Once again, I’m reminded how much I like Noah Wylie as a person. I really hope he’s a good guy when the cameras are not rolling. I so want him to be.
Once again, I’m reminded how much I like Noah Wylie as a person. I really hope he’s a good guy when the cameras are not rolling. I so want him to be.
I saw this on an Instagram post, and I loved it:
“I used to have this mental illness where I thought logical arguments would change someone’s mind.”
Just watched 1995’s “Heat” for the first time. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that was not it. Also, I don’t know if I was supposed to, but by the end, I was rooting for Neil (Robert De Niro) instead to escape with Eady instead of Vincent (Al Pacino).
The Rule of Law Is Dead in the US | The Nation
The rule of law presupposes that there are, well, rules. These rules are supposed to provide a consistent, repeatable, and, most important, knowable set of outcomes. Predictability is the key feature of a functioning rules-based system, because people have to know the rules—and the consequences of breaking them—before they act. The difference between living under the rule or law and living by the whims of a madman is that the rights, responsibilities, prohibitions, and privileges of your situation do not change radically every time a person in power throws a hissy fit.
Also, read this.
Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End - The Atlantic
Foreign researchers have recently been made to feel unwelcome in the U.S. They have been surveilled and harassed. The Trump administration has made it more difficult for research institutions to enroll them. Top universities have been placed under federal investigation. Their accreditation and tax-exempt status have been threatened. The Trump administration has proposed severe budget cuts at the agencies that fund American science—the NSF, the NIH, and NASA, among others—and laid off staffers in large numbers. Existing research grants have been canceled or suspended en masse. Committees of expert scientists that once advised the government have been disbanded. In May, the president ordered that all federally funded research meet higher standards for rigor and reproducibility—or else be subject to correction by political appointees.
For the love of God, please read this. Please digest this. Please understand this.
This is what Trump is doing to this country that won’t show itself for decades to come. But it will come.
Daring Fireball: Microsoft Introduces ‘Copilot Mode’ in Edge
Color me skeptical about the idea that my web browser should be “working for me”, rather than serving as a tool for me to work with. The AI hype cycle is pointing to a future where automated agentic web browsers surf automated AI-generated websites. Robots consuming robot-generated content — an infinite loop of AI onanism.
Well said, John.
Your Work Peak Is Earlier Than You Think - The Atlantic
But I had started to wonder: Can I really keep this going? I work like a maniac. But even if I stayed at it 12 hours a day, seven days a week, at some point my career would slow and stop. And when it did, what then? Would I one day be looking back wistfully and wishing I were dead? Was there anything I could do, starting now, to give myself a shot at avoiding misery—and maybe even achieve happiness—when the music inevitably stops?
Not going to pretend I don’t think about this as it relates to me.
I watched 1993’s “The Fugitive” last night. They don’t make them like that anymore.
We had lunch with my parents today (we were out of town for my birthday), and so we met halfway in Newnan, GA. The first thing I saw when I got out of the car was a 12-year old boy wearing one of those fucking red MAGA hats. I swear I almost got back in the car.
A character on the episode of “West Wing” I was just watching asked the following question:
“Toby, do you believe the Bible to be literally true?”
Is there anyone who would actually answer “yes” to that question?!?
Every time we visit a baseball stadium, I always use the middle innings to walk around the stadium to take pictures. These are from each of the 3 games.
I’m Giving My Kids a ’90s Summer—the 1890s - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
Just like the 1890s and the 2020s, they’ll play with the unvaccinated kids down the street and drink raw milk until dark. Then at daybreak, I’ll hand my children their metal lunch pails, button their fifty-button shoes, and they’ll shuffle off to their factory jobs, because in the Gilded Age, and southern states in the 2020s, no snowflake child labor laws exist.
Pitch perfect.
Mercedes-Benz is launching a new version of its Meetings for Teams app. With this update, drivers can use the in-car camera while driving, allowing other participants to see them during a meeting. Given the brand’s focus on safety, the use of the camera abides by the laws of each country and has been approved for use while the vehicle is in motion.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Ryne Sandberg, Cubs icon and Hall of Fame second baseman, dies at 65 - The Athletic
“I was taught you never, ever disrespect your opponent or your teammates or your organization or your manager — and never, ever your uniform. Make a great play, act like you’ve done it before. Get a big hit, look for the third-base coach and get ready to run the bases. Hit a home run, put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases. Because the name on the front is a lot more important than the name on the back.”
