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Clearly we should not elect people President just because they are celebrities, but if we’re going around electing people President just because they are celebrities, why couldn’t we have elected Dolly Parton?

We’ve started watching The Morning Show, which I am pleased to see continues an unbroken record of TV characters named Mitch being jerks.

Every time I read up about IndieWeb I get a headache. So confusing!

I get that regular people may never be interested in IndieWeb but the technology is downright hostile to people who don’t already understand it.

Martin Luther King: Blacks and poor people get "welfare" but whites and rich people get "subsidies"

kottke.org quotes King:

Whenever the government provides opportunities and privileges for white people and rich people they call it “subsidized” when they do it for Negro and poor people they call it “welfare.” The fact that is the everybody in this country lives on welfare. Suburbia was built with federally subsidized credit. And highways that take our white brothers out to the suburbs were built with federally subsidized money to the tune of 90 percent. Everybody is on welfare in this country. The problem is that we all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor. That’s the problem."

It is absolutely fine to rip your books in half

Constance Grady/vox.com:

On Monday morning, an apparently innocuous tweet summoned a storm of controversy on Twitter.

“Yesterday my colleague called me a ‘book murderer’ because I cut long books in half to make them more portable,” said the novelist and editor Alex Christofi. “Does anyone else do this? Is it just me?”…

There is something deeply romantic about the idea of holding a physical book in your hands: feeling the weight of it, the smoothness of the pages, and above all else the smell. The smell of books is a particular obsession in popular culture; you can buy candles or perfumes that try to approximate it, and on TV, characters who love books are always demonstrating their bookishness by waxing poetic about the smell….

The codex — the printed paper book that we hold in our hands, which took over for the scroll as our dominant reading format in the West in the fourth century AD — is an old, old technology. We’re still working out the kinks with e-books, but at this point, the codex is out of beta testing. Most of its bugs have been fixed over the past 17 centuries. It’s been streamlined and optimized into an incredibly simple, intuitive system.

And part of what makes the codex so valuable is that it is a malleable technology. It is easy for individual users to reshape it in whatever way best suits their own individual needs.

Fetishizing books, says Grady, started in the 18 Century, by the paper industry.

I still read a lot of books. I have been a compulsive reader since I was 8 years old. I went through one or two books a week as a teen-ager. I read fewer books than I used to – today, I read a lot of articles on the web – but, still, I read a lot of books. About a dozen a year.

And I have never fetishized the books themselves. They have always been text delivery objects. I’ve dog-eared the pages, broken the spines, left them on the bathroom floor, and spilled stuff on them. Once, when I was still smoking, I accidentally set one on fire.

And now I don’t even read print books anymore. I’ve been virtually ebook only for nearly 10 years, since I got my first iPad in spring of 2010.

Also, same deal for sockpuppetknifefight.com. If you want that domain for a real project – not to squat on – it’s yours.

My blog used to be called Monkeys in my Pants. Explanation. I own the domain monkeysinmypants.com. It expires Feb. 19. You can have it at cost.

Just promise to put a real website there – no domainers.

On Reddit: “My great uncle Charley Brock. Played football at Nebraska then the Green Bay Packers. Pic taken ~1936.”

That young gentleman knew how to wear a hat.

Via

Brooklyn, 1945. Students protesting the “no pants to school” rule via

Silicon Valley Abandons the Culture That Made It the Envy of the World theatlantic.com

Alexis Madrigal: Silicon Valley is killing startup culture. Now, executives from Facebook and Google are facing antitrust action and argue they need to be big to compete with China.

Opening shot of one of my favorite movies, “Almost Famous,” then and now. Ocean Beach, San Diego – about 12 miles from our house. Via

The lost neighborhood under New York’s Central Park

The land that is now Central Park was site of a village of 1,600 people, “many of whom were escaping the crowded and increasingly dangerous conditions of lower Manhattan.”

Ranjani Chakraborty, vox.com:

Among them was a predominantly black community that bought up affordable plots to build homes, churches, and a school. The area became known as Seneca Village. And when Irish and German immigrants moved in, it became a rare example of racial harmony in an integrated neighborhood during this period.

Everything changed on July 21, 1853. Through eminent domain, New York City took control of the land to create what would become the first major landscaped park in the US. They called it “the Central Park.”

Ranjani Chakraborty, vox.com

Nototo note taking software organizes notes on a literal map, with islands, flowers, trees, etc. Nifty, but practical?

A dentist was convicted on 46 felony and misdemeanor counts after filming himself performing a dental extraction while riding a hoverboard – cnn.com

Oddly, this did not happen in Florida.

Isaac Asimov's roaming hands

Asimov’s Empire, Asimov’s Wall – daily.jstor.org

Alec Nevala-Lee reflects on Asimov’s twin legacies: As a prolific and talented writer who made strides for science fiction, science and reason; and as a serial groper and sexual harasser who made science fiction and the scientific community more hostile to women – even as Asimov declared himself to be a feminist and spoke out loudly in favor of women’s rights.

