A Maryland court reinstated Adnan Syed’s conviction and ordered a new hearing. (NPR).
This seems deeply wrong to me. Syed’s conviction was vacated after the court essentially found both his defense and the prosecution were incompetent. Nothing in the appellate court’s ruling changes or disputes that.
Hae Min Lee’s family’s rights were violated—but how does reversing the vacation of Syed’s conviction fix that? It just adds another wrong to the previous litany of abuse.
I had been thinking the Stormy Daniels case was bullshit, but Judd Legum makes the case why it matters.
Elections are supposed to be about information and transparency. Daniels’ statements could have changed enough voters’ minds to swing the election the other way.
Trump schemed to conceal relevant information from the voting public in the days before the election, engaged in an elaborate coverup, and then lied about his involvement.
This deceit may have changed the course of history.
A writer signing their name as “Jenka” on Medium describes a Midjourney experiment to envision selfie photos throughout history, which gave the subjects big smiles, making them all look American.
Smiling is not a universal language; the big, confident grin is uniquely American, Jenka says. Eastern Europeans see someone who smiles all the time as foolish or dishonest.
Jenka quotes French-American journalist Camille Baker, who writes about a woman Baker calls “Sofiya:”
“The expectation was, you have to smile eight hours a day,” [Sofiya says]. A 41-year-old Russian émigré who had been living in the United States for the past decade, Sofiya “was a proficient English speaker,” Baker writes, but it was in her job as a bank teller that she “came face-to-face with her deficiency in speaking ‘American.’ This other English language, made up of not just words but also facial expressions and habits of conversation subtle enough to feel imagined. Smiling almost constantly was at the core of her duties as a teller. As she smiled at one customer after another, she would wince inwardly at how silly it felt. There was no reason to smile at her clients, she thought, since there was nothing particularly funny or heartwarming about their interactions. And her face hurt.”
This Disturbing Theory Explains Pixar’s Cars.
By Jason Torchinsky at Jalopnik.
I wonder whether the new Wordpress version handles untitled blog posts better than previous versions. Such a simple thing, but it’s what eventually drove me off the platform.
My latest: $61B Broadcom-VMware merger is probably toast, says legal expert. The British Competition and Markets Authority launched an in-depth investigation of the deal Wednesday. Some 60% of M&As die once the CMA gets its hooks into them.
Five years ago today: I got hungry for a sweet before bedtime so I ventured out of my hotel at about 11 pm and found this Starbucks. It was closed.
Police had a warrant for drug trafficking and kidnapping. They destroyed his front door and driveway gate, “lost” $400 of cash they took, and ogled a lemon pound cake, according to a report by Ashley Belanger on Ars Technica.
Afroman later released songs and music videos about the incident, entitled “Lemon Pound Cake” and “Will You Help Me Repair My Door.” The videos went viral. The officers allege they face embarrassment, ridicule, humiliation, and loss of reputation.
Afroman was never charged with a crime. The officers should be charged with criminal ignorance of the Streisand Effect.
I tried Grammarly yesterday and I like it a lot
I published two posts here yesterday and noticed copyediting errors after publication. This troubled me partly because I had a whitepaper due later that day, and I was concerned about sloppy mistakes in paying copy.
So I decided, “I’ve heard good things about Grammarly. I’ll give that a try.”
Holy cow! It’s fantastic!
Also, humbling.
Grammarly flagged 95 suggestions in a 2,200-word whitepaper. It suggested replacing the first three words of the whitepaper with a single word. Most of the changes it recommended were along those lines; tightening up the text by eliminating unnecessary words.
However, some of Grammarly’s recommended changes would have introduced errors in my work, and I had to dismiss those. Grammarly doesn’t run on autopilot.
Overall, I’m delighted with Grammarly, and I’m signing up for a one-year subscription now.
And yes, Grammarly reviewed this post. It recommended seven changes. I accepted most of them.
Shower thought: What’s the deal with Velcro, anyway? How long has it been around?
The hook-and-loop fastener Velcro was conceived in 1951 by Swiss engineer George de Mestral. Ten years later, he founded the Velcro company in 1951.
Wikipedia: Hook-and-loop fastener:
Columnist Sylvia Porter made the first mention of the product in her column Your Money’s Worth of August 25, 1958, writing, “It is with understandable enthusiasm that I give you today an exclusive report on this news: A ‘zipperless zipper’ has been invented – finally. The new fastening device is in many ways potentially more revolutionary than was the zipper a quarter-century ago.”
