Everybody agrees that social media needs to suppress harmful content while promoting good content, but nobody can agree on what falls into which category. Many people are not acting in good faith, and will knowingly claim that bad content which should be suppressed is actually good.
None of this seems particularly insightful to me, but public policy discussions about social media tend to assume that there is some good faith arbiter somewhere who can absolutely separate good from evil.
That’s one of the reasons why the big social media platforms need to be broken up to eliminate their monopoly powers. Because that kind of power should not be centralized. This is a very old, solved problem; it’s why we have free speech.
What Happened to the Company That Raised Minimum Wage to $70k/yr?
Business is better than ever.
But will the carriers just look at this as a slap on the wrist?
Yesterday I did my 3+-mile walk with the dog through a residential neighborhood up at the end of Lake Murray Blvd. No access to bathrooms. After I’d gone about 1/10 of a mile, I thought, “I think I may need to pee now.”
Later, I grew more certain. It was like the end of the Titanic by the time I got home. You may have even heard me exclaim “AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”
We did pass a port-a-potty somebody had out at the curb while they were remodeling. I got in. Minnie refused to get in with me. And the port-a-potty was wobbling. “This will not end well,” I said to myself, so I did not use it.
Also, it started to rain heavily when we were about halfway out. I did not bring my raingear because rain was not predicted for several hours after that.
Radio station ad via
California Legislature’s Battle Over ‘Gig Economy’ Shows No Sign of Ending
AB5 was intended to stop companies like Uber and Lyft from misclassifying employees as contract workers, depriving them of legally mandated benefits. Instead, it’s misclassifying legitimate contractors as employees, and depriving large numbers of people of their livelihood.
The unions and the author of the bill, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, gave exemptions to a few categories of work. But it’s drawn criticism from artists, photographers, dancers, musicians, journalists and many other freelance workers who say it has damaged their incomes because employers shied away from giving them non-payroll work.
It’s also created great uncertainty on how it might be applied to whole industries. Could, for example, owners of fast-food restaurant franchises be considered employees of the parent franchising corporations?
The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford: Mark Twain’s Marginalia: Most of Mark Twain’s books have handwritten notes in the margins.
The Oxford English Dictionary is adding Nigerian words, which is proving controversial with some scholars. Interestingly, opponents include Nigerians.
The BBC’s Nduka Orjinmo writes from Lagos.
There’s an Entire Industry Dedicated to Making Foods Crispy, and It Is WILD - Alex Beggs at Bon Appétit
Jason Kottke spent three weeks in Asia, including extended visits to Saigon and Singapore and 24 hours in Dubai.
As promised by Kottke, this essay is relatively long, but it’s a fast, enjoyable read.
He advises taking a food tour on your first visit to a new city. That’s a great idea!
My superpower is taking an extra day on a business trip to anyplace I haven’t been often, and seeing the sites. I often just take on-off bus tours for a good part of the day. A food tour sounds like another great option.
I anticipate significantly less business travel in the future, but still a lot compared with most people. And visiting a strange city is definitely a plus. Even if it doesn’t sound like a glamorous place to visit – if I have never been there before, it’s a plus to me. I spent an excellent day on my own in Dusseldorf a few years ago.
Kottke correctly identifies the pluses and minuses of solo travel. The pluses are, of course, freedom. The minus is that it can be damn lonely sometimes. Last year after Mobile World Congress, I stayed an extra day in Barcelona and got excruciatingly lonely and depressed, and ended up dialing in to the Friday news meeting, which was 5 pm local time, just to hear friendly voices.
Here’s one of Kottke’s impressions of Saigon:
Because of the motorbikes, the process for crossing the street on foot in Saigon is different than in a lot of other places. You basically just wait for any buses (which will absolutely not stop for pedestrians) or cars to go by and then slowly wade out into traffic. Do not make any sudden movements and for god sake don’t run. The motorbike swarm will magically flow around you. It’s suuuuuper unnerving the first few times you do it, but you soon get used to it because the alternative is never ever getting across the street.
The motorbikes make walking around Saigon absolutely exhausting. It’s not just crossing the street. You literally have to be on the lookout for them everywhere. They drive up on the sidewalks. They drive into and out of houses and buildings, turning every doorway into a potential intersection. Having to look both ways every few seconds when you’re walking 6 or 8 miles a day around the city really drains the ol’ attention reserves.
Things I saw carried on motorbikes in Saigon, a non-exhaustive list: trees, dogs, tiny babies, ice (for delivery to a drinks cart, the ice block was not even strapped down), a family of five, a dessert cart, an entire toy store, a dried squid shop, and 8 huge bags of clams.
The food in Saigon and Singapore sounds wonderful.
Kottke: The secret of enduring Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during a long winter is just roll with it. Learn to enjoy the long nights and cold weather.
Relevant to me personally because Julie and I often talk about moving to Columbus, Ohio, where she grew up and where she has family. I’ve been there more than a dozen times and I like it but oh, those winters.
Funny thing, for most of my life I was an indoor mole, but in the past dozen years, since I started getting fit, I’ve gotten used to spending extended periods outside every day.
I like San Diego. I like the weather.
But the cost of living here is prohibitive. So much less expensive in Columbus.