the only thing that could possibly displace the Epstein Files as a public obsession would be complete, unredacted release of the X Files.
Port of Constanța.
Panorama of the port of Constanța, many buildings and cranes, the Black Sea blue.
“It’s not exactly precise to say that Estonians love absurd humor. In Estonia, the key of life is absurd, and even a foreigner will learn to read life in this key in a day or two.” https://riowang.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-estonian-absurd.html
is he going to bring back the Washington Bullets?
prejudice very often masquerades as savvy.
“parental controls” — yes, exactly! https://mindly.social/@annecavicchi/114864405466433508
Black Sea dolphins.
it’s not a dark enlightenment, what we are undergoing is a dark reenchantment.
people’s understanding of the world is increasingly formed by sources seeking to intrigue or awe, rather than inform with anything like procedurally vetted approximations of mundane truth.
if you configure a bell to chime every time you get a like, that’s an engagement ring.
to be fair, the humans don’t seem to do much better with their tiktok than the llms do with all the crap and slop in their training data.
lots of conversation inspired by this, arguments about interest rates and square feet etc, but i think people fail to appreciate how profoundly just *the last five years* of this graph have contributed to a profound sense of hopelessness for many of us.
(with interest rates way up, not down!) https://zirk.us/@interfluidity/114882783179068669
A graph showing median home prices growing much faster than median incomes, with a really shocking increase in median home prices since the 2020 pandemic.
i'm sure i've missed some text or tweet or mail or call and offended you.
after sunlight is reflected across so many funhouse mirrors, does it still serve as a disinfectant?
yesterday i was a bit shocked by the degree to which “flat earth tiktok” had otherwise perfectly normal people just asking questions.
@daveliepmann we have a locus of control dispute. YIMBYs often view the regs as the problem, and eliminating or reforming the regs will solve the problem. I view the opposition and general well-enfranchisement of affluent homeowners as the problem, and so predict they, with the local governments they largely control, will find instruments by which to pursue their interests even if the instruments currently most conventional disappear.
@daveliepmann (i just don’t think US homeowners are a cartel that’s going to be broken sufficiently to enable new construction in already desirable places at nearly the scale that we require. when it’s the 1% you can fight. when it’s the 60%, you have to coopt or circumvent. i think anti-NIMBY politics has always been a foolish choice of means in pursuit of genuinely virtuous ends.)
from “What determines rent?” #DavidTimoney https://fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2025/07/what-determines-rent.html
Text: “In the case of housing, there are real constraints such as restrictive planning regulations and limited real resources (builders and building materials), but the biggest determinant is the reluctance of volume builders to over-supply the market and so depress prices. In this context, the state is a volume builder that has taken a self-denying ordinance to maintain house prices, both for owner-occupiers and landlords, which is why the UK government is so reluctant to build council houses despite the pressing need, and why US liberals like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that "abundance" can be achieved by simply rolling back regulations and striking out building codes, which provides an easy excuse to ignore capitalist realities in favour of a technocratic can-doism.”
if one wanted to sum up what American governance has lost in a single word, “faithfulness” would not be a bad choice.
this by Mila Sohoni is wonderful, reads like aspirational science fiction but describes a very recent past. https://www.virginialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sohoni_Online.pdf
ht @nicholashandler.bsky.social
kindness is sexy.