I think about this line by F. Scott Fitzgerald all the time: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

I finally posted to my blog! Summary: I've been writing, just not here. natemethot.com/post/open-to-… #alifederailed

Vermont spends more per student than almost every state and now scores below the national average. #vtpoli What the Data Actually Says About Vermont's Education Reform Options open.substack.com/pub/davidt…

I hope you weren't looking for a sentimental answer

Forgotten Founder—the documentary about Samson Occom, the Mohegan scholar whose fundraising laid the foundation for @Dartmouth—screens at today, 5/8 at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Grateful to the Mohegan Tribe for their continued partnership.

Eduardo took eleven minutes to cross the field this morning. The field is approximately 130 metres long. Eduardo, if he had wanted to, could have crossed it at a brisk alpaca walk in about three minutes. He did not want to. He stopped at the gorse bush. He stopped at the small section of clover near the gate. He stopped at the place where the badger crosses, which is not currently active but which Eduardo, by some assessment of his own, considers worth checking. He stopped at the dip where the rainwater pools, drank slightly, walked on. He stopped at the eastern fence post for ninety seconds and looked, by every visible indicator, at nothing in particular. He arrived at the far gate at 7.46am. The farmer, watching from the kitchen, made a cup of tea. The farmer's wife, who has watched Eduardo cross this field most mornings for seven years, said: "He's slow today." The farmer: "He's slow every day." The wife: "He's slow on purpose." The farmer: "...Yes." This is the thing about Eduardo. The eleven minutes is not inefficient. The eleven minutes is the work. The work is to walk the field, attend to it, notice what has changed, register the gorse and the badger crossing and the dip and the fence post, and finish at the far gate having processed the morning. Most useful animals, and most useful humans, work like this. The work is in the noticing. The noticing requires time. The time looks, to the casual observer, like the animal is doing nothing. The animal is not doing nothing. The animal is doing the most important part. The phone in your pocket has, in the last decade, optimised the noticing out of most modern lives. The walk to work has become the scroll on the bus. The lunch has become the working lunch. The slow look at the eastern fence post has become the answered email. Eduardo has not, at any point, optimised the noticing out. This is, in the long run, why Eduardo is fine and you are tired. Walk the field slowly. Notice the gorse. Be the alpaca.

do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth

Airbus: Delta's Air4All Wheelchair Securement Space "Most Discussed" wheelchairtravel.org/airbus-… #ALS

This is very cool. John Mulaney on @colbertlateshow last night. Listening To Supreme Court Arguments Is Like Following The Grateful Dead... youtu.be/DTXtLfyqOjk?si=I07c… via @YouTube

NATIONAL CHEESESTEAK DAY - March 24 nationaldaycalendar.com/nati…

If you’re writing the laws, you shouldn’t be playing the market. This is basic stuff. I have a bill that finally bans members of Congress from trading stocks. No loopholes. No exceptions.

I think EconTalk was a pioneer in this media space, at least for me. Terrific podcast! Conversations for the curious. Thank you Russ! @EconTalker

Happy 250th Anniversary to The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, published on this day in 1776 🇺🇸

God speed "Country Joe" McDonald. He was a so cal kid that wrote some of the most iconic psychedelic/folk music and a vocal anti-war advocate. The F-I-S-H Cheer which evolved into something else completely, is one of the highlights of that movement and the film Woodstock.

Wonderful story about the people of the #NorwichVT volunteer Fire Department: “I always train as if I need to learn it to help my neighbors.” #UpperValley #Vermont #VolunteerFirefighters

Rob Gurwitt of #NorwichVT on the incredible #UpperValley -- and building local news source Daybreak to 15,000 subscribers. #LocalNews sites.dartmouth.edu/humansof…

Still processing the magic that was the 25th anniversary celebration of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” at the @opry 🥹 O Brother was the soundtrack to my childhood and opened my ears to artists who became my biggest heroes and sounds that shaped me as a musician.

Bernie Sanders: "If you don’t have any borders, you don’t have a nation... Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump, but we should have a secure border. It ain’t that hard to do. Biden didn't do it."

Cool little experiment: if you subject AI to harsh labor conditions (rejecting work often with no explanation, etc), it slightly, but significantly, changes their “views” on economics & politics. Whether this is real or roleplaying doesn’t change that agents have alignment drift

Current coverage includes 179 of 247 municipalities in Vermont. #vtpoli #NorwichVT #AI 'Local Minutes' enables AI-powered search of meeting minutes norwichobserver.com/index.ph… Awesome resource!