It’s head-scratching if you’re a boomer. You lived through JFK, proffering what you could do for your country and… Now it’s WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME?
💬 Bob Lefsetz
🔗 Scripting News: Monday, March 24, 2025
Peter O’Toole starred in 🔗🎬The Ruling Class, a favorite when I was younger. The 🎵📼 last song in the movie is pretty freaking great.
💬 Dave Winer
I agree with Dave - ‘The Ruling Class’ was a good movie (not great - but good). ‘Favorite’? Not so sure, definitely not ‘in general- since it was pretty much panned at the time only time turning it into what we now call a ‘cult classic’. (But do watch the song - it has all the expected cheesiness of its time!)
Four years earlier was 🔗🎬 If - now THAT was a film and arguably did for McDowell what Layer Cake did for Craig.
💯 🔗 It’s Scorched Earth Time - let’s start with over throwing 🖇️ Chuck.
This is the second post from Indexed with that headline …
Back in the archives of People First I used to talk about ‘The People’s OS’. 🔗 Here for example. It sat together with something that I also called HumanIT. In many ways playful ideas on a tech first …
I’ve been following 🔗 Umair for years - but - only 10 references to him on this blog (I just counted). I think partly because he sometimes seems do be so out there and partly because he desperately needs a good editor - because he can go on … and on … and on …
Still - when you look at some of his old stuff that was ‘out there’ then .. and you look at today - maybe he isn’t as weird as he sometimes reads. So I commend you to today’s offering ….
What’s going to be left after five years or so of this? What we’ve already seen, and we’re just two months in?
💬 Umair Haque
🔗 Trapping misbehaving bots in an AI Labyrinth - well beyond my technical competence to understand if this will really work - BUT - I applaud the effort - and on the face of it - very clever … swamp the zones where the zone swampers hang.
I don’t nominate agentic, which is suddenly hot shit
… or just shit. (for now). I get the promise - but all we are really seeing is a demo. HIs argument is ‘agency’ as word of the year - not agentic … why the distinction?
See, agency is a noun, and agentic is an adjective.
But that isn’t really the trust of his main argument.
Go read the whole thing.
Her shopping bag broke sending eggs and flour crashing
Down to the ground, just like star clusters smashing
But no one will give her a glance
They just shuffle on home in a trance
The tiniest lives fill their hives up with worry
To make it to church, well, she needs to hurry
When late she will bow down contrite
While a meteor turns out the light
And there in an ordinary street
A car isn’t where it would normally be
The driver in tears, ‘bout his payment arrears
Still, nobody hears whеn a sun disappears
In a galaxy afar
First day of the new job and hе was so nervous
The suit and the platitude, “Can I be of service?”
His boss made him clean all the cars
While he wondered, “Is there life on Mars?”
And meanwhile the stars line themselves up in order
While we bicker on with our fences and borders
But best not think about that
It’s better to live without facts
And now in her old wedding bed
A lady will dream that her husband is dead
Of course he’s alive, he’ll be home around five
Still, silence arrives, when a nebula dives into our Milky Way
The thunder and rain start, the paving stones melt
And oddly the first spots make Orion’s belt as
You queue at the bank for an hour
‘Cause a solar flare blew out the power
The nurse in the care home now empties a bath tub
The water will spiral, a galaxies vast hub
Is draining away as we speak
But she loses her job there next week
And there with his first telescope
A teenager stands full of hormones and hope
As he squints at the night, like a painting of light
He doesn’t suppose that a black hole implodes
In a trillion tears from now (Ah)
💬 Andy Partridge (Music - Wilson)
🔗 How Long Can the Apple TV+ Experiment Sputter On?
🔗 Apple Losing Over $1 Billion A Year On Streaming
And still they don’t get it.
In business there is a concept called channel attribution where they try to tie the expenses of email, social, web site, collateral, inside sales, field sales …. You name it .. to sales - and then leaders of those departments attempt to win more budget for their channel because that channel will give the best ROI. #Bollocks
Back in ’96 a little company started up - its intention was to be the solution to omni channel attribution. Bought by Adobe 15 years later to continue to do that. It doesn’t but that’s an altogether different story. Today, the likes of Gartner even maintain a category called multi touch attribution it’s big - and still doesn’t answer the question.
But - back to Apple. The thing that both those pieces up there are going on about is meaningless and strikes me more as ‘reverse Channel attribution’. In this model they are trying to work out what revenue contribution to the mothership each channel (streaming in this case) is responsible for and whether it is profitable. I am far from convinced Apple thinks this way. In face they barely even break out their hardware, much less something like streaming. (That said - if anyone really wants to get into the down and dirty look no further than [Horace Dediu])(https://www.asymco.com) - but I digress.
IF that was even a concern of Apple’s do you think they wouldn’t have been doing something about it? I could go on - but will resist - because @gruber said it best.
How much did Apple “lose” on electricity bills last year?
Unless you live under a rock you know the Trump/Musk Euro issues which got me started on this post - and then it went downhill. (Hard to believe - but true.) It also had be examining my decisions on not becoming a US citizen - but first … beyond the Ukraine and Europe …
Over in The Far East.
🔗 The New World Order Is Here, And America Isn’t Part Of It
The foreign ministers of Japan, China, and South Korea gathered for the first time since 2023, posed for ceremonial photographs, and drafted plans for an Asian future where American preferences no longer command deference.
The collapse of American influence isn’t happening because the U.S. military is weaker or its economy smaller. It’s happening because trust in American judgment, consistency, and commitment has plummeted.
And in Global Intelligence
someone much more knowledgeable than me …
PS 5 March, 2025. A further sign of trouble in the Five Eyes' alliance was a long report just noticed in the Financial Times_ on 25 February that Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s closest advisers, was urging him to expel Canada from the membership, although even Steve Bannon is reported to have said that this was a bad idea.
Right then!
I have long been asked given how long I have lived in the USA - why I never became a US citizen. “Because I never wanted to become a US citizen”, was my usual reply. I am English. (Just in case you are new to this blog - I am being very specific. English - which politically and by my passport means that I am British - but how long is that going to last? So, just declaring my side.)
But you can keep your British citizenship an and become American - dual citizenship.
And my reply has always been that I find it intellectually challenging to swear allegiance to two countries. (OK - strictly speaking I never swore allegiance to The United Kingdom - I just am.), but were I to have become American …
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
(My bold)
I know - it’s ‘just words’. But to me - words mean something. That is why I am and remain British - until it goes to hell and a hand-basket - at which point - I am with the English.
Back to the USA ..
The principles embodied in the Oath are codified in Section 337(a) in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides that all applicants shall take an oath that incorporates the substance of ….
(Which includes these words - again my bold)
Renounce and abjure** absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any** foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen;
Pretty clear - which gets ignored when everything is sweetness and roses. But it isn’t any more. Which got me to wondering first about 🔗 John Oliver to pick one famous random name, but really more about people like Mike Myers, Drake, Neil Young, Justin Bieber, Will Arnett, Michael J Fox … well, here’s a 🔗 more complete list as Trump threatens Canada with war.