Weekly Roundup

Didn’t get much of a chance to write this week. However, here are my favorite links:

  1. It certainly seems as if the “social media is toxic” movement is catching on a bit more. I am delighted that Facebook is cutting back on its News Feed
  2. Two-day shipping has helped boost the price of industrial land Mark Twain would say “I told you so.”
  3. Unsurprising at this point: Uber’s secret tool for keeping the cops in the dark
  4. How to make blue/green milk from Star Wars – Aunt Beru and Uncle Lars would be proud
  5. OK, I didn’t actually read the paper but the abstract is…fascinating. Reversing the thermodynamic arrow of time using quantum correlations.
  6. That last link reminds me of this excellent 1964 Messenger Lecture by Richard Feynman: The Distinction of Past and Future.
  7. Russia’s Reserve Fund Runs out of Money 14 years after its founding (and 4 other interesting stories)
  8. Asymco on music’s importance at Apple. “HomePod will surprise not because it will be a better at chatting. It will surprise because it will cause you to sit down and listen in awe.”
  9. One of those videos that demonstrates where we are in the scale of the universe
  10. Apparently there’s a board came called Captain Sonar that is pretty cool
  11. A good post on the trade-offs of distributed apps running on the ethereum virtual machine: Miners aren’t your friends
  12. Why does home solar energy cost so much in the US? (Hint: it’s regulation)
  13. Tom Tunguz on the upsides of the current ICO trend
  14. How a young freestyler snapped up a prime piece of Squaw Valley property
  15. A great (short) writeup by Google on how they’ve handled the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities over the last several months
  16. Jeff Bezos is getting more comfortable in the spotlight
  17. How a photographer took a photo of the stealth bomber over the Rose Bowl (he used a plane)
  18. What Putin really wants – some gems of truth in here, if you ask me
  19. FiveThirtyEight weighs in: Should Trump Give North Korea a bloody nose?
  20. The majority of the NPS advisory board have resigned
  21. This was hilarious: A Whole New World dubbed with realistic audio
  22. A comparison of blockchain criticisms to version control criticisms
  23. Map of every US State’s most important trading partner
  24. How Israel manages its water
  25. How to perfectly sear meat
  26. This week’s Yellowstone winter keeper journal: Foxes
  27. Brexit stamps
  28. What a story about Travis Kalanick
  29. This is sorta dry but it’s so true: your data is worth more than you think
  30. Asymco continues to be a great place to read about Apple: The Apple Cash FAQ

And, to join the club of people matching their selfies with famous works of art, I give you:

IMG_0309

Personally I don’t see the resemblance. Oh well! Have a great weekend!