*Last month I wrote about the Coming California Crack Up. I'm beginning to think I should make it on ongoing series. To wit, from Slate Star Codex:
California passes a law saying that freelance journalists may not write more than 35 stories per year, which many freelance journalists argue is not enough to survive on and would essentially destroy freelance journalism as a career option. The story seems to be that California wanted to ban Uber from classifying its drivers as freelancers, and the easiest way to do this was just to ban freelance work and carve out exceptions for any form of freelance work the state didn't want to ban, and whoever was in charge of exception-making randomly chose the number "35" for freelance journalism....Anyway, I think California journalists should feel lucky to be allowed 35 stories; most new housing in the state is limited to two.
*The breaking of the 2-hour marathon sparked a lot of discussion about what counts as a genuine athletic achievement in the wake of technological and strategic manipulation. Are the shoes legal? Was the course realistic? Is drafting and pacing fair? The time was unofficial. And no, it probably shouldn't "count" per se, but the achievement was remarkable. I pulled this off Twitter:
"Amuse yourself at the gym today by seeing how many times in a row you can run 100 meters in 17 seconds. It's pretty easy to begin with! If you can do it 422 times in a row-without breaks-then congratulations, you can run a marathon as fast as Eliud Kipchoge did this morning."
*Very sad, but not surprised, to see Lodge 49 cancelled. Not surprised because it was the only truly character driven show on TV, apart from Better Call Saul which enters its last season shortly, and nobody seems to watch those. It may yet find a new home and survive, but if there were a vibrant market for such shows there would be more of them on the air.
*When I read for pure entertainment I often resort to crime fiction. I'll be delving into this list of great crime fiction from Ethan Iverson for while, I suspect.
*One of the ongoing themes here is how the world is moving beyond me as I age, how all the familiar cultural artifacts and activities slowly drift out of sight. How We'll Forget John Lennon breaks it all down scientifically.
