Building the news
A question many of us are asking: how can we be as effective as possible over the next four years? A few years ago, I made the decision to move out of tech into non-profit news, and I'm glad I'm here. It's a different
Asides
Stuff that doesn't really fit in this site's "technology, media, and democracy" remit but is here anyway.
A hypothesis about the Democrats
I’d like to share a hypothesis about the Democrats. It’s about money. It might not be true — it truly is a hypothesis — but I’d like to air it out and see what you think. We have a lot of people in America who are suffering greatly. Dick
Reflecting today
Today I’ve been thinking a lot about my relatives who actively fought against nationalism as part of the resistance. What they and their colleagues did in the name of inclusion and opportunity. That's the name of the game: a world where everyone has the same opportunity to
Tech is interesting, but democracy deserves our attention
I’m aware that a lot of my linkblog posts have been about the state of America this week. That’s because — well, I’m sure you can figure out why. There is nothing bigger to talk about than this election. So much is at stake, and it really, truly
IRL taking priority
We’ve been dealing with some intense family health events since Wednesday night, so I’m running on very little sleep and not updating much over here. I’ll be popping in from time to time, but probably not running on all cylinders for a little while. There’s a
Reconsidering my car
I have an electric car. All in, between car payments and insurance, but exclusive of the money it costs to actually charge it, I spend around $800-850 a month. That’s a ton of money! For all that cash, I must do a lot of driving, right? Absolutely not. I
Obviously I'm voting for Harris
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that I plan to vote for Kamala Harris. Just consider the alternative: who he is, what he stands for, what the world might look like if he gains another four-year term. Last night’s debate performance may have sealed the deal for many
A conversation with myself about immigration
What is your ideal place to live? I grew up in Oxford, England, which has radically colored my view of what a home can look like. It’s hardly a city at all — one girlfriend derisively called it “a village” — but sits close enough to London that you can get
I love Reeder despite this persistent niggle
I love hanging out in Reeder. I subscribe to thousands of feeds, and it handles them well for me. But it does make it hard for me to prune them once I’m subscribed. I found myself looking at this screen this afternoon: And I thought to myself: you know
Thoughts on a new image for the fediverse
This proposed image for the fediverse is good; I like it a lot. But I don't know that the combative language on this site is helpful. The Meta iconography isn't right, I agree, but there's something off about calling them “a large corporation that
Webmentions and lobster rolls
Webmentions have been broken on this blog for a little while. I’m on vacation this week, so I’m hoping to get them fixed up — as well as a few other fixes here and there. Mostly, though, I have to admit that I’ll be taking the little one
No, the news is not information junk food
Every so often, a post goes around in tech circles about how news is bad and we shouldn’t pay attention to it. I think that’s ludicrous. Today’s was a post from 2022 called The News is Information Junk Food. I think it’s a bad argument that