Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker: In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War. Alt creators such as YouTube stars and Substack authors are overtaking traditional media, and traditional media is oblivious to the race.

Charles Stross: Tech Billionaires Need to Stop Trying to Make the Science Fiction They Grew Up on Real

A Knight’s Tale is the Best Medieval Film (No, Really)

One of the things I absolutely adore about A Knight’s Tale is that it makes no pretense at historical accuracy anywhere within its length.

— John Scalzi

Another one for the to-rewatch list.

I think Democrats wake up every morning and they look at the calendar on the iPhone and it says January 6th. The date never changes. And then they get into an electric vehicle and go get an abortion.

— Kellyanne Conway

I like to have coffee first but otherwise can confirm.

Federal Judge Blocks New California Law Banning Concealed Handguns in Public Places. I bet U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney does not allow guns in his courtroom, other than sheriff’s officers and police.

Trump vows to amp up the Hitler talk

A fanatical Ohio prosecutor charged a woman with abuse of a corpse after she had a miscarriage in a restroom.

The family of an Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas is suing the Red Cross over ignoring the needs of captives.

JULIE: “I’m going to try a new herb and rice.”
ME: “I don’t think I should be eating rice.”
JULIE: “Not rice. Spice. Urban spice.”
ME: “Oh, ok. Sounds good.” (pause) “What’s urban spice?”
JULIE: “Not urban spice. Herb. And. Spice.”

Julie, exhausted, fainted.

Threads is getting an API. This seems to be separate from ActivityPub. I’m looking forward to this being implemented—I haven’t been posting to Threads as much as I do elsewhere, because doing it manually is inconvenient . @manton, have you seen this?

I am quite enjoying John Scalzi’s December Comfort Watch movie list and have added about half the titles to my to-be-watched-list.

I’m done with challenging and important entertainment for a while. The news is challenging enough nowadays.

We went to the San Diego Natural History Museum Sunday, which proved to be a personal milestone for me—my first time receiving a senior discount.

My chagrin at having the word “senior” applied to me was offset by getting a discount. So, um, yay I guess?

The Everywhereist: Every Relationship In Love, Actually, Listed In Order of How Dysfunctional They Are.. I love this movie and agree with every criticism against it, including this one.

RIP Luiz Barroso, who pioneered the modern data center for Google and made the modern internet possible. Until Barroso, data centers were populated by enormously powerful and expensive computer servers. Barroso instead used massive numbers of relatively inexpensive, disposable machines.

“… we must treat the data center itself as one massive warehouse-scale computer,” Barroso said.

Barroso was one of those immigrants that Republicans say are vermin polluting America’s blood.

Sivraj and Me. Phil Gomes created a personal AI advisor using GPT Builder, with a sarcastic personality based on Jarvis from the Iron Man movies.

This is brilliant. I’m going to try something like it.

Humans are a basically civilized species. We know not to go barefoot in restaurants, treat our friends’ living rooms like landfills or nap on the shoulder of our office cubicle mate. And yet, as soon as we step inside an airport or onto a plane, our manners seem to vanish. Perhaps it’s the delirium of travel or the belief that everyday rules do not apply to vacations, much like calories don’t count on holiday and foreign currencies aren’t real money. Or maybe there has never been a canon for proper passenger behavior — until now.

— The 52 definitive rules of flying

Amazon is asking workers experiencing financial hardship to write to the company mascot (named “Peccy”) for help.

Amazon would rather ask its workers to humiliate themselves instead of paying living wages.

Meanwhile, founder and chair Jeff Bezos is worth $172 billion, and the company tripled its profits to $9.9B in its most recent quarter.

John Scalzi has a delightful short essay on “Die Hard," a movie that works so well because of its wonderful cast. Even small parts get their moments to shine.

And of course “Die Hard” created thousands of variations and ripoffs. My favorite “Die Hard” variation is “Paul Blart, Mall Cop.” The way I remember it (it’s been a few years), Paul Blart is a hero–and he was a hero all along: Courageous, loyal, and ingenious.

Thankfully, Scalzi spends only a little time on the question of whether DH was a Christmas movie. That was a good joke the first year it came up but enough already. Sometimes the Internet can be like a four-year-old that just wants to keep telling the same knock-knock joke over and over and over and over…..

Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon in the last scene of The Gilded Age. Oh boy.

Merry Christmas from these grizzly bears at the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park.

The iPhone’s Notes App Is the Purest Reflection of Our Messy Existence.

If you want to know who someone truly is—what they eat, what books they read, what movies they watch, or how furious they get inside their own minds—you should probably check their Notes app.