I know the younger generation doesn’t share the same values about athletes that I do. But this quote from Sandberg echoes exactly the way I like to think baseball (or any sport) should be played.
Batmobile(s) from the WB Studio tour. The one from the 1989 film (foreground) is “the” Batmobile for me. I’d drive that car right now.
(Rant incoming)
At some point, SportsCenter (and ESPN as a whole) might as well be called “NFL and everything else”.
And that’s not meant as a compliment.
It is 7/29. I don’t give a shit about the NFL right now. Honestly, no one should. They’re out in the sun running. That’s it. That’s all. Next story.
Stop the speculation. Stop the utterly premature betting lines. Stop having 15-minute segments on who’s gong to win the NFL East. Stop having 20-min segments on the Colts training camp clips that run 34 times in that 20 minute timeframe. Stop the gushing.
I’m sitting in the airport and that’s all I see on any television in this damn place.
Jesus.
Three baseball games visited on this trip (Dodgers, Angels, and Padres), and each of them has led to a walk-off win!
I’m so sick of sports betting, I could vomit.
I wonder if, back in the day, these new cities commissioned these old-timey songs about the cities themselves. Example from today was “Del Mar”.
I gotta think so.
I’ve reached the point where I have to use the handrails when getting on buses and whatnot.
People love their loud-ass motorcycles in CA.
ATL: “We have the worst traffic in the country!”
LA: “Hold my beer.”
I wonder if anyone in the Angels organization thought about the social commentary of putting the outlet store in the top-level 400 and 500 seats.
Hmm.
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica, CA
Little sunburnt this year, as we went to an afternoon Dodgers game yesterday. Still alive and kicking, though!
Coca-Cola will launch Coke with U.S. cane sugar after Trump push
The Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday that it will launch a version of its signature drink made with American cane sugar.
The announcement comes days after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so.”
News Flash:
My son is into baseball. I mean, I’m into baseball on a casual level, but he is really into it. We watched the Home Run Derby last week that was held right here in Atlanta. A really enjoyable watch, even if it’s not my normal go-to. Home run hitters cranking them from batting practice pitches. Ok, I’m in.
What assaulted me left and right as we were watching the Derby were ads. Ads between rounds. Ads between hitters. Even ads between portions of the same hitter’s round. It got so bad that I almost turned it off. And I may have if Brian wasn’t going off to college in a couple of weeks. (I wanted to savor a little bit of that time, despite the ad barrage.)
Putting that behind me, the next day I went to lunch and was scrolling on Instagram (my first mistake, I know). I happen to see a post from Atlanta United, where they showed off some new merchandise based on their affiliation with Atlanta’s (admittedly not great) public transportation system, MARTA. And one of the products they showcased was a scarf featuring both Atlanta United and MARTA. My instinct kicked in. “I must have this!” (I’m a bit of a soccer scarf collector.) I sent it to my family, and bookmarked it away to check on how to get it later.
On that very drive home, I happened to be listening to a 2021 episode of “The Rewatchables”. They were discussing the 1999 David Fincher film “Fight Club”. A wonderful satire of toxic masculinity taken to a dangerous extreme, the movie comments on the state of culture in America as we approached the end of the 20th century. In his own words, Bill (Simmons) summed up one of the major lessons the movie was trying to convey like this:
Advertising, and the illusion that you need something, is fucking up an entire generation.
That statement stopped me cold. As in, I pressed “pause” on the podcast and rode in silence for quite a while. I am a victim of the very thing he just said. Advertising continues to invade every part of our culture. Any social media feed. The radio. Watching television. Even the Home Run Derby. Hell, I went to a movie with my son recently, and there was an ad in the middle of the trailers.
🤦🏻♂️
Back to the scarf…Am I one of the lemmings the movie mocks? Am I part of the problem in Bill’s summary statement?
Probably.
The next day, I went to the Atlanta United store and asked about the scarf. They had sold out of the scarf the previous day (the same day it was “released”). Always the salesperson, the lady said “but they will have them at the game on Saturday, but you’ll probably need to get there really early to get one!”
