Further to the Foregoing
14:38 Sunday, 22 February 2026
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Words: 34
I understand less than 10% of this video. But it looks like the kind of thing that some people might find useful or essential. But, like any technology, it doesn't care who's using it.
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09:54 Sunday, 22 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 32.23°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 5.57mph
Words: 192
The Trump administration, DHS and DOJ are learning organisms. Just as Minneapolis is teaching the rest of America how to resist, the federal government is learning how to overcome the resistance.
What would it take for Signal to be declared a threat to national security? A secure communications platform for "domestic terrorists." I think Apple could delete the app from every Apple device. I'm not so sure about Google and Android. Folks who depend on Signal to organize and communicate should probably think about alternative means of communication.
GMRS radios aren't "secure," but unless you're licensed and transmitting your callsign, there's no real way to identify who is transmitting. It's more anonymous than your phone. Short range, but if enough people have them, and are organized in a network, they can communicate. The trick would be to develop a means to obfuscate the content of messages. The idea isn't to keep the content "secure" in perpetuity, just long enough to be tactically useful. Give people time enough for warning.
We've built a communications infrastructure that ensures you have no privacy. Remember when Eric Schmidt told us to "Get over it?"
Good times.
✍️ Reply by emailHistory
07:43 Sunday, 22 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 30.79°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 3.02mph
Words: 97
Personal trainer is dealing with a sick toddler, so apparently we're going to go train by ourselves... later.
Anywho, just finished reading this account of the intelligence leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fascinating stuff.
Nobody likes connecting dots. Here's a little quote from the end of the piece:
Huw Dylan, a historian of intelligence at King’s College London, said there was a long history of intelligence analysts being unwilling to predict that future events will create a dramatic break with the past.
"A dramatic break with the past."
Figure it out, people.
Tick-tock.
✍️ Reply by emailOff My Game
06:56 Sunday, 22 February 2026
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Words: 26
Wrote a post yesterday. Didn't export or upload the post.
Sheesh.
Feeling discombobulated here.
In other news, it's snowing.
Headed to the gym. More later.
Maybe.
✍️ Reply by emailShocking
07:28 Saturday, 21 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 32.04°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 11.63mph
Words: 662
What was I thinking? Tariffs coming down? Hah!
The endless chaos.
I'm still convinced that this administration is putting all the pieces in place to establish an unconstitutional fascist authoritarian regime before Trump's term of office ends, whether he is president or Vance.
When executed, they will round up the loudest voices, the most experienced organizers, an array of "others" that will be used to intimidate the rest of us. Keep us quiet. These political prisoners will be routed from concentration camp to political prison, again and again, in a shell game to prevent lawyers from speaking to them. They will ignore court orders to the contrary. Congress will do what it has done all along, nothing.
And there is nothing to stop them.
The $75B for the Department of Homeland Security was the gift to establish the infrastructure of autocracy.
Anyway, "Shocking" was supposed to be about something else.
Despite the fear, anxiety, and existential dread that is my constant companion, I still have to figure out how we're going to build this house, and how to design it for an uncertain future.
I got kind of excited yesterday watching some videos about Ford's new universal EV platform, expected to launch in 2027 with a small pickup, possibly named "Ranchero." It's supposed to be priced below $30K, which means it'll definitely be over $30K, and since it's likely to be in high demand, "dealers" will mark up the price well above $40K. Fuck dealers.
Anyway, the truck remains somewhat exciting because it uses lithium iron phosphate batteries, somewhat less expensive and more durable over the long term, and especially because it's supposed to be sold with bi-directional charging capability.
That second link up there speculates that the base model will come with something like 64kWh of battery storage. That's more than twice the storage I had with two Tesla Powerwalls. Bonus: It's not from Tesla.
So when I try to figure out the cost-benefit analysis, one of the benefits is that the truck will be the battery storage for the house.
We're not planning to build a garage this year, though it will be included in the site plan. Depending on how much the house costs, the garage will probably go up in 2027, with rooftop solar. The garage will have a roof that can be more accessible/compatible with array installation. We still have net-metering up here, along with very high electric rates, mostly due to infrastructure costs. I haven't looked into how the utilities may limit the size of the array, with FPL you couldn't size an array larger than some percentage greater than your average usage. But I've seen some very large arrays on homes and in yards around here.
I'm not looking to be a small utility, but ideally we'd make enough net-metering credit to offset the high cost of winter heating. In summer, we have very low electricity usage, because we don't use much air conditioning. The big loads would be charging the RAV4 Prime, and, hopefully, a new Ford UEV pickup.
I'm kind of disinclined to use the truck batteries for daily self-consumption (Well, "nightly" is a more accurate term.) But it would be the replacement for a whole-home generator in the event of a significant power outage. I haven't made up my mind on that yet, It may depend on how efficient the ICF house is. In January, with that significant cold snap, we had three days where we used over 120kWh! Last month's bill was over $600.
We expect to do much better with the ICF house and the latest mini-splits.
In any event, the price of an EV pickup with bi-directional charging can be notionally offset by the cost avoidance of an $11K+ whole-home generator.
To be clear, this entire proposition is very expensive, and it may ultimately prove to be out of reach. But I'm cautiously optimistic that it may be achievable.
✍️ Reply by emailHolding My Breath
11:49 Friday, 20 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 36.28°F Pressure: 1002hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 14.99mph
Words: 566
Didn't blog yesterday, so I guess it's not exactly "like breathing."
We've been busy here the past couple of days. "Busy" being relative for a couple of retirees.
We're making plans for building a new home on this property. It's stressful. I want to keep the costs down, Mitzi wants what she wants. It's complicated.
But we think we've settled on the outlines of a design, and we've retained the services of a design firm to turn that outline into plans. We're going to build with insulated concrete forms (ICF) and forego timber frame construction. There will be timber frame accents here and there, but the structure will be ICF, minus the roof. The design firm works exclusively with ICF construction, and their engineering partners are also very familiar with the product.
We're going to hire the guy who built the house we're living in now, who's been building ICF homes for a few years now. Home construction isn't the majority of his business, he does more ICF basements for manufactured homes than anything else, but he does have the experience we're looking for to do this project, and he's excited about it because he wants to build his brand and expand his business building ICF homes.
Has the timing given us a break, with SCOTUS declaring Trump's tariffs illegal? Seems possible, though I don't know exactly what the state of play is for construction material. Our siding and roof are looking to be steel, standing seam, panels and I think I recall tariffs imposed on steel. The only lumber in the house will be the interior framing and the roof trusses. We're looking at some European window manufacturers, I don't know if they were subject to tariffs. I also don't know if manufacturers, after "pricing in" tariffs will be inclined to price them out again, but perhaps.
Delighted to see Andrew arrested. Now please arrest Lex Wexner, and expose all of the "Epstein Class."
There's a few more things I want to blog about, but it's been a busy morning and I need a nap. We went to the gym at 0700, in the rain. Since we weren't scheduled to meet with our personal trainer, we focused on cardio and I did some abdominal work and a dead hang. I'm up to 30 seconds, which doesn't sound like much until you consider how overweight I am. I need to get some gloves I think. My fingers sting and burn.
