6:47pm UTC
Friday, March 10th, 2023
Finally, the primer we’ve been waiting for: in Mosaic Magazine the redoubtable Evelyn Gordon lays out the issue of Israel’s judicial reform.
Adamkhan.net
Tuesday, March 28th, 2023
A couple of worthwhile recent podcast episodes: Dan Senor on Israel at the Commentary podcast and Kevin Kelly at Russ Robert’s EconTalk [both links via Overcast].
Saturday, March 25th, 2023
Woke:
- its core demand: are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?
- describes the ongoing cultural revolution which defines reality by its usefulness in achieving left-wing goals
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023
Israel and the UK have signed the 2030 Roadmap for UK-Israel Bilateral Relations. (Why oh why in the Vision section is there a comma before “signed”? Why the terrible digitized “two” in “as 2 innovation and technology leaders…”. And I really detest this recent UK-ism: “We are clear that democratic norms are…” — no, people are not clear that anything.)
Regarding the Abraham Accords, “the UK joins Israel in acknowledging [their] historic significance … which have the potential to enable profound advancements for security, co-existence, prosperity and peace for the region and its peoples.” Given Britain’s ties with the Gulf, it would be great if she dive in and actually catalyze things further.
And, stuck enthusiastically at the end of a paragraph on health cooperation: “Our ambition for closer, mutually beneficial ties is limitless.” Heartening!
Wednesday, March 15th, 2023
Dean of American foreign policy Walter Russell Mead has lately abandoned his on-the-other-handism — to wit, the stentorian moral tone of his book Arc of a Covenant and its politely scathing attack on Mearsheimer and the like. In his latest Wall Street Journal piece, “Netanyahu’s Bid for a Role in Zionist History”, WRM casts his lot, characterizing Israel’s protests as rear-guard snobbery and prejudice, and ending with the audacity of hope that Bibi will find a way out of the current conundrum by means of sagacity beyond that even of Ben-Gurion.
Tuesday, March 14th, 2023
The comments section in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s YouTube video condemning anti-semitism is, even if massively repetitive, eye-opening. The ADL’s Hate on Display helps decode some of it.
Gadi Taub and Peter Berkowitz on the Israeli moment. Whereas Taub thinks the opposition must make the next move, Berkowitz (and also Sharansky) thinks the government must reach across the aisle since it’s the one in power.
Monday, March 13th, 2023
Bar Ilan University’s BESA Center is optimistic after two years of Israel being in USCENTCOM.
Friday, March 10th, 2023
In Rome, Netanyahu speaks to La Repubblica. “What we can do is protect our freedoms,” he says, “using force if necessary, for as long as possible…” This is the second time in recent weeks I’ve heard the great man introduce this concept of existence as temporary. Not that it’s not true, but it’s unusual to hear a national leader speak that way. Intimations perhaps of his own mortality. Anyway, I love that he is coming with a vivid clear ask: Roma, recognize Yerushalayim.
Finally, the primer we’ve been waiting for: in Mosaic Magazine the redoubtable Evelyn Gordon lays out the issue of Israel’s judicial reform.
Wednesday, March 8th, 2023
Seems like great news, Israel’s government and opposition reaching a compromise over judicial reform.
Tuesday, March 7th, 2023
What a vile and unserious letter to Binyamin Netanyahu from members of the Entebbe commando squad. They write:
You compared us to those who carried out the pogrom in Huwara, and your son, who has not held a rifle in his life, calls us ‘terrorists’…
Perhaps I’m touchy about this because a friend recently dismissed my view on Israeli matters because when we served in the IDF some over 30 years ago he was in a combat unit and I was not, but really, does Yair Netanyahu’s military service or lack thereof belong in a serious discussion on national affairs? They go on:
You called us ‘conditional Zionists.’ You, whose father, left Israel in 1939 and returned only in 1949 when the Independence War ended. And then a second time left the country in 1962 and returned after his son fell [in Entebbe].
