TMoney

Yeah, PFAS is no joke. It comes up on every financing I work on for California Water Districts, particularly when their water sources include pumped ground water. Thankfully, people are aware of it now. At least in California we are measuring PFAS and taking steps to mitigate the problem.

And it defaulted me to subs because that is how I watch! Really smart as I’d bet for a lot of casual viewers they would switch the show off before going in to the menu to change it from the default.

I’m happy the show is blowing up everywhere. It is legitimately pretty great. Thought this was interesting from a story in the WSJ today: ”’Squid Game’ went through some primping to become a global megahit. With a potential language barrier, Netflix emphasized visuals, outfitting competitors in green tracksuits and building colorful sets resembling children’s playgrounds. Some of the rules for the traditional Korean games were simplified or altered. Many Americans also enjoy watching foreign shows with English-language dubbing, rather than subtitles—a choice that Netflix’s algorithms can automatically select for users based on their past viewing.” So Netflix cranked the visual style up to 11 to carry the show cross-culturally. That was brilliant. Also cool the algorithm can guess whether a viewer would prefer subtitles or dubbing. Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-squid-game-is-the-dystopian-hit-no-one-wanteduntil-everyone-did-11633183200?mod=hp_lead_pos9

I follow a few game designers on twitter who were talking about the new Netflix show, "Squid Game." I started in on it last night. It is surprisingly compelling! I am impressed so far.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Caribbean Santa!

Great interview with Sean Olive (of Harman target curve fame) on a summary of his headphone research over the years.

Happy birthday!

Forgot how good this album is! Thanks for reminding me.

Pretty painless upgrade to iOS 15 today… at least on my current gen Apple devices. I might be imagining things, but I feel like they definitely put some big dev effort in to the 120hz animations and smoothness. I have not seen it written up in any of the reviews, and without a second device side by side running iOS 14 it is impossible to tell for sure, but things feel really good on my iPad Pro. It would certainly make sense that 120hz mode would be a focus with a whole lot more 120hz Apple devices about to come online this Friday.

4-part Ken Burns series on Muhammed Ali. "Ali boma ye" Streamable here: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/muhammad-ali/

Totally agree. I helped my mother order one last night to replace her 2016-vintage iPad. Should be a nice upgrade for her.

Happy birthday, Tall-man!

Sorry, CS. Was on my cell and hit the wrong button. So sorry for you loss. Doug is indeed correct. Lost my old girl about 5 years back so I know the feeling.

Must. Have. 120hz phone.

Happy birthday, John!

Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take Very solid guitar-driven alt-rock.

I would think the folks in Cupertino are pretty happy with today's ruling. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being disaster and 10 being maintain the status quo I'd say this is probably a 7 or 8 for Apple. I would think this means most apps are about to go free and require you to sign up for a subscription outside of Apple's payment system so as to dodge the Apple Tax. Good take:

First episode of the new season of American Crime Story was very entertaining and had me going deep down the rabbit hole on Clinton scandals on wikipedia last night. https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-crime-story

Nooooooo! Michael K. Williams, Omar from The Wire, gone to what looks like an overdose. https://nypost.com/2021/09/06/actor-michael-k-williams-found-dead-in-nyc-apartment/

What a bizarre, amazing voice. Dig the dream pop vibes.

I want to join a Hunchback-only clan that runs in, fires off their AC-20s, then runs away.

Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? I had never heard of these guys, but they have a lot of collaborators on this album that I do like, such as Anaïs Mitchell, Sharon Van Etten and Fleet Foxes. Very pleasant listen.

Chvrches - Screen Violence Very solid 4th album from a band that at this point knows who they are and confidently embraces it. I'm really looking forward to seeing them live assuming the tour comes through San Francisco in December and isn't derailed by COVID.

Halsey - If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power Halsey + Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross producing? Yes, please!