Defiant Sloth

Warehouse and fulfillment are a curious industry to shift into “gig work”, but that’s exactly what seems to be happening as labor needs continue to heat up. PepsiCo is an early adopter, though I’ll hold my breath on how well the more stringent and compliance-based workloads go with this approach.


Om sums up the soulless hell of social media quite nicely in this piece:

“In this reality, the primary task of these [social] platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as much revenue as possible from human vanity, avarice, and narcissism.


Films are longer. Blame blockbusters and prestige directors. Or maybe streaming competition. Who knows after reading this, but the data is surprising.

Graph showing movie length trend line (higher) for popular films since 1930 vs all films (lower)

The wonderful world of dive bar politics by way of the Men’s bathroom door — Anchor Bar, Superior WI.

Heavily graffitied wooden for with various patronizing notes against republicans and democrats.

Bayfield, WI from a perch on the Madeline Island ferry. Pleasant sojourn at the island for the weekend. Lots of grilled white fish accompanied by wine, Old Fashioneds, and beer.

Sunset with heavy clouds over Lake Superior water, with city of Bayfield, WI silhouetted in distance

You hit a certain age… and you start to think more about aging. So I’ve been savoring any article like this one from the Guardian.

Overall ➔ good to know vocabulary peaks at 65, and happiness in our eighties.


Great find from Kottke (actually a repost from a decade ago) about the Japanese artist using Microsoft Excel to paint. It’s a rather fascinating methodology, and I love the maximization of a tool within its limits.


My first concert in several years was fantastic at the Turf Club. Saw Islands perform, alongside some human-looking puppet named Andy on stage. They played several tracks from the new album, but also broke out a few classics. We sat at the bar the whole time, which is the right vibe for this place.

Square composition of black and green tiles at the Turf Club, with logo in middle

The Economist has a fantastic focus in their latest Technology Quarterly about the pursuit of immortality.

In short, immortality is impossible, mostly due to physics and the human genome, but… extending life is very much a possibility and near-future reality.


What a way to open this article on the FTC suing Amazon.


Sea of Stars has been a really charming throwback to so many great SNES-era RPGS. Reminds me of the serious plot (but plenty of whimsy) that games like Chrono Trigger brought along, with touches of much-needed modernity of the UI and gameplay. It’s excellent.

Angled Nintendo Switch on tabletop with Sea of Stars playing on its screen.

A really neat app from the makers of Halide was released today called Orion. In a throwback homage to VHS design cues, this turns your iPad into a portable screen for cameras, video game consoles, and computers of any kind. Great idea, great execution. They even made a guide for adaptor devices.


While I rarely think about playgrounds (no kids here), from a zoning perspective and for children’s creative enjoyment, they are immensely valuable. This recent Axios article had me surfing through fond memories of running through the massive structures in Bloomington growing up.


I’m an idiot and have started curating a library of pull-tabs. If you’re into weird art, stupid gambling, dive bar culture, or all of the above, this is worth bookmarking.

close up of a stack of pull-tabs with all tabs pulled open revealing no winners inside, just lost hope

Maybe I’m old, maybe I don’t get the 5E rule set, but no dice roll for ability points in the character creation stage of Baldur’s Gate 3 is… a bit of a letdown. The game is incredibly polished, though, and this is no way a critique — just longing for the old days.


Freshly-roasted SK Coffee beans (Colombia Variedad F6), ready for a pour-over. ☕️

Stainless steel bin of whole coffee beans on a scale reading 35 grams of weight

Molly Young nails the feeling of paralytic anxiety many feel when confronted with high art of any kind that draws on prior knowledge of "original" art (sure, an "allusion"), and we all wonder how exactly we're supposed to enjoy and nod at the brilliance without effectively reading/seeing/experiencing everything that is alluded to.


How to Solve the Plastics Ecosystem Before it Kills Us

This fact-laden piece by The New Yorker ("How Plastics Are Poisoning Us" by Elizabeth Colbert) spins another dark tale on plastics, the facade of recycling them, and how shitty they are to our planet.

We already know a lot of this — we collectively don't trust that plastics are being recycled (you really won't after reading this), corporations using plastic vessels and those creating them will never change their mind, and replacement materials are surprisingly less efficient or useful for plastic tasks. These are real, hardcore problems in displacing plastic.

But Elizabeth buries the lede at the bottom of the article:

If much of contemporary life is wrapped up in plastic, and the result of this is that we are poisoning our kids, ourselves, and our ecosystems, then contemporary life may need to be rethought.

Contemporary life is a ludicrously big statement. But what else is there to say? Part of what enabled the integrity of logistics for the global goods ecosystem was plastic packaging. How would we go about changing it?

Perhaps global ecosystems are a major part the problem. Maybe we need to focus more on local ecosystems, and here in the US, state-by-state or city-by-city. Let's focus more on local retail, local production, and local uses vs importing everything from everywhere. It can be an incremental, purposeful movement that starts small, but we know money is the only true lever. And by encouraging the adoption of non-plastic packaging for use in local/proximity environments, or accommodate other materials for storage/in-store shelving — especially for spoilable goods (subsidies, anyone?) — we can start to make the impact that compounds globally.


Curly’s Bar up in Duluth was the perfect complement to a splendid dinner at New Scenic Cafe.

This is the right move. In this order. 🤌

Pile of pull-tabs on the ground with a stool in lower-half of frameOutside building with neon lettering for ‘Curly’s Bar’


Grabbing an excellent dawg up in Duluth outside Bent Paddle. Love this area.


This headline had me second-guess an EV investment as my next vehicle…

replacing bumpers, fenders, doors and side panels following a collision can be more expensive because in an EV they are more likely to be embedded with sensors, cameras and other electronics costing from hundreds to thousands of dollars each… And labor charges for EVs are 50% higher

…so on the fence for either an EV or hybrid. Anyone have first-hand experience with repairing an EV?


Amusing that some men still think certain glassware is “too feminine” to drink from.


Evergoods’ Undyed Mountain Pack Performed Like a Champ at the Fair

I was so enamored with Evergoods’ choice to go undyed with a set of their bags to build a more earth-friendly line-up, I had to get one. Notably, this was my pack of choice for the Minnesota State Fair this year... yes, a bold choice for a place likely to amass grime on all who pass through).

Luckily, the Mountain Hip Pack 3.5L performed like a champ. Was there ever any doubt it wouldn’t?

I comfortably packed cash, a wallet, wad of keys, battery pack, a map, tickets, a can of SPAM (you had to be there), sunglasses after dark, a headband, and an 18oz Hydroflask in the outer “sleeve” pocket. With room to spare. It's a great size, though I kept this slung across the chest -- seems like it'd look too big on the waist, but who am I to say.

Openened white sling bag with can of SPAM inside, next to a Minnesota State Fair jacket

A lot of customers like the strap on this one, and I can see why — two buckle clips keep it attached to the bag, so you can sling in any which way (waist, right-side or left-side across torso), and it's perfectly comfortable to take on/off and slide around. It also comes with two built-in strap keepers that operate incredibly well.

Overall, it's a very comfortable, functional sling that reliably persevered through a nine-hour maraud through the fair. Shockingly, it didn't get a speck of dirt on it, either.

It. Is. Terrific.


The new Islands album (‘And That’s Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs’) is fantastically catchy, like all their stuff — you feel like you’ve heard it before. Great way to close out the summer.


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