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Jeremy Cherfas

The Inside Story of the Banning of “Maus.” It’s Dumber Than You Think. – Mother Jones

“I have not seen the book and read the whole book. I read the reviews.” The only item on the meeting’s agenda was what to do about Maus, and this board member had not bothered to glance at it.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Trying to use OCR in iOS is really tricky unless you can mask off the bits of the page you really don’t want. Unless I am failing to find a better selection tool. Maybe crop first?

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Agreed, kefir is a total doddle (though I don't do any of the variations that other people do). I do feel bad when I don't have anyone to give surplus grains to. Although yoghurt is more of a faff, it isn't that difficult, especially with a good thermometer and a vacuum flask.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

If mussels are “the oyster of the poor,” what were they when oysters were the oysters of the poor?

Jeremy Cherfas

Perhaps I'm old fashioned (no perhaps about it) but I am having a hard time seeing the value (to me) of Research Rabbit. As Ton says, it would just feed my inner collector.

Jeremy Cherfas

It may be Monday, it may even be Veganuary, but Eat This Newsletter happens not to be meatless today.

In this issue, nourishment from @JLewisStempel, @JSTOR_Daily, @ModFarm and @OurWorldInData.

Read it at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-173-januarys-point/

Jeremy Cherfas

Replied to a post on werd.io :

Ah, serendipity. To read, almost one after the other, David Sparks and Ben Werdmüller saying very similar things about the purpose of work. David had a great Walt Disney quote: “We don’t make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies.”

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

A little late with the first Eat This Newsletter of the New Year, but my boss says that's OK.

Read it at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-172-policy-potato-and/ for thoughts on FOPLs, ag and food policy in the US and the UK, potato bread etc

Jeremy Cherfas

Replied to a post on werd.io :

Happy Birthday Ben. Such an interesting list. On a quick read, some of those things are already here (though perhaps not polished enough), some of them will never be here, and some of them ought to be here already. Thought-provoking.

Jeremy Cherfas

Maybe you really want to build your own, but if not, Newsblur is an RSS reader has an excellent ability to include email newsletters.

Jeremy Cherfas

When a human-powered transcript flows seamlessly from "tide disputes" to "Thai disputes" without once taking on board that "tides are these ecclesiastical taxes ...".

Jeremy Cherfas

I realise it is absurd to take to Twitter to wonder where are the blog carnivals of today, but ...

... where are the blog carnivals of today?

https://jeremycherfas.net/blog/weeding-mendels-garden-and-other-blog-carnivals

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

This:

For all the talk about how the internet isn’t as interesting as in the “Good Old Days”, there are so many places I would happily spend time reading and contributing to if each day was at least twice as long. So many chats, so many forums, so many blogs, so much social media.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Thanks, Ton, for your post linking to Alan Levine's Google-taming post. With your guidance, it was easy to knock up a few Alfred workflows. I should note, too, that DuckDuckGo has a !bangsearch for !flickrcc (which gives slightly different results, because it uses a different CC code) and possibly others

Jeremy Cherfas

@C2ooth Interesting post, and much of what you are looking for already exists within the IndieWeb community. HTTPS://indieweb.org as you perhaps know. Moreover, we are not all disenchanted tech utopians

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun?

Physicists are more playful and less hidebound creatures than, say, biologists—partly, no doubt, because they rarely have to contend with religious fundamentalists challenging the laws of physics. They are the poets of the scientific world.

Evolutionary psychologists claim they can explain—as the title of one recent book has it—“why sex is fun.” What they can’t explain is why fun is fun. This could.

Jeremy Cherfas

$241,633 was lost to fraud this year — that’s about what we expect | GiveDirectly

Does the value recovered outweigh the cost of investigating these cases? From a simple dollar-for-dollar amount, certainly not. However, the existence of a rigorous investigations team helps deter staff and partner fraud.

Jeremy Cherfas

Great insights into the botany of the pine nut via @BitKblog. The botany would be the same for Araucaria araucana seeds, but I wonder why they aren't marketed -- too rare? -- or how the flavour profile compares.

https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2021/12/19/the-adoration-of-the-pine-nut/

Jeremy Cherfas

Chuffed to learn that @scotlandbread won @bbcfoodprog award for Food Innovation. If I were in Scotland, I'd be sourcing from Flour to the People. Instead, I gave a donation to the crowdfunder campaign at https://crowdfunder.co.uk/scotlandthebread

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

It’s Research, But Still Very Wrong – Interdependent Thoughts

I wasn't affected by the somewhat scuzzy email sent out by chumps at Princeton to "research" internet privacy regulations, but I was prompted by Ton's investigation to take a look at Tranco. And blow me if I'm not also in there. One of the compensations of being an old blogger.

Jeremy Cherfas

How The Politics Of White Liberals And White Conservatives Are Shaped By Whiteness | FiveThirtyEight

Among the many fascinating charts that 538 selected from this year, this is the one I found most informative.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

@mer_matthews You can get turnkey Indieweb at micro.blog for $5 a month. The bigger question is, what has payment to do with it? Not everybody who publishes online is looking for payment. Maybe some dislike being sharecroppers for the silos. Not the same as wanting to be paid.

Jeremy Cherfas

@mer_matthews I’m not competent to judge everything you have said, but I do know that it certainly does not cost $25 a month to have a site that makes use of IndieWeb principles and building blocks. Do you have specific examples in mind?

Jeremy Cherfas

Eat This Newsletter 171 is out, with Canadian chickens, proletarian food systems, sweetness and dark, and a tribute to NI Vavilov. All connected, even if somewhat tenuously. Read it at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-171-proletarian/

Jeremy Cherfas

Relaxing with a peppermint tea and some Lester Young, having put tomorrow’s Eat This Newsletter to bed, or whatever one does in this digital age.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

2021-12-09

On Wikipedia

1 min read

John Naughton's online diary contains a good piece on Wikipedia.

Me: “So you’ve found a glaring error on a subject you know about?”

Critic: “Yes. Elementary mistake”.

Me: “So why haven’t you corrected it?”

Critic: Flustered (sometimes), irritated (often), defensive (much too busy)

But there's another aspect to this, which is the wiki-zealots, who are all-too-ready to block the Critic who does have expertise on a topic precisely because they are not members of the Wikitribe.

Eventually, those people give up and keep their expertise to themselves, doing Wikipedia and the world a disservice.. Well, Wikipedia is doing itself a disservice, but let's not quibble.

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Checked into Boarding Area E

Not feeling comfortable, but needs must. 

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

Jeremy Cherfas

TFW you forget to Start a Workout when you start a workout -- and you feel somehow you‘ve cheated yourself even tough, of course, you haven‘t.

Jeremy Cherfas

We saw The French Dispatch this afternoon and it was a total delight, if you are into that kind of thing. Want to watch it again immediately as there were so many visual treats that went flying by. Probably not for everyone, but for me a solid 5/5.