Welp, I've unlocked a heretofore unknown level of Airline Lost My Bag hell, involving four different airlines in two different alliance network, including one upon which I have never flown.

"Look for the helpers." Friend, you are forty two years old. You are supposed to be the helper.

Okay, this is corny, but as an about to be 42 year old, sometimes when I need to be reminded to do things I think “people are looking for the helpers, don’t disappoint them”

This is one of the most valuable immediate resources I’ve read for those who have lost their homes. Please share widely with those who need it 🤍

Today was the first meeting of my AI and music class, and in the first hour we drew a direct line from AI slop Xmas music to the wildfires raging in LA right now. If you teach AI and don’t discuss its immediate climate impacts, you need to start doing it. Every single day. Here are some sources (🧵):

The wind gusts are devastating. Truly a hurricane of fire. Video: @stuartpalley.bsky.social

I do not, under any circumstances, ever want a robot in my house shaped like a smooth human. I want a bunch of tiny, efficient, purpose-built little guys I can glue googly eyes on and pack-bond with, as God and Her first creation the Roomba intended

please stop suggesting I solve my problem by changing my behavior. I do not want to do that

Excuse me while I tear up a bit.

This work is imagining divine hope… one week at a time

I just got a donation request from some new nonprofit. They sent me like 5 pages of information about every facet of their event, except for explaining what in the risen fuck a "paddle party" is. My imagination has provided several answers that cannot possibly be correct. I hope.

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at Stanford Medicine have devised an influenza vaccine that prompts immunity to ALL four major flu subtypes AND shows potential against bird flu, indicating a significant advancement in flu prevention and a potential increase in vaccine efficacy. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️

Has the Dorico dev team made the jump to Bluesky yet? Specifically, whichever member of it decided that video-only tutorials were a good idea? I would love to have a long, polite chat about that. Perhaps one that fits in a slow-paced 20-minute video where a searchable typed paragraph would do

my anti-biopic pitch is for an action comedy called Kill Rostropovich where a cellist who is tired of playing incredibly hard 20th century music uses a magic cello to go back in time to try to kill Rostropovich so the 20th century cello repertoire isn’t so hard

Watching the American Right’s Civil War and instead of Ashokan Farewell using Everybody Dance Now as the theme song

A reminder to anyone trapped in an airport due to weather conditions right now: You have a right to stay in a nearby picturesque village while the airline sorts out a rebooked flight for the 27th. They also have to provide a widowed lumberjack for you to fall in love with. Know your rights.

At the funeral of the great opera director, as the people shout BRAVO...

There is a house on my street that is an aspiring Christmas Lights House but their yard is way way smaller than their dreams and it is hilariously tragic.

Stanley has issued a recall on 2.6 million of its popular travel mugs in the United States following dozens of reports worldwide that the mugs’ faulty lids led to burn injuries.

And now this. My father had polio when he was a child in the 1930s. He thankfully survived. Many did not. This is, well, evil. Let's not mince words. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...

I am once again using powerful, futuristic artificial intelligence and I remain astonished at the results

In general, my experience is that actually indispensable people do not need people to take a pledge to believe they're indispensable.

Storytime. In 2005, my mom died from cancer, but the real cause was the actions taken by an insurance company 12 years earlier. What happened to her was evil, hard to identify or fight, and hidden from the public by legal mechanisms. Because of that, I have no idea how often it has happened.

We infantilize white men in America… and we also empower them… and that’s dangerous

lol i bet

Lisa gets it. Composition is real work, and writing to spec is a significant challenge - especially if there is never the guarantee of a performance. Also BIG AGREE on the MIDI thing. There were *so many* “piece can never have been performed/MIDI not allowed” calls in the past. That’s impossible.

'Tis the season for calls for scores, so 'tis the season for some #RealTalk about the impact your well-intended call is having on composers. Ensembles: thank you for being interested in new music, and in discovering composers you aren't familiar with yet.

When news finally broke about the DOJ investigation, the company lost almost $25 billion in value. But CEO Brian Thompson had already cashed out

The pharmacy staff and I have had a fun day trying to get me a med I desperately need because my insurance will only pay for the generic from a specific manufacturer (which is different from the one from last month) so I guess I just get to be in pain.

Statement by the American Society of Anesthesiologists:

Vigilante violence is bad and also, using your wealth and power to immiserate people sometimes leads to desperate people doing awful things.

No but seriously Camille Marie Moke Pleyel was the ex-fiancee / great pianist who Berlioz planned the murder of after he found out she married an older wealthier man. This happened after Fantastique but before he married Harriet Smithson. She was also the woman who fucked Liszt in Chopin's apartment

Time for my annual tradition of promoting our Christmas menu through a series of increasingly deranged product descriptions.

Honestly, good for him.

Oh look! It’s a gallery of things I must now order online because it takes 20 minutes to find the Keeper of the Deodorant Key

On-field footage of the Michigan/OSU brawl via umgoblog/X

I'm not baking anything today because we did 300+ pies in the last two days and today the bakers rest. But! If you have pie or baking questions, I'm here to answer them! Happy to provide encouragement, troubleshooting, or salvage advice!

Eating too much cake is the sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is okay because the sin of pi is always zero. 🖖

In the past day I’ve heard two people who really should know better say they asked ChatGPT for factual info. ChatGPT is not a search engine. It is predictive text based on other people’s stolen writing; its whole job is to make stuff up. Please do not ask it for facts. Tell a friend.

Petition to redefine "new music" as music where you can email the composer and tell them you're performing the piece and it would make their day. (Or potentially make them call their lawyers, if you got it illegally. The point is the email.)

For some more 102-level distinctions: Modern music: similar to "the modern era" in world history/literature, post-Rite Contemporary music: minimalism and after New music: the composer is aware you're doing the piece and excited about it, or would be if you emailed her (which you can do easily)

The bros (it's usually bros) who smugly lecture people about which medications they don't need are one of the more punchable internet personalities. SSRIs, ADHD, painkillers, GLP1s -- there's always some ignorant knob ready to tell suffering people that they just need to try harder.

That’s because tariffs are taxes on the consumer. www.wdbj7.com/2024/11/20/w...

I know we talk a lot about who Oprah elevated but there needs to be more discussion around what Michael Pollan did homesteadliving.com/joel-salatin...