FeedCity

In 2018, when I added ActivityPub support to Micro.blog, I faced a choice: do I fight other “competing” platforms or do I embrace them? In hindsight that decision is obvious. I support anything that makes the web better. Twitter / X migration to Bluesky at scale makes the web better, so I’m for it.

People seem to misunderstand Bluesky. Imagine if a few years ago instead of Twitter crippling their API, they totally opened it up, and at the same time built a distributed platform where you could host your tweets on any server, with usernames tied to your own domain name. Sounds pretty great!

Micro.blog integrates with Bluesky in a few ways that people don’t know about, so I collected a summary of each feature together in a single help page. Also, new feature coming tomorrow that I’ll add to this page.

Joe Trippi posted a video to his new sez.us service where Pete Buttigieg explains what the Russians have done to the US. I see it that way too. When Brian Lehrer asked a few weeks ago how the US got so divided of his guest Bob Woodward (a fascinating time capsule, recorded b...

Nationwide, just over a million children, mostly girls, participate in cheer each year (some estimates are even higher), more than the number who play softball or lacrosse. And almost every part of that world is dominated by a single company: Varsity Spirit. It’s hard to che...

Half of your "successful" A/B tests are false-positives. This is why, and how to fix it.

Excellent piece on how Bluesky leaves users with the impression that it's open and decentralized in ways it is not. If it's bought by someone who wants to use it the way Musk has, they can, without any recourse by the users. As they said in the old days, if you're getting something for free, you're the product, not the customer. We helped Musk build a way to excercise political power against our interests. You may think Bluesky is a way of fixing that, but it probably isn't. They're digging a deep hole, probably too deep to climb out of at this point. They did some innovative stuff, perhaps. But they ended up at the same place, it appears, as Twitter did.

I like to put something here every day whether I have something to say or not because I'm not sure how my software would handle a post-less. Someday we may find out, but not today. "smile:

I’m so thankful for the young people who will take up the political fight from here. I’ll be 50 next year, have been obsessed with politics and progressive causes since high school. 2024 has burned me. I hardly care what happens. All I can focus on now is family and making a nice space on the web. 🇺🇸

Good feeling this morning, walking to get coffee and then fixing a couple bugs. Micro.blog does so much behind the scenes that is not obvious unless you have years of using the platform… Always something to smooth over, or expose more bits of info about what it’s doing.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

How Trump will undo Biden's signature climate law  (First) | The impact of the uncommitted movement (Starts at 24:00) | The Gen Z bro media diet (Starts at 48:15)

If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

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Dr. Ellen Wiebe has performed hundreds of medical aid in dying (or MAID) procedures and is one of Canada’s most prominent advocates for the practice. David Marchese had questions — medical, legal and philosophical — about when it makes sense for doctors to help people to die, and also about how MAID might shape our thinking on what, exactly, constitutes a good death. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and
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I thought Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul would be all spectacle. After watching it, I’m not sure how to feel. As a kid I went to see a fight on closed-circuit TV, a quick knockout, over while I got popcorn. That was a lifetime ago. Now he’s 58 years old and back… Like time slows down, but not enough.

We’ve got a new Core Int out today. Daniel and I talk about Apple’s Image Playground and SwiftUI.

WP Engine escalated its Federal complaint by citing Automattic’s publication of the WP Engine Tracker website as evidence of intent to harm WP Engine and exposing customers to potential cybercrimes. The updated complaint incorporates recent actions by Mullenweg to further strengthen their case.

I have another Bluesky-related feature ready to roll out in Micro.blog, but will wait until Monday. Bluesky is growing so fast, I’m sure they have their hands full, no sense in adding any extra hits to the API on a Friday afternoon.

There’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz to head up the Justice Department. Former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Trump has chosen some eyebrow-raising names to staff his Cabinet. But are there any Republicans in the Senate that would choose to block them? 

Congress reporter Liz Goodwin joins hosts Aaron Blake and Elahe Izadi to dig into Trump’s Cabinet appointments, their chances in the Senate, and whether Trump could bypass the upper chamber entirely with the use of recess appointments.

Today's episode was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Reena Flores, Lucy Perkins and Mary Jo Murphy.

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Randomly drove by Terrible Love and had to stop. It’s a coffee shop in an old boiler room in Hyde Park. ☕️

Today's song: Tea for two and two for tea.

When I was a boy my mother would sometimes say if I didn't stop belching I wouldn't be able to stop.