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QE filter pass

Tuesday,  06/30/15  09:11 PM

Wow, Q2 is done!  Whew.  And onward ... spent the day coding, riding, and bitcoin-ing.  And now blogging...

It's quite fun glancing through a Flight of past quarter end posts ... many of them report I'm getting ready to watch the Tour.  Which I am!  Cannot wait, this year should be a good one.

Slate says The iTunes Era is Over.  "Apple Music is here, and you might never buy a song again."  That might be true, but it might not be because of Apple Music, it might be because of Slacker, Pandora, Spotify, etc.  So I installed IOS 8.4 immediately, and tried Apple Music immediately.  And got pretty confused immediately.  Could not figure out the difference between My Music, For You, New, and Radio (which has my music, including new stuff, for me ...).  Will need to experiment a little.  I did try listening to Beats1, a button for which takes up most of the initial screen.  Not bad, until it was, and then I immediately looked for Next.  Ha!  Radio ... oh yeah, no Next button.  

My first impression has been reinforced.  Back to Slacker for me (the Machine Head channel :)

Gerald Vanderleun: The Eight Stages of Scam.  References the Great Cholesterol Scam 1955-2015, and compares it to the Great Global Warming Scam.  The core observation is that those pushing the scam are not interested in truth, they are interested in profiting from a crisis. 

An interesting note from Justice Thomas, in his dissent on the Obergefell Supreme Court case: "The Court’s decision today is at odds not only with the Constitution, but with the principles upon which our Nation was built.  Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood as freedom from government action, not entitlement to government benefits."  I'm entirely in favor of LGBT Marriages, but they should be construed as contracts between consenting adults, not licenses issued by the state. 

Related: Love Among the Ruins.  "The barbarians are at our gates. But inside our offices, schools, churches, synagogues and homes, we are posting photos of rainbows on Twitter.  It’s easier to Photoshop images of Justice Scalia as Voldemort than it is to stare evil in the face."

I'm equally guilty; today's big news was Greece defaulting on a €245B IMF loan, and I'm posting about a new music service.  (I did build a Bitcoin client from scratch today, does that count?)

Interesting question: Why didn't Voyager visit Pluto?  "Astronomers decided that in order to optimize their science at Saturn, they'd need an orbit that brought Voyager 1 up close with Titan.  But that flyby also would put Pluto out of reach after the spacecraft lifted out of our solar system’s ecliptic plane."  Hence New Horizons, a new spacecraft which is visiting Pluto ... in a couple of weeks! 

Brad Feld: Oracle's Java API suit against Google - Five Years Later.  "It’s not as messy as the Greek debt crisis but directionally similar. And it’s far from over.

Mark Suster:  Do Less.  More.  Okay.  This seems like a good variation on "focus", with which I entirely agree. 

Cory Doctorow:  Why I'm Leaving London.  "The short version is that we want to live in a city that's a livable place to work, where we can raise our family, and where we can run our respective small businesses."  How interesting...  He's moving to LA!  Welcome :)