We used to have better priorities with our space in cities. We used to understand the many things that streets in cities are for.

Pushing back works

Some great insights in this podcast. I love the 5 (or is it 6) steps to making a better city. But, the steps more generally applicable to any change management question.

Extinction rarely departs with drama, it slips out the back door while we’re still debating the guest list. These records are made official on the Red List. "Conservation failures are often recognised only once they can no longer be reversed." via @mongabay.com: news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

A country is judged by the quality of the politicians they elect.

Citizen Kane is great because it reinvented film language—deep focus, bold angles, nonlinear storytelling—while asking a timeless question: can you ever truly know a person? It’s not a biography, but a meditation on power, memory, and loss. #TCMParty #CitizenKane

Bernard Herrmann’s score. #CitizenKane #TCMParty

Achieving the groundbreaking deep focus shots of #CitizenKane required tons of light with 1941 film stocks and lenses. Genius cinematographer Gregg Toland got around this by only lighting certain areas of the film's enormous sets, so that characters walk in and out of pools of light. #TCMParty

My son Sam was diagnosed in 2024, at 26, with a fast-progressing form of ALS. He already can no longer talk, walk, or do anything for himself. We have set up a Go Fund Me to help with our many expenses. If you can donate or share his story, we would be grateful. www.gofundme.com/f/empower-sa...

She Wanted to Improve Genetic Medicine Brenna Henn had a long-term grant to study the genetic diversity of Africans and people of African descent. Then her N.I.H. funding was cut. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/s...

"Measles was never inconsequential, though. Even a case that is initially 'mild' can wipe out defenses that people have built up to other diseases—a kind of “immune amnesia” that can leave them more vulnerable to infection for months or years."

🇨🇦WOW...did not know this. Great information. This is why I Love Canada & Canadians❣️🇨🇦

If I had to describe how 2026 feels in a few sentences, I’d say it’s about not leaving things to chance and not getting too comfortable. This year feels like one where holding on a little tighter actually matters.

TY @crankyoldcrackpot.bsky.social @bostonbitch.bsky.social @6cats4adomino.bsky.social @victoryrenfrew.bsky.social @sturdycat.bsky.social @fibonaccieu.bsky.social @abbarsha.bsky.social @hopeful66.bsky.social @arnfinnarnesson.bsky.social @fireeyebooks.bsky.social @merlinmm.bsky.social

TY @markymark757.bsky.social @wisewonders.bsky.social @victinibcn.bsky.social @flocktoblue.bsky.social @anahatamama.bsky.social @docmurphydog.bsky.social @journeyled.bsky.social @chrisp19.bsky.social @mlipsitt.bsky.social @polillitam.bsky.social @57kev.bsky.social @merlinmm.bsky.social

In this, I fully support the choices of our big, damp President.

A day late, here's a list of my Top 30 movies of 2025. I didn't see every acclaimed motion picture this year but I did see over a hundred and these were my favorites. (My ranking changes day by day, but this is roughly the order, pending a few re-watches.)

I've decided my favorite dynamic of the college football season is that Indiana's quarterback is the most relentlessly positive man alive and Indiana's head coach has never smiled in his life

this is worth reading. a longtime NYT insider confirms that the paper's abrupt turn into seething anti-trans bigotry came directly from the top: AG Sulzberg and his 2 deputies, Joe Kahn and Carolyn Ryan transnews.network/p/a-directiv...

For my paid subscribers, I wrote about the 10 movies I'm most excited to see in 2026:

For those wondering how this happened, please check out my list of Kurosawa movies I wrote for Letterboxd journal, which is the work I'm most proud of from 2025:

People who think Kurosawa is “homework cinema” need to be slapped around a bit.

The Long Now longnow.org

Why is he taking so many cognitive tests?

A very encouraging thread!

NEW from me: Currently on tap for Tony Dokoupil on his first day as CBS Evening News anchor -- taking a private plane to Miami to so he can go jet skiing with DJ Khaled and play soccer with David Beckham. Take that, elites! www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Trump Supporters Who Voted to “Burn It All Down” Shocked to Find Their Own Houses on Fire

“In conclusion, CBS is a land of contrasts.” This whole thing reads like a half-assed class project some fifth graders rushed through before Christmas break.

The triumph of the stupid. CBS: "On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you."

This is one of CBS News's new "principles," and it is Bari Weiss-branded fraudulence to its marrow. Of course someone who has been unqualified for every job she's ever gotten, most of all this one, would posture about people who actually study and learn things. They're nothing compared to "you."

Trump's surplus hands

This is good. The Kennedy Center is not there anymore. This is a zombie version, and a full boycott is appropriate until it can be restored to what it was and what it should be. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/a...

This is the clearest confirmation yet

DEVELOPING: Trump's fake hand was made in China

@samsteindc.bsky.social: "Surely there's some co-conspirators out there. Why have we not seen any names disclosed so far?" @weissmann.substack.com: "You really have to think that the way in which the documents have been produced so far, that there is a triage system that's going on."

WAKE UP DEAD MAN is damn good. I hope @rianjohnson.bsky.social has a dozen more of these in him.

Absolute simpleton shit

And Carl Reiner was the second

It might be nice to empathize with Trump's pathalgical hunger for "respect" if he were not so despicable. But he is, so laugh at him.

‘Home Movie: The Princess Bride’ is “the kind of lost cinematic artifact that requires specific effort to track down, but provides ample rewards for anyone who makes time for it,” @signalbleed.bsky.social writes.

We are in a police state. No question. newrepublic.com/article/2026...

Trump Translation: I am complying (maybe) with legal orders and threatening to break them again next week.

Russian banks just went into crisis mode! Collapse possible.

No consequences ever for this guy. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Unconscionable. Trump administration says it's freezing child care funds to Minnesota www.npr.org/2025/12/30/g...

New in PN: The blame for alleged fraud in Minnesota belongs to conservatives "Republican policies have created a perfect vicious cycle: Privatize services, let private companies run amok, then declare that the government is the problem. And the Trump administration is turbo-charging it."