Came home and had more discussions about design. I thought I'd prevailed in my effort to keep the house down to two and a half baths, but Mitzi has returned to insisting on a half bath in the loft. It makes no real sense, is an added expense, and a potential source for leaks high in the house, where they can do far more damage. Maybe it'll succumb to costs later. This is pretty much her project, I guess. I did prevail on eliminating the dormers and bedrooms in the loft for cost savings. I'd welcome just a large open space, like I had in my condo. Now it's going to have a half-bath wedged into it somewhere, somehow, for some reason. Presumably so grandkids camping out up there don't have to toddle down the stairs to the half bath on the first floor, maybe once or twice a year.
Sigh.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailDon't Panic?
11:53 Wednesday, 18 February 2026
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Words: 364
It's unfortunate that so many otherwise important and worthwhile voices choose substack as their platform, but that's where they are.
I think you may be able to read this piece, which is part The Bulwark, making the case that Trump can't cancel, steal or otherwise thwart the midterm elections. It's a sober argument, and may be of some comfort to many.
I'm less sanguine.
It seems to me that it's just too much of a coincidence how much the mass deportation effort, the acquisition of "detention centers," the subpoenas to social media platforms, the repeated use of "domestic terrorist," and more than I can probably recall just now, resembles the kinds of efforts, logistics and infrastructure necessary to conduct mass arrests of U.S. citizens.
I wouldn't rule out provocations by ICE in blue cities seeking to cause protests that could be labeled as "riots" or "insurrections." Tulsi Gabbard's presence in Georgia suggests some "national security" dimension to this narrative structure they seem to be fabricating.
And it may be possible that the eventual target isn't the midterm elections, but the 2028 presidential election.
I suppose it's possible that all this is just for mass deportations. But witnessing Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election tells me that he, or whoever is pulling the strings, isn't above trying to do the same thing again, only this time using the power of the presidency, newly armed with a national security apparatus that could disrupt the entire constitutional process.
I mean, who is going to stop them? He has shown a willingness to simply ignore the courts. A "state of emergency," with mass arrests of citizens and elected officials alike, relying on databases assembled and analyzed by tools developed using AI, could seriously disrupt and impede efforts at organized resistance. So, again, who is going to stop them? Not the Pentagon.
If the midterms go off without serious disruptions, and Republicans hold the Senate, what guardrails can Congress put in place between January 2027 and January 2029 that Trump wouldn't simply veto, even if Republicans lose the Senate.
Even if I'm being unreasonable in my speculations, it should be profoundly troubling that this is even conceivable.
✍️ Reply by emailEchoes From the Ether
07:19 Wednesday, 18 February 2026
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Words: 305
Got a nice note from MacOS Guru in response to my Blogs Answer Questions post. He affirmed that the current state of affairs makes it hard to post about MacOS or emacs, his two topics of interest. And indeed, he hasn't posted since last December.
Today, AKMA makes mention of the Questions post, pointing out a blind spot in my view of "life." I'm not on any social media platform, for reasons I think I've made clear ad nauseam. AKMA mentions that his reactions and responses to the current crisis have largely occurred there.
And Jack has posted a noteworthy quotation from Hunter S. Thompson.
I'm accustomed to "ranting into the void to no discernible effect." I flatter myself that it's my Buddhist "non-attachment to results," when really, it's nice to get a response. But I would do this anyway, even if no one was reading. I've been doing it so long, it's become like breathing.
But to possibly extend my "reach," I've been commenting on YouTube videos. It's interesting to learn what people find worthwhile to respond to. Pointing out the deportation efforts and detention center construction as preparations for mass arrests of "domestic terrorists" either before or in the wake of the mid-terms, elicits no response. Perhaps too much like the ravings of a conspiracy theorist.
But mention George W. Bush, and whoa! 291 "likes" and 18 replies.
Which, in point of fact, is an unremarkable feature of "normal life."
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we're not sleep-walking into fascist authoritarianism. Maybe it'll all "go away" after the mid-terms.
But I think if your hair isn't on fire by now, you're just sticking your head in the sand. Embracing willful ignorance. And I kind of get it, because, well, what can you do?
Well, first, "You've got to get mad!"
✍️ Reply by emailGovernment Subpoenas of Tech Companies
14:56 Monday, 16 February 2026
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Words: 205
This is a NY Times video, and I have no idea if it'll be behind the paywall or not. The video page doesn't seem to have a "gift link" sharing option.
But it opens with a video you may have seen where a protestor is asking a masked ICE agent why he's taking her personal information. He replies, "Cause we have a nice little database, and now you're considered a domestic terrorist."
The report goes on to document recent cases of subpoenas being issued to social media platforms for information about "accounts that have been critical of ICE."
They are asking for addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and I.P. information.
Not everyone that gets entered into a database will necessarily be someone who will eventually be arrested. But it gives the administration a powerful tool for analyzing the people and networks organizing against it, and some of those people would almost certainly be among the first to be rounded up in a program of mass arrests.
Connect the dots.
Yes, I'm aware that one of the most powerful advantages we have is the monumental stupidity of the people staffing this administration. But absent action to actually stop them, they don't have to be geniuses.
✍️ Reply by emailTaughannock Hike 2-9-26
12:00 Monday, 16 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 41.05°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 5.23mphWords: 43
Spent some time going through the images I took last week at Taughannock. Put an album up on Flickr, if you're into frozen winter landscapes.
It's not art. I'm barely competent as a photographer. But you don't see stuff like this every day.
✍️ Reply by emailLast Week
08:22 Monday, 16 February 2026
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Words: 60
John Oliver's most recent show covers DHS and ICE. While he doesn't suggest anything nefarious beyond the incompetence and farcical performance of Kristi Noem, nothing in the piece relieves my anxiety.
In the piece, he mentions ICE recruits not receiving adequate Spanish language training.
But really, how much Spanish language training to you need to arrest "Antifa" and "the left"?
✍️ Reply by emailConspiracy Theory?
06:50 Monday, 16 February 2026
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Words: 397
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the Trump administration has no plans to cede power. I'm uncertain whether that includes the midterm elections, because it's not clear to me that they will have had enough time to complete the acquisition and conversion of the necessary facilities to complete their constellation of concentration camps.
Am I simply becoming a conspiracy theorist? I don't think so. I don't have that much time on my hands.
But consider the fact that this administration is committing crimes at a rate and on a scale that strongly suggests that they never expect to be held accountable.
Consider the fact that the Justice Department under Pam Bondi is drafting a list of "domestic terrorists." This won't actually be "domestic terrorists," or "Antifa." It will be the names of people whose voices the administration wants to quell when it exercises its takeover.
Consider the speed and facility with which the administration labeled Rene Good and Alex Pretti "domestic terrorists." This was likely a tactical error, but it suggests that this is a communications strategy already in place.
Consider the choice of strategy and tactics for DHS's program of rounding up and deporting "illegals." It's decidedly counter-productive from a "public relations" standpoint. But it is exactly what is necessary to rehearse the actions necessary to conduct mass arrests of Americans, and sending them to camps where no one will know where they are located.
How do you recruit and train a loyal internal security apparatus to carry out mass arrests of American citizens with no qualms? Consider ICE recruiting material.
The only question I have is, who is actually behind this? Because I'm pretty sure Donald Trump lacks the capacity or appetite for this, but he is demonstrably able to be influenced and used to mobilize executive authority, vastly expanded under the "Big Beautiful Bill," to conduct the elaborate preparations necessary to carry out such an operation when the time is right.
