The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service

The lack of care is mind-blowing. Sure seems like the Times exploited her on a few levels. bsky.app/profile/lizb...

HELL YEA

Finally watched (against my will) Tron: Ares. The most positive review I can muster is that it‘s nice that someone finally did a Hackers sequel. (Also, hiring Jared Leto was entirely optional, and yet…)

Good marketing: focus on an authentic message that resonates with the slice of the market most likely to yield a return. Bad marketing: attempt to hit every market by averaging every possible message to create lowest-common-denominator slop. Example: bsky.app/profile/nycs...

I’m glad that Team Minimize Trump’s Damage Minimally is being challenged.

BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. 🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states. This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺

Tip for any ambitious capitalist out there. You know what there’s going to be an ENORMOUS market for in the near future? Authentic human expression. Most normal people fucking hate AI slop and there’s already emerging a significant backlash against it.

I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.

Boston in a nutshell bsky.app/profile/keeg...

Seals singing in a sea cave #Orkney 🦭🎧

When I was a kid, there was a terrible reading instruction program called ECRI. It focused on vocabulary building: look at word, say a word, write a word, be tested on that word. The state of Maine required this in public schools. It was remedial and ineffective. bsky.app/profile/kiss...

As background, every US-based parent I know who has a neurodivergent child in public school has had to hire a lawyer to get their child the level of support to which they are entitled by law. The subterfuge in Lexington is enraging, but not surprising. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/20/m...

Headlines should not troll. It's a grubby way to fan engagement ("Have women ruined the workplace?" is another one for the ages), and often contradicts the actual reporting. The "paper of record" shouldn't have this much contempt for its readers. bsky.app/profile/ohno...

I realized years ago that many people above a certain level of celebrity or wealth value their network more than they do any sort of morality, because their network signals and reinforces their class membership.

FYI, Amazon wrested creative control away from the Broccoli family, so expect this to be written and directed by committee. It's not a creative endeavor, it's a financial instrument. bsky.app/profile/jwhi...

“Jascha’s leadership has set a foundation for continued improvement and service delivery, and we are so grateful for his lasting impact."- @mayorwu.boston.gov

Only 55. Awful.

BREAKING: Democrats just tried to pass a standalone bill to fund WIC & SNAP to make sure families don't go hungry during the Republican shutdown. Republicans BLOCKED it. So Trump won't use emergency funds to keep SNAP running, and Republicans won't let any bills pass. Shameful.

Dems could make up a lot of ground by just going straight to TikTok newsfluencers. Gen Zers seem to focus mainly on socials for news, and it’s a better way to message test since many traditional outlets have been co-opted (sometimes actually purchased) by, let’s say, people with a certain interest.

I don't think people comprehend how badly Jamaica is about to be hit, Kingston in particular.

I wrote about how the inflatable frogs (and unicorns, and etc.) we're seeing at protests are directly related to the art of Nick Cave (not the Bad Seeds guy), and how joy is necessary in this era of protest. elementsofdesign.substack.com/p/the-sounds...

Throw the entire candidate in the bait bucket, you guys. It's over.

for everyone very concerned about Maine elections, there's a ballot measure this November, funded by Leonard Leo, to make voting a lot harder in the state. Could have big impact in 2026 if it passes @burness.bsky.social did a deep dive at @boltsmag.org boltsmag.org/maine-questi...

Gina Trapani on how she thinks about and uses AI as a former full-time software engineer. “It’s remarkable and so very bad at the same time.” [notetoself.studio]

The fact that Boston doesn't have a Halloween parade is kind of mystifying. New York does a huge one (with Thriller dancers!) every year, yet Boston is at least twice as spooky. Seems fixable.

If you're in Boston, you should make your way to the Allan Rohan Crite exhibit at the Athenaeum. Great writeup from WBUR: www.wbur.org/news/2025/10...

MSNBC captured the crowd from the Boston "No Kings" rally:

This is beyond tacky. It's insulting to the people and families he hurt, many of whom are still alive and for whom memories are fresh. It's not cool, it's not okay, and I wouldn't be surprised if residents walked in and just removed the offending material. bsky.app/profile/dyna...

It's worth saying that nearly every white guy over 50 I know is on statins, and is at least aware of their blood sugar. Please, please, please get your heart looked at and your blood pressure controlled (and cancer screenings done). Not everything is avoidable but a lot is. bsky.app/profile/carn...

I'm a fan of Mills, she's done well as governor, but I do not want her to be Maine's senator. bsky.app/profile/pbum...

Art geek moment: Nick Cave's soundsuits and the inflatable frog costumes being used in Portland (OR) are directly related, and by directly related, I mean indistinguishable. They are the same.

I updated to the latest iOS on my devices last night. All is well on my phone, but my iPad now has a very irritating swipe delay. I advise against updating, if you haven’t yet. (If you know of a fix, please share, I‘ve done all the usual things.)

A Friday Fragments, featuring tariff damage to American-based furniture manufacturers (bad) and some fangirling at Wendy Goodman of Design Hunting fame (good). elementsofdesign.substack.com/p/friday-fra...

He is history truth bombing the train!

Ok, we are now getting REAL SALEM MA TALK from the conductor on @mbta_cr. “DO YOU KNOW WHERE MOST OF THAT HISTORY ACTUALLY HAPPENED? DAAAAAANVERS!” HAVE A GOOD TIME IN SALEM!”

RIP Jane Goodall. Nominative determinism at its best. She was a truly good human being. people.com/jane-goodall...

This clip highlights the degree to which much of business-speak is avoidance of the conflict associated with making a decision. LLMs are a mirror, it’s just our output in a probabilistic blender. bsky.app/profile/boot...

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

This NY Magazine article on the AI boom in SF is gonzo in the best way. nymag.com/intelligence...

Published a Friday Fragments on cheap art: how to make it, how to buy it, where to get it in Boston imminently (art fair + open studios). open.substack.com/pub/elements...

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

Mimi Pond has finally finished her graphic novel about the Mitford sisters. It took her six years. (If you don't know who Pond is, you're in for a treat, and after you read the article, you should watch Beauty is Embarrassing). www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...

I woke up my erstwhile newsletter, you might enjoy it. (I'm also considering alternate platforms to Substack, for reasons.) substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Josh Kraft has dropped out of the Boston mayor's race. His exit is an abrupt shift for a candidate who spent $5.5 million of his own money on the campaign.

settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off

*Kermit arms* www.universalhub.com/2025/great-s...

Welp, together with councilor Murphy’s poor performance at the Mass and Cass hearing, there no way she is getting my vote ever again. (There needs to be more readily accessible info about councilors.) bsky.app/profile/fort...

MA dems removed almost all of the language on trans rights from their platform. all of this from the 2021 platform was stripped

Desired killer use case for GenAI: "I can vibe code an architecturally perfect, scalable, beautiful product minus expensive designers or engineers!" Actual killer use case for GenAI: "I can pull a transcript from a podcast and have Claude summarize it at the desired level of detail in 5 minutes."