Month: August 2026

On ignoring terrible people and things and focusing on what good can be done

I was going to write a post on terrible people and things. It seems like they are everywhere in the news and social media, from the obnoxious Karoline Leavitt to the white supremacist, Richard Hanania Not to mention Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and most of the people from silicon valley. This story about a woman’s mom dying quickly of cancer I also found terrible, though the people in it are good people.

I decided to pivot, and instead write about people taking the terrible and working hard to make it less so. Helen Ouyang writes in the New York Times about such people….doctors in Pittsburg who leave the warmth of the hospital to go outside and treat people who are homeless and living on the streets. It is terrible that people live this way: it is hopeful that people are working to make their lives better.

I highly recommend the piece. You can find it, here.

 

On beaujolais and its many names (crus)

This article: Love red wine but want a more refreshing sip for summer? These 6 reds at the LCBO are delicious served chilled, had me thinking about beaujolais this week, since it was one of the wines featured.

While a big bordeaux fan, I’ve been developing a preference for beaujolais wine when dining out and at home. I like that it is low in tannins. I love that I can chill it and that I can treat it like a white in some cases, pairing it with fish or chicken. I sometimes even prefer it with beef, though some would argue that a cabernet sauvignon or a shiraz is better. Not everything has to pair perfectly.

If you’re in the market and looking for a bottle, it helps immensely to know that beaujolais can be found under different names. While some wines will be labelled beaujolais or beaujolais-villages, you can also find it as:

  • Brouilly
  • Régnié
  • Côte de Brouilly
  • Fleurie
  • Saint-Amour
  • Chénas
  • Juliénas
  • Moulin-à-Vent

once you know that, you’ll discover there’s more selection than you might have thought.

If you want to learn more about it, start here.

It’s summer, you want something chilled and you want something red, perhaps. Beaujolais is what you need.

P.S. Of course if you love beaujolais already but would like to branch out from France, check some of the wines in the article above. Or any wines centered around gamay. Ontario itself has a wide range of products that fit the bill.

 

On the end of Web 2.0 and possibly the Web itself

Reading this piece on The End of Google, I couldn’t help but think this is the end of Web 2.0.

If you are wondering — or have even forgotten — about Web 2.0, a refresher is in order. According to wikipedia: “Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and devices) for end users.”

Of course Web 2.0 and the ideals associated with it have been declining for some time, ever since the rise and dominance of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. Despite that dominance, people continued to create user-generated content, not just on those platforms, but on new sites like Bluesky, Substack, and more. People still create content in order to share ideas, influence people, even to get paid.

However with the rise of Google Zero and more, i believe the reasons to keep posting will decline, and the number of posts will decline too. Maybe it won’t decline to zero. Perhaps people like me will continue to post for reasons other than influence or money. But the forces that lead to the rise of Web 2.0 web sites will die, and overall the amount of user generated content will drop dramatically. (Perhaps that’s why companies like Anthropic are already mining old books for content.)

Some time ago there was talk about going from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 or Web 3. I think it’s just as likely we will go from Web 2.0 to Web 0.0. There’ll still be an Internet, and there still will be some small huts of content outside the walled in fortresses of behemoths like Google and Meta and Baidu. But the Web as we once knew it will be no more. And that’s a shame.

On work in the era of AI and the pandemic

I can’t say that work is changing more in this decade than other decades. I can say two major forces have hit many workers in this decade and the impact of those forces have made work challenging for workers, to say the least.

The first major force was the pandemic. While many people have returned to office work, there are still many who prefer to work remotely. I am one of them. And while I am still a major proponent of remote work, I found this piece eye opening: We Liked Remote Work. Then We Looked at the Data. I have to agree that without a push, it is too easy to become disconnected from social contact when you work remotely. Employers and employees need to find better solutions to this problem besides dragging everyone in to a loud and crowded office via long commutes.

The second major force is AI. On one hand employers are heavily promoting employees to use AI in their work. On the other hand, employers are talking about how AI is going to result in layoffs. Here’s just three articles on the topic:

I don’t know how that will play out. I do know that workers are going to be struggling with the effect of AI for some time to come.

If anyone young who has just entered the workforce is reading this, I would like to point you to these two pieces:

Finally, I thought this piece was worth a read:  The Elusive Promise of the Four-Day Workweek. Maybe in the era of AI and remote work we will be able to achieve this. 

