🔗 The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations
It’s McSweeney, so …
I am one of those ‘em dash’ - AI pundits.
‘BA’ - I rarely saw an em dash in the words that I read - and I read a lot.
‘AA’ era - em dashes are everywhere
Either
a lot of people recently attended writing courses OR
they are using AI
Is there a third option?
"look to your left, then to your right. A hundred percent of those people are slathering me across sentences like adding more cheese to a risotto that’s already drowning in parmesan—without tasting, without thinking, without remorse." https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-em-dash-responds-to-the-ai-allegations
John Philpin
npub1yuck...rlu2
People First
🔗 The wonderful life of Santos=Dumont and his Aerial Dinner Parties
This takes High Tops to a whole new level.
Pun intended.
(Unless at a bar - ‘high tops’ are not places that Jax and I frequent) 

Santos=Dumont and his Aerial Dinner Parties
Santos=Dumont sitting at his high tables with guests There are reports that when he lived in Paris, in the early 1910s, Santos=Dumont had...
🔗 What if Ed Zitron is an optimist?
"Transformative innovation is priced in to the Big Tech stocks including their legacy businesses, and there’s only so much remaining crime that they can use to fill in the gaps between investor expectations and what they can realistically deliver. Yes, buying a gilded ballroom for the President of the USA will help them get away with more crime for longer, but in the absence of newly created value they can’t keep extracting more and more. The disruption from the coming AI crash could result in a decline in some other revenue streams previously considered safe."
💬... john.philpin.com 
💬 John Philpin
🔗 What if Ed Zitron is an optimist?
Transformative innovation is priced in to the Big Tech stocks including their legacy businesses, and there&...
What Om Said
🔗 What is Instagram’s Adam Mosseri really saying in his year-end memo?
And Then What Ben Said
🔗 What is Instagram’s Adam Mosseri really saying in his year-end memo?
Reminds me - I should export my Instagram feed into John.philpin.com 
What is Instagram’s Adam Mosseri really saying in his year-end memo? – On my Om
Ben Werdmuller
What is Instagram’s Adam Mosseri really saying in his year-end memo?
"Instagram no longer believes it can beat AI by making more or better content. It wants to be the referee, to decide what is real and what is not, ...
💬 

Just poked my head into the kitchen - I presume a local rugby team is dropping by later to help consume the dinner being prepared.
Happy New Year
"Lets hope it’s a good one"
🔗 My Three Words for 2026
What are yours❓ 

Engage - Enable - Excite
My Guardrails for 2026
At first blush, the German heist strikes me as less Oceans 11 and more Sexy Beast.
😂😂😂
"My sense of the “right” way to handle this puzzle is to think of it as a network and use some powerful result from graph theory to solve it in an instant. But since the only thing I know about graph theory is that it exists, I went about it differently."
💬 Dr. Drang
Sometimes the 2025 reviews seem to be so heavy with bad news:
🔗 12 NASA Satellite Images That Tell the Story of Earth in 2025
But sometimes - the good news does just pushes through.
🔗 The Year in Cheer
Have a better year than 2025


Visual Capitalist
12 NASA Satellite Images That Tell the Story of Earth in 2025
From California wildfires to Arctic phytoplankton blooms, explore 12 stunning NASA satellite images that captured the story of Earth in 2025.

Reasons to be Cheerful
The Year in Cheer
97 ways the world got better in 2025.
Not yet finished the series - which is telling even of itself - but my review is likely going to lean towards 🎬🔗 Andrei’s
Pluribus (2025-) - andrei.xyz
In a world overtaken by a mysterious wave of forced happiness, Carol Sturka, one of the immune few, must uncover what’s really going on - and...
🔗 ExtraBar - Custom Menu Bar for macOS
"Apps like Bartender and Ice help hide icons, but they don’t help you actually do things faster. I wanted deep links, custom actions, and keyboard shortcuts without installing a dozen helper apps."
I appreciate the 14 day money back gurantee - but no real clues as to how this is going to generally work - let alone specfically for me …
I know about it because of @ameripie - who clearly likes it. $9.99 - what can go wrong? 

ExtraBar
ExtraBar - Custom Menu Bar for macOS
ExtraBar is a customizable bar for macOS with deep links, quick actions, and app-specific shortcuts. Take control of your Mac workflow.
I like Ben’s approach to ‘Resolutions’ : 🔗 A 2026 checklist - not least because 🔗 the usual approach is more often than not going to fail.
Might try it along side of my 🖇️ 3Words approach.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-you-ready-for-a-fresh-start-update/ 
Ben Werdmuller
A 2026 checklist
A way to build a habit out of what's important.

Engage - Enable - Excite
My Guardrails for 2026
🔗 Daring Fireball: Photoshop 1.0 and the Early Macintosh HIG
"Only a fool dismisses the collective knowledge passed down by those who came before us."
💬 John Gruber
It would be hard to disagree. AND it isn’t just in tech … and design - there do seem to be an increasing number of ‘fools’ in the world across all disciplines. AND they are given louder and louder megaphones.
Maybe the real FOOLS are the enablers. 

Daring Fireball
Photoshop 1.0 and the Early Macintosh HIG
Link to: https://mastodon.social/@gruber/115770281204538177
🔗 Glitterally The Worst Idea
"Manager: “Today, I need the caffeine more than I need the dignity.”" 

Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com
Glitterally The Worst Idea
It's New Year's Eve. A coworker at the store has decided that the break room needs to look more festive to improve the morale of everyone...
🔗 Using AI-Generated Images to Get Refunds - Schneier on Security
And they say AI reduces human creativity❗️
Schneier on Security
Using AI-Generated Images to Get Refunds - Schneier on Security
Scammers are generating images of broken merchandise in order to apply for refunds.
🎉 Happy New Year 🎊 to all - and may 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ be a vast improvement over last year.
What Are Your 3️⃣ Words❓ 

Engage - Enable - Excite
My Guardrails for 2026
🔗 The Receipt That Sparked A Resolution
Lovely. Have a better 2026 than 2025. 

Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com
The Receipt That Sparked A Resolution
Customer: "Do you remember me?" Me: "I'm sorry, I don't. I get a lot of customers." The customer smiles and shows me a carefully folded r...
Dear 🍎
Thank you for highlighting that this post was generated by AI. It’s a step. A small step - but nonetheless - a step.
Now - for the next act - how about …
(click through to see the comments for your starter pack) 

💬 
