apple juice

Followup to my previous lament. This is a really interesting and nerdy post: I Decoded the Spotify Recommendation Algorithm. Here’s What I Found

I’ve been spending some time cleaning up all my old junk in the house. Old papers, boxes. Shoes that are worn out, clothes I no longer wear, etc.

As you might imagine, I have a lot of old technology lying around as well. Old computers, chargers, cables. (Just in case I need them!) The pack-rat genes run strong in my family. I really have to take a moment with each thing before put it in my tech recycling bag.

I have several old iPods laying around. Most of which, I found, no longer worked. The battery won’t take a charge, or the hard drive (when pressed up against my ear) goes, “click, click, click” when it tries to boot up.

But one still did fire up. A 30GB iPod from around 2006. I had loaded music onto it a several years ago, before I finally signed up for Spotify, and then Apple Music (and then back to Spotify).

I’ve been trying to put my finger on this feeling for a while. What is special about this collection of music? Why does having all of the millions of tracks available to you on Spotify somehow feel less special.

This article from back in 2016 pretty much nails it – An Ode to the iPod Classic – I guess the author would put me into the music nerd category. I still love kicking back and listening to an album straight through. Call me old fashion, but as much as I enjoy Infinite Indie Folk on Spotify – I probably couldn’t name a single track off the top of my head.

But for the meantime, I’m planning to pass along this working iPod to someone who I know will appreciate it.

Matthew Yglesias has a new blog, Slow Boring, and the first posts I’ve read have been great. I love a hefty dose of commuter rail discussions any day of the week. Check it out!

Progressive politics needs ambition

Now I hear you saying, “wait wait this started with talking about how we should build social democracy in blue states and ended with a bunch of deregulation and union-busting — it smells like neoliberalism.”

Make Blue America Great Again

What a well-funded passenger rail system could look like in the Midwest under “Amtrak Joe”:

There’s little doubt that one of President-elect Biden’s favorite federal programs is Amtrak, America’s 50-year-old, subpar rail system.

While I am very excited that Joe Biden is not Donald Trump – his overall platform is pretty moderate. However, he is a huge proponent of rail travel, and I would love to see a major expansion in passenger rail in this country. (I’m sure a very obvious statement for anyone who has ever read my blog)

An infrastructure program that would generate jobs, create mobility and be good for the environment. Let’s go.

Well, that’s a bummer…

Rock the Garden 2021 won’t happen; SPCO cancels the rest of its 2020-21 season:

COVID has taken its first punch at summer in the Cities 2021, knocking Rock the Garden into summer 2022. The Walker Art Center, co-sponsor with The Current, issued a statement this morning saying, in part: “Due to uncertainties around planning for a large-scale outside event next summer, the Walker and The Current will not present Rock the Garden in 2021. After thoughtful consideration of how Rock the Garden could be coordinated and held in the time of COVID-19, the two organizations determined that the event in its current form could not be done in a way that would guarantee the safety of community members and artists.”

Well, it’s the eve of the election. The PolyMet mine is a good example of what is at stake. Strong environmental regulations, or whatever you would call what this administration has done.

This opinion article in MinnPost today – Two years after the much-litigated PolyMet permits were issued, some facts aren’t in dispute – is well worth a read.

 This polluted water would be stored in a 900-acre pond, which would need to be maintained continuously by pumps, and held back, indefinitely, by a dam taller than the dome at the Minnesota Capitol.

The dam holding back the massive amounts of pollution and waste would be made from mine tailings stacked on top of other mine tailings stacked on top of unstable peats and slimes — the “upstream” design. This is the type of dam that failed catastrophically at Brumadinho in Brazil and at Mount Polley in Canada. It’s the type of dam that has been banned in countries around the world, including Brazil, Chile and Peru. And engineers have been clear they fear more catastrophes await if this design continues to be used.

Insanity.