Finished Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Essential reading. 📚

Playing lots with my cube and solving it every time. My fastest solve so far is a shabby bit over two minutes. I’d like to get my average down to under one minute because nerd.

Fun cube fact: there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible permutations on a 3x3 cube, each one theoretically solvable in 20 moves or less.

“In the 2020s, liberating society from the spell of the intolerant anti-humanist narrative is the key challenge facing those committed to freedom and democracy. What is at stake is not just language and words, but the preservation of the most precious ideals of human civilisation.” We need to fight the new thought police

Rubik’s cubes came out when I was a kid and although I’ve owned a few in the decades since, I’ve never been able to solve the puzzle without resorting to looking at a cheat sheet. Until this morning. Twice.

I finished Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne, about the rise and fall of the Comanches and their last war chief. So much fascinating history here, and one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read. 📚

Five weeks back using Day One and I’m liking it. Mostly on the laptop but the one-a-day random phone prompts are handy too.

Today’s bike ride. There were lots of little wild pigs rooting around. One burst out of the scrub and ran beside me squealing for about 10m.

In this podcast Bret Weinstein talks about how important humour is for humans, not just as frivolous entertainment but as a deeper evolutionary adaptation which enables us to tackle difficult topics. You know, like the crazy shit that’s going in Western culture right now. DarkHorse #6 with Katie Herzog

We watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and it was damned good.

Starting the Twenties right where I am. 🎉

What we need right now is a coalition of the reasonable.

Work is done and I have nineteen days off WOOT

Thinking of all the paraskevidekatriaphobiacs out there right now. At least it’s not Monday the 16th.