Turns out that here in Austin hundreds of properties, including many multi-million dollar Mansions, had big property tax exemptions.  Why?  Hard to say.  Except for a local newspaper article nobody noticed.

After Statesman reports, hundreds of lakefront properties avoiding taxes now may have to pay up

Not so much really new stuff this year.  My 2019 playlist (subject to changes).

An article from a few months back by an Australian journalist about President Trump and his speaking style.  He lately reminds me of Chauncey Gardner from Being There.  People think: surely he must me saying something important.  Then they proceed to “decode” his “message”.  Of course there is no underlying meaning here and trying to find one is a fools errand.

As a foreign reporter visiting the US I was stunned by Trump’s press conference

Despite being subjected to a daily diet of Trump headlines, I was unprepared for the president’s alarming incoherence

After a series of deaths in Mississippi prisons, Jay-Z is suing the state of Mississippi.  From the BBC:

Jay-Z sues on behalf of Mississippi prisoners ‘in peril’

I have been saying forever that the Reagan Revolution was an attack on the poor and middle-class that led directly and purposefully to today’s economic equality.  An interesting Twitter feed on that subject.

Ward Q. Normal on Twitter

My new hobby is taking graphs of economic data over time and indicating the year that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, in case people find that helpful or informative.

Over the years I suppose I have bought lots of stuff, mostly furniture, that needed some assembly.  You know the stuff.  Comes with little wrenches and inscrutable instructions is several languages.  I have been tossing the little wrenches in a box (in case I ever need them).  Not sure how many I have now.  I should probably throw these out since I have multiple full sets of metric and US wrenches these days.  And most of the furniture I assembled with these over the decades is probably long gone.

From Motherboard:

John McAfee No Longer Willing to Eat His Dick on TV

The, uhh, presidential candidate has flip-flopped on his infamous Bitcoin bet.

Maybe I am just from the older generation, not a “digital native”. I grew up reading books, and still do.  I have worried that the way I consume news and other media will change the way I think in some profound way.  I’m have always had a good memory but as I get older I do seem to struggle for names or words.  Of course I have so much more to remember these days, simply by being older.  But there is so much more information available that it becomes overwhelming.

I think my friends consider it a bit quirky and my kids find it old fashioned, but I don’t  reach for my phone or pad and Google for the name of an actor or title of a book that I can’t (temporarily) recall.  Sometimes I come up with it, sometimes I wait to see if it “pops into my head” (isn’t here a more enjoyable feeling?).

I also have no sense of direction.  I mean I seriously have a deficiency that is probably medical.  GPS has been like magic for me.  But lately I have been turning it off.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing for me or not, but I am trying to be less dependent on these “assistive” technologies.  I mean, it is tempting to use one of those little electric scooters at the grocery store, too.  They look like so much fun.  But for as long as I am able I think I will walk.

An older article from the Atlantic on the possible mental enfeeblement caused by the modern internet.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

What the Internet is doing to our brains

Ran across this older article from n+1, an arts / literary magazine.  I think the piece has since been expanded and turned into a book.  I spent some time in The Valley and even worked at a VC funded startup (or was it two?). More from a non-techie / woman’s point of view, which makes it all the better.

ANNA WIENER

Uncanny Valley

I would say more, but I signed an NDA.

Published in Issue 25: Slow Burn

Publication date Spring 2016

I don’t see much of him lately, but for a while, it seemed like Niall Ferguson was everywhere.  He seemed to be a Brit version of the US neo-conservatives but a bit more quotable.  He popped up in recently in a mailing from the New York Review of Books.  Oddly, it was an article from 2011, which I didn’t realize until after I had finished reading it.  It contains a letter exchange with the author (with Ferguson repeatedly demanding apoligies) rhat I was unable to finish.

The author sees Ferguson as a neo-colonial which I suppose is the old form of neo-conservatives.  The basic problem with people like Ferguson is that they think you can separate the system from the abuses that support it.  Sure, colonialism would have been great for everyone if it weren’t for the slavery, killings, famines, oppression and outright theft. Unfortunately, take away those things and there isn’t much left.  Ferguson seems to be saying, let’s given this colonial thing another try, but this time let’s do it *right*.  No let’s not.

Watch this man