Thierry

I’ve had one for a few years and last summer it warned me that I was suffering from persistent arrhythmia despite not otherwise feeling any symptoms—and it was right! So I’m all for them, despite not always being the most aesthetically pleasing option.

CBS’s news coverage was already one of the more misleading ones in 2003 (according to a well-known article in Polical Science Quarterly by Kull, Ramsey & Lewis), and I don’t expect things to be better this time around.

(Source: ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/psq/psq_...)

Pointing out and dunking on the hypocrisy of the Trump administration going to war is fine, sure, but it’s also bringing to mind what the late Norm Macdonald said.

If you need a break from the horrible world news, may I introduce you to Russell Crowe’s TikTok account where he mostly just geeks out about his watches? (I had to shave 20 seconds off the intro to fit Bluesky’s 3-minute requirement)

A whole thread seems generous.

And the problem is of course that JD fails on all three counts—no principles, no character, and arguably not even successful in presenting himself as a person, just an empty shell with vaguely human characteristics.

'Always Magic in the Air': Leaders of the Pack (Published 2005)

This book isn’t quite that, but it does cover some of this ground since so many of the Brill Building writers were Brooklyn natives.

www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/b...

YouTube video by billyjoelVEVO Billy Joel - Q&A: Have You Ever Rewritten Your Songs? (Berklee 1992)

I’m always amazed that Neil Sedaka’s mid-70s comeback featured a song so ubiquitous (« Laughter in the Rain », no. 1 in 1975) that a year and change later Billy Joel accidentally rewrote it as « Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) »—before changing the melody.

youtu.be/NJOXOT7ae7o?...

And unfortunately still not streaming, despite a lot more of Neil’s discography making it to digital platforms in recent years.

YouTube video by Neil Sedaka - Topic Heart of Stone

I also always thought that « Heart of Stone », a song from Neil Sedaka’s 2012 album The Real Neil, showed that he still could’ve been writing charting singles if they’d reached the right performer.

Can’t you very easily imagine Lady Gaga singing this?

youtu.be/9wW-HQBP-NM?...

YouTube video by David Gideon Neil Sedaka Plays Chopin on I've Got a Secret!

Sedaka was also a great classical pianist who was invited to the USSR in 1966 to represent the USA in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, but he never got the chance to go—his invitation was rescinded when Soviet authorities found out he was a rock & roll singer.

youtu.be/tS8UfwApS9Q?...

YouTube video by Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka w/Fountains of Wayne - Calendar Girl - Joe's Pub - May 2007

R.I.P. Neil Sedaka

He’s rightfully in the Songwriters Hall of Fame for and may have been inducted in the RRHOF (I think he deserved it) if his own hit recordings hadn’t dried up with the British Invasion (until his Elton John-assisted comeback in the 1970s).

youtu.be/vtdbw4vCnDo?...

I regret to inform you that to my university students Jon Hamm is strictly « the guy from the food delivery ads » now.

Forget a Gordie Howe hat trick, I want to know where they stand on the Gordie Howe Bridge dispute.

imo the threat posed by CBS News and CNN getting absorbed by pro-regime billionaires isn't that they're going to produce right-wing slop that convinces people to be right-wing, it's the dismantling of newsrooms capable of doing investigative reporting on the administration. Fewer eyes on the street.

A Charles In Charge reboot where Scott Baio is now President.

A Guardian headline: « Cee-Lo Green: It isn't rape if the victim is unconscious »

Reminder:

And I’m like, « fuck youuuuu »

And not to be morbid, but their lead singer is dead too!

In a weird way, I do wonder if the band Jerry reviving the band and carrying on as successful jobbers with some rock radio hits hasn’t sort of hurt them in that respect, because they don’t benefit from the cut-down-in-their-prime cachet.

The other day @anthonymiccio.bsky.social wrote that Yungblud is a « a Robbie Williams who acts like Billy Idol », which made me realize how thin the line is between the two & why I’ve always had a hard time taking Idol’s « angry sneering punk » persona seriously, but I’m fine with him as a pop star.

In my university we’re dealing with both this stuff and the possible shutting down of my specific college or at least a drastic reduction of courses taught by adjuncts. I usually teach two online courses in the summer, so I’m really sensitive to these crises!

You’d think they could’ve scrubbed his name from the flight logs.

What’s the Point of School When AI Can Do Your Homework? The creator of the AI agent “Einstein” wants to free humans from the burden of academic labor. Critics say that misses the point of education entirely.

« Students aren’t horses and there is no greater freedom they can buy themselves by using AI tools to cheat in the classroom. And worse, the more these tools proliferate, the more suspect the entire enterprise becomes. »

www.404media.co/whats-the-po...

Hockey players from Team USA meet with and surround speaker Mike Johnson in his office. Jake Sanderson is there, but he’s barely visible, hidden behind a teammate.

And based on the photo with Team USA that Mike Johnson posted, Jake might be a quick learner (he’s there, but…).

Please delete this kind of AI slop featuring someone who looks more like Mak Craney joined by two dozen versions of the same face.

This is about as useful in solving current issues as an episode of the West Wing was in preventing the war in Iraq.

The looksmaxxers will love him.

George W. Bush in 2002: « We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles…We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States. »

georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/release...

They should really give the Medal to the open net that Canada missed.

Watching this has me considering trying out a particularly aggressive form of bonesmashing on myself.

Chabot should’ve always been the C.