For anyone curious, here’s the contents the email:

Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans.

The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation’s economy.

“This is a historic step forward for America’s seniors,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano. “For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned."

The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples. Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned.

Social Security remains committed to providing timely, accurate information to the public and will continue working closely with federal partners to ensure beneficiaries understand how this legislation may affect them.

I could not be less interested in what the New York Times has to say about this topic.

♪ 🌈 s l a v e r y 🌈 ♫

Big bard energy

Vote results for “a motion to table Impeaching Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors” can be found here (where “yay” means a vote to shut down impeachment proceedings and “nay” means a vote to continue with them): https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll175.xml

Representatives are listed by last name only in this list (without state affiliation unless there are multiple). Find your rep and let them know what you think about their choices.

The dude is tired of playing the same character for a decade. That’s fair.

Give me more deeply weird Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein David Harbour.

Ranking the bead track options of the Anatex Enterprise’s Classic Bead Maze

https://i0.wp.com/deiequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CBM1310.jpg

• Yellow: A fine tutorial track for bead maze novices. If you have no idea where to start, this functions as a passable introduction and training option. There’s not much elevation to be found here, though you do get one brief vertical drop and a 180-degree direction change midway through the track, but this is undercut by the track not ending with this drop, forcing the player to trudge the bead along to its final destination. This track isn’t completely devoid of thrills, but they’re meager at best.
  • C Tier
• Orange: Less-refined maze fans may be excused for considering this their personal favorite. It does boast the most vertically pronounced track, both track routes end with satisfying vertical drops (including the single largest drop of all options provided) and the bead options, which we rarely discuss, are all the satisfying heavy spherical variety. But, despite all these superlatives, the fatal flaw of the orange track lies in the middle; the TWO vertical hairpin turns diving into the center of the maze field are buckets of cold water that ruin an otherwise terrific experience. Beads are hijacked from their high-flying dreams and drop coldly into this prison where fun goes to die. We all know this to be true as beads will inevitably stack up here, like so many dirty dishes in a lazy person’s kitchen sink, until all other options have been spent and you unwillingly are forced into the drudgery of pushing them through the pair of hairpins to their destinations. But, once again, the final drops do provide the user with genuine satisfaction; perhaps an early lesson in cold adult maturity for toddlers that life will be filled with grand ups and downs but they may not be had without hard-earned repetitive effort. These good times are served with a side of morality. You can’t ask for much more.
  • A Tier
• Red & Blue : These tracks are neither complex or satisfying enough to warrant separate ranking descriptions. They exist merely to fill space, offering all the fun and delight of a sliding puzzle piece CAPTCHA. With short track heights, it’s not uncommon for these tracks to be left untouched entirely during gaming sessions. I will give the red track slightly more credit for both it’s height and the choice to be routed through the Orange track’s hairpin vertical; a morsel of drama in an otherwise bland, uninspired endeavor.
  • C Tier and D Tier (respectfully)
• Green: When people remember their childhood bead maze experiences, this is what comes to mind. Undoubtedly sacrifices had to be made at the expense of other tracks for this one to shine as it does. Swooping playfully among the highest heights of the field, beads can often complete their full track circuit without the need to retract and re-extend one’s hand, this is the experience that designers envisioned, with each track rider capable of completing its journey to either end from the apex with a single flick of the finger. The green track is the pinnacle, a grand achievement in track design, both in form and function.
  • S Tier

Rushkoff wrote a book about consulting for these billionaire peppers.

https://rushkoff.com/books/survival-of-the-richest-escape-fantasies-of-the-tech-billionaires/

That last line tho…

Ed was also facing serious controversy in recent years – at the time of his death, he was still under investigation for allegedly trying to solicit sex from multiple minors.

😬

A prodigy of a filmmaker and VFX artist barely out of high school, Parsons shot his YouTube following into the stratosphere with the viral success of his mysterious short, “The Backrooms (Found Footage).” It’s the first in a series of found-footage horror videos which have garnered many, many millions of views online and will now be adapted for the big screen by A24, Atomic Monster, Chernin Entertainment and 21 Laps.

Parsons will direct from a script by Roberto Patino. Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen and Dan Levine will produce for 21 Laps, along with James Wan and Michael Clear for Atomic Monster, and Patino. Alayna Glasthal is overseeing for Atomic Monster, with Judson Scott exec producing for the company alongside White.

So it’s actually being directed by Kane Parsons, the person who made the original shorts. I’m very glad to hear this. And written by Roberto Patino who wrote several season 2 episodes of Westworld.

This all bodes very well.

Heuristics are real things deserving of both respect and fear.

There is a small theater monologue to be written about this event.

The recipe for success here is clear.

Keep finding promising young filmmakers making innovative work (Fruitvale Station) then hamstring them with franchise films for a decade (Creed, Black Panther). If they continue to be successful and not lose every shred of their creative spark, only then give them funding to make more original work.

FYI, Sesame Street went public-private in 2016 when they signed a deal with HBO to fund new episodes which then were permitted to air on PBS several months later.

In Dec 2024, HBO/Max called the deal off and effectively cancelled the show. Now they’re shopping for a new home and, with the threats of PBS funding cuts, the notion of returning to PBS is in question.

So basically the showrunners of Sesame Street are at least partially responsible for the corner they painted themselves into here.

Walt Disney Pictures & Pixar productions in 2019 & 2020:

• Dumbo (CG remake)
• Penguins
• Toy Story 4
• The Lion King (CG remake)
• Maleficent
• Lady and the Tramp
• Frozen II
• Onward
• Artemis Fowl
• Mulan (live action remake)
• Soul

Marvel Studios productions in 2019 & 2020:

• Captain Marvel
• Avengers: Endgame
• Spider-Man: Far From Home

It’s been 6 years and they’re still coasting on Endgame vibes.

Also see this video that Coogler made for Kodak where he talks about film formats and aspect ratios.

The notion that 45% approve of what’s actually happening is appalling.

Depending on how stoned you’re interested in getting, and your cognitive abilities under the influence, consider Mad Ape Den.

At its core, Mad Ape Den is a writing exercise where you only use words composed of three letters or less:

To bid you a bit of it, the gab may go as so.

Our favorite thing to do is to make a guessing game of it. Have everyone else try to guess something you’ve chosen, describing it using Mad Ape Den. Your turn ends if you mess up and use a longer word. For example:

He is a man, but he is a bat, too.

Batman!