Addition by subtraction

It’s Thursday, National Beer Day. (We all put the yeast in!)

Russian aggression isn’t just an abstract notion in Estonia. Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has some strategic—and tactical—advice for the West.

When US companies failed to detect and remove Russian malware from their networks, the government got a warrant and did it themselves. This is modern preemptive cyberwar.

George Grella reviews Philip Glass‘s 13th Symphony, performed this week in a world premier by the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. It’s great to have another Glass symphony and nice to see him take the stage after the performance.

Richard Davey is being introduced to New Yorkers at a time when subway crime is a big concern. It doesn’t sound like he’ll get much of a honeymoon period. The Post has already nicknamed him the newTrain Daddy.’ (His predecessor, the old ‘Train Daddy’, lasted only 25 months in the job.)

And a $20 dollar bill with a banana sticker on it? How did that happen?

Law and order

Wednesday, the peak of the week.

War is over, if you want it, circa 2022. Imagine that.

Spring is here. And you know what that means? Shootings. Lots of shootings. And they’re not happening where you might think they’re happening.

In another hit to the Russian economy, Maersk is shutting down its shipping operations. And here’s another take on the potential nationalization of foreign-owned commercial airliners and how that may play out in the future for the Russian aviation sector.

Can a guy from Boston fix the New York City transit system? I guess we’re going to find out.

And the relationship between NATO and the US was pretty low at points in the recent past, and for good reason. But it’s getting better. They seem to really love us in Albania.

You can go home again

A wonderful Wednesday.

Sidewalk dining sheds in New York are either a good thing that will be made permanent or a bad thing to be removed forthwith. I agree.

A former Irish minister for foreign affairs is pushing to lift restrictions on US citizens who want to retire to Ireland. The plan promoted by Charlie Flanagan would be open to Americans who can show a connection to Ireland, either through ancestry or cultural involvement, or even frequent travel, with an offer of citizenship after 5 years. Interesting.

In bumping up bag check fees, airlines have incentivized the use of carry-on bags. And more often than not these days those carry-on bags are big and bulky, which slows down boarding, costing airlines money. Delta has a pilot program in Boston to see if free bag checking will speed up the boarding process. I hope they didn’t spend a lot on consultants to come up with this.

The Washington Post reports that bananas are getting expensive at the Greater Boston Food Bank. Also, Superbowl guacamole is going to cost more this year as grocery store produce departments succumb to inflation.

And in Seattle, there’s a large intersection between people who drive Mazdas and those who listen to NPR. Strange.

It’s all relative

Saturday. It’s Stephen Hawking‘s birthday.

Brother can you spare a dime? Eric Adams is off to a rocky start in New York.

Universal Hub (who but?) informs us about a strange 4th Amendment case out of the MA Appeals Court. It’s an interesting case and a bad decision for many of the reasons pointed out in the comments. If appealed I think it’s likely to be overturned.

Looks like the IRS is wising up to all the financial transactions happening on Venmo and Paypal. A lot of small business activity that has been going on under the radar will now be reportable.

A woman in Woburn received a letter written by her husband while serving in World War II. It was just delivered last month. It’s quite a story, featured in the New York Times, other national papers, and also on a few of the local TV news outlets. (Even though it’s from our own back yard, the Globe missed it or decided it wasn’t impactful enough. (But we did get this.))

And a Democratic love fest for Dick Cheney?!? The world has certainly changed.

Maybe, maybe

It’s Friday the 13th. Left handers day. And don’t forget to verify your backups.

Today is the day that President Biden will resign. Kamala Harris too. It will happen sometime this morning. Mike Lindell, the Harold Camping of pillows, made the prediction last month. He’s really been on a roll lately.

The data in these numbers and charts put together by Ryan Huddle and Peter Bailey-Wells might be why Governor Baker is holding back on stricter Covid measures. I hate to say it but Massachusetts is in pretty good shape. We’re highly vaccinated and our case numbers are still pretty low. Things could change. The Delta variant is pretty scary (It has an R0 between 5-9!) and vaccinated people can still get infected and become spreaders. Other states are struggling with high rates of infections which could come our way. And schools are getting ready to open, with masks or no masks for the kids but likely with mandated teacher vaccinations. So fingers crossed – here comes the fall.

Remember when everyone fled New York? New numbers show that the city has actually grown by over 600,000 people. Of course there’s an asterisk.

Originally conceived as a thought experiment, Frank Wilczek‘s time crystals are being put to use in a Google proof of concept for a breakthrough in quantum computing. Strange how these things work out. Wilczek appeared on Sean Carroll’s podcast recently and talked a little about it.

And the Perseids are back. Settle into that lawn chair. It should be a nice warm night for viewing.

Measuring and managing

Friday. Exhale.

