Hello friends,

Greetings from the war zone, where farmers markets are wracked with kale shortages, bespoke corgi denim jackets and inflatable frog costumes are on backorder, and traffic may come to a standstill at any moment due to naked bike rides. It’s rough out here. Make sure your MAGA and non-passport-having family members are aware of the seriousness of the situation.

Lots of stuff to share this fall. As usual, a mix of the encouraging and concerning.

Justin Timberlake and Bike Buses

Meet the teacher rallying hundreds of kids, Justin Timberlake and Benson Boone to bike to school | Cycling Weekly

Sam Balto’s “Bike Bus” is transforming the school commute, building community, sparking joy and catching the attention of a few pop stars along the way

Hey, I heard you like AI so I used some AI for your AI

Health insurance, Denmark, etc…you know the drill.

Insurance company repeatedly denied Concord woman's medical claim, then AI delivered victory

Chatbot and appeal-letter generator offered by Counterforce Health app, co-founded by medical researcher after wife’s denials.

Last minute shows, and admitting fault

@Aaron called me at the last minute with an extra ticket to see Elbow. And they were great! Full rock band, plus four multi-instrumentalist/vocalists singing harmony, playing violins and brass!

elbowThe Take Off And Landing Of Everything

As I mention to anyone who will listen, one of my favorite things about Portland is riding my bike for 20 minutes to a quality venue, on a Monday night no less, to see a wonderful international touring act like this. And the show was over at 11 PM!

Talking at shows

I’m a pretty easy-going person, but I hate hate hate when people talk at shows. I fail to understand the appeal of dissecting the music in real time, or talking about how this song sounds like that other song, or how you saw them on the last tour and they weren’t as good, or any number of trivialities. There’s nothing anyone in the audience can share that will be preferable to just hearing the band we all came to see. Some people talk throughout the show, like they’re in their living room, watching a Fast & Furious movie. 

I dislike having to tell people to quiet down, but sometimes I will. Two guys were talking nearby, and I asked one of them, would you mind talking after the show? He grumbled, “just walk a few steps that way,” as in, to take myself out of earshot. I just said “thank you very much,” and walked back to where I was standing. 

A little later, he came up to me and said, “I was rude earlier, and I’m sorry. We’ll keep it down,” and he shook my hand.

What a nice surprise. I always appreciate when people admit and apologize for their mistakes. While I never talk during live music unless everyone else is doing it (outdoor picnic/music festival scenario), I’m sure there’ve been occasions where I am “that guy“, annoying other people with my behavior, but maybe oblivious to it. I appreciate diplomatic requests to be more considerate.

I love accents, dialects, slang — across languages.

This podcast discusses a number of the ways we tweak words, and linguists have a name for all of it. For example, in Wisconsin-speak, some folks say “beg” for bag. As in, at the 7-11, the clerk asks “Want a beg for that?”

The Ridiculously Interesting World of American Accents

Throw a few Canadian accents in there, too

Apps Apps Apps

This reminds me of the old joke, “Want to get away with murder? Open a bank.”

Literary Hub » How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law

The death of competition spells doom for regulation. Competition is an essential component of effective regulation, for two reasons: First, competition keeps the companies within a sector from all …

Also

Have You Considered Not Polluting the Water?

The tech industry will do anything to solve our loneliness epidemic except stop causing it in the first place.

Many parents rightly wish to avoid entrusting their children to a smartphone or an iPad. But contrary to Grem’s marketing, the problem with those devices isn’t their screens—it’s what the tech on the other side of those screens is socializing us to be: siloed narcissists who come to expect every interaction to effortlessly reflect our own preferences. Human playmates are imperfect, sometimes annoying, even rough on the ego. Replacing them with seamless, self-flattering, simulated pals will not produce well-adjusted adolescents capable of forming real relationships, but rather more alienated ones who lack the skills to do so.

And: https://megaphone.link/SLT2941848092

I think in the near future (or maybe just now?), when you meet an especially well adjusted 20-something, it will be very likely that their parents prohibited or limited their smartphone use and screen time.

Sweet new words in the dictionary. 5000(!!)

Merriam-Webster overhauls 'Collegiate' dictionary with over 5,000 new words | AP News

Merriam-Webster has fully revised its popular “Collegiate” dictionary with over 5,000 new words. They include “petrichor,” “dumbphone” and “ghost kitchen.”

Following up on last month’s essay on types of men

…But a core of my anti-social century thesis is that too many Americans today are experiencing something strangely close to the opposite of loneliness; they’re constantly alone but not interested in fixing it. “What they’re reaching out to get isn’t friendship at all but rather recognition and status,” Petersen said of the need-for-chaos cohort. 

All the Sad Young Terminally Online Men - Derek Thompson

Political violence is like a lightning bolt: sudden, surprising, seemingly random, yet always emerging from a local weather system. Do not forget that we all make the weather.

A recent discovery

The Apricots, a Portland band, have a delightful kinda-Americana sound, with incredible precise, rich, slidey harmonies. This song has a lazy feel, but the production is anything but. @Paul said it sounded very analog.

The ApricotsSlow

How 106 People Got Together to Stop a School Shooting Before It Happened

This is a fascinating look at pre-empting crime by focusing on the people most likely to commit it, and providing positive interventions early on.

A threat on a school bus from an alienated young man united dozens of agencies to answer a single question: Is it possible to stop potential mass shooters before they commit a crime?

NY Times gift link:

Good news on HPV

TL;DR the vaccine rocks.

Denmark close to wiping out leading cancer-causing HPV strains after vaccine roll-out

A nationwide study suggests infections with human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 have been virtually eliminated since vaccination began in 2008 – protecting even unvaccinated women.

Closing quotes

“To create is to live twice.”
– Albert Camus

“Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest upon reciprocity.”
– C. S. Lewis