markjgsmith

Linkblog

2024/09/12 #

  • Jon Stewart Tackles Harris & Trump's Debate and What This Means for the Election | Steve Ballmer (Daily Show Podcast) - I feel like Jon Stuart is on some strange quest to explore the limits of comedy. I’m not sure I like it. At times I just felt confused like I imagine a child feels when seing his alcoholic father go on a hate filled bender. It just stops making sense and turns into some form of nightmare. Note I’m not saying Jon had been drinking alcohol, just that the behaviour is in some way similar. The second half of the show is pretty good, putting the weird comedy aside, his analysis of the political situation is great, he asks great questions, and it feels like his heart and concern is in the right place. But do we really have to go through the nightmare synthetic abusive comedy alco dad to get to that? podcastindex.org #

  • What Makes a Good Sense Of Humour? Ep#210 (No Stupid Questions Podcast) - Good episode, even if the universe is clearly still in abusive alco father mode. This just felt like I was taking another spiritual beating, but you know, the content was pretty good, ymmv. Just made me feel more tired. freakonomics.com #

  • Express v5.0.0 released - There isn’t an official blog post about it yet, but looks like v5 is out. This is just the list of PRs included, difficult to get any sense of what’s new. Lots of folks have been waiting for this for years at this point. github.com #

  • To end extreme poverty give cash - not advice | Rory Stewart (TED Talk Daily) - I have to say I quite often disagree with Rory and Alistair, for instance my heart sank after listening to a pretty good episode all about the recent US election debate, when they finished it off by saying Trump watched too much tele while eating Big Macs, out Trumping Trump as it were. They do the exact thing they so veheminently object to in others. I guess it’s just this horrid bit of human nature that is in us all. Anyway putting all that aside for a second, because this TED talk is a real tour de force. I think Rory is right about cash, because aid work so often is just a way to hide people stealing, it never reaches the vulnerable. Just give it to them directly. And the no strings attached thing is important too, and perhaps the most difficult. Saying 'buy some food' to a homeless person as you give them cash, is an attached string. What if they need to buy a bar of soap or a bottle of water instead, you’ve just removed their agency or turned them into a liar. You can’t live their life for them. Blocking them is really just you blocking yourself, because next time it will be even more difficult. Worth listening to this episode. podcastindex.org #

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