Now after insulting his son they’re after his father. Never mind that the senior Netanyahu was also the father to the son Yoni whom they valorize earlier in the letter…
Just pitiful.
The increasingly indispensable Michael Doran points out that:
If the goal of the Biden administration were to work with Israel to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, then Nides would either avoid any intervention whatsoever in Israeli domestic politics, or he would urge Lapid publicly to put forth practical proposals that could lead to a constructive compromise. Nides has demonstratively done neither.
Sunday, March 5th, 2023
Prof. Nir Keidar, legal historian and President of Sapir College, appears on the predictably leftist podcast The Tel Aviv Review ostensibly to discuss his book David Ben Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy but the conversation is mostly about today’s judicial reform, and he is reasonable and helpful.
Saturday, March 4th, 2023
As interviewed by Netael Bandel in Israel Hayom, Professor Yoav Dotan opposes judicial activism:
The High Court took the accepted understanding of reasonableness – intervening when a government authority harms the citizen in an absurd and capricious manner – and turned it into something else entirely. Everyone must be reasonable, the government and the prime minister, except that they always think they are acting reasonably. The court’s reasonableness approach states that the government will balance its own considerations and that the court will reverse-engineer the government’s determination. In effect, the court becomes a second government that oversees the elected government, and in instances that have no bearing whatsoever on personal liberties.
David Goldman, back on form, untangles Türkiye’s high-wire new stratagems that leverage its centrality every which way. But I don’t know, this all seems too clever by half and could unravel fairly instantly.
By the way, for ages Goldman was talking about how Türkiye was collapsing and becoming a vassal state to China. But of course, course-corrections happen among the living. For me as someone who believes Goldman is pretty prescient, it’s reassuring that he updates his views.
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
In 1987 I attended a Telluride Association Summer Program. In 2020 I was shocked to read that in the wake of the George Floyd protests, Telluride had limited its TASP offerings to “Critical Black Studies” and “Anti-Oppressive Studies” seminars. In this article, Vincent Lloyd, a black professor who had taught at a TASP in the past, relates how he was cancelled by the students. The irony would be delicious if the seeming disintegration of American largesse and leadership in education were not sad and scary.
Via Paul Graham, who chose Gerald Ford’s portrait as his favorite, “every american president, but they’re all cool and they all sport a mullet” by Cam Harless.
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! The Goodfellas address climate change. Niall Ferguson complains about, just as I see it, the opportunity costs — and also the mental health toll on the young. John Cochrane complains that no cost/benefit analysis is being applied to climate change policy. And Bjorn Lomborg specifies what those opportunity costs are, listing demonstrably better ways to invest in human betterment. How wonderful it would be if everyone seriously considered the contents herein.
It’s over too quickly, these two great alliterative-entitled Americans in conversation, Alan Alda and Kevin Kelly on AA’s Clear+Vivid podcast. Alda has such a gracious voice, and Kelly’s meets it. Kelly introduces some novel standpoints, earning his “world’s most interesting man” Tim Ferris monicker. The impetus and much of the conversation revolves around AI chatbots.
Sunday, February 26th, 2023
Two masters: Walter Russell Mead interviews Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the Hertog Forum. The context is their respective recent books, The Arc of a Covenant and Bibi — each is most gracious about the other’s.
One jarring note is that a couple of questions before the end, Bibi ends an answer with “Thank you,” as if ending the interview there and then. Am I imagining that? WRM however is having none of it; the next question is about Putin, which Bibi refuses to answer (the only such response — earlier I think perhaps there’s an inkling even he’s said a little too much). Instead of wilting, WRM asks him another question, then at some point chooses a judicious moment to end.
WRM says at the beginning that it’s intimidating interviewing Bibi, but if he is truly intimidated he does not let on, and his plummy slow delivery belies that.