Is it a billionaire oligarchy led by Peter Thiel? Who is the "inside man" in the administration? Is it J.D. Vance? Is it Stephen Miller? Miller seems "read-in," given the nature of his public comments.
This is just a matter of connecting obvious dots hidden in plain sight. We can't see it, because we don't want to see it.
There is little time left.
✍️ Reply by emailBlogs Answer Questions
16:18 Sunday, 15 February 2026
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Words: 506
I don't recall exactly when I got seriously interested in the rise of National Socialism in Germany. I suppose I could search my email archive for Amazon books, but it's not that important. One of the questions that troubled me, which probably couldn't be answered in a book, was, "What was daily life like in Germany when all these things were taking place?"
And now I know the answer. I guess until their sons began dying in large numbers on the Eastern Front, or when German cities began being seriously targeted by "strategic" bombing, it was pretty much like life is today. I'm sure at first there was a lot of excitement about all the victories, and the war booty their fathers and sons were sending home from France and Holland and so on. Good times. Good times.
It probably started to feel off when those fathers and sons began dying in large numbers, and fire storms began consuming cities.
Their Jewish neighbors disappearing? Maybe a topic of conversation for a day or so. Some inconvenience when a particular favorite shop closed. But, well, what can you do?
But during the rise of National Socialism, I think that life was pretty "normal." Better, even. People didn't like the political chaos of the Weimar Republic. The street violence, the inflation, the Red Menace. Hitler promised to Make Germany Great Again, and for most Germans, it probably felt he did. And life went on.
Following blogs as I do, I read about what people are doing, what they care about, what movies they're watching, what they're tired of hearing or reading about. It's "a slice of life." To read nearly all of my feed (I have a folder called "Crisis" that contains all the "political" blogs, which are mostly semi-professional or professional outlets.) you'd never know that America was sliding into authoritarianism, or that corruption on a staggering scale was a daily occurence in Washington. ICE murdering a couple of American citizens in the streets kind of captured everyone's attention for a few days, but we're back to movie reviews, blogging platforms, cameras, how markdown changed my life, AI fatigue, how I coded up a masterpiece with Claude just "vibe coding."
Cool. Cool.
Hannah Arendt caught a shitload of grief for framing Eichmann as a portrait of "the banality of evil." She didn't deserve it. We look for monsters to blame, and so we needed Eichmann to be a monster. It wasn't "us." It was "the monsters."
We're building a network of concentration camps in America, under the guise of deportation "detention centers." Nothing to see here. ICE is developing the processes, infrastructure and logistics to "disappear people," using "illegal immigrants" as the test subjects. Pay no attention.
But have I told you about the list of books I read in 2025? And I have some cool pictures of our new cat. (We don't have a new cat.)
And I no longer wonder what it felt like for the average German during the rise of National Socialism.
✍️ Reply by emailWatched the Documentary
20:16 Saturday, 14 February 2026
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Words: 167
Ended up buying a digital copy from Apple. Well worth the $10.
I kept thinking of the Trump-Epstein files (Jimmy Kimmel's nomenclature), and how the stories changed as more and more information came to light. Waldheim seems a lot like Howard Lutnick. Waldheim brazened it out, never resigned, never accepted accountability for his actions in the war, nor his post-war actions trying to conceal his service in the war.
Austria lived for many years after the war with the myth that it was the first victim of Nazi aggression, a narrative that was apparently offered by the Allies after the war for reasons that weren't clear to me from the film. But that made me think of the Confederacy and its myth of victimhood in The Lost Cause, and "the War of Northern Aggression."
So much of this account is resonant with historical antecedents and current events.
The movie is in German with English subtitles in white, which often makes them extremely difficult to read.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Waldheim Waltz
14:26 Saturday, 14 February 2026
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Words: 146
Helmut, my Austrian correspondent, sent me a link to the Museum of Vienna. Click on the List button and scroll down to National Socialism in Vienna. I visited all the exhibits and listened to all of the audio descriptions and read the expanded textual descriptions as well.
What really caught my attention was The Waldheim Horse. It references a controversy around Kurt Waldheim's (form UN Secretary General) campaign for president in 1986. So that prompted a deeper dive, and I came upon this video from 2018 about the movie, The Waldheim Waltz.
The themes are contemporary, even though the events of the campaign are roughly halfway between the end of National Socialism, and the Trump administration today, and the rise of Authoritarian International (AI).
History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
And it seems to keep the beat as well.
And the beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailAI Apocalypse
11:27 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 34.23°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 7mph
Words: 221
I'm not sure how this blog post is supposed to be read. If he's actually quoting the tweet in the text, or if these are Peter Sinclair's words. (The link to the tweet won't load for me.) Anyway, it's a troubling summary of some of the ways all of the models have been "misbehaving."
The post says Kubrick nailed AI horror in 1968 with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'd say that was on the more "micro" scale. For a "macro" look at AI horror, Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) is the early example. (Supposedly inspired the idea of Skynet for James Cameron as a very young man, who went on to fame and fortune on the back of The Terminator.)
I don't know what's going to happen. I have a fairly good understanding of the climate crisis, the role of climate in virtually every aspect of life on earth, and my anxiety about that feels well-founded. AI could be a catastrophe, or maybe it helps us solve some of these problems. Or maybe it becomes "the voice of World Control."
We watched Colossus in the 4K remaster. Holds up remarkably well, except maybe for the geopolitical details. Looks great in 4K as well.
Anyway, glad we moved to the country. Not sure how much it'll help, but it feels safer.
✍️ Reply by emailTwilight's Last Gleaming
11:18 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 34.23°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 7mphWords: 13
Sunset looked promising last night, but didn't quite meet expectations.
Still pretty, though.
✍️ Reply by emailPete and I
09:54 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 32.58°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 6.71mphWords: 727
It was a beautiful day yesterday, and I didn't want to spend it inside. Mitzi had an appointment to meet someone to buy some bathroom light fixtures over on the other side of Seneca Lake. We'd recently talked to our friend from Florida who's building a cabin over near Keuka Lake. I suggested we stop by and see the cabin, since we would be on that side of the lake already.
So we called Pete and he said he was free, the only thing he was doing was waiting for some scaffolding to be delivered. So off we went!
We went directly to the new cabin because Pete had learned the scaffolding would be delivered about noon. He's staying at a rental place about five minutes away from his cabin. I brought along the generator since he doesn't have electricity to the cabin yet, and he's been running a very long extension cord from the power pole in the driveway.
We spent some time admiring the cabin and then the truck showed up. The driver wasn't going to back into Pete's long driveway, so he was dropping the load at the road. Fortunately, I'd brought the Maverick, so I took the truck down to the road and we were able to load everything into the bed of the Maverick. It was 600lbs of equipment in five boxes, three big ones and two smaller, much lighter ones. The big boxes were over 100lbs a piece.
The Mav didn't seem to like pulling through the snow, so I turned around and backed up the driveway with no problem, with Pete guiding me. Then we had to get the boxes out of the truck and into the cabin.
We had a session with our personal trainer the night before, and it was "leg day," and I was feeling it. There's some back and shoulders on "leg day" as well. I took off my parka because I'd already started working up a sweat just loading the stuff in the truck. It wasn't especially cold, maybe 28°-30°, and no wind. Comfortable in the sun.
