Our cat Sammy has far more confidence in my ability to avoid stepping on him when he’s sprawled out on the floor than I do.

It’s 84 degrees in my office, I just started drinking a blazing hot cup of strong coffee, and I can’t find the remote control to turn on the ceiling fan.

[Boonton New Jersey, circa 1960])https://reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/cd4c4t/boonton_new_jersey_circa_1960/)

On the 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy podcast: Pornography: Examining claims that pornography helped develop the Internet, and every other form of new media for several centuries. (Photography was so expensive in the 19th Century that a pornographic image cost more than time with an actual prostitute.) The Internet initially made it possible for pornographers to make money, but now it’s making it more difficult. (I almost said “making it harder” there.)

On the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast: Science Fiction Explains Our Messed Up Economy. Economist Noah Smith discusses how different theories of economics show up in science fiction, and how economics is itself an exercise in speculative worldbuilding. Also, the economic theory of “rational actors” pervades classic midcentury space opera, and everybody’s obsessed with game theory. And discussion of the most influential science fiction writer of the past century: Ayn Rand.

I’m finally remembering to bring grocery bags when shopping. Thus is the number of F-bombs dropped in the supermarket parking lot reduced.

đŸ“ș We got 10 minutes into the second episode of “Stranger Things” and we’re done with it. Teenage mall culture of the 80s holds no interest; I was too old for that back then. Also, everyone seems to have become nincompoops and mediocre sitcom characters, particularly Sheriff Hopper.

The new season of Bosch was outstanding, though. The TV gods taketh away and giveth.

Surveillance cameras show that bystanders will intervene to help in cases of emergency, debunking the so-called "bystander effect" that's been common wisdom in the social sciences for 50 years.

Surveillance Cameras Debunk the Bystander Effect. Richard Florida writing at The Atlantic:

It’s one of the most enduring urban myths of all: If you get in trouble, don’t count on anyone nearby to help. Research dating back to the late 1960s documents how the great majority of people who witness crimes or violent behavior refuse to intervene.

Psychologists dubbed this non-response as the “bystander effect”—a phenomenon which has been replicated in scores of subsequent psychological studies. The “bystander effect” holds that the reason people don’t intervene is because we look to one another. The presence of many bystanders diffuses our own sense of personal responsibility, leading people to essentially do nothing and wait for someone else to jump in….

Previous studies were based on artificial laboratory conditions, but a new study published this year in American Psychologist looked at real emergencies around the world, as recorded by surveillance cameras.

The study finds that in nine out of 10 incidents, at least one bystander intervened, with an average of 3.8 interveners….

Instead of more bystanders creating an immobilizing “bystander effect,” the study actually found the more bystanders there were, the more likely it was that at least someone would intervene to help. This is a powerful corrective to the common perception of “stranger danger” and the “unknown other.” It suggests that people are willing to self-police to protect their communities and others. That’s in line with the research of urban criminologist Patrick Sharkey, who finds that stronger neighborhood organizations, not a higher quantity of policing, have fueled the Great Crime Decline.

The Pinboard social bookmarking service turns 10 and creator Maciej Ceglowski celebrates with his usual dry, delightful wit

I Can’t Stop Winning!

Now that a decade has passed, I thought I would have some Yoda-like business wisdom to impart, but I don’t. It feels just like last year. The journey of 10,000 steps begins with 9,999 steps!

My grandpa sometimes said “you have to help your fate along,” and I always liked this worldview very much, for the way it bolted a work ethic onto fatalism. Things happen, but you can always take credit for tenacity.

A one-person business is an exercise in long-term anxiety management, so I would say if you are already an anxious person, go ahead and start a business. You’re not going to feel any worse. You’ve already got the main skill set of staying up and worrying, so you might as well make some money.

Running an online service solo puts one in the coffin corner between the Dunning Kruger effect and impostor syndrome. On some days you feel the correct but paralyzing sense that you are in way over your head. On other days, you’ll feel like you’re surfing on waves of liquid competence, doing flips, until you destroy something important.

In between the two is a zone of narrow, focused productivity that I hope one day to find….

What does the future hold for Pinboard? Death! The bus that one day comes for us all! The skeletal, icy hand on an unprepared shoulder! Pain, a flash of light, then numbing darkness. So back up your bookmarks.

gail.com FAQ: Gail.com gets a lot of traffic from people who meant to go to gmail.com but made a typo. She’s got a good attitude about it.

Three reasons the American Revolution was a mistake: “Slavery would’ve been abolished earlier, American Indians would’ve faced rampant persecution but not the outright ethnic cleansing Andrew Jackson and other American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of government that makes policymaking easier and lessens the risk of democratic collapse.”

The decentralized, open source Mastodon social network has been invaded by Gab, a pro-Nazi platform.

