Matt LaPalm

Why we pay writers The thinking behind Substack Pro

@gruber.foo the Substack funding round is to pay the writers to choose the platform. Isn’t it interesting how quiet the writers on the platform are about these scandals? I think this program is part of the story: on.substack.com/p/why-we-pay...

When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.

I have Sonics nostalgia too, but we should be trying to put the NBA out of business, not groveling for it.

Why would anyone support the NBA in Seattle when they’ve burned us once, and now they’re lighting the match in Portland? www.koin.com/news/portlan...

I didn’t anticipate it would be controversial to think law enforcement should be required to show their face on the job, but here we are…

FormFest 2025 Mark your calendar for the ultimate deep dive into government’s favorite tool: forms!

I'm glad to see that FormFest is coming back in 2025! This is an all-day, virtual conference put on by @beeckcenter.bsky.social and @codeforamerica.org that's dedicated to making online government forms better. I wasn't able to join last year, but I hope to join this year. It's such a great topic.

Jony

Screen capture of advertisement in MLB app, demonstrating confusion that a Mariner fan would be excited to see Aaron Judge do anything, let alone play for the visitors at T-Mobile park.

Tell me you know nothing about being a Mariner’s fan, without telling me you know nothing about being a Mariner’s fan, MLB App edition. #goMs #tridentsup #mariners

LLM’s kick ass! Training, data privacy and other concerns are real, but as a tool they are so cool. They communicate by guessing what next word will be the most useful in forming an idea… and like… so do I? I do, in fact, want a little buddy who tries to help and does help most of the time.

Got no national paid family leave. I’m not saying this is a good idea, but it isn’t a bad idea…

Isn’t it the best when you have a vague sense of something and it turns out there is a whole body of knowledge about it?

Speaking for myself, I learn quicker this way. I can mimic behavior really well, it’s harder to work backwards from a negative example. I don’t think I’m the only one.

DMo is golden. And I would love a full time 3rd baseman… #mariners #goms

A photo of the Southwick manufacturing plant before it closed. The photo shows a bunch of people at various sewing stations. This was located in Massachusetts.

I support the US garment industry. I don't believe in making life harder for immigrants or erecting blanket tariffs. So how can we reshore some of our US garment manufacturing without xenophobia or protectionism? Here's my view. 🧵

Information Is Beautiful (@infobeautiful@vis.social) Attached: 1 image Another reasons to tut at the Mercator Map projection - how a circle with a radius of 5,000km, centred on Paris, looks according the Mercator map

This is a wild illustration. A circle centered around Paris on the Mercator Map is no circle. vis.social/@infobeautif...

Noting to myself that my own analysis will be colored by my own bias and this article will be my reminder to myself.

He talks at one point about how liberals threw conservatives out of institutions, but can’t circle his own assessment in the article of what was happening during these points in history.

Brooks doesn’t really confront the fact that “the reactionary fringe” is not a small faction, but the heart of the movement.

I Should Have Seen This Coming When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won...

This is a fascinating read: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism The Story of Fascism is an hour-long TV special from travel guru Rick Steves about the history of fascism in Europe, from its post-WWI rise in Italy and Germany to the defeat of the fascist powers in WWII to efforts by modern-day right-wing ideologues t

Travel maven Rick Steves made a great hour-long documentary about the history of fascism in Europe. “We’ll see the horrific consequences: genocide and total war.” [kottke.org]

Tell me you’ve never worked with a Comms team without telling me you’ve never worked with a Comms team.

Pretty good day.

Hi. I’m an expert in modernizing legacy government software systems. This is profoundly stupid and will definitely fail, and it’s just a question of whether our social security system fails along with it.

I have been informed that “Give Up” by the Postal Service came out on this day 22 years ago, but that seems like a typo

If we are in a time of popularity contests, use strategies that win the popularity contest, not the debate. If you have the power to change the game back to debate, do that instead.

Government’s wins are often invisible: Systems that avoid plane crashes; alliances that avert war; surveillance that prevent pandemics.

Government wins are often *the avoidance of loss.*

So how do we tell the story of the destruction of government? The story of future losses *not* averted?

A basic rule:

- In the government, unless the law allows it, you can't do it.
- Outside government (for citizens/companies), unless there's a law disallowing it, you can do it.

Our system constrains government and defaults to freedom for everyone else. That's healthy.

Gold outperforms Ozempic for weight loss – and leaves muscles alone There's a growing body of evidence that gold nanoparticles can offer significant, targeted weight loss that focuses on fat (lipid) tissue, without affecting muscle structure. What's more, there are ad...

Great news! Lose weight by injecting yourself with gold! Federal Reserve and Hers crossover coming soon… newatlas.com/disease/obes...

Hip hop musicals

YouTube video by Robert Reich The REAL Waste That DOGE Should Cut

This is really great: youtu.be/2hVMghqarHY?... @rbreich.bsky.social #DOGE