Well, I'm happy to report we got the boxes into the cabin without either of us injuring ourselves of having a heart attack, but it seemed like a definite possibility at the time. Pete's a little older than me, 70-something. I think he may be in a bit better shape than I am, though. I think it was beshert, because we had not made any firm plans to visit Pete on Friday, we'd talked about maybe coming up sometime over the weekend. I hate to think of him trying manhandle all that stuff into the cabin by himself.
Pete's having the usual experience with new construction. Nothing is happening on time, so he's been up here since December, trying to facilitate things and do what he can on his own, but they're still waiting on electricity and water. The weather hasn't helped. His wife and her brother will be coming up next weekend to stay for a few weeks to try to make some more progress. They need the scaffolding to get high enough in the cabin to apply sealant to the wood.
After the fun and games moving the scaffolding, we went to the cabin where he's staying. It's much smaller, built and owned by the came company that assembled his cabin. We got some good ideas about our new place from looking at both cabins.
On the way home we stopped at Oak Hill Bulk Foods, our first time at a noteworthy Finger Lakes retailer. I escaped without buying a "fried pie." A lot of great food in that place, but be careful if you're trying to lose weight. Closer to home, just outside of Watkins Glen, we stopped at Lakewood Vineyards and I bought Mitzi a couple of bottles of wine for Valentine's Day.
It was still a beautiful day when we got home. I'm appreciating those days now, because we'll soon be entering the season of mud. But there were so many beautiful things to see on the way out and back. Lots of folks out ice-fishing on Keuka Lake, which I'd never seen before. The landscape just covered in white. It feels kind of magical and other-worldly.
Anyway, nice day yesterday. A bit sore today, but a good feeling.
✍️ Reply by emailIntellectual "property"
09:29 Saturday, 14 February 2026
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Words: 26
I sent Helmut a link to the YouTube video that I mentioned recently.
He can't watch that one either.
It's a "worldwide" web in name only.
✍️ Reply by emailPayPal Update
09:17 Saturday, 14 February 2026
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Words: 281
PayPal remains intransigent. Because of undisclosed "suspicious activity," my PayPal account has a "limitation" placed on it, which effectively renders it frozen. The only way to resolve the "issue" is for me to upload a copy of my photo ID. I don't want to provide yet another piece of personally identifiable information to a tech company, so I thought an easy way to resolve the "issue" would be to simply cancel my account.
Nope. Can't do that until I provide them with a copy of my photo ID.
They had one of my credit cards and my debit card on file. Because of the "limitation" I couldn't delete them either.
So I just canceled both cards and got new ones reissued, which was a bit of a pain, but far easier than trying to sever my relationship with PayPal.
I also filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General. Kind of a lengthy process, but navigable. And so now I'm just going to ignore PayPal.
Who really needs PayPal anymore? I don't. I would use it from time to time, simply because it would appear as a payment method at a web site I was patronizing; and I had two subscriptions tied to it and I switched both of those to credit cards. I'm at least as confident in my banks' fraud monitoring as I am in PayPal's, especially given this experience. I don't need PayPal to "protect" me.
And, so long, PayPal! I guess you can continue to count my useless account as one of your "users" or whatever you call your hostages. But it will be a zombie account. Dead, but not dead.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailIf Pam Bondi Was a Waitress
14:10 Thursday, 12 February 2026
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Words: 22
Yesterday's embarrassing performance by the corrupt and incompetent Pam Bondi at least offered ripe material for mocking satirization.
✍️ Reply by emailFree as in beer
12:12 Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 23.83°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 13.58mph
Words: 346
I had an OpenAI api account with $19 on it, and an order to keep the account between $10 and $20. I've removed the credit card, so that's over. I thought I was paying for ChatGPT, but I'm using the "free" tier. (Nothing is free, I'm sure they're harvesting something of value from our chats.)
Mitzi and I intend to build a new home on her property here, and so we need to come up with some plans. We had originally intended to go with a timber frame design, but it looks like it may be somewhat out of our budget, even with the smaller designs.
So we're looking now at building with insulated concrete forms. ICF construction is also somewhat of a premium over stick-frame construction, but there are savings over the long term, so we're leaning in that direction now. (Whether we'll live long enough to be considered "long term," is another question.)
We have a consultation this afternoon with a design firm that specializes in ICF construction. We're relatively uninformed on these matters, so I've been chatting with ChatGPT, and it's been pretty helpful. I installed Claude and used the free version to ask the same questions of it, and ChatGPT's answers seem more complete, though some of it may be excess verbiage.
I asked both of them to come up with a "cheat sheet" of questions to ask during the consultation. Both complied, but Claude insisted on learning how to use Word, which I don't have, and created a .docx file to download. ChatGPT just created the text in the chat window, and it was much faster and seemingly more thorough.
I feel more prepared using the information from ChatGPT, though both conversations would have been more helpful than just going in blind.
For full transparency, the guy she bought this place from builds using ICF, and we've seen one of his homes under construction, so we're not totally clueless; and he's given us some good tips. But ChatGPT is "always" available and entertains seemingly endless questions, so that's another plus.
✍️ Reply by emailA random list of silly (or not) things I hate
07:57 Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.49°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 12.33mph
Words: 121
A lazy prompt for content, but I can't pass it up.
1. Markdown
2. "Plain text" (If you're not using ASCII, don't even talk to me.)
3. Capitalism
4. Corporations
5. Moral cowardice
6. Willful ignorance
7. Curly quotes (See #2 above.)
8. PKM (I think we'd be better off if people tried to "manage" their ignorance first.)
9. "Social" media
10. The AppleTV remote
11. Liquid Glass
12. Greed
13. Lickspittle, sycophantic obsequiousness. (Looking at you, Tim Cook.) (See #5 above.)
14. Amazon
15. Palantir
16. Google
17. Trump's cabinet
18. Trump
19. Elon Musk
20. Billionaires in general
21. DHS/ICE/CBP
22. Trump's family
23. Typography aesthetes (See #2 above...)
The list goes on, but life is short.
✍️ Reply by emailI've Got More Mail
07:46 Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.61°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 12.33mph
Words: 190
Helmut Schierer of www.rundumadum.at sent me a nice note about drone coverage of skiing. He sent along some links to a video web site in Europe that included drone coverage. Unfortunately, I couldn't view them here. So I searched on YouTube and got a montage of drone videos from NBC, and fortunately much of the sound is muted. Clearly, they can get some compelling views using the drone, but the noise is like fingernails on a blackboard on a blackboard to me.
Must be tough for the producers, they want the environmental sounds and crowd noise, but they haven't figure out a way to suppress the drone sound and they have to know how awful it is.
It's always nice (and a surprise) to hear from a reader. I can use the translate function to read Helmut's blog, which is great because his English is far better than my German!
That is one of the remarkable things about blogging. It's almost like leaving a message in a bottle and tossing it into the sea. You never know if, or where, it'll turn up.
And the beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailResolving the Issue (Not)
07:39 Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.61°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 12.33mph
Words: 82
No luck so far on closing my account at PayPal. They're insisting that they must "resolve the issue" and "release the limitations" on my account before they can close it. I've insisted that I wished to do so by closing my account, and that I no longer wished to do business with PayPal, and that I had no intention of uploading a copy of a photo ID to them.
We shall see what happens next.
Maybe Resist and Unsubscribe should include PayPal.
