Cory Doctorow: The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that’s what you prefer) “After years of expensively purchased delay, Turbotax and its fellow tax-profiteers are losing the fight to make you pay them to tell the government what it already knows.”
Elon Musk: Work from home ‘morally wrong’ when some have to show up (CNBC). Wait til he finds out some people are billionaires while others struggle with poverty.
Cory Doctorow: Rent control works. It keeps housing costs down, doesn’t constrain supply, and sometimes increases that supply.
We need rent control, and we need to build plenty of more housing.
… regular housing for working people. Mr Market doesn’t want to build it, no matter how many “incentives” we dangle. Maybe it’s time we just did stuff instead of building elaborate Rube Goldberg machines in the hopes of luring the market’s animal sentiments into doing it for us.
I Will Defend Free Speech to the Death. Or Until an Autocrat Asks Me to Stop. “Let every petty dictator take notice: If you want Twitter to censor its users, just send me an email.” Via kottke.org
Want to read: Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer 📚
The people who design public bathrooms like to change the faucet designs just to fuck with us. “Let’s see those fuckers try to wash their hands NOW,” they chortle.
The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”. ProPublica’s Anjeanette Damon, Byard Duncan and Mollie Simon investigate HomeVestors of America, which preys on homeowners desperate to sell, including older adults who have dementia or are in the final stages of terminal illness.
BlueSky supports Markdown links when cross-posting from micro.blog (which is how I post to BlueSky. Let’s see if BlueSky also supports bold and italics.
You’re not uncool. Making friends as an adult is just hard. One important suggestion: Assume that people will like you when they meet you, says University of Maryland professor Marisa G. Franco. “We all have this tendency to think we’re more likely to be rejected than we actually are."
For years I’ve complained that there’s no online equivalent to being able to buy one issue of a magazine or newspaper. Columbia Journalism Review explains the business obstacles: Why micropayments will never be a thing in journalism.
Things I am grateful for this morning:
- The dog does not smell as bad as she did this weekend. (She is very past due for a bath.)
- The cats rarely throw up overnight on the path between my bed and the bathroom. (Sadly, Julie cannot say the same.)
Tens of millions Americans suffer from chronic, debilitating pain that often drives them to addiction, unemployment and homelessness. Nicholas Kristof reports in depth for The New York Times: Why Americans Feel More Pain
I meant to write “QR Codes” but instead wrote “QR Cods.” Microsoft Word tagged that spelling as fishy.
I’m doing some work in my home office this afternoon and I was literally distracted by a squirrel in the backyard.
Today I learned there’s a “Babylon 5” animated movie coming. Casting details here. I’ll watch!
America’s Caffeine Addiction: Why Some Experts Say It’s Time to Quit. Good article, clickbait headline. Caffeine in moderation is fine, but some of y’all are pounding 10 cups of joe and energy drinks daily and that ain’t right.
Inside the Last Old-School Seltzer Shop in New York. “Good seltzer should hurt — it should be carbonated enough that it kind of stings the back of your throat.” (NYTimes / Corey Kilgannon. Photos and video by Juan Arredondo)
The Enduring Mystery of Barbara Lowe and the Lost ‘Jeopardy!’ Episodes. I had no idea “Jeopardy” fandom was so large and organized. (The Ringer / Claire McNear)