Body worn cameras for the police are on the finance committee agenda again tonight. Anybody want to lay odds that the administration is ready to talk about it?

The purpose of a thing is what it does … and the chatbots do a very different thing than search did.

I felt the music
Alight on me, like a bird
Halfway through the piece

In all fairness, we’ve been there for a while with social media. People will look back years from now like ‘damn, you let -kids- use that thing?’

We are in the unfiltered cigarette, leaded gasoline, radium paint phase of AI. You know, the part where we let companies kill people for a while until the numbers get big enough that we decide to regulate it.

'The Boston Garden' dispensary chain faces lawsuit from the owners of the TD Garden Intellectual property law experts Bhamati Viswanathan, a senior visitor at University of Cambridge Law School, and Peter Karol, a Suffolk Law professor, join WBUR's Morning Edition to discuss the case...

www.wbur.org/upnext/2026/...

Power without accountability: The Palantir manifesto The problems with our tech philosopher kings

Sharing this piece by @donmoyn.bsky.social, not least for the use of the word "broligarchy," which is just a terrific turn of phrase.

Also for the idea of taking these toxic rantings "seriously, if not literally."

Don't let them oopsie their way out of it.

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

The Boston garden dispensary on Somerville Ave.

Apparently the owners of the stadium that has been known as ‘TD Garden’ since 2005 are suing the ‘Boston Garden’ dispensary chain for $40M, citing ‘irreparable harm’ to their reputation.

Anyway, happy 4/20 to all who celebrate.

Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts student detained be ICE last March who repeatedly won legal battles, has finished her Ph.D and returned to her native Türkiye (aka Turkey), the ACLU says in a press release.

There is a settlement agreement as well.

www.aclu.org/press-releas...

Bach’s first suite, movement 2 - the sarabande YouTube video by Chris Dwan

Also a decent take on the Sarabande, though it remains riddled with errors.

Keep striving, everybody.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr1D...

2/2

We always return to Bach. #violin YouTube video by Chris Dwan

Got a good take of the prelude from Bach's first suite for solo cello tonight.

www.youtube.com/shorts/Zo2pZ...

1/2

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Bring your tomatoes and other soft veggies in tonight folks. Letting them get chilled is what stunts them.

Most of the vehicles capable of higher speeds do have speedometers, and I’ve developed a feel for 10, 15, and 20 MPH. Fifteen is pretty fast, and 20 feels dangerous if you’re around pedestrians.

I would argue that ignorance is no excuse if you want to go real fast on a shared use path.

This whole thread is great (and the Palantir post is just techno fascism with some debate club lipstick on it) but I particularly loved this framework for healthy accountability.

Evidence triggered (why are we talking about this?), directed towards power, and public.

Yes please.

Out on the Northern Strand AKA Bike To The Sea

A speed limit sign, with a digital display saying ‘too fast.’

We could do the same useless thing we do on Beacon …

Neither does mine. My phone does though.

Each time a person yells at another person on the path, the person who is yelling shall have their personal maximum speed reduced by 5MPH for 24 hours, per offense.

This shall specifically include ride marshal cries like "RIDER UP" and similar.

A map showing a bike route northeast of Boston.

It was actually a bit over 50 miles, but my ride tracker decided to ignore that upper left corner.

Great day for a ride.

A bike path with a speed limit sign.

I know we’re all kind of wound up about the dangerous interactions on bike infrastructure, but it really seems as simple as this to me.

* I meant to write ‘kitsch and lunch’ but honestly ‘lurch and lunch’ is fine.

A memorial wall listing the names and dates of deaths of the victims.

I dearly hope that our current national madness abates soon. People are dying in prison and under torture even as I write.

As Jefferson wrote: “Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”

3/3

A historical marker describing the Salem witchcraft hysteria.

After the madness abated, the town dismantled the meeting house and moved it to this site until the lumber ‘decayed and became mixed with the soil.’

2/?

A stone altar in front of a memorial wall.

If you have not visited the memorial to the victims of the witchcraft hysteria of Salem Village, in Danvers, I highly recommend it.

You can go down to Salem for lurch and lunch after.

1/?

Anybody who wants to gatekeep my grammar can shut there mouth.

Graffiti of a large, sneering graffiti artist.

A bit farther afield, but this piece by the highway underpass near Stoneham is a hell of a thing.

8/?

A zine about masculinity.

I guess you gotta make field trip!

Here’s the one I picked up.

As we revisit 90 Washington, I encourage everybody to think about intersectionality and win-win solutions.

Activist communities often find themselves at odds. I'm seeing that now on a couple of mailing lists.

It doesn't have to be that way.

www.somervillema.gov/departments/...

Good morning.

5/5