Crucial Track 🎵 May 29, 2026
"Parklife" by Blur
I am pretty much 'in' on all things Blur - so hard to choose a specific. Settled on it because it is just a year earlier than yesterday's - but for me inexorably linked.
📺 Just finished Legends .. based on a true story it says - and seemingly not wrong according to 🔗The Radio Times Not half bad - with ‘Alan Partridge’ playing the boss - straight down the middle. That said - a lot of the full story definitely not in the show. Future series? 🚧
I’ve hesitated at calling FeedLand a feed reader.
💬 Dave Winer
🔗 Read his post - I know what @dave means - one of the ‘category design’ conundrums.
Use a category name that everybody understands - or at least ‘thinks they do’ - and you are one of many - competing with all. Use a new name - and forever be answering ‘what’s that then’?
Wrestling with exactly that with a product we are beginning to roll. #StillThinking #NotCommitted
🔗😂 Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Not in the cartoon ….
This is what is meant when AI Alignment researchers refer to “PhD-Level Intelligence.”
💬 Zach Weinersmith
… it’s his usual additional punchline - with emphasis on ‘punch’ today.
🔗 Day 3: Einstein Made Us A Loaf - LLBBL Blog
Philosophers Hilary Putnam and C.W. Rietdijk worked this out in the 1960s. Their argument, roughly: if my “now” overlaps with your “now,” and your “now” overlaps with someone else’s, and that someone else’s “now” overlaps with an event in my future, then by transitivity that future event exists right now. Not metaphorically. Actually exists.
💬 'Logan'
Now read: Day 4: Does the Future Already Exist?
A paywalled Atlantic piece - but not paywalled on the Wayback machine: 🔗 The Lure of a Fully Randomized Life
When I first learned about Max’s experiment, I thought he had found a convenient way to dodge taking responsibility for his decisions. Sorry, the computer made me do it. But I came to see that no matter where the algorithm sent him, Max had cultivated an admirable equanimity about where he ended up. He’d traded the security of knowing exactly where he was going for the serenity of being present wherever he arrived.
💬 Simone Stolzoff
The whole piece reminded me of 🖇️ The Diceman
Read - a long time ago - 📚The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. I recall it as a great read, but I couldn’t truly commit to that - it was a different time. BUT - I often reference it - so it clearly had impact. Would certainly ‘give it a whirl’.
Meanwhile as we 🖇️ seek to spend trillions in getting to Mars - we barely understand our own backyard.
🔗📸 In a Single Year, Ocean Census Scientists Discovered More than 1,100 New Marine Species.
Ben seems to think the IPO is a good idea .. (His paraphrased conclusions)
1] Musk … has already pushed humanity forward on multiple vectors, including electric cars, self-driving, reusable rockets, satellite Internet, etc., and I’m excited to see him try and do more. 2] Musk is proposing an alternative path to unlimited compute is a relief. 3] This IPO is a return to what an IPO should be: the opportunity for people to contribute capital to actually build the business, and to benefit if it works out.
💬 Ben Thompson
Sure there are some nuanced caveats.
👁️🎵 it’s as if McCartney is on a global farewell to Public life tour.
I used to read Cringely a lot and then I didn’t. He disappeared from my feeds - life moved on and then BOOM - in the feed today.
🔗 Where the heck have I been all this time? | I, Cringely
HOLY CRAP!
‘Your network is your net worth’ have none of you ever heard of just having friends?
💬 Joan Westenberg
Another Smithsonian - this from 1910.
Resent the Attempt to Smash the British Constitution by American Dollars" poster. Lithograph in black and red ink on white paper showing a caricature of John Redmond armed with a club called “Home Rule” with a large money bag containing US dollars in each hand, produced for the Unionist Party in December 1910.
💬 The Smithsonian
It’s all about fighting the use of American Dollars to ‘break Britain’. Apparently it used to be frowned on. Fast forward 100 years and ….
well, here we are. Again. 🚧
A lot of images from the Smithsonian are on Unsplash for free use. This one caught my eye.
This sign was designed to be placed in the window of a home so that all who passed would know that the woman within had exercised her right under the 19th amendment and registered to vote. It also served as a reminder to other women to do the same. ca 1920.
💬 Smithsonian: Record ID: nmah_1414548
… and here we are 100 years later. 🚧
👁️ Have to say, feeling rather pleased with myself.
Let the development and design continue.
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👁️ In a world of EFT and instant gratification it is interesting to see that Amazon can ship atoms from warehouse to door an order of magnitude faster than a bank can add a deposit from another bank.
That said - any bank can take money out of your account at a speed that leaves light in the dust.
So I guess ‘on average’ the banks think they are doing ok.
Crucial Track 🎵 May 28, 2026
"Common People (Full Length Version)" by Pulp
Pulp. Jarvis. Classic. Only Shatner might have improved it.
I'll see what I can do.