Again, my interest was piqued. I couldn’t help myself. And I thought “should we go to the game?” In other words, should we spend $350 on tickets, parking, and food in the hopes of obtaining a $40 scarf? Seems crazy, right? But I thought about it. I considered it. And then I remembered Bill’s words.
We didn’t go.
I remember when Waffle House’s All-Star Special was $5.99. As of last night, it was $12.00. Wow.
Yet of all these legions of people doing the work to deliver computers capable of browsing the web, only Marc Andreessen and a handful of others (such as Bill Gates) became megarich, while the rest had largely ordinary salaries.
This article gets tech-y. But stick with it, and let the hypocrisy flow over you.
“Only Wanna Be With You” by Hootie & the Blowfish is a song you will never turn off if it comes on.
Fight me.
CBS to Cancel ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’
It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.
If you believe that, I’ve got some gorgeous ocean-front property in Phoenix I’d love for you to look at.
The secret to Baltimore’s extraordinary year
“What Baltimore did that’s so impactful is really invested in a whole ecosystem of community–oriented interventions,” The Vera Institute for Justice’s Daniela Gilbert told Popular Information. Under Scott, Baltimore has fought violent crime not only through policing but through a network of programs that provide support for housing, career development, and education.
More of this is so badly needed.
Realizing now that I have, without necessarily noticing, architected our system at work to be a modular monolith. The “system” that everyone sees and interacts with is effectively just a thin client.
I think that’s a good thing.
This.
“Today I’m coming to you on behalf of the football team and seeking donations to assist our boys this season and to help me carry the load so I no longer have to take from my personal funds to keep smiles on these young men face and remind them that they matter,” he wrote.
“We (the government) sure as hell aren’t going to help the kids. And you can’t either!”
My favorite comment from the comments section:
Florida HS Athletics (FHSAA) - F&$# them kids.
RTO has ushered mostly men back to the office
Big picture: Employers with strict RTO policies are making their workforces less diverse at a time when many of the same companies are rolling back DEI pledges or shedding employees after pandemic-era hiring booms.
I wonder what time the Howdy Doody show comes on tonight…
Billionaire Marc Andreessen says colleges will ‘pay the price’ for DEI - The Washington Post
“The universities are at Ground Zero of the counterattack” from Trump voters, Andreessen wrote, alleging colleges favored immigrants over Americans and promoted DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion policies intended to increase race and gender representation.
God forbid we encourage policies intended to increase race and gender representation in our learning environments.
What an absolute dick.
I am needing my glasses increasingly for things other than just reading/computer work. #gettingolder
I tend to compare AI to social media in terms of how it’s going to (negatively) affect society in the long run. I’ll be the first to admit that. But I did want to share a very helpful use of AI in a situation that actually brought someone joy.
One of my podcast hosts I listen to recently had a daughter. And he wanted a picture of his wife and daughter to use as his phone background. But the picture he wanted wasn’t oriented to serve as a good background photo. So he used some app (I forget which one he mentioned) to do a content fill. The tool expanded the original picture (smartly) and filled it out to the point where he could crop it in a portrait orientation. It now worked very well as his phone background image.
That’s awesome, and how it should be. A great (responsible) use of AI.
As an example from software teams, developers who roam across languages, architectures, and problem spaces may seem like “jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none,” yet repeated dives below surface differences help them develop durable, principle-level mastery.
Bookmarking this one for my son, who starts at Georgia Tech in a couple of weeks.
How easily we forget how the GOP used to clutch their pearls about the most benign shit.
It’s funny how prayer is never around to prevent disasters like this.
I feel like it’s 2004 again (and yes, that was 21 frickin’ years ago), but newsman Jon Stewart is at it again, spitting actual facts during the opening monologue on last night’s The Daily Show:
Once again, it’s the bullshit gospel of austerity. The gospel they preach any time the country’s finances are in shambles and out of control. “Our problem isn’t excess at the top. It’s the sloth at the bottom.”
And a little later:
Somehow, it is fiscally irresponsible to build a stronger floor for everyone to stand on if it may, in any way, lower the astronomical ceiling height experienced by the rare few.
