All The World’s Clocks by Half as Interesting (YouTube)

The system is called NTP—the Network Time Protocol—and comprises four tiers.

• Tier 0 is Atomic clocks, which measures the resonant frequency of Cesium atoms to obtain a regular “ticking” from nature itself.
• These are attached to servers in Stratum 1, usually a machine that is on-site.
• These are,... [More]

In November of 2024, Microsoft released a lot of videos about .NET to accompany the release of .NET 9. I watched/listened to a lot of these, with varying levels of attention paid. When something caught my attention, I took notes. These videos are roughly in the other than I watched them, although I reserved the right to shuffle them about a bit to improve grouping.

AI

1. AI Building Blocks − A new, unified AI layer by Steve Sanderson
2. Discover the Latest GitHub Copilot Features for .NET... [More]

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

1. Gandhi (1982) — 9/10
2. Ultraman S01 (2024) — 5/10
3. Man on the Inside (2024) — 7/10
4. Borg vs. McEnroe (2017) — 8/10
5. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) — 8/10
6. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) — 7/10
7. Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) — 7/10
8. The Tomorrow War (2021) — 4/10
9. Goldeneye (1995) — 8/10
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Black and White) (1981) — 9/10

Gandhi (1982) — 9/10

The first scene shows us the end. It introduces us... [More]

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 They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts.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

Table of Contents

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

This is a six-minute video of Jonathan Pie going on a tear against the true criminals: the so-called ruling class that is making even people at the hearts of empires miserable.

The Corporate Con. by Jonathan Pie (YouTube)

“Most of our public services are now owned by private companies whose main purpose—and, in most cases, only purpose—is to make profit. They don’t work for you or the government or the council. They work for shareholders and nobody else. And it’s a pretty good system, if you own shares in that company.
... [More]”

I don’t even know what to transcribe because, whenever Chris Hedges speaks, it’s worth citing, and he speaks for nearly the entire 30 minutes, as Hill allows him to speak at length. This is an excellent distillation of the situation in the American Empire as it is, rooted in the historical context of both its own past, as well as similar contexts in the Roman Empire as well as in Italy and Germany in the first half of the 20th century.

Yuck it up, assholesThey discuss the failures of so-called liberalism at... [More]

This video of the best moments in international table tennis in 2024 is nine minutes long and, if you’re a bit of a fan, it goes by in no time flat. Most of the segments are narrated in English and German.

Table Tennis Best Points Of 2024 by ttrio2016 (YouTube)

I learned that a behind-the-back shot is sometimes called a “Strawberry Shot”. I have no idea why. There’s also a “Snake Shot”, which is putting so much backspin on the shot from below the table that it winds its way back to your side of the table after briefly touching down on the other... [More]

I recently turned on two-factor authentication for my relatively rarely but still occasionally used Google account.

In the screenshot below, at the very top of the page, Google sure makes it seem like I need to finally add that phone number that Google has been begging me for … for, gosh, it’s gotta be decades by now. Now, they’re not just begging me, but are outright lying to me that I will no longer be able to use my account unless I divulge my phone number.

Is a phone number required for two-step verification?

I don’t wanna add a phone... [More]

There isn’t that much more to say than that it seems like a $4T company is incapable of making something as straightforward as music search work in anything approaching a comprehensible manner. The evidence is below.

I searched for the album Apple Cores by the James Brandon Lewis Trio. The top hit was Danny Elfman, for no discernible reason, followed by a smattering of completely random search results, like Greatest Love Story by LANCO, Sweet Child O’ Mine, a playlist called “Family Time”,... [More]

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

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

At about 30:00,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, their online presence is … not good.

Navigation debacle in 2021

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

Online-account... [More]

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

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

Catholic Cowgirl (2024) — 7/10

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

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

Conclave (2024) — 9/10

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

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

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

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

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

“It can be... [More]”

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

Table of Contents

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

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

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

Utica Air Quality is 243 (very unhealthy)

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tschugger S01–S02 (2021–2022) — 9/10

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

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

Background

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