Blade Runner: 2099 or Blade Runner: 2048?

I see that Amazon Prime is coming out with a TV miniseries based on what is happening in the Blade Runner universe in the year 2099. I have watched the trailers and they seem….fine. You can see details on the upcoming series, here. More here and here.

Personally I would have liked something more like the prequel / short film Blade Runner: 2048 that came out just around the time of the feature film, Blade Runner: 2049. I was hopeful that would get developed into a feature film too. Alas, it was not to be.

I was fearful before “2049” came out and delighted after seeing it. I hope that holds true for the TV series.

For more on “2048” and the other prequels, see this.

For more on my many (too many?) posts on Blade Runner, go here.

M is for Midtown and Manhattan and Mamdani (and much more)

It’s been a year since I wrote about New York City and two years since I’ve visited. Who knows when I will be back. I do know I still love to read about it, which isn’t hard, since it’s often in the news. So here’s my annual post on NYC, brought to you by the letter “M”.

Midtown: First off, shout out to Midtown Manhattan, a much maligned part of the city. As this piece shows, it had quite the year, between the Knicks winning the NBA championship to Taylor Swift getting married. Mind you, it had some bad things happen, like this collapsing high rise,  That said, this quote sums things up: “Midtown is not usually cool, but, right now, it kind of is.” I’ve always had a soft spot for Midtown, so I am glad it is getting some love.

Relatedly, I really liked this piece: “As a child growing up in Midtown Manhattan, I learned to speak apartment very early.”

Mayor Mamdani: Much ink has been spilled on the new mayor of New York, the indefatigable Zohran Mamdani. It seems every day he and his team and promoting a new initiative for the city, from solving the city’s budget crisis to working on bringing cheaper grocery stores to certain boroughs. While he sometimes wanders into topics that don’t seem to make sense to me (e.g., the Koh-i-noor diamond debate) and while some of his goals may not be achievable (e.g., taxing the rich), I am impressed by his drive and his ambition.

I’m also particularly impressed by his communication skills. This interview he did with the New York Times is like a masterclass on how to handle difficult questions. I’ve seen him do this not just with people from the Times but other interviewers as well.

As for the Times, they don’t seem to know what to do with him, is my general thought. Going through this list of articles and op-eds about him in that paper, you get the sense that at best, they are highly doubtful of him. Let’s see how that relationship evolves.

Making do: affordability is a big topic not only in Mamdani’s New York but everywhere. The Times has a good series on how people with every day jobs somehow are making do in the Big Apple. The stories range from a family of 3 living on $500,000 on the Upper West Side to another family of 3 living off $25,000 in Queens. Quite the range financially and geographically.

Minimal living: speaking of affordable, visitors can always stay at these $100 hotels in New York City. Do you want to is the next question.

Maximal living: is this place affordable? No. Is it worth a look? As a fan of maximalism, I’d say yes.

Museum Living: not affordable or maximal is the Manhattan apartment of David Sedaris. In some ways it’s like seeing a museum or a nice art gallery. We should all take up humorous writing and live so well. 🙂
 

Martinis: if you are in New York and you’re looking for a place to get a New York happy meal, here are 13 essential spots according to Wallpaper*. And what is a New York happy meal, you might ask? Well according to the article: it consists of “an ice-cold martini and piping-hot French fries”. Sounds great to me.

Meals at 3 a.m.: I worried during the pandemic that New York might be backing away from being a place that never sleeps.That you might not be able to grab a bite at 3 a.m. like you once could. Well I worried for nothing. According to this piece by, there are still great places you can eat 24 hours a day. (And if want to know of more places to hit up, you’ll want to check out Fortney’s other pieces.)

The Metropolitan Opera: tough times for opera fans in New York (and those like me who come to the city on occasion to see opera, as New York’s Met Opera recently announces ‘necessary’ layoffs and pay cuts.

Massive: when I think of “massive” and “New York” last year, two things come to mind:

 

What to do on a day off

If you are Canadian, chances are you have the day off today. Maybe you have no great plans other than to hang out in a hammock or beach yourself somewhere. And that’s fine.

But if you are someone like me who likes to be productive even with down time**, then perhaps you’d like to not only do some reading but actually finish a book? Sound impossible?

According the The Guardian, you should be able to read these 20 brilliant books in a day. If you have an iPhone, you can download the book above right now and dig in. 

Enjoy!

** I know, it’s a problem. 🙂