Substack launched Notes to steal attention from Twitter.
It succeeded. Right now, I bet they’re regretting that.
This was very interesting to write. It does feel like some models of society and lifepaths have reached their natural end — and are now running on human inertia.
Opportunity lies in spotting what’s dead, and figuring out what should replace it.
These cactus leather iPhone cases look nice. Still a natural material, but without the environmental costs of cow skin.
Quite tempted to get one in a few months.
Oh, marvellous. The UK government is now making policies based on easily disprovable conspiracy theories.
They’re either idiots, or they think pandering to idiots is the only way they’ll stay in power.
Frosty but beautiful beach walk after school drop off this morning. Starting to feel like I’m finally shaking off the Christmas lurgy.
On the intrigue side, Fieldwork can be relied on to provide the spectacularly weird. Downstream from Richmond we once spotted a polystyrene takeaway tray on which somebody had placed - for no adequately explicable reason - some poo. They had adorned this with a small Union flag, fixed at a jaunty angle, and set the whole thing sailing off down the river. We watched it until it was gone from view.
— From Elegy For a River by Tom Moorhouse 📚
This, and the piece it’s based on, are well worth a read: Dorothy Thompson On Who Goes Nazi
Sad that it feels as relevant today as it did when it was written.
Man shocked to discover that two-edged sword does, in fact, have two edges.