Tomorrow is our first day of Thirdly, where our team used to get together in Baltimore and celebrate the third gone by and prepare for the next one. It just is not the same now that we do it virtually. I miss my friends.

Drawing to scale. How’s your Sunday going?

‘Battle for the Soul of SoHo’: A Debate on Gentrification, Race and Wealth — SoHo residents are being absurd NIMBYs, no matter how hard they try and make this about … cast iron? Even pretending like SoHo is some cultural center for artists in 2021 is an obscene gesture.

Good summary of the ledger on Georgia’s new law. Here Are All the Pros and Cons of the Georgia Voting Law

From /r/dataisbeautiful, a dose of reality to the many who still have not come to grips with how serious this pandemic was in the United States.

This is not a law about election security.

Is there any other area like transit advocacy, where alternative options seem largely agreed upon by policy advocates that are never addressed or critiqued at all by politicians or the bureaucracy? Transit agency decisions are just baffling.

Are there no consequences when your policy fails to achieve any of its extraordinary objectives?

Not if we’ve moved on to the next culture outrage.

You know you’ve reached the end of the internet when you’re watching YouTube videos dissecting The Smiths.

New in M.b plugin Glightbox– images in galleries are resized to 260px thumbnails (click for full size) using a M.b native API.

Head to plug ins and search and click install to get the new version. Note: the thumb option no longer works.

Slave-owners were particularly afraid of allowing democratic control over property because they were literally afraid of their property. They were haunted by the threat of slave insurrections, as well as foreign armies turning their slaves into enemy soldiers through offers of freedom (as the British had recently done). Einhorn concludes that “if property rights have enjoyed unusual sanctity in the United States, it may be because this nation was founded in a political situation in which the owners of one very significant form of property thought their holdings were insecure.”

How Slavery Shaped American Capitalism

Perhaps the only piece I’ve read in Jacobin that I’ve liked.

What’s the best “use my iPad to control my Mac” software these days?

When the Mob Comes - Men Yell at Me

If this doesn’t make you want to toss the social web into the sun, I don’t know what will.

We’re getting closer and closer to vaccinating children in the US, a critical step to achieve a return to some normalcy. Very pleased to see Pfizer moving along with Phase III trials in 12-15 year olds.

Great article about two restaurants in Providence struggling to survive during the pandemic while being safe and fair to workers and patrons.

One of many wrenching stories I could be sharing today. Read about how a demifemme in tech feels forced into feeling dysphoria or feeling ineffective in their job. She describes an environment I am often a part of, and struggle to dismantle in myself and my workplace daily.

My kryptonite? Remembering I’m supposed to ask how you’re doing after you ask me the same.

I’ve never felt as attacked by an app as Slack notifying me every time someone reacts to my message and no setting to turn this off.

Their answer to me was, “Sometimes a reaction is as important as an @ message.”

No, no it’s not. Ever. For anyone. I promise.

Yesterday for Seder I nailed a roast beef. Tonight, I nailed a 9-pound chicken. Both were ready as we hit meal time, so not only were they not overcooked, they were hot when they hit the table.

So yeah, I think I’m done here.

COVID Seder

I cannot tell you how excited I am that Francine has gone from dropping leaves to this.

I’m having surgery next week and will not be able to look at screens for several days afterwards. I’m trying so hard to save up all my podcasts.

My lack of interest in the genre of musical theater may have something to do with not caring about lyrics ¹ and not being particularly interested in vocal performance.

Wood construction has enormous potential for helping to de-carbonize the construction industry. We still need to find ways to produce more sustainable concrete.

"IN MY HEART I KNEW IT WAS WRONG." Maaaaan, fuck this. https://t.co/B9hnnri4FN

— Angry Asian Man (@angryasianman) March 24, 2021

What Leno gets wrong is exactly the headline, “In my heart, I knew it was wrong.”

This quote is more honest:

“At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless.”

That’s real. What he thought was wrong, and he should have figured out that he was wrong sooner, and today he knows that.

Forgiveness requires contrition. And I do believe that Leno is contrite, but that’s not for me to decide. We’re doomed if we cannot find a way to forgive anyone for any transgression in society, but we (largely white men) also need to do a better job. We need to learn faster and better, by listening more often and more closely. Part of that is learning how to apologize.

Leno said things in the past that he thought were funny. He thought they did not create harm, directly or indirectly. He failed to listen to peoples’ pain, and he failed to consider their pain or impact adequately before making these statements to begin with. We all do this at times, especially when we’re young, though hopefully not so much by the time we’re adult professionals.

Own it. Be wrong. There was no “In my heart, I knew it was wrong.” You didn’t feel anything in your heart at all about it. If you did, it would mean that your empathy was triggered and there’s no way you would have made those jokes, or stood behind them when called out.

I have said terrible things I wish I could forget. But worse, I have said terrible things I have forgotten because in my heart, they meant nothing to me. I feel sadly certain that I will do so again.

I am sorry. I hope I learn better, faster. But when my heart knows anything at all, it prevents me from making those mistakes. That’s its job.