Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

1. Looking past the environmentalist spin, the following provides a nice snapshot of our time:

The Wired article has a revealing vignette of someone seeing a Radio Shack (remember them?) ad from 1991 that showed 15 electronic "gadgets" for sale and realizing that he carried 13 of those gadgets in his pocket every day. Actually, smartphones replace far more than 13 other devices. Take a look at your phone's screen and look at all the functions it provides. That's why, among other things, the camera market is collapsing, it's hard to find a standalone GPS unit, and no one buys general purpose calculators anymore. They're all built into our phones. [minor edits]

After our move, I found a few disposable cameras that needed developing as I unpacked my office. After all the waiting, I had about ten decent photos.

Smartphones save money on both ends of just that activity, not to mention time and uncertainty.

2. The South China Morning Post recently came out with a nice feature about the history of reggae music and the associated VP Records label. Here are the opening couple of paragraphs:

Almost five years ago on a local television show in New York, the host was taken aback at the appearance of Jamaican reggae artist Gyptian being introduced by a diminutive, elderly Asian woman.

"He was not expecting to see a Chinese woman talking about reggae," Patricia Chin, now 82, recalls with a laugh, during a telephone interview from New York.

I had heard of Patricia Chin and her late husband, Randy, but did not know their story in any detail. I suspect that fellow fans of Jamaican music will enjoy learning about the role of their entrepreneurship in its early development.

Lizards are insanely common in Florida. My daughter once counted more than fifty as we walked through a parking lot from an airport terminal to our car. (Image by Julie Marsh, v ia Unsplash, license.)

3. I was out of town for much of last week in part due to a hurricane, and am already watching another likely storm. But many people seem to be picking the roulette of natural disaster over the certainty of high taxes these days, by moving to Florida:

The Census Bureau reports that in the last year more than 566,000 new residents have moved into Florida, primarily from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Guess what those states have in common that Florida doesn't: High taxes.

A New Yorker moved in next door to me recently. During our first conversation, he almost immediately volunteered taxes as a big reason for his move in one of our first conversations. No prompting from me: I am circumspect about discussing politics with people before I have any sense of what they are like.

4. I opened with a sign of the times, so I guess I'll close with another. Here, no teaser can beat the headline itself: "First, she had his baby. 12 years later, they met, then fell in love.."

-- CAV