Thanks to @manton for responding to a help request from me on Friday night, within minutes, and without pointing out that the problem was my own fault in the first place.

Within minutes, he responded. On a Friday night.

Dave Winer: I'm re-thinking RSS now

RSS forces “blogging into the title-description-body model of journalism. But blog posts are more free-form, they don’t all fit into that structure,” Dave says.

One major reason I’m taking a break from WordPress now and trying micro.blog full time is that micro.blog is more graceful in how it handles untitled posts. For most blog posts, I dislike titles intensely. It’s a big deal for me.

Somewhere in the mid-2000s, there evolved a consensus opinion that blog posts needed to be at least a few hundred words long, with a title. Blog posts needed to be carefully composed and ideally with at least one image, according to this school of thought.

This is dead wrong. Blogging can be those things, but it should be freeform. Just write what you want, for however long you want, organized or disorganized, with or without an image. A blog post can be a single sentence, casually tossed off while waiting at the grocery cashier. Or it can be a long article, composed and revised carefully over several days.

This statement could be read as Dave Winer disavowing blogging and RSS. Which would be extraordinary.

I expect I’m misunderstanding him.

TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent

The federal Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a Native American woman who said an agent at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport “pulled her braids” and said “giddy up!” when she took a flight from there this week.

“The agent said she needed to pat down my braids,” tweeted Tara Houska, an indigenous rights advocate and attorney. “She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed and said ‘giddyup!’ as she snapped my braids like reins. My hair is part of my spirit. I am a Native woman. I am angry, humiliated. Your ‘fun’ hurt.”

Houska, who is Ojibwe, added: “When I informed the middle-aged blonde woman who had casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me, she said, ‘Well it was just in fun, I’m sorry. Your hair is lovely.’

“That is NOT an apology and it is NOT OK.”

TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent The Guardian

More pizza, fewer vegetables: Trump administration further undercuts Obama school-lunch rules The Washington Post

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another whack at former first lady Michelle Obama’s signature achievement: Establishing stricter nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches. And on her birthday.

On Friday, USDA Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps proposed new rules for the Food and Nutrition Service that would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits required at lunch and breakfasts while giving them license to sell more pizza, burgers and fries to students.

Potato lobbyists applauded the decision.

Larry David: The Incredibly Happy Life of TV’s Favorite Grouch

Brett Martin:

It is almost reflexive—for reasons of temperament and ethnicity—to describe David as “neurotic.” Sitting there with him in what I had already begun to think of as Larry World, I start to believe maybe this is exactly wrong. It occurs to me that Larry David may be the most self-actualized person I have ever met.

Delightful profile. And I’m not even a fan of the show.

That moment when you’re sitting on the couch and you tilt your head back to get the last few drops of your delicious breakfast shake, but you forgot you had your glasses on top of your head and you feel them slip off and hear them hit the carpet behind the couch.

On the other hand, the dog’s reaction was most gratifying when I moved the couch while she was sitting on it.

I am enjoying Jack Ryan enough to watch one episode a night, but not enough for two.

I’m glad Jim found a new career; he seemed unhappy at Dunder Mifflin.

📺

Bankers Flooding JPMorgan Event Bemoan San Francisco Squalor www.bloomberg.com/news/arti…

My work takes me to San Francisco several times a year and I dislike it more and more. Downtown, where conferences happen, is a urinal.

Outside there, the city is still beautiful, but you can’t find a hotel room for less than $600/night unless you’re willing to commute a half hour and often stay in a walkup with no private bath.

Surprisingly, Las Vegas is a pleasant place for a conference, easily able to absorb tens of thousands of attendees.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley reveals she has alopecia: ‘It’s important I’m transparent about this new normal’ www.cnn.com/2020/01/1… Interesting. My nephew has alopecia, which leads to drastic hair loss – in his case, as a teen-ager. He’s a good-looking kid, just bald.

San Diego destroyer commander fired www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/mili…

Cmdr. John “Bob” Bowen was relieved of command due to a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” according to a Navy statement. The term is a catch-all used by the military to justify commander firings without detailing a cause.

??!!

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Wants To Ban ‘Virginity Tests’ In California www.kpbs.org/news/2020…

“Virginity tests”? In America? In the 21st Century? Dafuq?

Also: “There is no scientific way to tell whether or not someone is a virgin. Hymens vary among girls and some are born without one.”

Micro.blog is making me better at social media in general. Instead of just mindlessly tapping “LIKE,” say something. “Beautiful photo – I love the reds.” etc.

Canceled micro.blog but then resubscribed. Oh, micro.blog, why can’t I quit you?

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.

📺 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.”