Inner Ramblings

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:20:12 -0400

All this Sturm und Drang surrounding 60 Minutes has me thinking about a re-watch of The Insider, Michael Mann’s great 1999 movie. Letterboxd’s synopsis: “A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.” It’s a great movie, and feels apt AF at the moment. Here’s the original segment on 60 Minutes, which ran an entire half hour.

What’s going on today is like if — instead of getting shady, threatening, and litigious — the tobacco companies had just purchased CBS, purged the staff at 60 Minutes, and hired a bunch of pro-cigarette stooges to replace them.

Spot on.

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:03:52 -0400

Candy cigarettes…who even knew they still made these?!

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:45:52 -0400

Tony Gilroy Accepts Award for Andor: “Fuck the Empire!”

Now that Andor has been out for a while, showrunner Tony Gilroy is free to speak his mind on what the show was all about. I mean, it was pretty clear to the audience, but now he can say his piece.

Love this, too.

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:43:49 -0400

As it pertains to AI, I really feel like Dr. Ian Malcom.

The 7 golden rules of not being a dick on the internet

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:37:22 -0400

From JA Westenberg’s Mastodon posts:

The 7 golden rules of not being a dick on the internet

No quote dunking. If you disagree with someone, reply to them directly. Broadcasting their post to your audience with a snide caption turns a disagreement into a pile-on. Which is the entire point, I know. But we’re better than that, right?

…right?

No snark-and-lock. Don’t fire off a smug “cutting” reply and then limit who can respond. If you can dish it, you can take it; turning off replies after a dunk is the social media version of ringing a doorbell and running. Don’t be a fucking child.

Read the kind version. Most takes that look outrageous are clumsy phrasing or missing context, so when something reads badly, go back and find the more generous interpretation before you reply.

Screenshot in good faith. When you repost someone to criticise them, show enough of the thread that people can see what they actually meant, because cropping out the context to make someone look worse is lying with extra steps.

Don’t subtweet, say it. Vague callout posts about “some people” are passive-aggressive theatre; either name the issue and talk to the person or let it go.

Correct, don’t humiliate. When someone’s wrong, you want the truth out there, so share the correction and skip the victory lap that only shames them.

Log off before you escalate. When a thread gets your heart racing, close the app, because you’ll type something worse while you’re angry and the post will keep until tomorrow if it’s worth making in the first place.

I love every one of these. A wonderful reference for anyone writing on the internet.

I must admit, I am guilty of some of these. #1, for example. I don’t think I’m intentially being a dick. It’s just that me replying to them is not…feasible, I guess. Most of mine are news stories, where the reply wouldn’t be going to the person I’m mocking. And #3, I don’t always do this. Sometimes I do. Sometimes, not so much. It’s most dependent on my mood. Not really fair.

On the other hand, I really do try to adhere to #4 every single time. I’ve always believed context is key. And #6, I absolutely adhere to. Because I’m not a douche. (Life Rule #1).

Also, I should obey #7 a lot more.

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:14:11 -0400

Three Ways to Get Paid – Jason Zweig

Linking this here for the future. No reason.

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:35:58 -0400

Scott Pelley Accuses CBS News Boss of ‘Murdering’ ‘60 Minutes’

CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the “60 Minutes” correspondent, laced into the show’s newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the longstanding Sunday news program.

Love to see this. Individuals, journalists specifically, standing up and telling the truth.

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:36:43 -0400

I see no lie.

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:12:59 -0400

This blind guy just walked in with a set of golf clubs over his shoulder. And now I have questions.

Can we please blame the right at least a little bit?

Sun, 31 May 2026 12:02:21 -0400

You know what I’m sick of? People and pundits who blame, and constantly flog, the left for the atrocities of the right? I hear almost daily: “Well, the left isn’t giving these people (whomever they are) a viable alternative”. How about instead, saying something like “The right are being complete and utter assholes about humanity”?

And the majority I’m talking about are left-leaning pundits.

The one I’m hearing about a lot right now are young men. Instead of calling out over and over and over again the toxic shit that is being spewed out of every right-wing mouth they can find, all I hear is about how the left is not doing enough. What enough means, who knows?