…
A number of Velcro Corporation products were displayed at a fashion show at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York in 1959, and the fabric got its first break when it was used in the aerospace industry to help astronauts maneuver in and out of bulky space suits. However, this reinforced the view among the populace that hook-and-loop was something with very limited utilitarian uses. The next major use hook-and-loop saw was with skiers, who saw the similarities between their outerwear and that of the astronauts, and thus saw the advantages of a suit that was easier to don and doff. Scuba and marine gear followed soon after. Having seen astronauts storing food pouches on walls, children’s clothing makers came on board. As hook-and-loop fasteners only became widely used after NASA’s adoption of it, NASA is popularly – and incorrectly – credited with its invention.
The patent expired in 1978, which is why we have hook-and-loop fasteners from many companies today.
Each Space Shuttle flew equipped with ten thousand inches of a special fastener made of Teflon loops, polyester hooks, and glass backing. Hook-and-loop fasteners are widely used, from the astronauts' suits, to anchoring equipment. In the near weightless conditions in orbit, hook-and-loop fasteners are used to temporarily hold objects and keep them from floating away. A patch is used inside astronauts' helmets where it serves as a nose scratcher. During mealtimes astronauts use trays that attach to their thighs using springs and fasteners. Hook-and-loop fasteners are also used aboard the International Space Station.
Also:
Velcro jumping is a game where people wearing hook-covered suits take a running jump and hurl themselves as high as possible at a loop-covered wall.
David Letterman popularized the game in 1984, and it’s still widely played where alcohol is served.
Pop culture references to Velcro are amusing.
The zipper was patented in 1892.
The zipper gets its name from a brand of rubber boots (or galoshes) it was used on in 1923. The galoshes could be fastened with a single zip of the hand, and soon the hookless fasteners came to be called “Zippers”.
It would be funny if this was a 3,400-year-old rickroll. Hear the Oldest Song in the World: A Sumerian Hymn Written 3,400 Years Ago
Logseq vs. Obsidian: First impressions
I played with Logseq a bit as an alternative to Obsidian, or complement for it.
Logseq seems like a simplified version of Obsidian that does less. For many people that will be a plus. Fewer options equals fewer things to fiddle with and potentially break.
Logseq is an extreme outliner. It wants everything you do to be an outline. Obsidian supports outlining, but Logseq is more opinionated and more powerful as an outliner. That’s a minus for me; I do use outlines but mainly I just write prose.
Logseq wants you to limit yourself to store everything in just four folders, and organize all your data using links instead. My brain doesn’t work that way. I make heavy use of folders.
Logseq is open source, which makes it—possibly—more futureproof and secure than Obsidian.
I don’t think I’m going to stay with Logseq. It doesn’t seem to be different enough from Obsidian to be worth the hassle of switching.
Still, Logseq seems to be a great app for people who are looking for an extremely powerful outliner. And I may come back to it.
And playing with Logseq gave me some ideas for doing a better job of organizing and using my Obsidian vault. I need to use the Daily Note more, and move blocks of text between notes using the Text Transporter plugin
I just pledged $53 to the Kickstarter for Cory Doctorow’s upcoming novel, “Red Team Blues.” In pledging, I’m supporting the excellent work Cory (who is on Mastodon as @pluralistic@mamot.fr) does on his blog and podcast, which are free.
The $53 pledge gets me a nice hardcover, which I might donate to the local library, because I’m an ebook guy. Backers at that level also get an audiobook, and an ebook too. The audiobook and ebook are DRM-free, which will surprise nobody who follows Cory.
A pledge of $1,000 or more lets you name a character in the sequel, and $3,000 or more gets you—check this out!—a deluxe hardcover with a secret compartment.
More info from Cory: Kickstarting the Red Team Blues audiobook, which Amazon won’t sell
I’ve read an advance copy of the novel. It’s terrific. Very suspenseful!
What does a Mandalorian like to eat with curds? This is the whey.
How do Jewish Mandalorians expresses dismay? They say “Oy vey.”
How do Spanish Mandalorians express strong approval: “¡Olé! ¡olé!”
How does a Mandalorian respond to being kicked off social media for telling too many bad jokes? “I could do this all day.”
Good negotiating advice from @lex Friedman: Negotiation is a conversation.