Tootfinder

Pondering publishing as an industry.
It's a phenomenon that becomes possible when low-cost distribution at scale is available but to a relative scarcity of publishers.
It becomes less viable if everybody has access to mass distribution, or if the cost of reaching readers goes up.
Both are now happening: everybody can publish a website, and even fill it cheaply with AI generated content. And new gatekeepers extract ever-larger prices see

My oldest daughter just had her piano recital, and everyone is happy with how it went. Really proud of her!
I remember doing them myself when I was a kid and hated it so much. She is on the same boat. It definitely increases the pressure to practice short term, but does it help with sticking with the practice for the long term? I don't know, I have mixed feelings seeing her get all worried before it. But then again, a bit of stress like that is good in life, no? Pondering...

Interesting pov on the decline of social media traffic to “conservative” sites as a result of meta de-emphasizing news content. No idea whether it’s accurate, but worth pondering.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/04/…

Right-Wing Media Are in Trouble
The flow of traffic to Donald Trump’s most loyal digital-media boosters isn’t just slowing; it’s utterly collapsing.

Trump’s latest claim? That he has moderate abortion views
Meet Don 2.0: a reasonable man with moderate views on abortion.
Hang on a second, you might say. Trump?
The guy who, in 2016, said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who get abortions?
The guy who can’t stop bragging about how he is responsible for overturning Roe v Wade because he filled the supreme court with conservative justices?
The guy who, just a few weeks ago, was pondering a 15-w…

Watched “The Zone of Interest” (2023) directed by Jonathan Glazer, who deftly exploits the viewer’s imagination throughout this tense movie. Except for hearing screams and gunfire in the distance, there isn’t any overt violence. Everything is perceived, felt. And yet evidence of Auschwitz is seen everywhere. From the tall brick walls topped with barbed wire, to a chilling moment when Hedwig Höss tries on a mink coat delivered by a prisoner.

I'm amazed that so many people care what Microsoft and Apple announce. I shun them on principle (e.g. https://davelane.nz/proprietary), and it's clear that whatever they do either sucks now or will inevitably suck soon. Because that's simply the nature of mega tech corporations and the i…

Coaching, Building Relationships, and Brain Engagement #tcea #tceajmg #coaching #teaching

delicious new erik davis piece on #psychedelic #music, pondering the relationships between sounds & substances & especially getting into how alan bishop of the sun city girls embraced 5-MeO-DMT & channeled it into his alvarius b project.

Toad Tunes
Plus News and Notes

"I believe that, if we do not destroy ourselves first (as Carl Sagan famously said) we will become an interplanetary race."
https://akos.ma/blog/aliens/

Aliens
So this is an unusual topic for this publication, I agree. In almost 20 years of blogging I have almost never ever talked about extraterrestrial life, but for various reasons I’ve been pondering about it lately, and here go some thoughts and beliefs in no particular order.

for years, i've been half-seriously pondering an alternative way to keep score in #baseball, awarding players/teams more value for entertainment than winning games or pennants. triples earn more than home runs, for example. as does blowing games in the 9th inning versus coasting to wins. which is to say, i'm a little bummed i'm in self-imposed exile due to the dumb rule changes, becaus…