And WRM gets the closing word, sealing Bibi’s masterful survey beautifully. I just wish WRM looked after himself a bit more physically — he’s a national, no, civilizational treasure, and it would be a shame to lose him prematurely. Bibi in contrast looks well-sprung, the hands wonderful.
Monday, February 20th, 2023
Israel and the UAE have unveiled a jointly developed unmanned maritime vessel, Globes reports. Abraham of Ur would be pleased.
Thursday, February 16th, 2023
I’m Bing, and I know the date. ????. Perhaps I’m missing something, but surely: Fuck M$, and fuck $A?
Monday, February 13th, 2023
In “Overmatch”, Michael Doran and Can Kasapoğlu perfectly explicate the growing peril of America’s posture in the Middle East. If NATO was designed to keep the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out, the Obama/Biden approach to the Middle East seems hell-bent on getting America out, the Iranians up, and the Chinese in.
Like marriages gone sour and houses in Malibu, international orders erode gradually at first and then all at once. News of the demise of the American order in the Middle East is certainly premature, but the ground beneath it is shifting in very unsettling ways that American policymakers appear determined to ignore.
Thursday, February 9th, 2023
I never thought to google it, but once upon a time in the 1980s I made a nice speech in public speaking class at the American International School on the Nacirema. Turns out back in 1956 it had been a prank academic paper, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner in American Anthropologist, as this article JSTOR Daily article “The Long Life of the Nacirema” reminds us.
Thursday, February 2nd, 2023
What a tweetstorm by Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, self-styled “grand cultural architect of the post-Palestine Middle East”, on the main issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Leftist notion that first-world colonization justifies any behavior. Israel’s contribution, he notes, is that we “accept the Palestinian self-dehumanization as the ontological truth of the Palestinians: final, exclusive, and irreversible, and not as humans who are trapped into a terrible story made up by generations of mad intellectuals and sadistic tyrants.” Perfetto.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2023
Great to see that this post about a mural in Nazareth memorializing the heroes of the Iranian uprising is met at the NewIran subreddit with only sympathetic and grateful comments.
Thursday, January 19th, 2023
Righteous Rishi will visit Israel for her 75th.
Monday, January 16th, 2023
And now for something completely different, ie nice and civilized: John Mount’s article “Good Stationery as a Tool of Thought”.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2023
genders.wtf is an outstanding use of this thing we call the World Wide Web. It’s nice that it takes a hot divisive topic and makes it genuinely human and funny.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2023
Finally, Congress will pass a resolution expressing solidarity with and support for Iran’s protesters.
Senior Saudis tell an American delegation they are ready for normalization with Israel, but first they want normalization with the United States, writes JINSA’s John Hannah in The Jerusalem Post after the visit.
Saturday, January 7th, 2023
A story most emblematic of Israel’s governmental switchover: Finance Minister Smotrich’s cancellation of Liberman’s tax on plastic plates, as sympathetically reported by JTA.
Friday, January 6th, 2023
Pull up a chair, Bob Iger absolutely regales us for over an hour on the A16Z podcast.
Thursday, January 5th, 2023
At Charlie Hebdo’s brave beautiful #MullahsGetOut competition “every contestant won a place in hell”.
After the Six Day War victory, Moshe Dayan decided the Waqf should retain control over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The op-ed writer calls it “progressive hubris”; similarly, I take it as a lesson that, like premature optimization, excessive magnanimity can be a root of much evil.
