The Commoditized Stack Over the past year or so I’ve been developing an argument around confronting concentration and dependency at the cloud level of the technology stack: that at best…
When I was a young lad, in the latter part of the 1950s (not long after the Stone Age ended…), one of my self-taught technical skills was to be able…
Every year I send around to former students some highlights of this years work. This time I’m posting here! Hoping some of this work is of interest to all of…
There are contradicting views and explanations of what dopamine is and does and how much we can intentionally affect it. However, the commonly heard notions of scrolling for dopamine hits,…
Large technology companies have been selling their software to countries and other organizations that commit violations of human rights. Sometimes the tech companies just cut off agreements and data access…
Last Wednesday, my wife woke me with four words nobody wants to hear. “The television doesn’t work.” I’ve heard this before. My 65” Samsung, with its various boxes attached, can…
Dire wolves have now been “brought back from extinction”, through clever, or extremely reckless, genetic engineering. This is totally insane. The reason we have massive species loss, the sixth great…
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Bill McKibben rightly describes the Trump regime's attacks on the entire federal regulatory apparatus as vandalism with a plan (which includes making things more…
If you are a “small c-” conservative in Canada, the argument against moving more quickly to decarbonize our economy has included many points. If you were to speak to Premier…
Semiconductors are vital for modern life; and weirdly, they have become an essential part of the transition to a decarbonized world. Most of us understand that semiconductors are the bedrock…
I was confronted yesterday with the ubiquitous claim, "Lockdowns destroyed kid's ability to socialize. Now they're committing suicide because of it!!" Let's have a closer look again:I posted this mini-thread…
We carry propaganda machines in our pockets. Propaganda isn't just to misinform, but to distract us and exhaust the capacity for critical thinking. When you're struggling to decide between 25…
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Jessica Glenza reports on a new survey showing that the overwhelming majority of U.S. youth are (rightly) worried about the climate crisis. Pamela Swanigan…
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Daron Acemoglu highlights the dangers of a new gilded age - particularly as increasingly large concentrations of wealth are taken for merit or wisdom.…
Two articles appearing the same day in The New York Times reminded readers how technology,... The post Will our technology overwhelm us? first appeared on Views from the Beltline.
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Richard Sandbrook makes the case for a Green New Deal as combining the ambition and the feasibility needed to halt climate change. And Stewart…
It is easy to see the countries that have pushed towards electrification of their private car fleet. Norway is an easy stand out. By 2025, Norway will only register new…
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Armine Yalnizyan offers a warning about the spread of the tapeworm economy in which corporate profiteers wriggle their way into public services and…
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Michaels, Emily Spieler and Gregory Wagner examine how negligent pandemic policies (even when COVID-19 wasn’t being treated as a matter of general…
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Colin Carlson discusses why we should be treating the climate crisis as a health emergency (while also recognizing that such a thing…
