Hello
I'm Alex, a technologist from Calgary, Canada. This is my blog.
For information about myself & my philosophy, see the About, Design, and Values pages.
Miniposts are bookmarks, snippets of thought, and syndicated content from elsewhere.
Longform articles are below, sorted by date.
You may also peruse the archive.
Recent Miniposts
- Liked: May Chaos Take The World
- Liked: Samsara
- Note: Using Tailscale in builds.sr.ht
- Reposted: Kentucky Fried Zero - Part Three
- Reposted: Kentucky Fried Zero - Part Two
- Liked: Is the internet dead? Are we?
- Review: Christine Emba: Rethinking Sex
- Bookmarked: https://sigmaris.info/blog/201 …
- Review: John Micklethwait: The Company
- Review: Gator On A Bike on Paper
Projects
- Timewaste Tracker for Reddit & Youtube
- French Republican Calendar Tools
- Webmentions for Deno
- Super Simple One Time Passwords for Deno
They Don't Make It like They Used To
Nostalgia for the past has supplanted our yearnings for the future, becoming the default marketing tool for corporations. Instead of asking ‘what’s new?’, they ask ‘what have we done before that you liked?’. This trend transcends marketing tactics, reflecting a destabilizing era of remakes and reboots. Crucially, nostalgia is a finite resource, and its exhaustion bears unknown consequences.
Jean Baudrillard’s notions of simulacra and simulation offer a valuable framework for understanding this phenomenon. In the post-postmodern era, the line between reality and representation has blurred into hyperreality, where simulations precede and replace the real.
…The Incredible Power of Oil & Steel
There is Teflon in your bloodstream.1
Dupont knew about the toxicity of their chemicals since as far back as 1976, and to this day fight responsibility for their part in creating a ubiqitous chemical that does not naturally deteriorate. 2
The chemicals used in the production of Teflon (PFOAs and PFOs) were finally deemed toxic enough that DuPont, and the 13 other producers of it, don’t make it anymore - and have replaced it with New Teflon, and new chemicals. They claim these new chemicals are safe, despite the larger scientific body calling this into question3. To quote these scientists directly:
…Three Dimensions - An Analysis
Marman & Borins “Three Dimensions” was a tri-installation pop-minimalist art exhibition open at Contemporary Calgary until March 17th, 2024, composed of three mini installations: Balancing Act, THX2020, and ABCD.
We wanted the viewer to walk away with ideas that we didn’t even think of when creating the work Jennifer Marman
All three installations were interesting, but “Balancing Act”, the first of the three, was most striking to me, and I would like to walk you through my own interpretation of it, filtered through the lens of my own biases and thought process.
…