It’s unbelievable that we are where we are.
And just the icing on top of the rich man’s cake are these gem by OpenAI’s Sam Altman. You know, that beacon for the “the rest of us”.
I bet you would, you dick.
I’ve been following Scott Handelman on and off for about 25 years. An extremely intelligent programmer, a vibrant and engaging presenter, a community leader, and a general do-gooder in the best possible way.
I recently came across his post on LinkedIn concerning the eventual passage of that bill (I refuse to use the name the President uses), and I can’t help but post all of it here. I really hope you don’t mind, Scott.
It’s so frustrating that there is this illusion that we are all 49%/49% right now. Us versus them, good versus bad, and it’s all because of the BS that is the electoral system. It’s very likely 70% versus 30% and we’re just not seeing representative government. There’s just no common sense right now
This bill is insane trash and will make everyone’s life worse except mine. And I don’t want the tax break. I want to pay for kids meals and Headstart with my taxes.
I think the first two years of college should be free, student loans should be at 0% interest and available to anyone who needs one, we should take care of our veterans, we should have free public transportation, the post office is not a business and should not be run like one, healthcare is a right
This just should not be controversial. In just a few short years suddenly vaccines and programs like USAID that have saved hundreds of millions of people’s lives are now controversial. There is no controversy, there are only assholes that have too much money.
And now we are getting close to having the world‘s first trillionaire. That’s just nuts. Good for you, you won capitalism.
The number of people with $100 in the bank and a secured credit card defending someone with hundreds of billions of dollars is indefensible. You’re buying your furniture rent to own and you honestly think someone with a private jet cares about you. They do not.
Do not trust people with money unless they remember what it was like to miss a meal. Unless they have princess Diana levels of empathy. I am not religious, but I tell my children “there but for the grace of God go we” as anyone could be a paycheck away from losing their house.
Other people don’t have to lose in order for you to win. It’s not us versus them. There is no difference between me and a South American migrant worker other than where I was born. We both have the right to a happy life and healthy children. If we can’t agree on such basic things then I am at a loss.
Luck is opportunity plus being prepared. Me acknowledging the luck in the virtue of my birth and where I am today is not taking away from my hard work. Acknowledging my privilege and lucky opportunities isn’t a nullification of my existence nor does it disparage your lived experience.
We can create luck for people by acknowledging that they didn’t have all the opportunities that we had. We can create those opportunities with a social safety net. This is coming down to a fundamental disagreement that everyone has the right to exist, and that no one person is better than another.
I don’t understand why 60 or 70% of humans need to suffer so that 0.1% of people can be held up as capitalist heroes. You’re not a hero for standing on the back of the workers driving the taco drones and delivering Chinese widgets to me in the middle of the night.
Star Trek economics only work because of universal basic income and removing food and healthcare and shelter from the equation.
Excellent write-up, Scott. And I wish these were universal truths:
I think the first two years of college should be free, student loans should be at 0% interest and available to anyone who needs one, we should take care of our veterans, we should have free public transportation, the post office is not a business and should not be run like one, healthcare is a right.
I am going to do the school lunch balance thing. I have to do something.
They have medals for this, right? 🏳️🌈
Somebody paid the refs off on this one. I’m sorry. But this was blatant to the point of being absurd. I don’t know if it was a mob thing or they’re just getting us back for Trump.
You cannot not call an obvious handball (his palm was literally on top of the ball) in the box and then overturn yourself without looking at the VAR monitor for the championship-winning goal.
Just a fraud game all the way around.. 💯
This U.S./Mexico match is an utterly lawless affair.
Maybe this has been happening for decades and decades and I just don’t know…
At dinner tonight, I overheard a table of 5-6 single people (mix of men and women) talking about one of their married friends. Apparently, this wife had hidden herself taking a shower with a shower cap on for 30 years. And the husband accidentally walked in and saw her with a shower cap on and freaked out.
Come on, fellas. Be better than that.
Went to the Braves game tonight. The 4th celebration stuff was hard to take, not going to lie.
Also, they should have simply played the Ray Charles song “America the Beautiful” throughout the whole fireworks show. The Lee Greenwood song is ridiculous and just factually wrong now.