✍️ Reply by emailReclaiming My Time
14:39 Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 28.92°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 17.09mph
Words: 222
I've been trying to close my PayPal account, and I'm stuck in one of those Catch-22 situations where I need some human intervention, so I'm waiting for an email that will somehow facilitate allowing me to speak to a human being.
I received an email from PayPal that they'd detected "suspicious activity" on my account and had place "restrictions" on it. I checked it out to make sure it wasn't some sort of phishing attack and it's legit. To resolve the "issue" PayPal wanted me to upload a photo ID, which I don't want to do.
I have a couple recurring payments through PayPal, so I went to those accounts and changed the payment methods to a credit card so I could go ahead and just close the account. The recurring payments were current, and there were no pending payments. So I returned to the PayPal site to close my account.
Well, I can't close my account unless I upload a photo ID!
I explained to the chatbot that I wished to resolve the "issue," by closing my account. The chatbot was unable to do anything to permit me to close my account, so I asked if I could speak to a human and so now I'm supposed to receive an email "in a few hours."
Let's see how this goes.
✍️ Reply by emailSnowing From the Overlook 2-9-26
07:28 Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 20.68°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 61% Wind: 6.93mphWords: 18
May not make out the falling snow at this size, but this is from the overlook yesterday morning.
✍️ Reply by emailTaughannock Falls 2-9-26
07:14 Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 20.61°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 6.93mphWords: 22
It's a balmy 24°F this morning, and very cloudy. Yesterday was the day to get out, and I'm glad we did.
✍️ Reply by emailChequaga Falls 2-9-26
07:06 Tuesday, 10 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 20.61°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 6.93mphWords: 27
I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing this. I also don't know how often it'll happen again. It will, I'm sure, but not every year.
✍️ Reply by emailWho Needs Glitter
Current Wx: Temp: 20.25°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 61% Wind: 1.03mphWords: 182
This was just before Mitzi decided we needed to get outside and do something. I love it when the snow sparkles. It was cold, but no wind so very comfortable. I was out there in a shirt. I wouldn't hang out that way, but for a few minutes, it's comfortable.
We didn't watch the Super Bowl. We don't have a streaming service that carried it, and we don't get OTA TV. So we rented Fackham Hall, which was hysterical. A Downton Abbey parody very much in the mode of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. (That is to say, Airplane! Police Squad and so on.) If you rent the movie online, the opening production credits have no soundtrack, and the opening scene begins black with very low volume music. There's nothing wrong with the stream.
I was convinced it was borked somehow. I had audio from the AppleTV UI, and audio in the preview, but the first couple of minutes of the movie are silent.
Which drove me crazy.
I watched the NFL recap of the game, and I think I didn't miss much.
✍️ Reply by emailTaughannock Hike
Current Wx: Temp: 20.08°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 1.03mphWords: 219
It was a beautiful day today, and Mitzi suggested we get outside and do something. I wanted to hike Taughannock again, since there was a chance it'd remain sunny today.
There were some clouds when we got to the falls overlook, and it started snowing. But it didn't last very long. The ticket machine was working at the lower park entrance, but Mitzi had her park pass so that was nice. It was about 15°F, snow was very crunchy.
The sunlight didn't help as much as I'd hoped, but it was prettier. Again, there were only four other people we encountered on the trail. I don't know how many winters will be this cold, but I'm glad we took advantage of this one.
After we finished the hike, Mitzi wanted to visit a local restaurant for lunch, but it was closed on Mondays. So I persuaded her to go to Montour where I could get another shot of Chequaga Falls, which I have been erroneously calling Montour Falls. It's completely frozen over, I'm assuming there is water flowing beneath the ice, but all you can see is ice.
A slice of pizza and a cannoli Jeraldo's and then home again to climb out of all of our layers.
Then a big nap in the recliner.
Time well spent.
✍️ Reply by emailAmerican Gulag
15:06 Sunday, 8 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 7.74°F Pressure: 1030hPa Humidity: 60% Wind: 13.02mph
Words: 132
In her most recent post in Letters From an American, Heather Cox Richardson discusses the detention system being constructed by ICE.
This policy has dramatically increased detention of immigrants. Before it, the U.S. held about 40,000 people on any given day. Now, according to Laura Strickler and Julia Ainsley of NBC News, the United States is currently holding more than 70,000 immigrants in 224 facilities across the nation, 104 more facilities than it had before Trump took office. Those detainees include children.
104 more facilities, and growing. They're building the infrastructure and processes to "disappear" people.
Laugh if you want. If you wanted to build a massive system to round up and imprison political enemies, how could you get away with it in the United States of America?
This is how.
✍️ Reply by emailPot Pouri for $50, Alex
08:07 Sunday, 8 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.01°F Pressure: 1030hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 11.34mph
Words: 336
Didn't snow as much as forecast, though the wind has piled it up over the side porch which is the main entrance, so I'll get to shoveling it again shortly.
I lurk in some of the retro-computing forums and noticed that Christopher Drum took a look at Hypercard back in December. He blogs about using old software today, and what the experience feels like. That had the inevitable effect of making me want to play with Hypercard. Earlier in the day, I searched Goodwill for "vintage Apple computers" and an iMac G5 came up. I never owned one of those.
So now I'm wondering what an iMac G5 runs on eBay. Turns out, you can get one for less than an Apple II. And if I was going get a PowerPC iMac G5 to run Hypercard, then I could also run Total Annihilation!
And then I recognized what was going on. I do this all the time. I buy all this old crap to do stuff I think I want to do, and then it gets here and sits around taking up space. Sigh.
Besides, Apple made a version of Hypercard for the IIgs that's sitting in my closet, and it's a near-peer, if not 100% compatible with the Mac version.
I still think it would be cool to have an iMac G5 to use all the old MacOS 8 and 9 software I used back in the day. But life is short. Make better choices.
I've been watching some of the skiing events at the Olympics on YouTube. I have to say that I find the whine of the drones intolerable. And I can't even see where they're airing any footage from the drones? If they are, it isn't especially noticeable, like "Wow!" or anything.
Anyway, a couple of mentions of the mundane. "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
Before dictatorship, blog about bullshit. After dictatorship, blog about bullshit.
Same-same.
Enjoy your liberties while they last.
✍️ Reply by emailScott Galloway on Resist and Unsubscribe
07:46 Sunday, 8 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.01°F Pressure: 1029hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 11.34mph
Words: 46
Galloway posted a video answering questions from Reddit mostly, I think. It's short, only a few questions, but I think it's worthwhile.
Here's the web site again, Resist and Unsubscribe.
And don't forget to delete the apps from your devices. You can always use the browser.
✍️ Reply by emailWinter Is Here
09:31 Saturday, 7 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.68°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 20.24mph
Words: 250
It's -3.7°F here, with about 20 knots of wind. Nevertheless, Mitzi and I went down to Watkins for our session with our personal trainer. It's the wind that'll kill ya.
And it's blowing snow across the roads. 79, the main road between here and Watkins, was pretty clear, with one area with drifting snow covering the road. It was only a few inches deep and the Maverick went right through it, tracking straight and true. South Hill Road, where we live, was less clear overall but no significant drifts. The road is covered with a layer of packed snow, and I was relieved that the "all season" tires on the Maverick seemed to handle it ok. We don't seem to need the driveway plowed right now, but there's more snow in the forecast so we will sometime later today or tomorrow morning.