I’m sad to discover that Carol Gould, my father’s American neighbor and friend during his decade in London, died in late 2021. She wrote a concise memoir of her life and times in London, “42 years in Britain – 37 years in broadcasting”:
One of the most nerve-wracking broadcasts in which I ever participated was a two-hour special produced by [Iran’s] Press TV about Israel’s illegitimacy as a state, anchored by Alan Hart, a former ITN presenter. Though never substantiated we heard through the industry that his blatant anti-Semitism eventually led to his departure from ITV. This special was devised to illustrate that Israel was not a sovereign state, but illegitimate — a bantustan created by unwelcome Zionist invaders who used the Shoah as an excuse to displace and massacre Arabs who had lived there for centuries. … I tried to keep my cool and defend the aspirations of the Jewish people to have a homeland, going back to the era of the Dreyfus trial, Emile Zola, ‘J’accuse,’ Theodor Herzl and Ahad Ha’am, but the head of the Muslim Brotherhood UK got so angry at me that he fell off his chair in the front row of the audience and hit his head; the recording had to be suspended whilst we waited for him to be taken away in an ambulance.
Carol notes that she experienced much more anti-Semitism from conservatives than liberals in London.
Wednesday, January 4th, 2023
In The Algemeiner, Adam Levick takes the time to comprehensively Fisk a Sky News broadcast for children aired May 13, 2022 entitled “FYI: Special Report From Both Sides of The Wall”. It’s pretty egregious. I noticed a year or so ago that Sky News’s political slant had become pretty indistinguishable from the BBC’s.
This tweetstorm by Heshmat Alavi points out how the MSM glorified IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, no doubt at least partially because it was Bad Orange Man who ordered him killed. Most egregiously, MSNBC compares this methodical murderer to Princess Diana and Elvis Presley!
I recommend this tour de force on Israel’s recent election by the excellent Haviv Rettig Gur in The Times of Israel.
[The left and Balad] spoke of Netanyahu’s imminent return to power as a vast danger, but then did everything required to make that outcome more likely.
…
The Israeli left didn’t collapse in a sudden, recent rightist lurch of the electorate. It has been in a tailspin for three decades. And three decades of failure suggest a simple, unsparing conclusion that hovers over the anxiety about the election results and the patina of moral panic that accompanies it: The left that just collapsed, in terms of raw political strategy, doesn’t deserve to exist.
…
If the left does not fundamentally redraw the Israeli political map — that is, fundamentally reconceive itself — then Tuesday’s result will be more than a single painful failure. It will be a harbinger of the foreseeable future. It is this reality that drives the “end of the country as we’ve known it” panic.
From here, Rettig Gur starts to build a case for a revived Israeli Left. What a piece!
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023
What a fabulous talk by Chris Coyier on the state of web design and development, “Websites are Good Now” at GatsbyConf [starts at 6:00]. He reviews our new advanced state of affairs in typography, imagery, layout, componentry (a new term to me but yes, that’s how we do it now), animation and hosting.
In an escalation, the world-historical anti-regime movement in Iran has taken its first regime victim, an IRGC commander shot outside his home.
Thursday, December 29th, 2022
As Netanyahu retakes the reins of Israel, Caroline Glick, excitable as she may be, lays it out, as far as I can tell, pretty darn accurately: the main difference between this government and the previous is that Israel will now stand up to the erratic and mostly misguided Biden Administration.
Tuesday, December 20th, 2022
Binyamin Netanyahu is interviewed at wonderful length by, wonderfully, Al-Arabiya. One question he addresses is the maritime agreement that the previous Lapid government made with Lebanon:
Look, my concern is that the revenues that come out of the sea that I think heavily favored Lebanon, do not favor Lebanon. They favor Hezbollah. And Hezbollah has not been a force for peace. So you may just be funding Hezbollah’s military arsenal that could be used not only against Israel, but against many others in the Middle East. You have to think about that very carefully. But that is already done. As I said, I’ll see what I can do to moderate any damage or to secure Israel’s economic and security interests.
Netanyahu articulates what I believe the clear-eyed majority of Israelis saw (and as I posted on October 14th before the election): that having the Yesh Atid camp in power is a burgeoning danger to Israel’s national security due to their willingness to make visibly unfavorable diplomatic deals, which not only are harmful to Israel’s interests in themselves, but signal weakness that invites further depravations.