Gab moved to Mastodon servers recently, leading Mastodon admins and developers struggling with the question whether to ban Gab.

There shouldn’t be any struggle. Free speech includes the right – even obligation – of the owners of platforms to block speech they find hateful. That’s a particularly easy decision for Mastodon, which is not Facebook- or Twitter-scale.

Adit Robertson on The Verge: How the biggest decentralized social network is dealing with its Nazi problem

“The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!”

A new technique uses space-based satellite surveillance to prevent bridge collapses, by detecting defects smaller than the thickness of a dime.

The new technique uses computer modeling and high-resolution satellite images to detect subtle shifts in a bridge’s structure that could indicate that it’s starting to fail. Some of the changes are so tiny that they could be undetectable during traditional visual inspections, the scientists say. The new technique uses computer modeling and high-resolution satellite images to detect subtle shifts in a bridge’s structure that could indicate that it’s starting to fail. Some of the changes are so tiny that they could be undetectable during traditional visual inspections, the scientists say.

When Natural Disasters Strike, Operation BBQ Swoops In With Relief — And Ribs

Operation BBQ Relief: Competitive barbecuers flock to disaster scenes to serve up delicious hot food to victims and rescuers. “I thought, who better than some guys who set up in parking lots every weekend to bring a comfort meal?” … “Barbecue is comfort food … It reminds people of good times with friends and family, and gives them hope for those good times again.” Plus, barbecue meals tend to be hearty and high in protein — good for periods of scarcity…. [many disaster survivors] haven’t had a warm meal in days.

A court in Dresden, Germany, sentenced two men to prison for copyright infringement – on Usenet Yes, Usenet is still a thing. [The Register]

Matt Yglesias and Jenny Schuetz solve the housing crisis

Vox journalist Matt Yglesias talks with Jenny Scheutz, housing economist and fellow at the Brookings Institution to untangle the US housing crisis.

Some threads: Exclusionary zoning is a big part of the problem; people in affluent neighborhoods don’t want to see more housing built. Rent control tends to exacerbate problems by discouraging rental property. Tying up so much American middle-class wealth in housing makes it hard to drive down prices; if your entire retirement is tied up in your house, as it is for many Americans, you’re going to fight to keep prices as high as possible, which hurts the poor, lower-middle-class and young adults.

Rural America Might See More 5G With FCC's New 2.5GHz Order

But the plan draws criticism. Mike Dano reports on Light Reading:

“Today’s vote doubles down on the same auction-driven spectrum policies that have left rural America unserved and low-income students forced to do their homework on WiFi in McDonald’s parking lots,” added John Schwartz, president and founder of Voqal, a company that acts as a middleman between schools that want to lease EBS spectrum and companies like Sprint that want access to that spectrum. “Instead of updating EBS and expanding on the strong track record of licensees such as Voqal – which is proud of our record of serving schools and low-income communities – the Commission has voted to commercialize a vital public asset.”

Shoelace is Google's new social network

Sarah Perez on TechCrunch

A new project from Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120, aims to help people find things to do and others who share your same interests. Through a new app called Shoelace — a name designed to make you think of tying things together — users can browse through a set of hand-picked activities, or add their own to a map. For example, someone who wanted to connect with fellow dog owners could start an activity for a doggie playdate at the park, then start a group chat to coordinate the details and make new friends.

The end result feels a bit like a mashup of Facebook Events with a WhatsApp group chat, perhaps. But it’s wrapped in a clean, modern design that appeals more to the millennial or Gen Z user.

I’d rather use Facebook, WhatsApp, Meetup or some other service that’s likely to still be here in a year.

I see Google is starting yet another social network.

Google+, Google Reader, Google Buzz, Google Wave, Orkut, and Dodgeball weren’t enough for them.

If this new one seems interesting to you, enjoy it, but don’t expect it to be around in three years.

Weirdly, Google is actually one of the two most successful social media companies in the world. But nobody thinks of them that way. And other than that one spectacular hit, Google has been an utter disaster at social media.

You’re just embarrassing yourself, Google – stay home.

Recycling: People should stop thinking of recycling as a virtue, and start considering whether individual recycling programs are actually doing good. On the 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy podcast.

Can You Hear It? Sonic Devices Play High-Pitched Noises To Repel Teens

Philadelphia is putting a gadget in 30 parks and recreation centers that blares a constant, high-pitched ringing noise that only teens and young adults can hear, all night long. Some 20 parks departments around the country are implementing the youth-repellent devices. But the devices are also extremely annoying to some older adults with sensitive ears. And critics say the campaigns are just prejudice, and wrong.