It's partly cloudy with patches of blue sky, so it's still pretty in a cold sort of way. It's a few degrees warmer down in the village, probably because of Seneca Lake. Roads in town are clear. Meant to stop at Walmart for some blueberries and hummus, but didn't fancy walking from the parking lot in this wind with just my sweatpants on. I did wear my "base layer" under them though.
For now, we haven't encountered anything we can't handle with regard to winter. That may change as we get older, but the personal trainer is supposed to help forestall that day.
The beat blows on...
✍️ Reply by emailJoy As Resistance
06:20 Saturday, 7 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.68°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 20.4mph
Words: 165
We are in troubled waters, to be sure. So you need to be vigilant in your self-care. There's some good news.
I like ice cream. In the past my brand was Ben & Jerry's, today it's Häagen-Dazs.
Why? Because it's healthier. Look at those ingredients. No "guar gum," which may be problematic for your microbiome. And it contains no artificial ingredients, though I'm uncertain about "vanilla extract."
The 18 grams of added sugar probably aren't great, but they're not high-fructose corn syrup, and you're consuming them in a fatty serving which should retard absorption.
Speaking of high fat content, eating full fat dairy may be linked to reduced risk of dementia.
So at least you'll have all your marbles when you get rounded up and sent to a re-education camp. And if you maintain a strict regimen, you may have enough body fat to die slowly of starvation in the camps.
So you got that goin' for ya.
✍️ Reply by emailAuthoritarian Infrastructure
05:43 Saturday, 7 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.68°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 20.4mph
Words: 92
Search YouTube for local public hearings about ICE facilities.
The Trump administration is building concentration camps and jails under the guise of mass deportations.
They will be used to hold U.S. citizens under mass arrest when they refuse to hand over power in 2029. ICE agents will be the federal police force used to round up the political enemies of the administration, whether it is led by Trump or not.
Figure it out, people.
Connect the fucking dots.
And when it gets inconvenient to hold people in gulags?
Figure it out.
✍️ Reply by emailResist and Unsubscribe
07:44 Friday, 6 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 15.49°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 5.73mph
Words: 410
Scott Galloway was a guest on Michael Smerconish's YouTube channel yesterday. This was only the second Michael Smerconish video I've seen. I had to use "Find" in Tinderbox to see if I'd mentioned him before, because he looked familiar, and it was a couple of months ago.
So far, I've found nothing compelling about Smerconish, but he appears on my YouTube algorithmic playlist from time to time, perhaps because of his guests.
Anyway, what was compelling was Galloway in this interview. Now, I'm also somewhat ambivalent about Galloway. I think he's generally correct on many things, but maybe it's the way he presents himself that I find off-putting. Regardless, I think he's dead on about all the things he mentions in this interview about his website Resist and Unsubscribe.
He explains, very clearly, why doing this, unsubscribing even for only a month, is not merely "performative," it's a clear way of sending an unmistakable signal. And it's an action, something that represents our agency in this moment.
To my knowledge, there hasn't been a great deal written about how Germans reconciled themselves to their history following WW II. I've read They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayor. Apparently it's problematic for some reason. There was a documentary I saw on a streaming service that interviewed surviving Germans, members of the Nazi party, even an SS officer (who ended up just saying something to the effect that Hitler was right about everything). Certainly, there isn't the same body of literature and film that covers the rise of National Socialism, the war and its aftermath. And there have been attempts to explain or understand it, but little in the way of an account of how people felt following the catastrophe of WW II.
What little I have seen or read mostly suggests embarrassment, or claims of victimization, being misled. Denial mostly. Which is understandable. But I wonder how those people lived with themselves. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a compelling video of his experience growing up in post-war Austria, and the men in his life. The toll their experience took on their lives.
We have a moment now to alter this trajectory. We have to make every effort we can to stop what we can foresee coming.
Every effort includes "performative" things. It includes economic actions. It includes protest in the streets. It includes writing to your representatives. In this moment, "every effort," means every peaceful effort.
While we still can.
✍️ Reply by emailInsignificant Magnificence
15:22 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 22.35°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 3.42mph
Words: 8
The marmot is in there.
✍️ Reply by emailNet-Vector Sum of the Vibe
14:58 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 22.46°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 3.42mph
Words: 171
Coincidence, insignificance, the vibe that can be named is not the vibe.
Anywho, tips for shooting macro appeared in the RSS feed this afternoon. Too late for the snowflakes, but next time...
And boredom is making the rounds too. There's a difference between being bored and being boring.
Maybe it's a form of light with an e-wave and an h-wave, orthogonal to each other.
Radiating through the ether. (Aether?) Illuminating blog posts, or maybe the posts radiate like points of light.
Who knows?
Kottke linked to, embedded actually, the Colbert interview with Ian McKellen from last night, urging his readers to watch it. The whole thing is 26 minutes long and worth watching every minute of it. But yeah, definitely watch the last six minutes.
That's kind of uplifting. Kind of.
Performative though.
So there's that.
For the buzz-kill chaser, watch this Tim Miller interview with Robert Kagan at The Bulwark (not the "member's only" link this time). Kagan is convinced the 2026 elections will not save us.
✍️ Reply by emailFlakey
09:08 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 13.01°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 2.77mphWords: 20
Kind of gives you an idea of the size of these flakes. They make the immediate landscape sparkle. Pretty amazing.
✍️ Reply by emailWinter
09:03 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 13.01°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 2.77mphWords: 86
It's supposed to get bitterly cold and windy tomorrow night. For now, it's gorgeous. It's been snowing, with no wind and those giant iconic snowflakes. I was just outside trying to get some shots with a macro lens, it was hopeless. I can't stay still long enough, I'm not familiar enough with in-camera focus stacking. Frustrating.
But it's beautiful.
Really have to appreciate days like this, because the clouds come and everything looks like how I feel. Today, how this looks makes me feel better.
✍️ Reply by emailI've Got Mail
08:11 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 10.17°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3.53mph
Words: 349
The other day I bitched about the stupid Intuit ads in Apple News+.
But I didn't just bitch, I wrote a rather vituperative note to Apple in the Feedback app. I don't know if that's included in all MacOS installs, or if it came with my performative Developer account. I use it from time to time to bitch to Apple about just whose experience was supposed to be "improved" by one change or another. Like when they rolled Puzzles into Games and ruined the experience I had competing with my brother. Never heard back from them on that.
But I did get an email from them yesterday:
=========================
Hi David,
As a result of your feedback, there are software changes in the latest beta, iOS & iPadOS 26.3 (build 23D125), that have resolved this issue.
You can see the software build your device is running and check for the latest update by tapping on Settings > General > Software Update.
If this issue is not resolved for you in the 23D125 build, please file a new feedback report.
Feedback ID FB21855478, Intrusive Ads Ruin User Experience and Apple's Reputation
Do not reply to this email. Please login to Feedback Assistant and let us know if the problem is fixed for you.
==========================
So I installed the latest build, and sure enough, I wasn't getting unintentional, undesirable ad launches in News+, though Intuit still seems to have purchased the entire ad space for News. I think they dialed back the responsiveness or sensitivity to the ads, because I can "touch" an ad while scrolling now and it won't launch, I just keep scrolling.
I rather expect I wasn't the only person who bitched about that, but I was very surprised to receive any reply at all. And pleased that they fixed it.
Now if they could just train Photo's stupid AI to remove power lines. Seems like the simplest thing, and they have yet to do it right once. I send feedback every time. We'll have a new house higher on the hill so they'll be below the horizon before they get that one fixed.