It’s also interesting to witness Bibi weave in constant complimentary references to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and address their concerns without compromising the Israeli perspective. I know what they say about Netanyahu’s untrustworthiness, but all this reeks of integrity.
That said, it’s clear what he wants to get across: the key word is “reaffirm”, that he’s heading to Washington to argue on Saudi’s behalf.
Thursday, December 15th, 2022
Still got it, USA: Nuclear fusion ignition is achieved December 5th, 2022 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, CA.
Monday, December 12th, 2022
Alex Epstein cites Frank Lloyd Wright’s attitude towards nature in this discussion with Jordan Peterson. It’s the first time I’ve heard Mr Wright cited as a source or inspiration in current discourse and I hope it won’t be the last.
Saturday, December 3rd, 2022
A History of the Israeli Army
Ze'ev Schiff
Author Ze’ev Schiff provides a matter-of-fact overview, probably not too different from many other books of Israeli military history, though I did learn that it was probably Arafat who precipitated the Six Day War. The edition I read was published a decade after the first publication, in the midst of the Lebanon War, about which the author is caustic and upset yet manages to end the book on an optimistic note, wishing Lebanon serve at least as a lesson for future non-endeavors.
Friday, December 2nd, 2022
Kanye West is interviewed with his piece-of-shit sidekick-du-jour Nick Fuentes for almost 3 hours by Alex Jones. To me the worst swipe at human dignity here is the fishnet and chocolate milk as Netanyahu (“net” and “yahoo”). Even Alex Jones is squirming through this (“I’m not on the whole Jew thing”), at 51:30 telling the audience, “I’m your guest host here in insane asylum world” before hastily retreating as Kanye asks “Why are you pointing at me when you say that.” An opportunity lost to tell his deranged guest to just go home and get some rest and some help.
Wednesday, November 30th, 2022
This rather disparaging article on Avatar at DNYUZ is the second time recently (I forget the first) I’ve enjoyed a pretty good longish read only to come across, about 2/3 of the way through, what seems so shoehorned in that it smells like the quiet raison d’etre of the whole piece:
What were the odds that, galaxies away, a society not only had two genders, but those genders were “male” and “female” — and the females were stacked?
Of all the liberties taken with physics and reality with this and other sci-fi tentpole movies, this biologically-grounded mammalian fact of life is the complaint?
Depleted-uranium shells heading to Ukraine...
ANDROID...
Dramatic moment KIA launched 10 feet in air on LA freeway...
Amid strained US ties, Beijing finds unlikely friend in Utah...
UPDATE: DRUDGE APP IPHONE, IPAD...
Migrants use hang glider in escape to Key West...
You can now 'experience death' in VR with disturbing new simulation...
Govt employees hit with spyware, White House says...
Cuba holds stacked election amid biggest population exodus since revolution...
The FBI's Contract to Buy Mass Internet Data...
Biden bans feds' use of spyware -- but keeps secret what's banned...
Trans activists burn Harry Potter books in 'anti-hate' protest...
Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men...
Publishers Prepare for Showdown With MICROSOFT, GOOGLE Over AI Tools...
Internet Archive Loses Historic Copyright Case...
Employers Need to Put the Squeeze on Woke Intolerance
The Magic Kingdom of Ron DeSantis
Why Netanyahu's Judicial Overhaul Is Dead for Now
A Reminder of Why Joe Biden Is in the White House
Israel's Judicial System the Dream of American Left
America Experiencing a Crisis of Faith in Itself
Biden Admin Puts Ideology Over Travel Safety
State of America in 2023: Confusion & Pessimism
You Can't Cancel Me, I Quit
Four Explanations for the Teen Mental-Health Crisis
Where's All the Ukraine Money Going?
The Ukraine War Is Far More Than a 'Dispute'
BLM's Historic Shakedown of American Corporations
The Fair and Unfair Critiques of Kamala Harris
Florida Sets Shining Example on School Choice
Links for the intellectually curious, ranked by readers.
