Mitch's Blog

Trailer for the upcoming new season of “Veronica Mars." Yes, that’s right – new “Veronica Mars.” I’m in! 📺

The Shrink Next Door: Marty Moskowitz, a successful New York businessman and attorney, was having personal problems, so he went to see a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Isaac Steven “Ike” Herschkopf. That began a bizarre relationship that lasted nearly 39 years.

Good podcast series by ex-New York Times columnist Joe Nocera. Too many commercials and promos though.

This is how you deal with Nazis who don’t understand how free speech works.

Life goal. Via

Gab moved to Mastodon servers recently, leading Mastodon admins and developers struggling with the question whether to ban Gab.

There shouldn’t be any struggle. Free speech includes the right – even obligation – of the owners of platforms to block speech they find hateful. That’s a particularly easy decision for Mastodon, which is not Facebook- or Twitter-scale.

Adit Robertson on The Verge: How the biggest decentralized social network is dealing with its Nazi problem

Here’s the preview on YouTube.

Looks good! I never got into “Battlestar Galactica.” I became a Sackhoff fan watching “Longmire,” although I didn’t like the way her character was written. 📺

“The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!”

John Carpenter’s “The Thing” but with adorable claymation penguins

I hope the guy in the car had insurance.

Dog: “Great job making the bed! I’ll just add some finishing touches.”

A new technique uses space-based satellite surveillance to prevent bridge collapses, by detecting defects smaller than the thickness of a dime.

The new technique uses computer modeling and high-resolution satellite images to detect subtle shifts in a bridge’s structure that could indicate that it’s starting to fail. Some of the changes are so tiny that they could be undetectable during traditional visual inspections, the scientists say. The new technique uses computer modeling and high-resolution satellite images to detect subtle shifts in a bridge’s structure that could indicate that it’s starting to fail. Some of the changes are so tiny that they could be undetectable during traditional visual inspections, the scientists say.

Operation BBQ Relief: Competitive barbecuers flock to disaster scenes to serve up delicious hot food to victims and rescuers. “I thought, who better than some guys who set up in parking lots every weekend to bring a comfort meal?” … “Barbecue is comfort food … It reminds people of good times with friends and family, and gives them hope for those good times again.” Plus, barbecue meals tend to be hearty and high in protein — good for periods of scarcity…. [many disaster survivors] haven’t had a warm meal in days.

Today I learned MetaFilter is still a thing and it’s still very good.

A court in Dresden, Germany, sentenced two men to prison for copyright infringement – on Usenet Yes, Usenet is still a thing. [The Register]

A judge ruled against Oracle’s lawsuit seeking to block the $10B JEDI contract for Pentagon systems, leaving Amazon and Microsoft as finalists. – Geekwire

Vox journalist Matt Yglesias talks with Jenny Scheutz, housing economist and fellow at the Brookings Institution to untangle the US housing crisis.

Some threads: Exclusionary zoning is a big part of the problem; people in affluent neighborhoods don’t want to see more housing built. Rent control tends to exacerbate problems by discouraging rental property. Tying up so much American middle-class wealth in housing makes it hard to drive down prices; if your entire retirement is tied up in your house, as it is for many Americans, you’re going to fight to keep prices as high as possible, which hurts the poor, lower-middle-class and young adults.

Wonderful, vintage photos posted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

“Two US lawmakers are pushing a bipartisan bill that would force the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to alert the public of hacking attempts on election computer systems.” The Republican Party opposes election reform because it knows it can only win crooked elections. On The Register.

But the plan draws criticism. Mike Dano reports on Light Reading:

“Today’s vote doubles down on the same auction-driven spectrum policies that have left rural America unserved and low-income students forced to do their homework on WiFi in McDonald’s parking lots,” added John Schwartz, president and founder of Voqal, a company that acts as a middleman between schools that want to lease EBS spectrum and companies like Sprint that want access to that spectrum. “Instead of updating EBS and expanding on the strong track record of licensees such as Voqal – which is proud of our record of serving schools and low-income communities – the Commission has voted to commercialize a vital public asset.”

Metallica to publish children’s book, The ABCs of Metallica [Ben Beaumont-Thomas/The Guardian] Never too early to start the youngsters on metal, death and desolation.