✍️ Reply by emailFurther to the Foregoing
08:02 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9.16°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3.53mph
Words: 184
Looks like Fallout wrapped last night. And since I deleted all my credit cards from Amazon, my "ad-free" experience was deleted as well.
For my next act, I'm deleting the Prime app from my AppleTV. Awards, medals and trophies can be forwarded to the Mad Orange King on Pennsylvania Avenue.
And Fallout was a big meh. I won't miss it.
I'm hesitating on deleting my Amazon account, because I'm not certain how that affects my Kindle library. At this moment, I'm thinking I'll keep the account semi-active (undeleted) to maintain access to the books.
I went through a rather difficult divorce a couple of decades ago. I know that everything can be taken from you. Fortunately, I kept my pension and my job. But I know what it feels like to lose nearly every material thing you valued or treasured. Hurts for a while, then you realize it didn't matter. If I deleted the account and lost access to the books, it'd hurt for a while and then it wouldn't matter.
But for now, I don't really need to add another feeling.
✍️ Reply by emailPerformative? Moi?
07:44 Thursday, 5 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 7.86°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 3.53mph
Words: 257
Jack's a little grumpy this morning.
I’m bored with all the performative quitting going on. What do you want, a medal?
Nope, got a few of my own already, thank you very much.
Of all the things I've been feeling recently, "bored," doesn't make the top ten. I'd pick a higher number, but how many "feelings" are there anyway? Let's try and find out...
Rage, angry, afraid, frustrated, desperate, depressed, sad, hopeless, troubled, astonished, bitter, uncomprehending, lost, well that's thirteen. Nope, no "bored" for me.
Is quitting Amazon performative? Am I doing it for a participation trophy? To receive the validation and adulation of my so-called "audience"? I get about three or four emails a year for things I post here. I have no illusions about the "influence" of the marmot. The marmot doesn't have influence, it has insignificance to everyone but me.
Nope, it's just something I can do, something within my span of control. And sharing it here is just putting it out into the ether, like everything else I write here. Hopefully maybe contributing to the net-vector sum of... something. (Again, with the three periods, just to flip the bird to all the typography aesthetes. Fuck 'em.)
Scott Galloway has a far larger platform than I'll ever have, and I'm not especially confident that even he can "influence" enough people to make a signal strong enough for the spineless, lickspittle corporate America to notice.
But it's better than doing nothing.
Better than being "bored" anyway.
Bored is the emotion of the privileged.
✍️ Reply by emailMore Amazon Signal
07:44 Wednesday, 4 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 13.86°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 98% Wind: 4.83mph
Words: 345
Read this morning's post from Eliza Daley and had the thought that I needed to delete my credit cards from Amazon as well. Made a "mental note," got up, showered, had breakfast and sat down in front of the computer to watch my morning YouTube videos (Colbert and Kimmel), got distracted by a Bulwark video (watch it), and then saw this one from MSNow and Scott Galloway, which is about Galloway's campaign to have consumers send a signal to the tech companies that we're not ok with what's going on.
I decided to go a step further. I've deleted all my credit cards from Amazon, and I've requested a copy of my purchase history. (All the way at the bottom of the Accounts page.) After I receive that report, I'm going to delete my Amazon account. I don't know how this will affect my Kindle books. Some time ago, I had removed the DRM from my library to that point. I've bought several since. I expect I'm essentially going to lose access to at least all of those. My Kindle may even be useless, I don't know. I may regret this.
I'm also going to cancel ChatGPT. I'd been thinking about subscribing to a Claude bot, I really have no idea what Anthropic offers, I've been mostly using OpenAI and not much of that, frankly. The new hotness seems to be Claude, and there are occasions where a chatbot has been helpful.
But deleting the Amazon app from your devices, and deleting your credit card information from your Amazon account is a signal with minimal real inconvenience; and can help send a message to Jeff Bezos that we're not putting up with his bullshit anymore.
I've said that I'm ashamed and embarrassed that I can't dump Apple. I'm embedded in the ecosystem, I like too many of the TV+ shows, it's just the way it is. Though I'm just as outraged at the spineless, lickspittle conduct of Cook as I am at Bezos.
Now I can watch Colbert and Kimmel.
You know what to do.
✍️ Reply by emailDevices and AI
15:31 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 26.37°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 7.2mph
Words: 72
This interview with Tony Fadell is outstanding in kind of getting a good sense of where we are and where we're going in the near-term with devices and AI. I don't follow the field very closely (too distracted by politics) and this was informative.
I'm also not going to install OpenClaw right now. I'm not savvy enough to maintain all the guardrails and too risk averse to just roll with it.
✍️ Reply by emailHas Nobody Seen Battlestar Galactica?
13:05 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 26.55°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 9.4mph
Words: 104
This Clawdbot thing (OpenClaw) troubles me. On the one hand, it looks very exciting. On the other hand, it seems like to get the most use from it, you basically have to turn over the keys to your computer.
This seems like the kind of thing I could use to convert a Google Sheets spreadsheet to a Numbers spreadsheet. No idea if it would actually be correct, but I could play with it and maybe find out.
I really want to try this, but I feel like it's playing with dynamite.
Probably going to let some other folks go first and see what happens.
✍️ Reply by emailGood News
09:49 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.74°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 5.14mph
Words: 28
This is a good news story that will be a temporary reprieve from the catastrophe ongoing before our eyes.
So do yourself a favor and check it out.
✍️ Reply by emailTracks
07:00 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 16.11°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 4.97mphWords: 144
Beautiful day yesterday, but the clouds are back today. It dawned on me to put the drone up to grab some shots of the snow-covered landscape. Since I hadn't flown in a long time, all the batteries were nearly flat. (DJI drone batteries seem to have a high rate of internal discharge.)
I only got a few shots before the controller began beeping annoyingly, complaining about low power.
I've darkened this shot, and added "definition" to more clearly reveal the number of animal tracks on the property. I'm assuming they're mostly deer. I have never seen any of them, so most of this movement is occurring at night, I think.
Anyway, I found it surprising and kind of cool.
[Update: I noticed you can't really see the tracks at this size. Here's the same shot at Flickr. Zoom in for a better look.]
✍️ Reply by emailLunch Conversations With Der Fuehrer
06:42 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 13.68°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 4.97mph
Words: 129
I regard it as an act of exceptional clemency that I did not, in fact, carry out this threat, but contented myself with shooting one hundred and thirty of these self-styled Bible Students (Bibelforscher). Incidentally, the execution of these hundred and thirty cleared the air, just like a thunderstorm does. When the news of the shootings was made public, many thousands of similarly minded people who proposed to avoid military service on the score of some religious scruple or other lost their courage and changed their minds.
His original plan was to starve them to death.
From Hitler's Wartime Conversations: His Personal Thoughts as Recorded by Martin Bormann, Entry 235, 7 June 1942, midday.
Makes me kind of wonder what the table talk is at Mar a Lago.
✍️ Reply by emailDHS: 1️⃣0️⃣ days since our last public execution
06:32 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
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Words: 20
Imaginary "safety" program at the Department of Homeland Security.
The kind of thing I would have done on "social" media.