Initialization in Modern C++ (295 pages)
Swipe (YC S21) Is Hiring
Push notifications are now supported cross-browser
Apple Music Classical
Little Snitch: PayPal has restricted our business account, threatens to close
Red Hat 30th anniversary
GitHub slashes engineering team in India
The TikTok ban is a betrayal of the open internet
Your Code Might Not Need State
OpenPGP master key on Nitrokey Start
Trigonometric Functions in CSS
Can you buy the same ticket at a lower price if you buy it from another country?
A brief history of APFS (Apple file system) in honour of its fifth birthday
For the first time, the Fed is losing money
Procedural 3D mesh generation in a 64kB intro
The principled largesse behind NetNewsWire
Cal Newport reimagines the internet
A masterclass in web processing
Call of the online wild
A sober take on the state of RSS
The feel of it
Calacanis: news readers are a tough business
Instagram creators announce reader
Feedbin creator on Shoptalk Show
Before there were blogs there were sites
Bin Wang announces RSS Brain
Hockenberry of Twitterrific is angry
Mindblowingly, DevonTHINK as RSS reader
Thank you, OpenRSS
Dear RSS, I miss you, Love ChatGPT
SubStacks have feeds too
Feeds for iOS developers
Disabling scroll-snapping stories on mobile
Don’t knock RSS, you’re embarrassing yourself
It’s RSS Day at Hacker News
Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Iran's Reeling Economy
UN Commission Resumes "Kangaroo Court" Hearings on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The System Is Blinking Red over Iran
PA Rejects Offer of Full Security Responsibility for Palestinian City
Protecting American Soldiers from Iran's Militias
Death Toll from U.S. Strikes on Pro-Iran Targets in Syria Rises to 19
Historic Israel-Africa-Arab Conference in Jerusalem
Israeli Company to Launch Aquaculture Project in Western Sahara
Two Israeli Soldiers Wounded in Huwara Shooting on Saturday
Iraqi Islamic Council Issues Fatwa Against Hamas for Brutality
FIFA Postpones U-20 World Cup amid Indonesia's Rejection of Israel's Participation
State Department Report Attacks Israel for Denying Prison Furloughs to Palestinian Terrorists
Palestinian Journalists Syndicate Denounces Hamas' Arrest, Assault of Colleague
Gen. Mark Milley: Iran Could Produce Nuclear Weapon in Several Months
Should the PA Pay Monthly Salaries to Teachers or Terrorists?
Japan and Europe’s next ocean-drilling research programme
Funding bias: nurture European researchers’ independence
West Africa: make cocoa production truly sustainable
How Nancy Hopkins and her tape measure revealed the extent of sexism in science
Blue foods brought to the table to improve fish-policy decisions
A sandstorm swirls through the skies of a distant gas giant
How gliding mammals developed the flaps for ‘flight’
Guardian of Ecuador’s diverse — and vanishing — frog species
Formin-mediated nuclear actin at androgen receptors promotes transcription
Hybrid 2D/CMOS microchips for memristive applications
Thermal Emission from the Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST
High atmospheric metal enrichment for a Saturn-mass planet
JWST gets best view yet of planet in hotly pursued star system
Separating single- from multi-particle dynamics in nonlinear spectroscopy
The Cape Town Statement on fairness, equity and diversity in research
Israel tensions ease as Netanyahu pauses judicial overhaul
Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight
US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House
Yemeni leaders vow to resist renewed Houthi assault
2,000 mummified ram heads uncovered in Egypt’s Abydos
What’s on the iftar menu this Ramadan?
UK charity Penny Appeal takes part in humanitarian aid event in Dubai
The Hotel Show to take place in Dubai in May
UN rights investigator says EU aided and abetted abuse of migrants in Libya
If Tunisia is not helped, Muslim Brotherhood may ‘create instability’: Italian FM
A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Brian C. Anderson.
