There used to be a news clipping service for the U.S. government, or maybe just the military, called the Early Bird. It was fax'ed to whoever and then copied and distributed. I wonder if that's still a thing in the digital era.

Anyway, woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided to see if ULA's Delta 4 Heavy went up and found out it's scheduled for launch at 0518. I probably can't see it from here because of cloud cover. It's been raining every morning for the past few days. But I've got the launch coverage going in a tab. I'll pop out and take a look if it goes up.

The map project is still alive, though it threatens to become an atlas. Still feels foolish more often than not. This normally would be an ideal time to work on it, but I'm in the foolish mode at the moment.

Watched the season finale of High Desert last night. Seemed like a more satisfactory episode than many of the previous ones. Perhaps because the pace kept me from dwelling on the sadness. Do I want another season? Not sure.

Started watching Netflix' The Diplomat and that's entertaining. Kind of like Madame Secretary meets The West Wing in Downton Abbey. Absurd and frenetic, but it's entertaining and London photographs well.

Also started watching the limited series Collateral, and that just seems depressing. I think we're being beaten over the head and shoulders about migrants, which seems unnecessary these days. Or at least, it doesn't seem to do any good. To wit: A missing submersible filled with ultra-wealthy thrill-seekers rallies extraordinary rescue efforts and news coverage, while 800 migrants drowning off Greece would be totally invisible were it not for the absurdity of rescuing rich people.

We'll probably never know the names of many of the migrants who drowned, but I'm just a mouse-click away from getting the bios on each of the morons who got on that sub. They won't have "funerals," they'll have "celebrations of life." "They died doing what they loved best." Living their "best lives."

Meanwhile, the migrants will remain anonymous, likely not even receive funerals, and died just trying to get a better life.

So it goes.

"No matter where you go, there you are." And drama follows.

Meta, (née Facebook) has plans to roll out a product that uses ActivityPub and the "fediverse" is all "a-twitter." (Heh.) Jesus, this stuff just keeps repeating itself. The internet sucks.

Future historians, should civilization endure at a level that permits the study of history, will have a hard time pinning down the "worst invention ever," the automobile, the internet or "smart" phones. Capitalism might be a winner. Forgot about that one for a moment.

(You can see why this is not a good moment to be working on a guide to "going placidly amidst the noise and haste.")

DP Review is only "mostly dead," which means it's "partly alive," and has met it's Miracle Max, so the forum fights can continue. The "gear" aspect of photography has finally left me. If dopamine mediates desire rather than pleasure, it's not inducing any bouts of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) in me as I glance at photography news, which all seems boring and repetitive.

I watched a comparison of the 15" MacBook Air with the 14" MacBook Pro and spent a few minutes yesterday looking at Apple's refurb store. Noticed that I was feeling some pangs of irrational desire and closed the tab. Suspect that may return, but for the moment I managed to escape. My 13" MacBook Pro is mostly used in the recliner. I don't need "moar power" in the recliner.

My next new Mac will likely be an M3 iMac of some kind, or an M3 MacBook Pro with some external monitor. Go back to the arrangement I had before 2019, where I only had one computer, the 13" MBP Retina.

Okay, let's see if they light this candle. Hope you have a good day.