Saturday, October 02, 2021

The Internet’s Original Sin

 . “You say potato, I say vodka.” 

—Karen Walker, Will & Grace



Whenever you are alone, remind yourself that God has sent everyone else away so that there is only you and Him.

— Rumi, born in 1207


Touché-ing the Void

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How can we live only to die?


Vaccine passport app exposed hundreds of thousands of users' personal data


The Next Era: The “Exponential Age”

The Exponential Age is challenging our assumptions about globalization. A car can be designed in Guiyang and assembled in California with remarkable ease. But it also represents an inversion of globalization—a return to the local. Strategy + Business


RIP Gregory Henry - Gregory was a beautiful man with a bountiful heart. His great passion for others and his work in the literary world will always be remembered.


Clearing Up Simplicity: The Fallacies Of Occam’s Razor

Cited widely in science, but often misunderstood, for some it’s invaluable, hinting at profound truths about the nature of knowledge. For others it’s worse than useless. - Prospect


It’s A Weird Time To Be A Critic

The instinct to abuse critics is justified by the idea that it is “punching up” at elitist gatekeepers. But unlike Siskel and Ebert, modern critics are neither famous nor wealthy nor powerful. - Unherd


The Internet’s Original Sin Galaxy Brain. On the online advertising ecosystem. Also a must-read, but grab a cup of coffee.

Eswar S. Prasad, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance is a useful overview of its source material.


You probably heard about Mata Hari, the infamous courtesan and female spy who beguiled the men around her into allegedly betraying national secrets to Germany during WWI.  She became an icon of feminine seduction, Greta Garbo played her on the silver screen in 1931, and her story has inspired countless tales of romance and espionage.…


With The Walls Finally Stabilized, Reconstruction At Notre-Dame In Paris Can Begin In Earnest

Those solid, 850-year-old walls were damaged much more by the catastrophic 2019 fire than authorities realized at first. (They really could have collapsed.) Now that they're stabilized, rebuilding can begin — and could possibly be finished in time for the 2024 Olympics. - Artnet

Enormous Stage Rock Nearly Crushes Tenor; Court Rules It Was Sabotage

It's the end of Tristan und Isolde at the Capitole de Toulouse. Isolde is singing the Liebestod and Tristan is playing dead upstage when he senses something very large very close: a 467-pound stage boulder that was supposed to stop 30 inches away … - The New York Times

“Pre-Saving” Music And What That Really Means

When you pre-save a song, it may look like the service you use, like Spotify, is the one requesting information about your account. But it’s not. It will tell you which service, label, or company is making the request, and who’ll get your data when you accept. - Wired

Nigel Kennedy Pulls Out Of Albert Hall Concert After ClassicFM Won’t Let Him Play Jimi Hendrix

Kennedy said the “culturally prejudiced” decision amounted to “musical segregation”, with the station he now calls “Jurassic FM” preferring him to play Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in Wednesday’s show. - The Guardian

Fourteen Takeaways From This Year’s Emmys

The good, the bad, and the really long and bizarre. - Washington Post