Tritium Panic in Minnesota
Once again, a minor incident at a nuclear plant provokes unwarranted fears.Socialized Housing
In Albany, far-left legislators pursue a Good Cause Eviction law, which would effectively amount to seizing ownership of 4 million privately owned rental units.Oh, Rats
In Paris, champions of the surmulot impede public pest control.A Covid Postmortem
Though well positioned to weather the pandemic, California instead pursued disastrous restrictions and cracked down on dissent.One Bank, Indivisible
Government decisions are making America into a nation of big banks, and only big banks.The <strong>“blood race”</strong> between England and France culminated in the 1667 transfusion of lamb's blood into a feverish boy, who made a “startling” recovery
<strong>Humanism's God problem</strong>. Does placing human concerns at the center of society require displacing religious concerns?
NIST, the federal agency tasked with the <strong>science of measurement</strong>, is an acropolis of the average, a Parnassus of the prototypical. Tom Vanderbilt explains
Stanford’s Jo Boaler wants to revolutionize <strong>how math is taught</strong>. Critics say her claims don't always add up
<strong>T.S. Eliot and the study of power</strong>. The drama that takes place across the span of his poetry seems more vital than ever
On <strong>Janet Malcolm’s memoir</strong>: “There is a difference, after all — at times, a contradiction — between journalistic integrity and artistic integrity”
Can the liberal tradition be rescued from the crisis of liberalism? <strong>Michael Walzer</strong> takes the long view
China, Saudi Arabia consolidate energy ties amid uncertainty over Russian supplies
Ukraine war: why Russia wants tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
Dozens missing in deadly Ecuador landslide
Amnesty says West’s Ukraine response exposes ‘double standards’
Donald Trump grand jury back at work, as key witness reappears
Ukraine war: Russia fails at UN to get Nord Stream blast inquiry
Joe Biden invokes Defence Production Act for printed circuit board production
With a diplomatic flurry, European leaders will push China on peacemaking claim
In seeking to curb China, Aukus may well have launched a new cold war – and an arms race
Assailant kills 6 at Nashville school in latest US mass shooting
Brain candy for Happy Mutants
Awe makes for kind and generous kids, study shows
News anchor removed from air after quoting Snoop Dogg
Interviewing adorably tiny animal with an adorably tiny microphone
Tears of the Trufflepig is a head-shakingly brilliant novel about contraband animals, Mexico and a labyrinthine conspiracy
Collection of unusual and stylistic Croatian animated films now on YouTube
Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for more guns after Nashville school shooting
Nintendo to show off new Zelda gameplay at long last
Nashville Congressman said guns "deserve a place of honor with all that is good" on Xmas cards
Ubisoft joins Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in pulling out of E3 trade show
Adam Sandler wins Mark Twain humorist award; honored by famous friends at gala
Nu-metal band rocks the meatballs out of Subway
Fox News blames side door for today's school shooting, rather than guns (video)
Unofficial mascot not welcome at Japan's annual Iron Penis Festival
Listen to the man suing Gwyneth Paltrow imitate her "blood-curdling scream" for the court
A brief observation on AGI risk and employee selection (from my email)
What I’ve been reading
Monday assorted links
Nepo vs. Ding
The Public Choice Outreach Conference!
Existential risk, AI, and the inevitable turn in human history
(Younger) Spinoza
Côte d’Ivoire claim of the day
Sunday assorted links
Lifespans of the European Elite, 800-1800
New Emergent Ventures winners, 25th cohort
Are social media making us miserable?
Saturday assorted links
What should I ask Kevin Kelly?
Travel philosophies for the well-traveled
Where the design community meets.
