Rick Steves announces that he is cancer-free. “PSA 55 to PSA 0.09...
Rick Steves announces that he is cancer-free. “PSA 55 to PSA 0.09 to PSA <0.03…Yes! If you know prostate cancer, you know the happy story of those numbers.”
“No constitutional text is well written enough to save the rule of...
“No constitutional text is well written enough to save the rule of law when the American people elect a president who doesn’t believe in the Constitution, especially when he is joined by a Congress that refuses to hold him accountable for violating it.”
Menswear writer Derek Guy on Zelenskyy’s lack of suit in the WH:...
Menswear writer Derek Guy on Zelenskyy’s lack of suit in the WH: “I dislike the idea of respectability in dress…because it conflates the *appearance* of virtue with *actual* virtue. Wearing a suit doesn’t make you respectful, intelligent, or capable.”
Jeremy Keith on the Web on Mobile
Jeremy Keith, writing at Adactio:
Ask anyone about their experience of using websites on their
mobile device. They’ll tell you plenty of stories of how badly
it sucks.
It doesn’t matter that the web is the perfect medium for
just-in-time delivery of information. It does...
The Size of the US Federal Workforce Has Not Grown in the Last 50 Years
newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/the-musk-trump-war-on-federal-employees-doesnt-add-up
John Cassidy, writing for The New Yorker (requires a free account to read, annoyingly):
Of course, these calculations can’t be taken literally. Even Musk
has said that he wants to protect essential workers. If the entire
federal workforce were eliminated, there’d be no o...
America Alone
From Angry Staffer on Bluesky on the Trump/Vance/Zelenskyy meeting:
The public nature of the meltdown amplifies the embarrassment. Unlike past Oval Office tensions — like Nixon’s private rants or Clinton’s discreet scandals — this clash unfolded live before cameras, captur...
Putin Is Ready to Carve Up the World. Trump Just Handed Him...
Putin Is Ready to Carve Up the World. Trump Just Handed Him the Knife. “What happens if Russia unleashes its aggression against Europe, unchecked or even aided by the United States?”
VisionOS 2.4, Now in Beta, Will Add New ‘Spatial Gallery’ App and Support for Apple Intelligence, Along With a ‘Vision Pro’ App for iPhones
sixcolors.com/post/2025/02/new-visionos-beta-adds-apple-intelligence-spatial-gallery-ios-apps/
Jason Snell, writing last week at Six Colors:
While a lot of us have gotten excited about the potential of
Apple’s immersive video format, the truth is that the Vision Pro
is also a great viewer of more traditional 3-D video content. And
Apple has built a new visionOS ap...
Good grief, the last two paragraphs of Heather Cox Richardson’s piece on...
Good grief, the last two paragraphs of Heather Cox Richardson’s piece on Trump’s not-so-new alliance w/ Russia. Kremlin spokesperson: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.” 😳
“The Conscience of the Nation Must be Roused”
In the NY Times crossword for Sunday, March 2, the clue for 47-down reads, “‘At a time like this, scorching ___, not convincing argument, is needed’: Frederick Douglass”. The answer can be found in Douglass’ July 5, 1852 speech, What, to the American Slave, Is Your 4th of Ju...
Russian activist Garry Kasparov on The Putinization of America. “Unleashing Elon Musk...
Russian activist Garry Kasparov on The Putinization of America. “Unleashing Elon Musk and his DOGE cadres on the federal government, menacing Canada and European allies, and embracing Vladimir Putin’s wish list for Ukraine and beyond are not unrelated.”
How the US press would cover the 2025 Coup if it were...
How the US press would cover the 2025 Coup if it were happening in a foreign country: “…and instead ever-more-firmly embraced an authoritarian government structure united primarily by transactional kleptocracy and white nationalism.”
Mike Myers’s Skewering Portrayal of Elon Musk on SNL
Like any great caricature, Myers’s Elon Musk conveys a better sense of Musk than watching Musk himself does. A cruel and infinitely self-satisfied know-it-all, whose utter self-confidence runs counter to the fact that he’s unfathomably awkward, as uncoordinated socially as he is physically. Just an utter and total spaz, who believes no one’s jokes are funnier than his own. The sort of person no one likes but who has nevertheless parlayed tremendous wealth into great power, forcing his influence upon the world.
Skilled technologists are being forced out of government; 18F and USDS are...
Skilled technologists are being forced out of government; 18F and USDS are gutted by DOGE. “Musk is not just destroying core government functions, he is also destroying the actual tech capacity of government.”
Great Timothy Snyder analysis of the Trump/Vance/Zelenskyy meeting. “There was a logic...
Great Timothy Snyder analysis of the Trump/Vance/Zelenskyy meeting. “There was a logic to what happened…the logic of throwing away all reason, yielding to all impulse, betraying all decency…in order to bring out the worst in the world.”
Teens Seeking Abortions Face Huge Challenges. INeedAnA Is Here to Help. The...
Teens Seeking Abortions Face Huge Challenges. INeedAnA Is Here to Help. The website shows the closest clinics, info about parental consent laws, and abortion funds that can hel pay for care.
An interesting summary of a call with Dem Reps Raskin & Stansbury:...
An interesting summary of a call with Dem Reps Raskin & Stansbury: “all 215 Dems are communicating on a scale they never have before and the senators are doing the same” & “Republicans who publicly say positive things are not doing the same privately”.
Jamelle Bouie: Democrats should skip Trump’s State of the Union address and...
Jamelle Bouie: Democrats should skip Trump’s State of the Union address and hold their own event to explain to the American people what’s going on. (On Bluesky, AOC asked what Dems should do. Lots of ideas in the replies.)
Tall Structures
Hero Snow Reporter Who Took on Vance Still Employed
Good news: at least for now, Lucy Welch remains employed by Sugarbush. From the Boston Globe (archive):
In a statement to the Globe, Sugarbush spokesperson John Bleh said the resort respects “the voice and opinion” of its employees but “determined that the snow report was ...