With marijuana decriminalized in many places, drug-sniffing dogs are finding themselves out of a job.

Shira Schoenberg reports on an interesting initiative involving prosecutors in Berkshire County: A data analysis of plea bargains. If you thought police data was disjointed and hard to access, wait until you try to figure out what prosecutors are up to.

Is the protein folding problem solved? That would be sort of a huge deal. Here’s some background.

The other day I noticed that the signage for the Kinsale Pub on Center Plaza was still up, despite it being closed since last fall. That seemed optimistic. And now Marc Hurwitz is reporting that it could be reopening at some point in the near future.

And the Moynihan Train Hall is beautiful to look at. But it’s hard to find a place to sit down.

Ten foot pole

It’s Tuesday, July 13th. Embrace your geekness.

What will happen when all the stimulus money goes away? We should know by next year. I think there’s a good plan in place. (I hope there’s a good plan in place.)

After once being a big supporter, Geoff Diehl is revising his position on Donald Trump. Apparently the Trump purity test doesn’t apply locally. Also, influential members of the Massachusetts GOP are pushing for chairman Jim Lyons to step aside to allow for a more moderate, less Trumpian leadership to guide the party ahead of the Governor’s race. As Dana Carvey’s Church Lady used to say, “how convenient.”

The Bolt Bus shut down ‘temporarily’ when riders disappeared during the pandemic. Some said the Bolt was finished for good. But apparently they’re planning to return. So that’s good.

Nice to see that Bostonians are getting back to normal, complaining about First World hardships. Beth Teitell reports that people are missing out on cannolis, tennis games, and in-ground pool installations because of all the rain. Oh, the humanity! At least somebody saw a rainbow. In New York, people are coming out of the pandemic with a slightly better attitude, noting happily how clean and uncluttered with passengers the subways are.

And Maggot Brain, one of the best albums of the 1970s, is 50 years old this month. Christopher Weingarten pays tribute.

Hands out

It’s a beautiful sunny Wednesday.

Discussions about crime in San Francisco are getting nasty.

Now that legislators are holding on to federal stimulus money to disperse as they see fit, they will have to deal with the special interests lining up for their slice of the pie. And they all want a big slice. Meanwhile, the governor has been allocated only about 5% of the money to apply to strategic initiatives like housing. That’s a shame, says the Globe Editorial Board. I agree.

Rank-choice voting has been dealt a setback after election officials in New York screwed up their vote tallying process. The screw up may not have had anything to do with rank choice but the unfortunate association is now in place. Eric Adams is projected to win the primary but a hand count will be required.

The Apple fitness and watch apps track active calories, exercise and standing as the primary health metrics. Steps are not one of the big three. I always wondered about that as I walked in circles in the living room trying to get my 10,000 steps each day. Now, it looks like Apple knew something I didn’t. 10,000 steps is not really that big of a deal.

And Alexandra Petri considers what a Fox weather channel might look like. Dark clouds, indeed.

The privilege of incumbency

A cool, cloudy early July Saturday. Today’s word is inimical.

Is it hurricane season already? Apparently it is. Say hello to Elsa.

Acting Mayor and candidate Kim Janey is taking full advantage of the position she was put into. At least one of the other candidate isn’t very happy with that.

There’s been another supply-chain ransomware attack. This one targeted Kaseya’s VSA. Seems to be pretty widespread. Meanwhile, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released a new ransomware assessment module for its Cyber Security Assessment Tool. Or, in federal speak, CISA has released RRA to supplement CSET to help organizations protect IT, OT, or ICS assets. I can’t imagine why people find this stuff confusing.

Shakespeare in the Park (Central) is coming back. But one of my favorite parts of the experience, getting a coffee and waiting in on line for tickets on the morning of the show, has been scrapped. That’s too bad.

And after 20 years, the US military is finally out of Afghanistan. We left a lot of stuff behind, including a bunch of abandoned Pokemon GO characters, now left to wander aimlessly around the Bagram Air Base.

In left field

Happy Tuesday. For what it’s worth.

Who thought it was a good idea to allow an energy company to control your thermostat?

Crime is the new Covid. Or it will be soon. Progressive Democrats have mostly been playing to the crowd on crime and ignoring the serious and difficult discussions about law enforcement infrastructure, except for sloganeering about reallocating resources, etc. The media are amplifying coverage of police corruption and use of force while downplaying violence crime and effective policing. There’s no balance. Police are running for the exits. Republicans are going to be over all this like a cheap suit and hard won Democratic gains will soon be history. That’s my unfortunate take.

New York subway trains are being cancelled faster than flights on American Airlines.

As people head back to the office, those mid-day, between-Zoom Peloton workouts will soon be history. But not if Peloton has anything to say about it.

And a Fox News writer is mad about Maggie Haberman covering Trump and ignoring Biden. Is it opposite day already?