Spent yesterday coding and the evening sailing (on my rejuvenated C-15).  What could be better?  In the meantime:

At part of my Bitcoin investigations, I've been perusing the writings of Nick Szabo, inventor of Smart Contracts.  (In case you're interested, I've translated his IEEE presentation on this subject from WordPerfect Presentations (!) into PDF...)  Among other things, Nick is rumored to *be* Satoshi Nakamoto.   

Nick has a blog called Unenumerated, and comments on a very underrated invention.  (Hourglasses)  For a longer treatment of the same subject, see A Measure of Sacrifice, in which the measure of time is seen to be important as a measure of investment and created value.

This is pretty depressing; 62 years of congressional cooperation in a single GIF. The red and blue dots represent congresspeople, and the lines indicate "cooperation", as measured by voting the same way on pending legislation. 

It is interesting to speculate, what has caused this decrease in cooperation?  There are no doubt many reasons, but I suspect mass media is the biggest factor.  Politicians on both sides have been polarized...

Apropos: John Hindraker on Politics in the Era of Symbolic Liberalism.  John posts from a right-wing stance, but it can equally be argued from the other side.  Appearances have become far more important than actions. 

Also apropos (or at least, related), James Lileks: The only reason Apple pulled Civil War apps from the store was fear of the Internet.  That is to say, fear of appearances.  "The loud people may complain. The company would have to explain. An explanation would be seen as a justification." 

Note: they have not yet pulled WWII apps, despite the undoubted symbols of hatrid (swasticas etc) present...

Philip Greenspun considers Apple Music: A good reminder not to listen to computer scientists.  "Certainly nobody predicted that a company such as Apple would be able to take 30 percent of the recording industry’s revenue because the record companies were incapable of setting up their own servers."  How interesting, right? 

To more fun matters ... Have you see this?  Remove cat before flight.  I love it!  (Such a classic cat move, right?:) 

Brad Feld wonders Why isn't PGP built into Gmail?  Yeah, good point.  In fact, why isn't PGP standard everywhere?  I've been having a discussion with friends which *might* lead to IP, and we're having it on Slack instead of email, to keep it private.  

Jeffrey Zeldman: Deep Tweets No 613664902180413440.  "Usability testing doesn't reveal problems in your product so much as it uncovers arrogance in your thinking."  Indeed.