Every now and then I find a video worthy of comment, and I never quite get around to commenting on it. Instead, I stick it in a directory labelled "blog".

Now I'm out of disk space on my desktop, my laptop, and for that matter my phone, so while I free up space here it comes, in installments. Back in the pre-pandemic days, I was watching:

How Dark Patterns Trick You Online

If somebody is required to show you something they don't want you to see, you'll find it in a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard".

The Decentralized Web Is Coming — ReasonTV

Ten years ago I might have agreed with the title. Now I have no fight left in me, and I just have to say nope; it's hopeless.

I particularly like the way that they introduce Richard Stallman into the narrative with a photo of some guy with a beard who is definitely not Richard Stallman. I don't know who that person is, but apparently he must be the person who "helped create the popular open source operating system Linux", because that is not a description that RMS would apply to himself. Bonus lazy journalism points for illustrating the concept of "programmer" with the man page for grep.

Visiting a British Pub with Burgess (The Penguin) Meredith

"We're only trying to point out that some of these people are a little more… reserved than some of us."

From a World War II US Military Training film. Times have changed. These days they'd just take out the pub with a drone strike, and get offended at the lack of gratitude.

Endnote 4: How the Alt-Right is Like an Abusive Relationship

I can't help but be fascinated. I'd never slow down while passing the site of a car crash, but maybe I feel compelled because now we're all in the same car — the one that is crashing.

This Is Neoliberalism

This is a really nicely done series. Wish I'd done it.

2020 Harcourt Lecture - Professor Stephanie Kelton

If you've not heard about Modern Monetary Theory, you've not been to the pub with me at any point in the last seven years or so. If, under present circumstances, you aren't able to buy me a drink or six, the next best way to learn about MMT is from Stephanie Kelton. This lecture is from when she was a visiting professor at Adelaide Uni, immediately pre-pandemic, and just prior to the publication of the book which would make her the most influential economist in the world (among everybody but economists).

Season 26 Trailer | The Collection | Doctor Who

Just lovely. A damn near perfect series of Doctor Who, and the last for sixteen years.

Plus Nicholas Bloody Parsons!