Modern evolution of expository writing:

19th century: The audience is a few educated men with lots of time. There is no page limit and no formal review. You are encouraged to wax eloquent, even poetic, on the way to making a point.

20th century: The audience consists of hyperactive children. You must capture their attention and make a point as forcefully and as quickly as possible while limiting yourself to elementary school vocabulary. A jury of three such children decides, Gong Show style, whether you live or die.

21st century: The primary audience is just Google's page ranking and summarization algorithms. Content is irrelevant except to the extent that it indirectly increases the number of clicks by manipulating the Google results. There are no rules and nothing matters but clicks.

Just hit a URL shortener that seems to redirect to a good page yet when I click through the tab dies immediately.

...and it didn't reproduce. Hmmm.

Why are young people trying to reform the moribund Democratic Party when they could replace the whole rotten fish? Playing ball with the Democratic Party in order to get access to its political machine is a good indication that more and worse compromises will be made on the road to power. Step by step they will become what they most despise.

Never in my life have we more desperately needed a new party.

#uspol

New freedom unit just dropped: the diameter of a New York style pizza.

Arse^h Technica writes: "The DiskSats are 39 inches (1 meter) wide, about twice the diameter of a New York-style pizza"

øNYp ≈ m/2 ≈ 19.7 in

According to Wikipedia, New York style pizzas "are typically around 18 to 24 inches (45 to 60 cm) in diameter." That's more variable than the Ars Technica comparison would imply. 21±3 in, 14% more or less.

My day has been slightly brightened by learning that restaurants serving 24" pizzas exist. 'Murica!

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/heres-why-nasa-and-the-space-force-are-interested-in-pizza-shaped-satellites/