“In a city that is trying to address gun violence and safe spaces for young people,” Philadelphia City Council member Helen Gym tells NPR, “how dare we come up with ideas that are funded by taxpayer dollars to turn young people away from the very places that were created for them?”

Gym is right. Ban behavior, not people.

Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong

In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids….

What if the best way to boost reading comprehension is not to drill kids on discrete skills but to teach them, as early as possible, the very things we’ve marginalized—including history, science, and other content that could build the knowledge and vocabulary they need to understand both written texts and the world around them?

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/…

Jibes with my own experiences as a child. Reading comprehension books bored me. I learned to read in school but taught myself to get good at it at home, with books I found interesting, generally science fiction.

They finally built a better ketchup bottle. And soon it’s going to be everywhere. www.washingtonpost.com/business/…

The bottle will be everywhere. Not the ketchup.

I don’t use much ketchup anymore, but it will be a happy day when they start using this for Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard and Sriracha sauce.

IBM: We Won’t ‘Bluewash’ Red Hat: IBM executives say they’d be fools to compromise Red Hat’s independence, following the $34 billion acquisition that closed this week. By me on Light Reading. www.lightreading.com/cloud/ibm…

ONAP ‘Dublin’ Lightens Network Orchestration: The latest release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) sports enhancements designed to get the software up and running faster, so carriers can get on with sexy innovation. www.lightreading.com/open-sour…

" … much of the dysfunction of tech regulation — from botched anti-sex-trafficking laws to the EU’s plan to impose mass surveillance and censorship to root out copyright infringement — are the result of trying to jury-rig tools to fix the problems of monopolies, without using anti-monopoly laws, because they have been systematically gutted for 40 years." craphound.com/news/2019…

Built on Sand: “Wherever we go, we’re surrounded by sand. It’s in the floors beneath us, walls around us and ceilings above us, plus the sidewalks and roads we use to get from place to place. Sand is a key ingredient in concrete, asphalt, and glass, not to mention the silicon chips inside our phones and computers. It is an essential component of modern life as we know it, yet, strangely enough, we are starting to run out.” 99percentinvisible.org/episode/b…

IBM Builds Telco Muscle With $34B Red Hat Acquisition: IBM sees its combination with Red Hat as enabling a full virtualization stack for service providers, from infrastructure to OSS and everything in between. My latest on Light Reading. www.lightreading.com/cloud/ibm…

USA’s formidable women’s team is no accident. It’s a product of public policy [Moira Donegan/The Guardian]

… title IX effectively turned the American education system into the world’s most successful women’s sporting development organization. The success story of women’s sports under title IX shows how marginalized groups can be given opportunities through policy interventions; how the talents and passions of individuals can be fostered when they have institutional support.

Pratik talks about taking photos on vacation, blogging in a post-Facebook world, and inability to do the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” salute.

Micro Monday: Pratik

Why measles returned

Why Is Measles Back? [The Atlantic]

Peter Beinart, the author of this article, blames the anti-vax movement on rising idiocracy, but downplays betrayal by government, business and the medical establishment. Anti-vaxxers are wrong about vaccines, but they’re right to mistrust institutions.

Shedding Light On Domestic Violence [Fresh Air podcast]. An average of four women are killed by their partners every day in America. Crisis center CEO Suzanne Dubus and journalist Rachel Louise Snyder talk about identifying risk factors in abusive relationships, prevention, and how to set victims up with resources to rebuild their lives. Snyder’s book is ‘No Visible Bruises.’

Spreadsheet [50 Things That Made the Moden Economy podcast]. A grid on a computer screen gives us a glimpse of the future of automated work. There are 400,000 fewer accounting clerks today than they were in 1980, the year after the PC spreadsheet debuted. But there are 600,000 more accountants.

Weeding is Fundamental [99% Invisible podcast.] When the San Francisco Public Library renovated 20 years ago, librarians fought to stop administrators from throwing out hundreds of books, and the card catalog.

First impressions of micro.blog: Community, people and content looks great. Design and UI are wonderfully simple. Performance is slooooow. Hopefully I signed up on a bad day.

Get a Spine! Stories about people – including a scientist who studies invertebrates – who get a spine, finding the courage to do what needs doing. On the This American Life podcast.

Maureen Dowd: It’s Nancy Pelosi’s Parade - The New York Times

I’m feeling warmer toward Pelosi after reading this article; she’s less of a toady to Trump than I thought. She’s clearly trying to oppose Trump, implement a progressive agenda, while keeping the moderate Democrats – in other words, the big-money donors – on board.

Still, she needs to understand that Trump and the Republicans are the enemy; they are not the loyal opposition. Pelosi is a peacetime consigliere, not a wartime consigliere, and this is war.

And Dowd is Patient Zero for the epidemic of corporate executives who have become coopted by the institutions they’re supposed to cover.