I’ve read a whole stack of Le Carré novels, and 200 pages in, A Perfect Spy is _by far_ my favorite

Vegas really is the America of America

ohhh ‘democracy dies in darkness’ was aspirational

JUST IN: Democrats flip a red seat in the Texas Senate. Taylor Rehmet wins against Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist who helped lead right-wing efforts to take over TX school boards. With all early vote, and 95% of precincts, in, Dem up 57/43. Trump won this seat by 17% in Tarrant County.

Life During Wartime www.theverge.com/policy/86857...

Steve is getting to the good stuff now.

Immigration is good. It is good for immigrants, and good for the country. We should have more of it, and our government should do everything in its power to encourage it. The current legal immigration system is an absurd, Byzantine, kafkaesque nightmare. Abolish ICE is the moderate position.

So… general strike?

or, to quote another reference that has been bouncing around in my head more and more over the past days, weeks and months: “there are four lights”

This is a _really_ excellent overview of the deranged, visionary(?) madness of Gas Town.

Pretty amused by Star Trek: Flirty Teens so far. - Holly Hunter can’t sit in a chair normal! - Unexpected basketball sequence! - “Kitten”!

I don’t think this take is even particularly warm, especially once you dig into the attributes that make LLMs more effective. This is essentially: - well tested, easy to verify - clear boundaries and interfaces - well organized and well named files/modules

the new best practices for Claude Code doc is really good. they chose their #1 rec very well. every CC user should be typing "Give Claude a way to verify its work" over and over on a typewriter in an empty hotel while their wife thinks they're working on a book code.claude.com/docs/en/best...

Money Stuff on BAGS: > It is, from first principles, stupid. @matt-levine.bsky.social is a national treasure. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...

Pro tip: listen to a bunch of Yo La Tengo records

The mad ravings of a deranged lunatic (complimentary). I think this is probably directionally correct, but specifically wrong in all kinds of ways. A really fascinating fever dream.

Stranger Things 5 was good.

Saw Marty Supreme, sports are great

A non-trivial portion of the success of Stranger Things must be attributed to its absolute banger of a theme.

I don’t watch football, so I can’t comment on that, but I’ve been quite impressed with the quality of Amazon’s NBA broadcasts so far this year. Possible that’s just “we hired everyone turner laid off”, not sure.

Really interesting, and surprisingly easy to follow.

America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like engagement farming.

I really love the pacing in Pluribus so far.

Rewatched Ambulance the other night. - it’s my favorite Michael Bay film by a wide margin - the drone photography rules - if it was 15-30 minutes shorter, it would be truly excellent

I got to see David Byrne play tonight in Austin, and it was spectacular, and life affirming. Music is good, y’all.

E-bikes rule, their widespread availability is a completely transformative technology.

BITTER EVERYDAY

More seriously: In the Earth Again completely fucking rips chatpile.bandcamp.com/album/in-the...

[shiny future meme] The world if Chat Pile recorded with an acoustic drum kit

This jaw-dropping article discusses TxDOT's recent statements in support of public transit across Texas. Happy Monday, y'all! www.texastribune.org/2025/11/10/t...

Tenet gets better every time I watch it.

Personally, I find the time the sun rises is vastly less important than the time it sets. Neither of Bryan’s examples resonate as problematic for me, but the difference between a 6pm sunset and a 5pm one is significant.

It’s basically Deep Space Nine.

New parent pro tip: go to therapy

Update on this: pick up that knife!!!

House of Dynamite has about 45 minutes worth of (pretty excellent) movie, but unfortunately it takes 2 hours.

Basketball is very good

I’ve been distracted, so I’m late to the game here: the new Wednesday is fucking sick. Early standout for me is “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)” wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/album/bleeds

I have a rule of thumb: if @steveklabnik.com likes something, I will probably like that thing.

I’ve been on a serious “espionage” kick the last month or so, reading a ton of Le Carré. Two thoughts: - Slow Horses is so fucking good - We were robbed of a Gary Oldman “Smiley’s People”

If I hadn’t quit working for salesforce in disgust years ago, I sure would be doing so today. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

I’ve recently learned that if you binge watch The Pitt you get: 1. a medical degree, and 2. an anxiety disorder

The new @porcelainatx.bsky.social songs are the best yet, can’t wait for LP2.

Alien earth is pretty fun so far. 1. The eyeball monster is _gross_ 2. Whoever came up with the “/ | \” title sequence back in the 70’s really knocked it out of the park

The new @pile.bsky.social record has some completely sick guitar tones. A++ pile.bandcamp.com/album/sunshi...

no, yeah, everything's fine...why do you ask? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Quite unimpressed with this. Leaving was good! Why would you come back, having extracted exactly zero concessions?

A reasonable and centrist position on trans people in sports would be that trans people should be able to compete in sports.