So “Maybe the new Golden Age begins with a simple post that references someone who stirred you,”

💬 Jim Groom

… via 🔗 Stephen Downes

I am aware that I share a lot of links, with one or more of these traits;

  • no explanation
  • appending a little commentary
  • surrounded by a lot of commentary
  • in a sentence
  • with snark
  • a little more cryptic than some would like

… but the common thread through them all is that they all ‘stir’ me in some way.

‘Stirred’ mind you - not ‘shaken’ - though on occasions both.


If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.

💬 Bertrand Russell

.. via John Naughton


🔗 A Template You Might Find Useful

Thanks to whoever thought of me for the kind invitation, which I must regretfully decline. I’m Canadian and as a matter of principle feeling negative about visiting a neighboring country whose leader has repeatedly threatened our sovereignty and shown massive disrespect for our nationhood. Particularly when that leader has followed up similar statements about other nations with military action. I could probably work around that. But there’s also the issue of entering the US; if I roll up at the border and am asked to disclose my social media output, there’s a significant risk of an extremely negative outcome. I have a family to support and really can’t afford that risk. I still consider myself a friend of your organization, and one with strong opinions about the subjects scheduled for discussion; my regrets about having to decline are entirely sincere.

💬 Tim Bray

Slight edits depending on context. For example if you are English, switch to English spelling.


Crucial Track 🎵 May 22, 2026

"Hurry On Sundown" by Hawkwind

Listen on Apple Music

Came to mind this morning after reading 🔗 this. As a lad - Hawkwind definitely hit a nerve. Still does. Lemmy's successor - not so much. This is the first track on their first album - (a couple of albums before Lemmy became a full timer) .. because there are again too many to choose - but like other occasional references to tracks in this world - the first of the first started me on this particular journey.

Slow Sunset

View John Philpin's Crucial Tracks profile

Listen to my Apple Music playlist


👁️🤯 If I understand this correctly - Nilay Patel, Peter Kafka, Scott Galloway, Kara Swisher, Preet Bharara, Henry Blodgett, Maria Sharapova, Sean Illing (who all sit in my feeds) - and a whole host of other podcasts are shortly all going to be managed (if not owned) by … James Murdoch?


👁️ Back in the day @stefp / @stephenpieper.net was a welcome source of posts in my micro.blog stream - and then somehow he wasn’t. Probably moved on. Then I saw him on Crucial Tracks - found his site and added to my Feeds in NetNewsWire and of course he is here - just not as prolific?

Reminded me of others that seem to have moved on - and yet haven’t or I have just lost them somehow?

@pratik @pratik@writing.exchange for example … @pimoore.ca@smokey@jacob and of course @SimonWoods - interesting to see all their handles appear in the MB list.


👁️ I rarely get guestbook posts - and then 4 this week. All of them spam. Not good.


🔗🤯 A Seat on the Rocket Ship

The education company Cengage found that just 30% of last year’s graduates landed full-time work, down from 41% the year before.

💬 Parker Molloy


🔗 The four pillars of modern media

A recent issue of Casey Newton’s Platformer newsletter [£] made an offhand remark that I think both sums up how the modern media word operates – and which I know many media businesses haven’t completely assimilated as an idea yet:
> The mass audience has now moved fully to video; the personal audience now lives in the group chat. Professionals are getting their information from newsletters and podcasts.

Must be ‘offhand’ - because it is certainly not thought through.


🔗😂 XKCD and 🔗😂 Existential Comics are both crackers today.

Seems that 🍎 are pushing more Peanuts programming into 📺.

🍎📰 is missing a ‘comics’ section for Peanuts and other great comics, including XKCD and Existential. (With their permission - and payment - of course.)

👍🏼💡❓


🪦 RIP Barney - you gave ‘em hell - so I’ll assume you are heading to the other place. Deserved.


Inventing the modern world while pretending not to ...

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Reformation, society underwent significant changes while quietly laying the foundations for the modern world. Or did it?


Crucial Track 🎵 May 21, 2026

"Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers

Listen on Apple Music

Continuing yesterday's 'theme' .. another 'one hit wonder' - same kind of time - same kind of sound and definitely my jam - then and now. It's just that this one is from the other side of the Atlantic.

A Lemon Meringue Pie

View John Philpin's Crucial Tracks profile

Listen to my Apple Music playlist


Zingo Zingo - What you going to do-e-o

Zingo had the idea six to ten years too early. Timing, infrastructure, incumbents and a government willing to let you operate matters more than being first. A lesson for us all.


Funny👁️ how suddenly things just come to mind. Take 🔗🎵 Russ Conway - not thought of him for decades - my mum was a fan (which is why I even know his name), but I still have no idea how he suddenly cropped up in my brain.


🔗 GDS weighs in on the NHS’s decision to retreat from Open Source – Terence Eden

a meeting _without_biscuits.

💬 The UK's Civil Service

😂 Perfect - only the British.

BUT - please don’t ignore this article - particularly if you are in the UK - and as I track the latest moves in New Zealand - also there.

Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. And then there are those who wonder, ‘What the hell just happened?"

💬 Carroll Bryant

It’s bad enough being in the second category, but too many people are in the third.

🔗📼Which is why it is also important to watch this.


You Don't Get Your Teeth Back

Sartre warned us about procrastination. He was talking about the human condition - but it equally applies to how organizations move, how people engage, and why waiting for ‘perfect’ means you never move. And by then, your bite has gone.


🔗 Perfect or better?

I guess this is the philosophy behind the rework of my 🖇️ Hub, 🖇️ Blog and 🖇️ Wiki … all three are definitely better and definitely not perfect.



👁️ I occasionally suffer from night-time foot cramps - excruciating at the best of times.

Yesterday I threw my back out.

Word to the wise: avoid a middle-of-the-night foot cramp whilst nursing a bad back.