Musings about life on two wheels
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Networked States and the Fediverse
Tl;Dr: If the problem is centralized governance, why isn’t de-centralized ‘federated’ options the answer – like Lemmy? One wing of the Trump coalition is working towards Dark Enlightenment, and wants to create Networked States: de-centralized micro-nations that allow authoritarian rule and ‘easy Exit’. Who ever ‘owns’ the Networked State sets the rules, anybody who joins…
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Confederacy of Dunces, Snowcrash & MadMax
This post is about Dark Enlightenment, one of the ideologies in Trump’s coalition of crazys. Note: this is a work in progress… Not very polished. Tl;Dr: In Snowcrash Neal Stephenson wrote about neighborhood City/States with different laws. Dark Enlightenment wants to crash the U. S. to make this real, so they can live in Ayn…
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A brief & incomplete thought
Capitalism rests on the assumption that accumulating wealth and human interests are aligned. That may be true at smaller scales, but it sure doesn’t seem all that aligned at the scale of 300m Americans… In part I’m thinking about how our government is suddenly shifting towards oligarchy. You may think this is straight up democracy…
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Vienna 2025 Recap
A bit more info here later…
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It’s always never enough
Taking care of a family estate is a job bigger than you have time for, no matter how much you have. Huge gratitude to great friends & kind strangers in Vienna. M’s Grandfather passed away in early January – over 100 years old. He had 2 flats in a building downtown that his family built.…
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Executive Orders: Gish Gallop
Our new president has made a lot of strange executive orders. This technique is called Gish Gallop ‘presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available.’ It’s a way of distracting or confusing…
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Vienna is chilly mit warm friends
So lovely to visit a place with wonderful friends. It all started with H. meeting us at the airport. We have personal business with him, but he didn’t have to do that. He invited us to Sunday Dinner, and has been incredibly helpful to us in many others ways. Seeing W. & C. was always…
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Exploring the city
Tl;Dr: I value agency & exploration We are in Vienna, the city of M’s heritage. I am up a bit earlier in the morning than she is, so I’ve taken to exploring Vienna’s 3rd Wave coffee scene (here is a map of 15 well regarded shops). My favorite times have been morning strolls – I…
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Coffee in Vienna
Here’s a map of recommended specialty coffee shops: https://maps.app.goo.gl/k4KzmQNrfj5zTgDK8?g_st=ac I’ll update this post as we get to try some. People on Caffeine is a favorite from the past.
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Concert Visuals for JamieXX
I went to the recent JamieXX concert – not totally my cup of tea, but it was fun and interesting and important to step out of your little bubble every now and then. Interesting: But what was really interesting was the concert visuals. I’ve seen a lot of shows with stunning visuals (Brian Eno’s video…
Got any book recommendations?