https://04202030.com/blog/ Preserved from https://listed.to/@dickie https://04202030.com/blog/77002/never-again-terms-and-conditions-apply/ listed-77002 Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:28:01 +0000 What is a genocide warning system for when the warning signs are already present but the legal verdict is years away? Gaza, and the promise of Never Again. https://04202030.com/blog/76897/the-holocaust-and-genocide/ listed-76897 Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:46:51 +0000 Six million is an estimate, and estimates invite questions. The hard test is recognizing warning signs while they are happening, not remembering 80 years later. https://04202030.com/blog/76814/nick-cave-jokes/ listed-76814 Mon, 07 Sep 2026 21:44:21 +0000 Twenty jokes about Nick Cave: the baritone, the ruined mansions, the black shirt, and the coat he refuses to surrender. https://04202030.com/blog/76805/listed-is-shutting-down-cloudline-press-was-built-for-this/ listed-76805 Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:01:29 +0000 Listed shuts down Dec. 31, 2026. An unplanned test of whether a publication can outlive the press it was made on. https://04202030.com/blog/76578/the-question-is-no-longer-whether-israel-wants-palestinians-out-of-gaza/ listed-76578 Thu, 03 Sep 2026 22:11:20 +0000 What was dismissed as speculation is now being discussed by Israel's defense minister: moving Palestinians out of Gaza by sea. https://04202030.com/blog/76060/when-flying-a-kite-becomes-a-military-threat/ listed-76060 Wed, 26 Aug 2026 04:37:11 +0000 Israel's army warned families in Gaza that flying kites could bring airstrikes. The warning, and the reaction to it, says more than the order itself does. https://04202030.com/blog/74888/how-watermelon-became-a-personal-mythology/ listed-74888 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:07:26 +0000 How a Lenten fast turned into a watermelon obsession: tourmaline, refractometer readings, a database, dropped-melon recordings, and a rind kept in silica gel. https://04202030.com/blog/74434/text-art-tools-for-people-who-think-photoshop-has-too-many-pixels/ listed-74434 Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:22:45 +0000 A directory of tools for making art out of characters, from ASCIIFlow to dithering, and an argument for why a limited medium produces better work. https://04202030.com/blog/74136/ai-coding-agents-need-a-driving-test-not-a-beauty-pageant/ listed-74136 Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:13:45 +0000 AI coding agents benchmarked on a multi-million line codebase. The useful question is not which sounds smartest but which one fixes code without burning money. https://04202030.com/blog/74000/danner-tachyon-8-inch-black-hot/ listed-74000 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 10:30:07 +0000 Finding wide boots is less like shopping and more like checking whether any company remembers that feet come in different shapes. Notes on the Danner Tachyon 8. https://04202030.com/blog/73864/secure-the-border/ listed-73864 Sun, 28 Jun 2026 15:32:49 +0000 Open borders and mass deportation are both slogans rather than systems. A case for securing the border first and punishing employers rather than workers. https://04202030.com/blog/73321/public-education/ listed-73321 Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:31:14 +0000 Public schools cost money whether a family uses them or not, so homeschooling means paying twice. On what one family gets and the other does not. https://04202030.com/blog/73060/watermelon-s-origin-story-got-weirder-smaller-and-more-interesting/ listed-73060 Thu, 28 May 2026 17:21:45 +0000 A 2021 genome paper traced the domesticated watermelon back to a bitter Kordofan melon, which makes its origin story stranger and smaller than the familiar one. https://04202030.com/blog/72480/watermelon-scoring-system/ listed-72480 Fri, 08 May 2026 16:43:27 +0000 A three-layer method for scoring a watermelon out of ten: pre-cut selection, cut quality, and a perception factor, with weights, formulas and a worked example. https://04202030.com/blog/72479/a-watermelon-is-never-just-a-watermelon/ listed-72479 Fri, 08 May 2026 14:09:27 +0000 The plan was a different mountain. Somewhere on the drive north it became Old Speck, and a watermelon came along for the reason watermelons always do. https://04202030.com/blog/71646/cooper-spring-and-mount-mica-where-tourmaline-began-in-north-america/ listed-71646 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:44:26 +0000 A roadside pipe on Mt. Mica Road where people line up with jugs and bottles, and the hill above it where North American tourmaline was first found. https://04202030.com/blog/71638/message-to-pretty-meaning-and-breakdown/ listed-71638 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:11:29 +0000 Love's Message to Pretty runs under two minutes and feels unfinished by design. A breakdown of what the interlude on Forever Changes is doing. https://04202030.com/blog/71627/no-secretaries-no-exceptions/ listed-71627 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:59:22 +0000 A firm career conclusion: no job with Secretary in the title, even with a corner office, a pension and a ceremonial pen set. A case for the refusal. https://04202030.com/blog/71458/easter/ listed-71458 Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:53:32 +0000 Easter is a movable feast. How its date is worked out from the first full moon on or after March 21, and why the rule differs between East and West. https://04202030.com/blog/71134/watermelon-selection/ listed-71134 Sat, 21 Mar 2026 16:41:04 +0000 A field manual for choosing a watermelon: field spot, density, rind and sound, each treated as a pass or reject signal with no partial credit. https://04202030.com/blog/71047/lobster-radio-node/ listed-71047 Wed, 18 Mar 2026 05:29:57 +0000 Documentation for Lobster, a Raspberry Pi audio node that plays scheduled WAV files and Spotify through a low power FM transmitter on a timer. https://04202030.com/blog/70967/evil-vs-evil-civilians-in-the-crosshairs/ listed-70967 Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:58:55 +0000 Every side in the Middle East describes its own war as defensive and its enemy as genocidal, while civilians in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon keep dying. https://04202030.com/blog/70753/lobster-audio-beacon-node/ listed-70753 Sat, 07 Mar 2026 13:55:01 +0000 How a headless Raspberry Pi broadcasts a DTMF beacon and a spoken announcement through a low power FM transmitter, and how the audio chain is mixed. https://04202030.com/blog/70423/edwin-armstrong-tower/ listed-70423 Fri, 20 Feb 2026 21:18:59 +0000 A proposal to preserve, document and reuse the Edwin Howard Armstrong radio tower site on the summit of Mount Washington, submitted to the summit commission. https://04202030.com/blog/70407/the-yankee-network-how-mountaintop-towers-carried-fm-across-new-england/ listed-70407 Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:39:20 +0000 In 1937, eight men built a radio tower on Mount Washington for Edwin Armstrong, one link in the most ambitious FM relay system yet attempted. https://04202030.com/blog/70391/barbed-wire-fence-telephone-networks/ listed-70391 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:49:26 +0000 In the late 19th century, farmers strung telephones along barbed wire fences to build cooperative networks with no central exchange and no monthly bill. https://04202030.com/blog/70013/128-entry-dtmf-phrase-location-dictionary/ listed-70013 Sat, 07 Feb 2026 20:28:24 +0000 A 128-entry dictionary of DTMF tones for phrases and locations, from OK and CONFIRM to INJURED, TRAPPED and RESCUE UNDERWAY, grouped by purpose. https://04202030.com/blog/69976/mount-washington-a-great-mountain-or-the-greatest/ listed-69976 Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:00:46 +0000 Mount Washington needs no advertising. What the 6,288-foot summit has been to science, to winter travellers, and to the people who broadcast from it. https://04202030.com/blog/69679/why-python-makes-the-most-sense-as-a-first-programming-language-or-your-next-one-in-the-age-of-ai/ listed-69679 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:37:07 +0000 Choosing a first programming language shapes how you think about problems. Why Python still makes the most sense for a beginner in an age of AI assistants. https://04202030.com/blog/69676/it-must-be-nice-to-have-a-24-hour-security-detail/ listed-69676 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 02:49:18 +0000 Comments from a president about a fatal shooting, and the widening gap between political leadership and the lived reality of everyday Americans. https://04202030.com/blog/69632/when-silence-replaces-faith/ listed-69632 Tue, 27 Jan 2026 02:50:26 +0000 Jesus came first for the Jews, literally rather than as a metaphor. What modern Christianity loses when it quietly stops saying so, and what fills the silence. https://04202030.com/blog/69619/gaza-the-pier-and-the-unresolved-question-of-a-future-for-civilians/ listed-69619 Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:05:15 +0000 The destroyed city, the temporary US pier, restricted access and parallel diplomacy, and the unresolved question of whether Palestinians can stay in Gaza. https://04202030.com/blog/69597/two-things-can-be-true-at-the-same-time/ listed-69597 Sun, 25 Jan 2026 15:00:58 +0000 The official account of a fatal shooting does not add up. When explanations strain credibility, skepticism is necessary, and accountability must follow. https://04202030.com/blog/69516/this-is-not-a-reconstruction-plan/ listed-69516 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:12:46 +0000 Skyscrapers, new cities and a redesigned coastline are described as rebuilding Gaza in two or three years, while families survive in tents and ruins. https://04202030.com/blog/69515/bringing-printing-back-among-the-clouds/ listed-69515 Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:57:33 +0000 Postcards stamped Among the Clouds carried proof that you stood above the weather. Bringing that summit printing tradition back to Mount Washington. https://04202030.com/blog/69512/the-crime-of-noticing/ listed-69512 Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:45:47 +0000 Noticing used to be where understanding began. Now it is treated as evidence of guilt, and observation is the thing that makes people uncomfortable. https://04202030.com/blog/69462/this-is-how-ceasefires-die/ listed-69462 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:45:59 +0000 A Reuters report on forced evacuations from eastern Khan Younis, and why ordering civilians out of their homes is how a ceasefire stops being one. https://04202030.com/blog/69354/temporary-means-temporary-why-immigration-honesty-matters/ listed-69354 Mon, 19 Jan 2026 05:55:39 +0000 Compassion and enforcement are not opposites. Why a country that refuses to say temporary means temporary keeps causing human damage. https://04202030.com/blog/69330/archive-ph-a-digital-time-capsule-for-the-web/ listed-69330 Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:01:48 +0000 Archive.ph saves a permanent snapshot of a page so it survives edits or deletion. What the service is, and when to reach for it instead of a link. https://04202030.com/blog/69255/convenience-is-not-freedom/ listed-69255 Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:10:11 +0000 Convenience removes friction, and freedom is about agency. Why the two get confused, and what you give up when decisions disappear on your behalf.