Pratik

Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland circa 2018.

Only American companies should spy on Americans and use their data for nefarious purposes, including tracking them online to serve ads and manipulating elections.

This message is brought to you by your local patriotic partners Meta, Twitter, Snap, and (insert any American social media company here)

I’ve posted about buying a mirrorless camera on Micro.blog and I have searched on Google about it but I’m already seeing ads for them on Instagram (for the exact models I’m shortlisting).

Why would Google share their data with Meta? I’m pretty sure Micro.blog hasn’t 🙃

The reorganization at my new workplace is having some unexpected consequences. One more person quit and others are coming to me with concerns about bettering communication within the team and unreasonable expectations.

How can a country profess to have free speech with clauses like these:

report filed under sections 295A (malicious intent to outrage religious sentiment) and 505(2) (creating or promoting enmity) of the Indian Penal Code.

Excerpt from a news article reporting on an arrest.

We got the fence fixed today after getting the trees cleared of the hanging and dead limbs over the weekend. I still haven’t gotten over how much foliage we lost on this side.

🔗 A railroad fan photographed Putin’s armored train. Now he lives in exile

What if…the SVB collapse was part of a targeted misinformation campaign to test whether such a strategy works? Any medium-sized institution can be targeted for a bank run, and most wouldn’t survive, right? We know markets can be manipulated, and with the increased speed of rumors, it’s possible.

Who else is on TV Time? I’m looking for people to follow.

Watched on Sunday March 19, 2023.

I’m looking into getting a lightweight (preferably mirrorless) camera. I’m not rich enough for a Leica.

Browsing Ken Rockwell’s reviews, it’s back to Nikon v. Canon.

Analog music 🎼

I started working in the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 2018. More recently, the project I joined also brought me into the team from Minnesota’s more prestigious Population Research Center. For the last five years, I have been working closely with demographers, who can be an interesting lot. Focused on why, when, and how people move is a constantly fascinating field. Although education research is my field of expertise, we know apart from employment, people first move from their place of birth to seek other educational opportunities.

In recent years, especially living in Austin, Texas, we are constantly barraged by news of people moving to Texas from California and New York due to housing prices. While true, very few people have quantified those numbers proportionately to the population. Recently, Florida’s DeSantis also got into the act by citing “exodus” from California to Florida since the former was “too left, too woke, too expensive”. Well, maybe one out of three ain’t bad. But how many people actually did move?

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What?! Ivory for Mac kicked me off their TestFlight beta. Oh well…back to Mona, we go.

We got our live oak trees cleaned up after last month’s winter storm. Luckily, it is cold, so there is a lower chance of oak wilt, although they painted over the cut immediately. It was an expensive winter. We spent more than $1,000 just to fix the trees and the fence.

Watched on Saturday March 18, 2023.

Books Read: Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry 📚★★★★☆

I’m no saint, so stop wishing me today ☘️

Voting early makes all the difference.

Exploring the road you cannot see yet

Breakfast taco time earlier today at a surprisingly empty Valentina’s

From the latest GSS, this is heartening. The news may tell you about hatred, madness, etc. but what if it’s the dying embers of a vitriolic few?

Perhaps pushing back, being woke, and canceling people who have never been held accountable is working.

Books Read: Blood, Sweat & Chrome by Kyle Buchanan 📚★★★★★

Oh, what a book…what a lovely book.

Chatting with my cousin who lives in London and works for Credit Suisse about her future. She turned down an offer from an hedge fund last week and chose to stay on at CS. But she should’ve listened to my son who pronounces it as Credit Sus.

Yup, he plays Among Us.

Celebrate Ides of March by talking about someone who trusts you behind their back.