Jesse Harber

The American/British food debate is played out. The real hot button topic is Sephardi or Ashkenazi food

A philosopher has hitherto only interpreted a diaper in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.

Dads make diaper changes, but they do not do it as they please; they do not change diapers under self-selected circumstances, but respond to diaper circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. Remnants of past feedings weigh like a nightmare on the diapers of the living.

Chat, is it good if my CEO is a Chinese room?

What is the Jewish relationship to places that expelled us or made us flee? I don't even know. But it's not nothing, you know?

Extraordinary to see the gap between how both pro- and anti-Trump Americans are talking about Afrikaners, and how almost anyone talks in South Africa. Antis, I know you think you’re helping but we generally frown on racial abuse in South Africa, even against your political opponents.

IIRC this was a signature Noah Smith opinion. In the same tweet as saying Cuba was better off under Batista than Fidel.

This is revisionism. The US government was one of the biggest supporters of the South African apartheid regime. There are important things that USAID has done in SA since 1994 - including on HIV mitigation - that perhaps include funding civil society and dismantling initiatives after 1989.

This guy O’Brians

I just finished this and it absolutely slaps. Just fantastic near-future SF.

It’s kind of interesting that, apropos Musk, I keep seeing people here talk about apartheid South Africa like some kind of unknowable hermit kingdom as opposed to a place where I and many others remember* and can talk about in some detail *only a little in my case

Do any of my contacts know someone who works for the #Fisheries Department in #CapeTown (or #SouthAfrica more broadly)?

I would ask the fire ecologist I once met, but that happened when her dog savaged me in the street. So perhaps not.

As a resident of a city perched against a dry, windy, fire-prone mountain, I’m wondering why Cape Town’s fires don’t seem to be as destructive as the ones in California. Is it more proactive management? The simply larger scale of CA fire country? Some other innate advantage of geography?

Car-brained planning is similarly universal

To be a dad is to finally and frequently get that crucial question answered. I am, indeed, chopped liver.

Oh to drive the little fire truck

Kismet

Toby Young becoming a Lord has reminded me of this incredible exchange

It’s this sort of petty provincial tribalism that makes it hard to see Europe ever modernising

This has no business slapping as hard as it does

Our downstairs neighbour has, very politely, said she is woken by a loud bang some mornings around six. We’re up with the baby so it’s plausible it’s us, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. It’s driving me (and I guess the neighbour) nuts.

Something I’m not sure I’ve seen discussed is the prospect of a real knock-down fight between fractions of capital. Trump’s patrimonial mercantilism is going to be a lottery, with effects on stability and legitimacy *even among capitalists*. What happens when capitalist unity is eroded?

Can’t wait until Grok is given millions of people’s private correspondence and also their password recovery emails.

Have a look at Oslos street design manual, translated to english. I made that illustration with the roundabout, and several others in the guide 😇

It is easy to forget that to a certain generation/disposition of traffic engineer, this concept is bizarre and repulsive. It’s a Kuhnian paradigm and the epicycles would make your head spin.

The intersection of solidarity and not paying enough attention: I have been maintaining the NYT Games and Cooking boycott for a month like that Japanese soldier still fighting WWII in the 70s.

Paris definitely wasn’t always this way. This is very recent. It wasn’t magic. It just took vision and leadership. Your city could choose leadership too. Great pic via @JBPssx

THIS IS AMAZING! This is the planned bike path network for the #Paris region for 2025. It will involve 450 kms of lanes. Not just #Paris intra-muros (within the Périphérique) but Grand Paris—a true regional network, incorporating long-neglected banlieues (suburbs). Via @emmanuelspv.bsky.social

TIL there is no possibility of luxury as a parent

My Spotify Wrapped is almost exclusively the super chill album we used for the lad’s wind-down routine for a couple months. 83 bedtimes.

I hate these zombie newsletters. I haven’t taken a dutch train in 12 years. There’s no way to unsubscribe. I don’t speak dutch. And they’ve got my name wrong.

Totally. The only people allowed to loathe a person for writing a PhD is themselves.

üpdate: the hog has grown to be much larger than the sun. bröther, may it have this final öat?

Just out of a public meeting on our NMT strategy. Strong consensus that the major cause of pedestrian injury and death is people not knowing to avoid it.

Coal power was already unaffordable and now it’s unconstitutional. But coal miners and mineworkers are major constituencies of the ANC.

Chefs kiss

i'm sorry but i do not understand how or why people use chatgpt for literally any reason. any benefit it could possibly have is overshadowed by the fact that it just straight up fucking lies to you!

South Africa would like a word

nobody does more brutal fashion reviews than the irish