jgordon - Network

“offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service, which is the sort of thing that Elon Musk's crew of young sociopaths probably...

“offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service, which is the sort of thing that Elon Musk's crew of young sociopaths probably regard as a funny joke”

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/continuing-crisis-part-x-reductions-force-gains-centralized-power

Sociopaths or brats? Bad parenting or just bad luck?

“If a senior Trump appointee told me it was raining, I would first stick my head out the window for confirmation, and second make sure that they weren't just pissing on my shoes.”

#jgshare

macOS 18.4 white wallpaper bughttps://leancrew.com/all-this/2025/04/a-macos-18-4-walpaper-bug/I’ll wait for 18.4.1. If they broke this...

macOS 18.4 white wallpaper bug

https://leancrew.com/all-this/2025/04/a-macos-18-4-walpaper-bug/

I’ll wait for 18.4.1. If they broke this there are likely bigger problems.

#jgshare

Last note: The slave/gun trade was so profitable for slaver states in Africa that any state that didn't want to do slavery was acquired...

Last note: The slave/gun trade was so profitable for slaver states in Africa that any state that didn't want to do slavery was acquired and the residents sold as slaves.

In Liberia in the 1960s academics estimate 1/4 of the labor force were near-slaves.(Why is Africa Poor, Acemoglu and Robinson, Econ Hist Dev...

In Liberia in the 1960s academics estimate 1/4 of the labor force were near-slaves.

(Why is Africa Poor, Acemoglu and Robinson, Econ Hist Dev Regions Vol 25(1) 1910)

Similar to ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt large percentages of 19th century labor in West Africa was slaves, more than half the population in...

Similar to ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt large percentages of 19th century labor in West Africa was slaves, more than half the population in some states.

Reading on African economic development history I learned that much of SSA reoriented its economy around slavery in the 18th cent.Slaves...

Reading on African economic development history I learned that much of SSA reoriented its economy around slavery in the 18th cent.

Slaves were exported for guns and guns enabled slave acquisition, so there was a strong feedback loop. So profitable was slavery that every crime became punishable by slavery.

After the export industry collapsed the slave acquisition industry needed a new role. Slavery within Africa is thought to have expanded throughout the 19th century.

“A democracy is a government of collective action by the people. Let this be a reminder, it is time to do more… before it is no...

“A democracy is a government of collective action by the people. Let this be a reminder, it is time to do more… before it is no more.”

https://protectdemocracy.org/

If Trump can invade Greenland he will.

#jgshare

Ethno-religious movement hits Bangladesh, women targeted.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/world/asia/bangladesh-islam.htmlBangladesh has...

Ethno-religious movement hits Bangladesh, women targeted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/world/asia/bangladesh-islam.html

Bangladesh has done far better than was expected in the 1980s. Now everything is at risk.

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K finally gets there: “the world needs fewer manufacturing workers than it used to, just as it no longer needs a lot of...

K finally gets there: “the world needs fewer manufacturing workers than it used to, just as it no longer needs a lot of farmers”

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-note-on-trade-deficits-and-manufacturing

The slow death of rural America is one of several contributors to the collapse of the GOP and the rise of MAGA. Globalization and IT are two others.

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“I also very much doubt several key swing states critical to the 2028 election would place him on their ballots in obvious defiance of the...

“I also very much doubt several key swing states critical to the 2028 election would place him on their ballots in obvious defiance of the constitution.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dont-make-an-idol-out-of-donald-trumps-will

Forget about Trump III.

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Ramadan: “going from the longest to the shortest Ramadan fasting periods (1.4 hours per day) leads to a difference in growth rates on the...

Ramadan: “going from the longest to the shortest Ramadan fasting periods (1.4 hours per day) leads to a difference in growth rates on the order of one percentage point of growth”

https://musgrave.substack.com/p/the-social-science-of-ramadan

But happiness increases.

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James Bruce, traveler: "he travelled by land from Tunis to Tripoli, and at Ptolemaida took passage for Candia; but was shipwrecked near...

James Bruce, traveler: "he travelled by land from Tunis to Tripoli, and at Ptolemaida took passage for Candia; but was shipwrecked near Benghazi and had to swim ashore"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bruce

18th century Scot, best known for first euro to trace Nile to Ethiopia. Fun wikipedia bio.

"presently returning to the desert to recover his journals and his baggage, which had been abandoned in consequence of the death of all his camels"

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France fines Apple $162M for App Tracking Transparency: “follows a complaint by a group of trade associations representing advertisers who...

France fines Apple $162M for App Tracking Transparency: “follows a complaint by a group of trade associations representing advertisers who are no longer able to access user data to serve personalized ads”

https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/31/apple-bizarrely-fined-162m-for-app-tracking-transparency-after-advertisers-complained/

If true this is Trump-class stupid.

#jgshare

“several analysts remain focused less on recession calls than on trying to make sense of why so many people are feeling down about their...

“several analysts remain focused less on recession calls than on trying to make sense of why so many people are feeling down about their economic lives.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/business/economy/wealth-cash-inequality.html

The article notes much wealth growth is not liquid - including home equity. So it overstates prosperity for many. Decreases in cash balances a hint.

I am happy at least some experts are asking the important “why”.

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Semantic Scholar - keep an eye on it.https://www.semanticscholar.org/This site shows up a lot in Perplexity reasoning chains. It's...

Semantic Scholar - keep an eye on it.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/

This site shows up a lot in Perplexity reasoning chains. It's funded by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) and was launched in 2015.

Their blog has no feed. So they aren't terribly bright. Still interesting.

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Hypogamy: early signs American women may eventually accept “marrying down” the education...

Hypogamy: early signs American women may eventually accept “marrying down” the education track.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/03/marrying-down-wife-education-hypogamy/682223/

Some of the examples are wealthy small businessmen with no degree. Which is NOT a real change.

But there are signs of hope. Women are just smarter (on average).

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US military and cabinet using Signal on personal devices means NSA has to disclose...

US military and cabinet using Signal on personal devices means NSA has to disclose vulnerabilities.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/03/the-signal-chat-leak-and-the-nsa.html

Strong argument.

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White Afrikaner refugees: "United States has deployed multiple teams to convert commercial office space in Pretoria ... into ad hoc...

White Afrikaner refugees: "United States has deployed multiple teams to convert commercial office space in Pretoria ... into ad hoc refugee centers..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/us/politics/trump-south-africa-white-afrikaners-refugee.html

About 8,000 requests so far.

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@superjosh Hi Josh,I'm getting this error for my automated microblog posts ..."Your server returned a 422. Unable to make web...

@superjosh

Hi Josh,

I'm getting this error for my automated microblog posts ...

"Your server returned a 422. Unable to make web request to https://appdot.net/api/v1/statuses"

It seems to be working now but it looks like 9 posts were missed from mid-day yesterday to today.

Can you think of anything to do differently?

OpenAI descripition of the the 40 image generationhttps://openai.com/index/introducing-4o-image-generation/It's a marketing post but...

OpenAI descripition of the the 40 image generation

https://openai.com/index/introducing-4o-image-generation/

It's a marketing post but with some solid discussions and interesting examples.

#jgshare