A tour de force of dropped r’s

It’s a bright, sunny, spring Sunday morning.

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006, is now over 5 billion miles from earth. It just cleared the orbit of Pluto and it’s still taking photos and sending them back to us. Amazing.

The Showtime series City on a Hill, starring Kevin Bacon, was given a $3 million dollar tax break in 2018. Since then they’ve mostly been filming the series set in Boston somewhere other than Boston. What’s supposed to be Bromley-Heath looks a lot like New York. Without the local scenery all we’re left with is the overacting, over-the-top accents, bad writing and cartoonish portrayal of an important chapter in Boston’s history. I look forward to it each week.

Matthew McConaughey for governor of Texas? The polls say yes. Could be the role of a lifetime.

Prince Phillip was carried to rest in a Land Rover rather than a hearse, per his wishes. He was a big fan of Land Rovers. But his original car was a British Standard that he bought for 12 pounds in 1940. It still runs.

And according to Zoe Carpenter, misinformation is destroying our country. As they say, the remedy for misinformation is more misinformation. Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall.

One lane, two ways

I’m really enjoying shooting with the Leica Q2 Monochrome. Although it’s a modern digital camera, it only takes black and white photos. There are no color filters on the sensor, which allows for greater sensitivity to light, more detail and a more subtle tonality. Anyway, I took the above photo this morning in the rain on the road heading out to Trouants Island. Here are a few more shots taken with the Q2-M over the last few weeks.

Blueberry Island, North River, February 2021

Fourth Cliff from Damon’s Point, February 2021

The Sheriff of Nottingham

Saturday. April showers. Today’s word is purloin.

SpaceX has a contract to go to the moon. One of these days, Elon, one of these days.

William Galvin wants to take away your Robinhood account. Apparently he doesn’t like the confetti. Galvin wants to revoke the company’s broker-dealer license in Massachusetts, citing the ease in which it allows people to trade. Robinhood shot back with a lawsuit calling Galvin an “elitist,” and saying that his actions reflect “the old way of thinking.” I’m rooting for Robinhood on this one.

A new tool in Google Earth, called Timelapse, allows you to see how the world changes over time. In their promotional video you can see how the sand banks of Chatham shift and flow with the currents.

Rumours have been circulating for the past few days that Rachael Rollins is leaving the DA’s office and that a Boston city councillor has been tapped by Charlie Baker to take over as Suffolk County District Attorney. Then there’s this strange Trump-like tweet from Rollins. Who said local politics is boring? Inscrutable, sometimes, but never boring.

And at the end of the day, there’s nothing like a nice hot cup of cocoa. Have two, or three, or five.

Sword of Damocles

A rainy Friday. Of course.

It’s a Segway that goes 93 mph. Looks pretty cool, too.

Some Massachusetts businesses worked hard to avoid laying off workers during the pandemic. But now, a much higher than expected federally mandated unemployment fee is putting some of those businesses into a situation where they may have to lay off workers just to be able to afford the unemployment fee. It’s a crazy situation. Jon Chesto reports that the Governor’s office is pushing the payment deadline back, but only by about a month.

Another day, another mass shooting. Here’s a list in case you’re counting.

Reagan National Airport was always weird but it seemed to work surprisingly well. I’m concerned that’s going to change. Previously, you could jump on the Metro downtown and be through security and at your gate within 40 minutes. (Then, once there, you had to deal with the crowds, lack of places to sit and flight delays, etc. But still.) The new layout might make things better – or worse. We shall see.

And Adrian Higgins encourages us to plant a tree, particularly an oak tree. Add water and wait.

The real world

Today is Thursday. April 15th.

Substack local. I’m very interested is seeing how this turns out.

Kim Janey is in charge now and the annual budget that she’s presenting to her former colleagues in the City Council reflects the realities of being mayor and running a city. That sets up a conflict with some members of the council who take a more rhetorical or aspirational approach to how they see government working. It doesn’t help that some are campaigning in place for her job. I give Janey credit for standing up to unrealistic expectations.

A Dixie cup is something you drink water out of. A Hoodsie cup is ice cream. Why is this even a question?

“Defund the police or defang the gangs?” Commonwealth Magazine has a brief discussion of the complicated issue of police reform in today’s highly charged political environment. But the bottom line is that defunding the police is like throwing away the baby with the bathwater. Here’s a key takeaway: “Asked whether regular police patrols in their community would make them feel more safe or less safe, 65 percent of black respondents said more safe, while only 22 percent said less safe. There was a bigger gap among white respondents, with 81 percent saying regular patrols would make them feel more safe and only 10 percent saying less safe. But the broad message seemed to be that Americans want better policing aimed at real public safety dangers in their community.”

And the FBI is reaching into privately owned Exchange servers around the country to remove malicious code. They have court approval to do so but it’s still kind of a big deal.