Europe’s culture war: “pits the forgotten living “nowhere” in industrial wastelands and rural areas who see immigrants as threats to their livelihoods against the prosperous connected global citizens living in the “somewhere” of the knowledge econ

Link. It’s a pithy line — though not easily falsifiable. I think it’s true though, and it’s the same war in America. I usually guesstimate that 30-40% of citizens are effectively disabled from middle class life.

“Within 10 years you will absolutely have to use very specific rim and tire combinations only, and on top of that you’ll probably need to have your tires professionally installed”

Link. There will be DRM for bicycle tires. Somehow.

Seriously, there are already tire/rim combinations that are so marginal I pay my wrench to mount the tires. If they flat I lie down and wait for rescue.

Bonus: “They call it the Future Shock because if you ever need to replace it in the future you’ll be shocked by how much it costs:”

Giving up on the Apple Watch: “I decided to do the easiest and simplest thing and use Apple’s trade-in policy. I’ll get a $140 Apple gift card for it.”

Link. I didn’t know you could do a trade-in for an Apple gift card!

My only Apple Watch use case is directions and notifications when I ride my bike and a Garmin seems a much better choice for that. For now I have a $14 Casio that keeps perfect time and battery lasts 1-2y.

How Psychiatric Labels became tribal identities – when everyone has autism and ADHD

Link. “Steven Hyman, who directed the National Institute of Mental Health from 1996 to 2001, told the Times that he considered the manual an “absolute scientific nightmare.”

Key insight: DSM IV labels were bad to begin with, utterly crap now, are used way outside of their original context. (Researchers and many clinicians know they are crap, but they’ve been embedded in payment rules and accounting so are almost impossible to fix.)

Death 2.0: “using Google is now akin to a video game, where the challenge is to craft a search query that avoids ad spam”

Link. Noah has a good* summary of how Google’s Internet died along with Google. I don’t think Google recovers.

The vulnerability of many voters to deep fakes is a huge problem for democracy; William Hearst did similar things a century ago but Russia and China are far more subtle and capable.

* Noah is a Twitter person still, so less credible than he used to be. Also, why the heck is he still using Google?