Uncle Josh on Scott Adams

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and general troll, died yesterday at the age of 68. Dilbert was helpful in building my cynical resistance to the inanity of cube-farm life when I was in technical support in the 90’s. His book The Dilbert Principle also had some very good ideas on how businesses should be run in …

Uncle Josh Encounters Newspeak

Today I saw an announcement from the Python Software Foundation that they were withdrawing from a National Science Fund grant because the bigotry in the White House included language like this in the grant contract: “…do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote …

Uncle Josh Dreams of Harlan Ellison

I woke up this morning dreaming of Harlan Ellison. I never met the man but I think I have worked with people who have met him. My first exposure to Ellison was in my high school days in the 1980’s when I wrote descriptive vignettes for an English class, enjoyed them, and kept writing them. …

Uncle Josh on the Six Words again

I started a project earlier this year about Six Words, It kind of went away as I got distracted but I have been thinking about them, and today I answered a question or Reddit that brought them back to the forefront. Ultimately the question was about reputation. At least my answer was about reputation. For …

Uncle Josh on Canons

I read this Reactor.com article about how there is “no canon in Tolkien”. It’s been sitting in my head ever since. I have also been one of those people who worried that a TV show or movie was fundamentally changing the canon of some intellectual property. I am changing in how I view these things, …

Uncle Josh on the Wealth Tax

My mind was all over the place today, and I know with the next president there is no way on God’s blue earth we’ll see a wealth tax in this country, but I wanted to get to grips with it and understand it. The detractors (i.e. billionaires) who argued against it claim it would bankrupt …

Uncle Josh is Scared

There are only a few times in my life I have felt this bad about everything: September 11 2021, 2016, and 2024. The last time Leader Dearest was in charge he had people who actually understood how the country worked with some respect for the rule of law. They all told us not to give …