Leftovers & links
Click any image to engorge.
Yeah, I'm a geek, but this is marvelous news:
Russell T Davies returns as Doctor Who showrunner.
If you don’t know Doctor Who, you’re missing out. Very briefly, it’s sci-fi time travel, and it's silly and largely makes no sense, but at its best it’s really, really fun. It hasn’t been at its best for several years, though.Jodie Whittaker plays the current incarnation of the Doctor, and she's great, but the production has given her far too many episodes that were simply dumb, meandering clichΓ© collections. I’ve been undecided whether to buy and watch the upcoming season, and I certainly regret buying and watching the previous season — that’s how bad Doctor Who has gotten.
Mr Davies, though, is the guy who did all the work of reviving the show when it came back in 2005, after being canceled sixteen years earlier. Davies created four seasons of overall excellent work. Then Steven Moffat took over, and also did some fine work. Then the current showrunner, Chris Chibnall, took over, and it’s been so-so ever since.
Russell T Davies returning to Doctor Who is like, well, with no hyperbole at all, it's like the second coming of Christ.♦ ♦ ♦
Here’s a new search engine, Marginalia, that's designed to favor sites with lots of words, over sites with flashy imagery.
By the nature of the web’s evolution, that means Marginalia lists lots of sites that have been around for twenty years without changing their basic design, and strange sites with very primitive design, and abandoned sites. It’s like seeing the web, before giant corporations took control of 98% of it.
Marginalia’s about page explains what they’re about, better than I can.
As a search engine, it’s frankly useless. I’ve rarely found what I was searching for. After a week, I’ve stopped using it as a search engine at all — but I love it. It’s a long series of rabbit holes to explore.
I recommend visiting Marginalia when you're bored. Search for something, anything — maybe the last words someone said on the podcast you were listening to, or whatever random thought pops into your head. Whatever you search for, the results might be off-topic, but they'll include no major media, no ad-driven sites, and always at least several cool sites worth clicking and visiting.
As they say, "It's a search engine, designed to help you find what you didn't even know you were looking for."
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Guerrilla grazing: I respect this dude. He lives in a cart of his own design, and he’s got four sheep, and everything figured out. (26 minute video)
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Why are there 9 Justices on the Supreme Court? The Constitution doesn't stipulate how many Justices should serve on the Court — in fact, that number fluctuated until 1869.
♦ ♦ ♦Now batting for the Blackhearts, Joan Jett.
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Star Trek lives, in upstate New York.
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Congresspeople have access to inside information, and use it to invest in stocks. That ought to be illegal, and it is — unless you’re in Congress.
Some smart folks have figured out that a shrewd investment strategy is simply investing in what the Reps and Senators invest in. They've set up SenateStockWatcher, and HouseStockWatcher.
To me it's an interesting concept, but no, I'm not investing in anything more than next month's rent.
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I’ve never heard anything good about AT&T, a conglomerate that’s not just willing but eager to cooperate with anyone who claims to have a badge and wants information about its customers. AT&T is not casually evil; they’re serious about it, so it's not surprising that AT&T was lying when they said they’d stop funding the pro-insurrectionists in Congress.
♦ ♦ ♦ Anonymous has hacked Epik, the domain registrar and web hosting company that keeps much of the most monstrous Nazi and near-Nazi websites online. Turns out — surprise — Epik is incompetent at security, despite selling anonymizer services.♦ ♦ ♦
Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:
Sincere tip 'o the hat to
• Becky Jo
• Dave S.
• BoingBoing
• Captain Hampockets
• Ran Prieur
• and One of the Butt Sisters but definitely not the other.
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You’re always invited
to add anything below,
about anything at all.
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9/26/2021
I hate Sundays. They are non-stop from 5 AM til 9:30 PM. I get up, feed and walk dogs, drive 2 hours to Renn Faire, sell pottery until 7, then drive 2 hours home. But it's been busy. We're +almost 50% over our previous best year.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear you two are doing well despite the pandemic and some cancelled big events. Now I know who to hit up when I need a loan I won't repay.
DeleteToo late, it's all gone to hookers and blow.
Delete