Twitter is officially launching its “new” version of TweetDeck to everyone, according to a tweet from Twitter’s support account, which is a step that it had to take to help mitigate some of the issues TweetDeck has been experiencing lately.

The switch comes with a potentially-heartbreaking catch: TweetDeck is going to become a Verified-only feature in 30 days, the account says, meaning you’ll need to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription to be able to use it.

I absolutely refuse to pay for Twitter Blue, so, if this goes through… I’m out.

From Sky Elements Drone Shows YouTube Page –

This Fourth of July, history was made. Sky Elements Drone Shows achieved the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the largest aerial sentence formed by multirotor/drones. 1,002 drones armed with bright LED lights took flight and dazzled the crowd with a show paying tribute to the history of the United States.

The centerpiece show of Sky Elements’ Fourth of July weekend allowed the company to break its own record by producing 40 shows over the holiday weekend using more than 10,000 drones.

The 10-minute record drone show surpassed all expectations and dazzled the audience, becoming the largest drone light show ever flown in Texas. The aerial ballet of drones showcased intricate formations of critical moments in American history and brought a sense of wonder and awe to audiences of all ages.

Sky Elements previously broke the state’s largest drone show record by flying 1,001 drones over the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sky Elements is spearheading the transition from traditional fireworks to awe-inspiring drone shows. Sky Elements will be coast to coast across the nation from Miami Beach to Los Angeles.

Shows will be flown in 11 of the 50 states, with nearly nine shows in California alone over the weekend. With their unwavering commitment to innovation and creativity, they are revolutionizing how Americans ring in the Fourth of July.

Why does this matter? The Fourth of July has long been synonymous with dazzling fireworks brightening the night sky in a flurry of colors and sparks. Still, this year marks a transformative shift as drone shows are poised to take center stage across the nation more meaningfully than years prior. Sky Elements is undoubtedly leading this transformative movement by combining hours of animation, precise logistics, and cutting-edge technology.

Drone light shows are a feast for the senses and a greener and safer alternative to traditional fireworks. Using drones significantly reduces the environmental impact associated with fireworks, eliminating harmful smoke and chemical residue. Additionally, drone shows mitigate safety concerns by eliminating the risks associated with fireworks accidents, making them a preferred choice for communities across America.

I expect drone shows will be the future.

Nicholas Bate –

1. Write for quantity.

2. Then edit for quality.

3. Write to the stopwatch with zero distractions.

4. Accept no excuses: fingers to keyboard same time, same place; rain or shine.

5. Do the day-job brilliantly so you become invaluable and you can negotiate more time for writing.

6. Write for love of word, sentence and story. Not for fame.

7. When not writing nor doing the day job, read the classics. 

Ivan Mehta, reporting for TechCrunch, explains the new Musk Twitter changes and how they completely broke the site.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk limited the number of tweets users can read in a day, which he said was to prevent data scraping. While this measure has affected all Twitter users, TweetDeck users in particular are today reporting major problems, including notifications and entire columns failing to load.

Musk initially enforced read-limits of 6,000 daily posts for verified users and 600 daily posts for unverified users. Hours later, he increased these limits to 10,000 tweets and 1,000 tweets, respectively. Given that TweetDeck loads up multiple tweets through various columns simultaneously, it’s likely that the effects of the read restrictions are amplified within TweetDeck.

As I’ve said for a while, if Twitter kills Tweetdeck or puts it behind a paywall I’ll put my account into private mode and walk away.

David Pierce, writing for The Verge, is lamenting the end, so to speak, of Twitter and social media. He wants someplace else to go.

…the social web is changing in three crucial ways: It’s going from public to private; it’s shifting from growth and engagement, which broadly involves building good products that people like, to increasing revenue no matter the tradeoff; and it’s turning into an entertainment business. It turns out there’s no money in connecting people to each other, but there’s a fortune in putting ads between vertically scrolling videos that lots of people watch. So the “social media” era is giving way to the “media with a comments section” era, and everything is an entertainment platform now. Or, I guess, trying to do payments. Sometimes both. It gets weird.

We could go back to blogs, newsletters, and message boards. Does that sound like fun?

Long-term, I’m bullish on “fediverse” apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, because I absolutely believe in the possibility of the social web, a decentralized universe powered by ActivityPub and other open protocols that bring us together without forcing us to live inside some company’s business model. Done right, these tools can be the right mix of “everybody’s here” and “you’re still in control.”

Fediverse is hilarious. No one wants that. At all. They want Twitter before the fascists, nutjobs, and ads came.

Mastodon is impossible to figure out even if you manage to find a server. Bluesky is still in beta with lots of people waiting around to get on.

I expect something will break the dam.

Manuel Morale –

You can still set up your tiny quiet corner on the web, do your own things, and connect slowly with other people. You can still set up a forum dedicated to something you’re passionate about and create a community with 50 other people, even if Reddit turns to shit. Things can live on the web simply because enough people care about them and pour time and love into them. And that is what makes the web special.