Look, I get that the left needs to come up with alternatives on these topics. Young men. Masculinity. Trans rights. Gay rights. Civil rights. Protecting black and brown people. I really do. And I agree with that 100%. But can’t we all agree, and say it out loud with our meat mouths again and again and again, that the right’s views on people who are NOT straight, white men are absolutely atrocious?

Please.

Just once.

For the love of whatever god or non-god you pray to.

Sun, 31 May 2026 11:47:25 -0400

Seen at the grocery store:

What?!

Sun, 31 May 2026 10:45:53 -0400

Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green

Now, looking at the interiors of the Manhattan Project control rooms and plants, the broad use of Light and Medium Green makes sense. One mistake and mass devastation could have occurred within these towns. Birren writes, “Note that most of the standards are soft in tone. This is deliberate and intended to establish a non-distracting environment. Green is a restful and natural-looking color for average factory interiors. Light Green with Medium Green is suggested.”

Fascinating information about something we don’t really think about (unless we’re trained to think about it). Hospitals are the same way. Here’s an example control room following Birren’s suggestions:

Looks normal to me. It probably looks normal to you. But it’s normal because of his influence. Well done, sir.

Fri, 29 May 2026 23:26:44 -0400

Treasury Department confirms steps taken to put Trump on new $250 bill | AP News

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that his department has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump, anticipating the passage of stalled legislation in Congress to put the president on a new denomination of legal tender.

Totally normal behavior.

Fri, 29 May 2026 13:49:54 -0400

I cannot seem to type-spell notification consistently. It’s like a brain-to-muscle block or something. I even misspelled it typing it out here.

Wed, 27 May 2026 09:58:05 -0400

“Love defies logic,” said the logical thinker.

Mon, 25 May 2026 19:49:05 -0400

Todd Vaziri on Mastodon:

What a dreadful place we are in where a mega billionaire says something like “You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.” and not be shamed by the culture and the people around him into making a public apology the very next day.

Couldn’t agree more. And yet, here we are.

Mon, 25 May 2026 19:45:40 -0400

Mon, 25 May 2026 15:27:09 -0400

Nothing says honoring fallen American soldiers than having those 10x extra state patrols out there on the roads setting speed traps.

Sun, 24 May 2026 19:49:58 -0400

Switching to water from now on. This is ridiculous.

Sun, 24 May 2026 16:20:14 -0400

Watching “Doc Hollywood” for the 452nd time.

Two things:

Hard to believe this movie was released 35 years ago!!
Julie Warner played a pivotal role in this 11 year old’s life.

Sun, 24 May 2026 11:04:35 -0400

After the rain.

Sun, 24 May 2026 10:11:06 -0400

Greg Knauss on Mastodon:

The rapidly-increasing percentage of my day spent ensuring that whatever product or service I’m interacting with isn’t actively trying to fuck me is exhausting.

We are no longer customers or clients or citizens or even human. We are exploitable marks, turnips to be bled dry and discarded.

I don’t mean this to apply just to tech — it’s everything, from cable providers to oil companies to the stock market to (and inspired and led by) the President of the United States.

We live in a grift culture, where the only thing that matters is how much you have to be cheated out of.

Yep, yep, yep.

Sun, 24 May 2026 09:28:55 -0400

Beyond Plastics Tracked Starbucks’ ‘Widely Recyclable’ Plastic Cups. None Ended Up at a Recycling Facility. — Beyond Plastics - Working To End Single-Use Plastic Pollution

Between January and March 2026, Beyond Plastics placed 53 Bluetooth-enabled trackers inside single-use polypropylene cold cups and dropped them into in-store recycling bins at 35 Starbucks locations across nine states and Washington, D.C. Of the 36 trackers that returned usable data, none pinged from a recycling facility. Instead, the cups traveled to landfills, incinerators, waste-transfer stations, and material recovery facilities.

Can’t say I’m surprised.

Sat, 23 May 2026 13:19:02 -0400

Watched “All the President’s Men” for the first time last night. The 1970’s era of filmmaking sits in stark contrast to today. The picture quality, the color palette, the light (or lack thereof), the sound mixing, just to name a few.

But the thing that stood out to me was the following screenshot:

Why are there just cars parked perpendicular to the parking spaces? What kind of madness is this?

Fri, 22 May 2026 17:11:51 -0400

Wow, do I not know my U.S. geography! Atlanta is 7th on this list!