Public Notice: Trump is broke. That's bad news for the GOP.
Good analysis here. I hate dipping into politics and using the “T” word these days.
Later: And billionaire shenanigans continue. Someone might infuse Orange Jesus with cash. Be prepared for this possibility.
Shoot me now.
Finishing up taxes. My absolute, most favorite thing in this world to do … earbuds in, heavy metal helping me tally numbers …
The Register: Bernie Sanders clocks in with 4-day workweek bill thanks to AI and productivity tech.
“Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago.”
Fifteen minutes of linkfinding.
ReadWriteWeb: Apple iMac could be set to try out touchscreen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. After I use my iPad, it drives me crazy when I try poking my laptop or desktop’s screen.
Paris Review: Backyard Bird Diary. Always wanted to create one of these kinds of diaries. Been a long time since I’ve sketched. I should buy some colored pencils.
Capital+Main: Power of the Pulpit: How Conservative Congregations Scale the Church-State Wall to Political Victory. Listen to what Bible scholar Dan McLellan says about this.
AppleInsider: Neil Young tries excusing his return to Spotify by saying Apple Music is now as bad. Water-drop torture is the same, no matter the brand.
PVC: Podcast playback: immersive reading + italics on website-desktop & mobile. I know there are rules for use of italics; I use them when they make the most sense for emphasis. Keeping their ‘power’ is paramount.
Vox: Biden is not “waging war” on American energy. He’s boosting it. Yet OPEC still has its heavy hand on prices. Seen that recent $0.30/gallon price increase?
DP Review: Nikon Z9 gets firmware v5.0 with portrait processing options and feature refinements. A Z8 or Z9 is on my dream wishlist.
SciAm: How the Solar Eclipse will impact electricity supplies. Paywall keeps me out. If you’ve got a subscription, enjoy.
CNet: Do You Need a Screen for a Projector? As an A/V professional, I can tell you that you’ll be blown away by the quality of a good projection screen. The materials have advanced so very far. Contrast and color are exponentially better than they were just a decade ago.
Zeldman: Open-source moderation.
Axios: Furious Congress plows forward with TikTok bill after user revolt.
To shut it down, would destroy so many small businesses. Really stupid move. Hopefully someone buys it, so the Congressional paranoids are satisfied.
NBC: The AI industry is pushing a nuclear power revival — partly to fuel itself.
Hmmm. AI or Crypto. Which is is gonna be worse for the environment?
The Hill: Biden to form ‘strike force’ to go after price-gouging.
It’s about damned time. I’ve been seeing some food prices double lately, for no obvious reasons.
The Register: FAA gives SpaceX a bunch of homework to do before Starship flies again.
It’s about time. Time they stop littering! And that litter is quite toxic, from my threadbare knowledge.
WaPo: The economy is roaring. Immigration is a key reason.
“Republicans have increasingly campaigned on the idea that immigrants have hurt the economy and taken Americans’ jobs. But the economic record largely shows the opposite.”
Many sections of America would be grinding to a halt, sans immigrants. Not just agriculture, but urban areas as well. Again, this is why some conservatives are fasttracking child labor, trying to keep immigration at bay. It’s a foolish endeavor; there aren’t enough ‘white kids’ to accomplish the task.
SF New Mexican: Minimum wage in Santa Fe going to $14.60 on March 1.
That’s great news. I’ve written about the living wage before. When it began to be applied, those businesses with threadbare business models died fast. Restaurants tried to reduce quality/portion sizes to keep prices steady for a while … then finally gave up and just raised their prices so they could support quality workers. Since then, everything else has been remarkably consistent (speaking as a consumer!).
The Crime Report: The ‘Startling’ Link Between Low Interest Rates and Low Crime.
As I read this, I keep hearing in the back of my mind a voice stating “Correlation is not causation.”
SpeckyBoy: How Subscription Fatigue Impacts Web Designers.
AND HOW. “Death by a thousand cuts”, y’know? When I do taxes at the end of the year, I always find a subscription or three that has escaped my billing efforts. Drives me absolutely batty.
Vox: Surprise! There’s a reason to be (cautiously) optimistic about the climate.
“We need to really get moving on this stuff. This is the worst time for people to disengage and look away. So, for me, the role of optimism is to drive people to actually take action.”
Small actions taken by lots of people can have huge effects, it’s true.
WaPo: For older women with money, it’s yes to love but ‘I don’t’ to marriage.
When I hear about long marriages breaking up because solo healthcare is cheaper to deal with when one of the pair is seriously ill, this makes very good sense. Welcome to today’s America. One wonders how the evangelical vote will handle this reality.
Capital+Main: New Mexico Battles to Clamp Down on Big Oil.
“The state is the country’s second-largest oil producer and a top-10 natural gas producer as well. So despite New Mexico’s small population, state policy changes have an outsized effect on the nation’s fossil fuel industry.”
A statistic I wasn’t aware of.
Capital+Main: Corporate America’s Big Lie: What’s Good for Us Is Good for the Country.
Just some good plain common sense here. Sad that I feel I the need to underline such things, but in today’s social/sensational world …
Capital + Main: Monopolies and the Real Cost of a Rigged Economy.
"The Democrats over the last 40 years through the imposition of neo-liberal ideology have sort of given up a lot of these industries and allowed a lot of this monopolization to take place. So you’re not getting a choice in those communities between prairie populists and conservative pro-business interests. You’re getting Democratic pro-business interests versus conservative pro-business interests."
Who stands for the rest of us, anymore? Don't miss reading this one.