This is my tiny, quiet corner of the web where I post and share things.

Diana Moskovitz, writing for Defector, has an interesting story about Georgia Football and a guy on the football staff with an interesting set of skills.

This guy, Bryant Gantt, seems like a lovely fellow.

Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in The Atlantic, has one of the best reviews of the latest album by the Foo Fighters and about Dave Grohl.

The latest Foo Fighters album, But Here We Are, is a soaring, frenzied guitar attack whose songs often recall the band’s best stadium-shaking anthems. But more to the point, it is filled with lyrics that feel true in their sustained confrontation with the album’s main subject: shattering absence.

Read the whole piece.

Nicholas Bate –

1. Ignore chronological age: hang on to a child-like curiosity.

2. Ignore physiological age: hang on to physical flexibility.

3. Scribble outside every damn box you can get hold of and boost your psychological age and mental agility.

4. Ask why there is sand in the sand pit anyway; there is more and better on the beach.

5. Dream dreams. And make them happen.

6. Do it on a whim.

7. Know deep down that you can be your own expert: study hard. But not as at college. As in Brave New World and I need to be ready.

Delia Cai, writing for Vanity Fair, has an interview with Ted Chiang about AI and what the future holds.

I think this is the kicker of the piece –

There’s no software that anyone has built that is smarter than humans. What we have created are vast systems of control. Our entire economy is this kind of engine that we can’t really stop. That’s a different thing than saying we’ve created machines smarter than us. We have built a giant treadmill that we can’t get off. Maybe.

A giant treadmill is an interesting analogy.

It’s time for Paul Atreides to fulfill his destiny.

Dune: Part Two opens November 3 and it just released a new trailer that’s leaps and bounds more epic than the first one.

Lindsey Adler, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:

Before the season began, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán changed his jersey number from 55 to 0. It turned out to be a prescient move. On Wednesday night, Germán became just the 24th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game, using just 99 pitches to mow through 27 Oakland A’s batters without allowing a single baserunner.

Entering the game with a 5.10 ERA in his first 14 starts of the season, Germán completed the first perfect game since Félix Hernández threw one for the Mariners in August 2012. There were three perfectos thrown that year — by Hernández, Matt Cain, and Phillip Humber — but nearly 11 seasons had passed without one occurring.

“Growing up, [Hernández] was my idol,” Germán said through a translator after the game. “I really looked up to the way he pitched.”

What a feel good story.

You’ve undoubtedly already heard the audio recording of Donald J. Trump allegedly committing one of the offenses for which he is accused. This shifts the question of “Will he be convicted?” to “How much time will he do?” in many circles.

YouTube’s Legal Eagle has a new video available right now that thoroughly explains sentencing criteria. The only thing it will tell you about Trump is that he very definitely won’t receive the jillion-and-three years in prison that some people are speculating, and that we are unable to predict with any degree of precision what the true magical number may be.

Anything over ten is a death sentence anyway.

The always creative Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It quite hilariously reimagined the late, great Elvis Presley singing the lyrics from the 1991 Sir Mix-A-Lot single “Baby Got Back” in the style of his hit 1956 song “Don’t Be Cruel.”

Shawn Blanc:

They are your health, your relationships, your inner-personal life, your work, your finances, and your rest and recreation.

Each area of your life overlaps with and impacts the others. And yet you only have the capacity to give your full attention to one or two areas at a time. Use habits and routines to maintain health in every area while giving extra attention to the one or two areas that need it.

Holly Hein, writing on her blog, found a “good” list.

I found a list of good things, written in purple ink in an old notebook in 2021.

chocolate milk, the way things get still and luminous after sitting in silence somewhere for awhile, freshwater pearls, my iPhone, dirt paths and the way dirt lies at the base of tree roots, the internet, babies laughing uncontrollably, the sound of sprinklers, mohair sweaters, hot tubs, hot springs, dogs, dog smell, wet dog smell, the happy way Stephen said skunk smells like coffee, traffic signals, gladiolas, oxalis and all edible things in the woods, creeks, rivers, my sleeping bag, overalls and pigtails, Animorphs and Baby-Sitters Club, the smell of hose water and mown grass and petrichor, flicker feathers, washing plates and sweeping steps, roller skating, tennis, cross country skiing, audiobooks, chocolate pudding, poppies, puppies, composition books, cushy socks, soft t-shirts, gel pens, bike paths along water with Canada geese, desert mornings, early mornings on vacation, coffee, coffee shops, friends, Ken’s parties, writing numerals, writing algebra, Sanguinity, leg hair, glass jars, glass beads, honey.

Rick Astley shocked and delighted the crowd at the Glastonbury Festival by not only doing a genre 180° to classic heavy metal, covering AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” but played drums as well!

I love this.

Kirk Swearingen, writing for Salon, has a commentary about the word “woke” and about what conservatives hear when it is used and what they refuse to listen to when it is invoked.

Conservatives didn't want to hear about white privilege. So they abandoned reality and joined the orange man's cult.

I don’t think I could explain it any better.