Of possible interest

In reply to the question "Which blog post took the most work?" the answer is From Hollywood Park Racetrack to SoFi Stadium, which spanned 2005 to 2024 and involved taking many dozens of aerial photographs on approach to LAX, doing research, and writing about it, hoping it helps historians along the way.

Two angles on one story. Noozhawk says Tri-County Produce, an independent local landmark store, has been saved by a longtime employee and his son. MSN says the purchase was made possible by local customers Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

Arendt called it terror. Steven Weber on radical uncertainty, in Barron's.

Signs of enshittification. SiriusXM's app sucks. It used to have Favorites, which were like buttons on an old car radio: a collection of channels you chose to put on a simple collection that you could arrange your own way. That's gone. Now the front of the app has Based on your morning listening and Channels for you below a bunch of tabs: For you, Music, Talk & Podcasts, Sports, and Howard. What used to be Favorites is now "Library" on the bottom right of the screen. These are topped by "New episodes," and then go down a list that changes based on… I don't know. Probably guesswork by an algorithm. Also on the bottom are Discover, Channels (remember those?), and Search. Imagine a grocery store where at the entrance you have to get past a pile of stuff that's some algorithm's guess at what you like, and everything you come for isn't where it was before, and won't be in the same place tomorrow. That's SiriusXM now.

The pain is coming. Am I seeing less marine traffic to the U.S. than ever? Looking for historical data. I'm sure many are digging deep into intermodal and logistics stats to gauge the effects of tariffs and economic uncertainties caused by White House wackiness. Got links? [Readers answered! Logistics Managers Index (and the latest stats), CNBC on falling traffic in Los Angeles and Long Beach. HT to old pal Chip Hoagland.]

Where safety is a slogan. Wired says your car is snitching on you. As Mozilla made clear almost two years ago, privacy is an inconvenience: for the car makers, for their commercial "partners," and for the cops. Consumer Reports says the same is true for TV makers.

Nice! I just noticed that Wordland now lists all my (too many) categories. Taking advantage of that now.

Today's title is how I view everything I write.