Given the tech industry’s penchant for ignoring laws that stand in the way of them consuming what's left of the commons for their own personal enrichment, it's perhaps satisfying to see one of the bit players of this cycle indicted for something, in this case for stealing from his former employer. 

And yet. So long as Travis Kalanick, who once called Anthony Levandowski his “brother from another mother”, remains not just a free man but a literal billionaire, it serves as a reminder about who gets justice. Google, one of the richest corporations in history, already settled with Uber and might get a small bit of satisfaction should the government succeed in sending a white collar criminal to a stint in a minimum security prison. The rest of us have to live with externalities of what Kalanick got away with. 

Related: the helicopter business in — or rather over — Manhattan is thriving. Those blades will make good guillotines after the revolution. 

Gizmodo Media, the ghost of the former Gawker Media (RIP), changed owners again and another editor-in-chief is leaving. Megan Greenwell wrote a blistering piece — her final one for Deadspin, which she ran for a year and a half — that is at once very personal, fairly specific to the ongoing saga of Gawker, and also a fairly accurate description of most of online media today. 

Netflix still mails out shiny discs and just shipped its five billionth DVD.

Cue the orchestral version of “I Got Five On It”.

For a decade or so, NetNewsWire was my primary interface to the internet. Over time, it got replaced by social media and we all know how that ended up. Brent Simmons just released version 5 for the Mac (iOS versions are promised) and it’s a beauty. It’s crazy fast, syncs with Feedbin, and is even open source. Typing nnw into Alfred gave me a nearly Proustian thrill. 

If you need some feeds to follow, you could do a lot worse than a bunch of old school bloggers who are still at it.

The trope that social networks are spying on us gets flipped with the news that Chinese spies are using LinkedIn to recruit assets. Still. Fewer nazis than Twitter. 

The inimitable @phillygirl curates Twitter: 

This otter is all of us.

I do love a good software rant and this one on React delivers the goods. 

Related: My pal Buzz defines the framework hype cycle. And Postlight’s Trimmings could be the un-React?

NOAA had to write a post explaining why nuking a hurricane is a bad idea. I mean, you'd probably have to be a conspiracy theorist or suffering from neurosyphilitic dementia to even suggest such a thing!

BMW painted an X6 Vantablack and the effect is pretty wild. I want Vantablack accessories now — wayfarers, watch, phone, airbuds. Gimme that flat black brain warp!

The reason Vantablack messes with our neurons is it's less like a color and more like a trap for photons of light.

As a great lover of food and food writing, an erstwhile writer of food myself, it's hard for me to fully explain my love for Alton Brown. The internet spawned countless Good Eats imitators with ultimate listicle recipes or doing it for the gram or WITH SCIENCE but Brown has always been and remains a true original. And I'm so incredibly happy to know he's back for another season. I don't even particularly like chicken parmigiana and I'm making that chicken parmigiana. 

I mean good god. How could you not love this caliber of nerd!

Have a wonderful final weekend of summer. Be well and be kind. 

Jim