One finds an unexpected delivery on the doorstep. Upon verifying it was not a forgotten purchase, the global retailer is contacted.

“Thank you for your concern,” the chatbot says. “We’ve already sent a replacement to the intended customer.”

“That’s great for them,” you say. ”But I’ve got this thing by my front door that I didn’t ask for.”

“You’re free to dispose of it,” says the chatbot.

“But I don’t want to touch it. It’s not mine. It’s not something I ordered. Can’t giant retailer send someone out to dispose of it?”

“No.”

“But what if it contains materials that requires specific handling and disposal? Are you saying that cost and responsibility is on me?”

“We contract with third parties on deliveries so there is no way for giant retailer to dispose of it. But, good news! We’ve determined that the package is fine for you to dispose of yourself. As we said, the intended recipient is getting a new delivery.”

“That response does not fill me with confidence.”

That response also does not answer the question.

If a package from one of the global retailers, delivered by one of the global delivery retailers or the local post, arrives at your door but is not meant for you and contains hazards materials, who has the responsibility for disposing of it and who bears the cost?

I would think the analogy would be someone in a truck pulls into your driveway, dumps a barrel of toxic waste in your yard, and drives away. Your home security system recorded that the truck is from Acme Trucking, the barrel had a Zephyr Chemical sticker, and you caught the dumper’s face.

Who’s responsible for the clean up? Who bears the cost?

What if the barrel was full of eels? Or rubber bouncy balls? Or micro plastics? Or a dead human body? Or pudding?

After 10 Years, Gravity Falls Is Still as Funny and Heartfelt as Any Show on Television:

Alex Hirsch’s Gravity Falls first premiered ten years ago and burned brilliantly for the two seasons it was on air before going out with a bang in 2016. The animated comedy-mystery follows twins Dipper and Mabel Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal), who spend their summer vacation in the town of Gravity Falls working for their Grunkle Stan (voiced by Hirsch) at his tourist trap, The Mystery Shack. With the help of a journal which Dipper finds in the woods, the Pines twins begin to unravel the supernatural mysteries of the small town.

If you let this show pass you by at the time, then you should definitely remedy that and check it out now (it’s all on Disney+). Although it’s not an adult animation in the same way that shows like Rick and Morty and BoJack Horseman are, it definitely appeals to an older audience as well as kids (especially if you’re a comedy fan, given the delightful slate of guest stars who appear throughout the series, including Patton Oswalt, Chelsea Peretti, John Oliver, and “Weird Al” Yankovic, just to name a few.)

Gravity Falls is smart, hilarious, and heartfelt. From the initial premise it might seem like a simple Monster of the Week setup, but there’s a sophisticated overarching mystery lurking behind all of the creatively bizarre phenomena. Along with the fun monsters and adventure-driven storylines, there’s a stellar blend of clever and goofy humour, with in-jokes for viewers of all ages, lovably eccentric characters who are expertly voiced, and a setting and animation style that perfectly manages to balance bright whimsy with notes of truly dark creepiness.

Great show. I cannot agree more on the assessment. I’ll be rewatching soon.

“He’s both a pas­sion­ate believer and in­tense critic of the service which is ex-actly what we need on @Twitter, and in the board­room, to make us stronger in the long-term. Wel­come Elon!” Mr. Agrawal tweeted.

Mr. Musk tweeted: “Looking for­ward to work­ing with Parag & Twit­ter board to make sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments to Twit­ter in com­ing months!”

(Via WSJ; by Sara E. Needleman and Meghan Bobrowsky)

I watched moviesthis weekend for my Introduction to Film Studies class. One of them was Marriage Story (2019).

It opens with each of Scarlett Johannson’s Nichole and Adam Driver’s Charlie, a wife and husband, describing what they appreciate in the other in what we learn is a divorce mediator’s homework for the irreconcilably differenced couple.

The letters each wrote about the other parallels Agarwal’s and Musk’s mutual masturb … er, appreciation society.

I use Twitter sparingly. I’m not a Musk-o-vite. Regardless, I will note how this pans out.

I’m thinking about pruning Apple-first news sources from my RSS intake. Apple’s “news” gets covered amply by the mainline news, is mostly PR announcements anyway, and the useful technical bits are often cited by others in my RSS feed.

I’m thinking about pruning news newsletters and primary news sources from my RSS intake, or setting up a separate one I can chose to view on any given day.

I’m thinking about filtering my RSS feeds to get rid of specific topics as my SO keeps me well informed, and my interest in them by myself is exceedingly low:

• Marvel movies and TV
• DC movies and TV
• Star Wars movies and TV
• Star Trek movies and TV

I’m thinking about getting rid of sources that are now cryptocurrency/NFT/web3 enthusiastic and forward.

I’m thinking about moving my Emacs and org-mode and Emacs-related news to Emacs’ elfeed. DevonThink posts will move to DevonThink 3.