Year: 2018

👓 A Reading Plan for 2019 | Rhoneisms

Read A Reading Plan for 2019 by Patrick Rhone (patrickrhone.net)
Last year, I publicized my reading plan for the year. Overall, I’m very happy with the number of books I managed to read (20) and the quality of what I read. There are some aspects of the plan I wish I’d been better at but that’s a small regret. I enjoyed almost everything I picked up with few...
I like the idea of a reading plan (or personal syllabus, if you will). I’m not sure I could be as rigid about letting new titles onto my list though.

I did a miserable job of reading the non-fiction on my list this year, but did a good bit of juvenile fiction that I enjoyed. I did however read a humongous amount of online content (articles, etc.) and managed to log nearly every bit of it.

👓 Book Notes: ‘Sapiens,’ by Yuval Noah Harari | Newley.com

Read Book Notes: ‘Sapiens,’ by Yuval Noah Harari by Newley PurnellNewley Purnell (newley.com)

A deeply thought-provoking book about how homo sapiens came to dominate the world – and how our advancements have come at a significant cost.

I love big, sprawling books that tackle huge subjects and challenge you to change the way you conceive of the world.

This global bestseller, which has been all the rage among Silicon Valley technologists in recent years, in particular, is one of the best of that sort of title I’ve read.

If Newley likes this and Guns, Germs, and Steel, he’ll likely love David Christian’s Maps of Time.

Unlike typical book blogs, it looks like Newley is posting these types of reviews, quotes, and ideas in a way similar to how I set out my own online commonplace book.

👓 Slow tech | Chris Beckstrom

Read a post by Chris BeckstromChris Beckstrom (Chris Beckstrom)
reply to https://colet.space/slow-tech-movement/ I really like this idea comparing our usage of giant corporate social networks like Facebook to consumption of factory-farmed meat and produce… Where the “slow food” movement replaces a bit of convenience for more ethical, local, and even tastier food, perhaps the “slow tech” movement could do the same for the technology in our daily lives; a personal website might look strange, have some bugs, and be a bit slow, but it doesn’t support giant corporations that are working to gain control over our interactions with the internet… and it puts control of personal data back into our own hands.
Yet another person talking about slow tech / slow social.

📺 "The Great British Baking Show" Bread Week | Netflix

Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Bread Week from Netflix
With Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith. It's Bread Week, and the ten remaining bakers have a lot to prove with three tough challenges set by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. There is a teatime fruity favourite Signature; a deceptively simple time-test of a Technical with an international flavour; and an ambitious Showstopper that's the largest bread sculpture challenge ever set in the tent. Only one can claim Star Baker, while one...

UI suggestion: Admin drop down filter for refbacks

Filed an Issue Refbacks for WordPress (GitHub)
Contribute to dshanske/wordpress-refback development by creating an account on GitHub.
Similar to the design set up for other comment types, it would be nice to have a filter for refbacks in the dropdown menu at /wp-admin/edit-comments.php. With the Webmentions plugin enabled, one is presented with the options to filter for “All Comment Types”, “Comments”, “Pings”, and “Webmentions”. Adding a filter for “Refbacks” would be incredibly helpful as well.

📺 "The Great British Baking Show" Cake Week | Netflix

Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Cake Week from Netflix
With Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith. The 11 remaining bakers face a tough test in Cake Week, including a crowd-pleasing signature challenge, Prue's first technical challenge, and a chocolate collared showstopper.
I’ve seen this episode before recently, but didn’t remember the first third at all.

📺 “Modern Family” Kiss and Tell | ABC

Read "Modern Family" Kiss and Tell (ABC)
Directed by Steven Levitan. With Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell. Haley needs a little help deciding whether or not to tell Arvin about her kiss with Dylan and goes to Mitch and Cam for their advice. Meanwhile, Gloria suspects Manny's Canadian girlfriend is made up and wants to find out the real truth.

📺 "Modern Family" I Love a Parade | ABC

Watched "Modern Family" I Love a Parade from ABC
Directed by James R. Bagdonas. With Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell. The Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan are going to be setting off more than a few fireworks when they get together at the annual Fourth of July parade where Jay will be acting as the grand marshal. Meanwhile, Haley's goodbye with Arvin before his trip to Switzerland doesn't go as well as she pictured it and is distracted by the return of an old flame.

👓 Paradox of tolerance | Wikipedia

Read Paradox of tolerance (Wikipedia)
The paradox of tolerance is a paradox that states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper first described it in 1945—expressing the seemingly paradoxical idea that, "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance."

📺 “Black-ish” Christmas in Theater Eight | ABC

Watched "Black-ish" Christmas in Theater Eight from ABC
Directed by Jude Weng. With Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown. The Johnsons can't agree on what movie to see on their traditional Christmas trip to the theater - the latest superhero blockbuster or the Rosa Parks story; Junior feels embarrassed after his ex mistakes him for a theater employee.
The truism that if you don’t have a solid movie, it doesn’t matter what the message is, certainly holds. I like that they extend an entire episode just to drill this point home.

📺 “Will & Grace” So Long, Division | NBC

Watched "Will & Grace" So Long, Division from NBC
Directed by James Burrows. With Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, Sean Hayes. Grace unintentionally meets Noah's daughter Katie; Will's mom Marilyn visits after the death of her beloved dog, but doesn't get the emotional support she expects; Jack argues with his rec center boss, Theo.
The writers of the show are just so consistently solid it’s almost sad.
As I read Zeynep Tufekci’s book Twitter and Tear Gas while watching Chopped Jr., I can’t help but thinking that it would be an interesting satirical take to have a Chopped: Dictator’s Edition where oligarchs, dictators, and strongmen competed against each other to see who could best repress and control their countries.

I can just imagine the over-the-top descriptions the dictators could give in the recap interviews as we watched their half-assed handiwork. The chipper, but critical judging rounds could provide some serious satirical jabs. And after the commercial break, Ted Allen could pull back the cloche to reveal the severed head of the “chopped” dictator from that round.

“Judges I have prepared for you today, a jack-booted storm-trooper crowd suppression replete with hollow-point bullets, sides of cell phone jammers, armored tanks, and blood-spatter-proof anti-riot shields.”

Passingly I’ll note that unwittingly, Tufekci’s book might also serve as a useful playbook for dictatorial regimes.