Alan Jacobs

WSJ:

American allies have begun pushing the gas pedal on an unprecedented experiment in de-Americanization. Authorities from France to the Netherlands are quietly removing American tech from their systems, adopting European open-source software and urging civil servants to no longer use Microsoft Teams or Office. Belatedly, they are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to try to boost Europe’s own private space firms, AI companies, and data centers, to avoid leaning on U.S. juggernauts.

I’m not sure Europe/Canada/etc. have the determination required to become a third nexus of technological power, but I am hoping that they get there. It will be better for all concerned. 

I asked for a latte from Starbucks but when I got home discovered that they had given me a mocha. So with every sip I taste not the sweetness of chocolate syrup but the bitterness of thwarted desire.

(it is funny, and telling, that in the current media environment a book published in 2011 may as well have been published in 1611.)

Here’s an interview about renewing the pleasure of reading in an age of distraction. Someone ought to write a book about that. Oh wait.

Currently listening: the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. Righteous. 🎵

“I am 100% sure I am not a genius, but at the same time, I am 100% sure I am not a fool.” — Carlo Ancelotti. I’m thinking of adopting this as my motto. 

Still slightly vibrating from that 🇦🇷 - 🇨🇻 match last night — one of the best I’ve ever seen. Cape Verde were magnificent: organized, disciplined, and utterly fearless. They came not to cower in a low block but to defend aggressively and take their chances. Wonderful stuff. ⚽️ 

To the tune of “Gilligan’s Island”:

Now sit right down and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a rampant seal
Who’s damaging this coastal town
A hooligan named Neil

(via Adam Roberts)

In which I make a mighty vow: I pledge my blogging, my linking, and my sacred honour to the open web.