reminder for the future: don’t store paint cans in places accessible to toddlers.

Word of the day – grubby

The Quietest Land in all the Solar System

President Jimmy Carter’s letter on the Golden Record, Voyager spacecraft, 1977

Beauty is, in some way, boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages… a beautiful object must always follow certain rules. A beautiful nose shouldn’t be longer than that or shorter than that, on the contrary, an ugly nose can be as long as the one of Pinocchio, or as big as the trunk of an elephant, or like the beak of an eagle, and so ugliness is unpredictable, and offers an infinite range of possibility. Beauty is finite, ugliness is infinite like God.

Umberto Eco; On The History Of Ugliness. (via poodleperry)

Wish I’d met him, too.

Today was a kind of day to see (though not meet) famous people – Adam Gopnik and Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was talking about his last book, and answering refreshingly thoughtful questions from the audience. Apparently he also has a movie about Peshmerga coming out.

And now it is nearly 2am in my personal time zone and I am not even home yet, and time to get up is in 7 hours.

May I just live in this place?

R being sweet let me have a boys’ night out

Went out for lunch with coworkers and really wanted to avoid talking or thinking about US politics, and who walks right in behind us but a very tanned and relaxed-looking John Boehner?

I kind of feel for the waiters who had to serve him and his retinue.

Universal Basic Income: What If the Problem Isn’t Automation but Work Itself?

futurismnews:

Universal Basic Income: What If the Problem Isn’t Automation but Work Itself? https://futurism.com/universal-basic-income-what-if-the-problem-isnt-automation-but-work-itself/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=tumblr&utm_medium=futurismnews&utm_content=Universal%20Basic%20Income%3A%20What%20If%20the%20Problem%20Isn%27t%20Automation%20but%20Work%20Itself%3F

Universal Basic Income: What If the Problem Isn’t Automation but Work Itself?

47 percent of jobs in the United States are expected to be replaced by smart machines and other forms of automated systems in the next decade or so.
The Green Institute sees the potential for universal basic income (UBI) and for a shorter work week as key policy positions for moving ahead into the future.

I fully expect that the entire industry I am in is going to be made irrelevant by blockchain in 10 years.
And what am I doing about it?