3D LEGO letters for free
How To Use OKRs To Drive UX Design Success
Top Security Risks in Cloud Computing & Ways to Manage Them
Convert raster images to vectors with only 1 click in Figma
Achieve Goals Easily with these Top 7 Daily Planner Apps
Implementing Salesforce CPQ - Best Practice
Revision Path Ep. 496: Ube Urban, CX evangelist, interaction designer, design director
Top 5 Must-Have Webflow Extensions for Webflow Developer's
The Effect of Commercial Site Interface Colors on Conversion
AI Art prompt book
Midjourney Parameter List: A Guide for Creative Image Generation
Top 5 edge AI trends to watch in 2023
Trending Website Development Frameworks Watch Out in 2023
How to use Data to inform your UX Design in 2023
Something new and fresh redesign featured in Branding and Illustrator on Behance
Rumors and news on everything Apple since 1997
Apple Music Classical waltzes onto iPhone
M2 Macs keep Apple near-flat as PC market declines in 2022
Sonos Era speakers, Aqara G4 doorbell, Nanoleaf's Matter launch and more
Apple executives detail Apple Pencil hover update
Amazon's best Apple bargains: $799 MacBook Air, $200 off iPad Pro, $500 off MacBook Pro & more
Bluetti AC300: The ultimate portable power station for home, work, and play
Apple releases security notes for iOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4, macOS Ventura 13.3
Apple Original 'Killers of the Flower Moon' to get theater release
iOS 15.7.4, macOS Monterey 12.6.4, macOS Big Sur 11.7.5 all get security updates
Apple expands Emergency SOS via satellite to six more countries
Apple releases Studio Display 16.4 firmware update
iOS 16.4 is now available, with a lot of user-facing updates
Opinions on corporate and brand identity work.
Announced: Brand New will Shift to Subscription Model
Spotted: New Logo for Blue Islands
Linked: Louis Vuitton Architecture
Noted: New Name and Logo for St. Louis City SC
Reviewed: Friday Likes 339: From Studio MPLS, Wade and Leta, and Unifikat Design Studio
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for Vitkus Clinic by Tandemo
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for Netgen by IDnaGroup
Linked: Biden &Harris &Decimal
Noted: New Logo and Identity for Correos de México by Carl Forsell
Reviewed: New Logo and Identity for BERA by How & How
Spotted: New Logo for Playtika
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for The 19th by Page 33 Studio
Linked: Objects may be Closer than they Ap-pear
Noted: New Logo and Identity for Zappos Adaptive by Eric&Todd
Reviewed: New Logo and Identity for Lot61 by Smörgåsbord
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Moon's glass beads contain enough water to support a mission
Nostalgic for VB? BASIC is anything but dead
Microsoft promises it's made Teams less confusing and resource hungry
Lebanon's IT folks face double trouble as leaders delayed Daylight Savings Time
Jack Ma is back, and he has some feelpinions to share
Ammo-maker says TikTok's datacenter site could deprive it of electricity
APNIC backed off naming naughty nominees after injunction threat
US president Biden kind of mostly bans commercial spyware
Europol warns ChatGPT already helping folks commit crimes
Lawyers cough up $200k after health data stolen in Microsoft Exchange pillaging
Is Neuralink ready for human brain implants? Allegedly so
Publishers land killer punch on Internet Archive in book copyright court battle
experiments in refactored perception
Report Cards
As a kid, through most of middle and high school, I got good grades. I stayed comfortably near the top of the class without working too hard, and more importantly, without explicitly aiming to be there. I got good grades not because I “studied” conscientiously, but because I enjoyed most subjects enough that chaotic nerd […]Summer of Protocols
A quick post about a thing I’m up to. This summer, I’ll be running a program called the Summer of Protocols (SoP) that will fund a bunch of full-time and part-time researchers to think broadly about, tinker with, and write about protocols. The scope is broad. Everything from climate and cultural protocols to TCP/IP and […]Salt-Seeking
I can’t remember where I read the theory, but apparently the salinity of our bodies matches that of primordial seas, so in a sense we never really left the oceans. Our micro-organic aquatic ancestors simply constructed meatbag spaceships with artificial life-support aquatic environments inside to explore beyond their oceanic home world. Much as we might […]