✍️ Reply by emailIntrusive Apple News Ads
06:20 Tuesday, 3 February 2026
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Words: 50
Scrolling a story in Apple News these days will inevitably bring up an ad for Turbo Tax, because Apple makes the ad nearly the entire height of the screen. You can't scroll the story without touching the ad, interrupting your reading and irritating you at the same time.
Apple sucks.
✍️ Reply by emailState Sponsored Murder
10:37 Monday, 2 February 2026
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Words: 78
Bit of a long read, but if you want to have something approaching an informed view of how Trump's campaign of murder at sea fits into what were once thought to be features of our civilization, "rules based order," "international law," and the Law of Armed Conflict, this is a helpful explainer.
You should also harbor no illusions about Trump or his clown car cabinet's reticence to use violence to further their own ends, whatever they may be.
✍️ Reply by emailApple AI
09:45 Monday, 2 February 2026
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Words: 157
Here's a non-scary use for on-device AI that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. Tips welcome.
I'd like to help someone with a debt management problem. There are some spreadsheet models that seem very helpful in that regard. Unfortunately, they're in either Google Sheets or Excel format.
Numbers is supposedly "compatible" with both, but apparently it's a very limited form of compatibility. I've imported both version into Numbers and get a number of errors. Conditional highlighting or formatting I don't care about. Formula incompatibilities are more problematic.
I've tried using ChatGPT to resolve the incompatibilities by presenting the error message and the formula. (Thankfully, Numbers preserves the formula within the error message.) ChatGPT offers some helpful directions, but it is manually intensive, and I don't have the patience.
So Apple could train Siri, or whatever, to convert Excel and Sheets documents to Numbers.
That'll probably be in the "premium" subscription version because capitalism.
I hate computers.
✍️ Reply by emailGroundhog Day
06:23 Monday, 2 February 2026
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Words: 436
A couple of days ago, historian Heather Cox Richardson posted something that links Stephen Miller's racist rhetoric to the views predominant in the Confederacy. It's a great read, so I strongly commend it to your attention.
I was familiar with South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond from reading Erik Larson's most recent book, The Demon of Unrest. If you're unfamiliar, suffice to say that Hammond was a racist pedophile Democrat, in the mold of Southern Democrats of the day. Today it's fair to say he would be a Republican. And you should definitely read Larson's book.
I'm currently reading a few books, one of which is Hitler's Wartime Conversations: His Personal Thoughts as Recorded by Martin Bormann. It's not exactly compelling reading, except insofar as Hitler fancied himself an expert in nearly everything, and his cult of personality compelled Bormann to record his dinnertime "conversations."
They're more like soliloquies, because there are no recorded interrogatories, just Der Fuehrer going on and on about whatever has his attention at that moment. But one thing is clear, he definitely had some opinions about the character of the various "races." One can easily imagine Hitler on Truth Social.
In the reviews on Amazon, some reviewers were apparently quite impressed with Hitler's knowledge and "intelligence," which is sad. Because Hitler was neither knowledgeable nor intelligent. He, like Trump, has a unique form of low animal cunning. He can be charming and obsequious when he needs to be, as Hitler was to Hindenburg, and Trump was to, oh, I don't know, Bill Maher? But he also had political instincts that were unbound by concepts of "norms," also like Trump. And supreme confidence in his own intelligence and abilities, at least publicly.
I think the one thing that may prevent Trump from being a monster equal to Hitler is his age. He's not far from ordering mass executions. He surrounds himself with people who wouldn't object to it, and indeed would probably relish the idea of rounding people up and killing them. Guys in boats, citizens in the streets, detainees in concentration camps. Trump is aware of his mortality, and for now his attention is divided among the various monuments and projects he wishes to inflict on the landscape of Washington, DC.
I don't have any heartburn whatsoever comparing Trump to Hitler, and people who reject such comparisons as being hyperbolic, uninformed or unserious simply aren't paying attention. Or wish to imagine some psychological distance between the chief executive of the United States of America and Nazi Germany. And it is merely imaginary.
We keep reliving the same bullshit over and over.
✍️ Reply by emailA Few Minutes Later
Current Wx: Temp: 10.22°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 12.55mphWords: 53
I dug out the E-M5 yesterday and the battery was flat, so I charged it. Nice to play with an "old" camera now and then. Should've looked at the settings, though. Was still set for Cloudy white balance, so the previous picture was a little redder than reality.
But only a little.
✍️ Reply by emailMoments Ago
Current Wx: Temp: 10.22°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 12.55mphWords: 3
As mentioned below.
✍️ Reply by emailAction This Day
17:22 Sunday, 1 February 2026
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Words: 253
Churchill used to send out memos with "Action this day," written on them.
I have mixed feelings about Scott Galloway, but I agree with him about this: Resist and Unsubscribe. That said, for the moment, I'm focusing on Amazon. Canceling Prime may not be a strong enough signal, since I think most of us pay annually.
Deleting the Amazon app from your devices will send a more powerful signal.
Fortunately, I'm not subscribed to most of the services on that list. YouTube Premium, and Apple's services being the exceptions. Mitzi and I have decided to boycott Home Depot (for its support of Trump in general) and Lowe's for the indefinite future, certainly for the next few months. I've deleted the Home Depot app from my phone, I never had the Lowes app, if there is one. We'll buy our hardware supplies locally and pay the premium.
We all have some threshold of inconvenience we're unwilling to cross. For better or worse, and somewhat to my shame and embarrassment, I'm embedded in Apple's ecosystem. Thus far, I'm not completely outraged by Netflix, but it's close. Ricky Gervais' most recent standup special made me want to vomit. Turned it off early into it while he was still beating the dead DEI horse.
But check out the list, see what you can live without for a month or so, and unsubscribe or delete the apps. I have to believe deleting the apps will send a signal, loud and clear, that customers are unhappy.
Action this day.
✍️ Reply by emailCosmological Philosophical
17:19 Sunday, 1 February 2026
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Words: 25
In better days, I once thought deeply and often about things like this.
This sounds right.
I look forward to thinking such thoughts again someday.
✍️ Reply by emailIt's February, Again
17:00 Sunday, 1 February 2026
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Words: 304
Semi-busy weekend. Not sure if I mentioned that Mitzi and I are working out with a personal trainer again. And we're looking after the neighbors' dog for a few days. So Saturday morning was busy with the dog, taking the trash to the transfer station, working out with the trainer, then enjoying breakfast at a diner we hadn't visited before.
I've been reading books, watching YouTube and TV. Some shoveling snow. Running back and forth the neighbors' house. I'd have preferred to keep the dog at our place, but Mitzi wasn't keen on it and the neighbors seemed to prefer that she stay at their place. I don't mind looking after dogs, but getting in the truck and driving next door four times a day gets a bit tedious. Mitzi's been taking some turns. I feel bad for the dog, being home alone so long. So I sit on the floor and she lies next to me while I pet her and rub her belly for a half hour or so.
It snowed for a few hours this morning. Got about three inches of accumulation and shoveled that off. Then it snowed again. Used the leaf-blower to blow that off. Works pretty well, but it gets all over your coat and hat. Also works well to clear it off the truck.
I've learned you want to keep up with keeping it off the concrete. Stepping on snow compresses and melts it, which then freezes into ice, which builds up exactly where you're walking a lot. Started using the grass-seed spreader to spread salt. Had been scattering it with a dust pan, but the seed-spreader does a better job.
The sun came out around noon, and it's just gorgeous out there. Sun's about to go down though.
The beat goes on...
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