Month: April 2022

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My First eBay Purchase

October 1999. I don't really remember the events leading up to it, but I must've been bored at work and thought I'd start throwing out some search terms on eBay. Imagine my surprise therefore, when this beauty from 1979 came up in the results.

I remember when these first arrived on the scene. I was entranced by the design. Similar to Pioneer of the era, but the LED power meters were definitely something new. (These came out around the same time as the quirky C01 series components.) I don't remember at this point if I saw these or the C01 series first, but in any case I was blown away.

Then I priced this series of receivers. The higher-end models with all the bells and whistles (which, naturally, I wanted) were out way out of my budget even back in 1979.

But on eBay 20 years later? Bidding was modest. Initial bid was $79, and by the time I jumped into the fray it was around $135 as I recall. I put in a bid for $200 and waited.

Several days later, I got notice that I'd won the bidding. I got this monster for $159! After several months of use, however, I began to miss my old Yamaha gear and ultimately replacedĀ that and ended up selling the Technics. I can't tell you how much I wish I'd held onto it (like an embarrassingly large number of so many other pieces of hifi that have passed through my hands over the years).

I couldn't find any current listings for this model on eBay, butĀ this auction shows how much these units have appreciated over the last 20 years since those heady first days of eBay.

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No Lies Detected

(And yes, I fully realize the irony of me posting this and still continuing to post snarky tweets from that same platform.)

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Throwback Thursday

We all have embarrassing photos.

Twenty years ago, February 2002. Taken at my dad's place where I was staying, shortly after I moved back to Phoenix from San Francisco (for the last time). Pre-cancer, pre-Ben (he had just graduated high school a few months earlier!), pre-blog, pre-cell phones, pre-pretty much everything I am now. I was quite the little porker.

And oh yeah, I had hair.

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Food For My Soul

I haven't heard this inĀ years. Tonight I was reloading my iPod and felt compelled to add it to the playlist. I have it playing in the background at the moment and it literally feels like a cool mountain stream washing over the very fiber of my being, recharging my core.

What pieces of music recharge you?

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Some Thoughts on Current Events

"The best prediction I've seen about what is likely Twitter's future is neither the optimistic nor the extreme pessimistic views, but rather that it will be mostly the same but go back to the less governed model of half a dozen years ago in which there was more harassment, neo-Nazis and government-backed disinformation campaigns. The simple truth is that content moderation is much, much less about 'free speech' or unpopular opinions than some random guy DMing pictures of his penis every day for a year to a woman he's harassing, or hoaxes about people dying, or copyright infringement. Of course, as Musk knows as well as anyone, Twitter is also a great tool for market manipulation and securities fraud. In other words, it's less about 'speech' than the digital amplification of the predatory dimensions of people's personality disorders."

That's what this is and where we are: an extremely powerful and wealthy jackass on an ego trip. You can take the bro out of the frat house but you can't take the frat house out of the bro.

[Source]

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Lauren Boebert's Tweet To Elon Musk Claiming The Left Only Wants 'Censorship' Backfired Instantly

Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was criticized after she claimed "leftists" opposed to billionaire Elon Musk's recent move to buy Twitter only want "censorship."

While Musk's buyout was cheered by conservatives, it sparked concern from otherā€”especially civil rights groupsā€”who said that having one person have so much centralized power over political discourse online poses a significant threat to democracy.

Musk batted away these criticisms, saying his opponents are experiencing an "extreme antibody reaction" because they "fear free speech."

And Boebert agreed, claiming Musk's opponents not only want to censor him but that "Their ideas don't hold up in debate."

Musk has continued to allege Twitter's algorithms are biased and conservatives have applauded his buyout as a win for free speech, which Boebert has often claimed is threatened on the social media platform, thereby constituting a First Amendment violation.

However, these claims do not hold up under scrutiny.

The First Amendment applies only to governmental action and does not apply to behavior by private employers, private companies, or private, non-government individuals unless they worked in concert with the government.

Ironically, Boebert's Twitter activities have occasionally violated the First Amendment given she has previously blocked her constituents and was sued because she cannot legally block anyone who finds any of her tweets objectionable.

In 2019, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled online pages used by public figures to connect with their constituents are public forums, which means an official cannot block people from them because of the opinions they hold.

Boebert's tweet garnered significant attention.

Her claims were swiftly criticized by those who pointed out Republicans have recently ramped up a campaign to ban books and limit what subjects teachers can teach in their classrooms.

https://twitter.com/johnhassomesoap/status/1519261642931978240

https://twitter.com/Wildchildwendy/status/1519111477617205250

Earlier this week, the Twitter board of directors agreed to a $44 billion buyout by Musk, potentially making it one of the biggest deals to turn a company private.

Twitter previously acknowledged it had received Musk's bid, which comes out to $54.20 a share. The company confirmed in a press release its board of directors received the offer and would "carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders."

Rumors of a buyout began to circulate earlier this month after Musk disclosed a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter made him the company's largest shareholder. Prominent conservatives appeared emboldened by the news, particularly because Musk had questioned Twitter's content moderation rules in the days before his disclosure.

At the time, there was significant speculation Musk would join Twitter's board of directors, a move that would potentially broaden his influence over the platform and its policies.

Republicans, spurred by former President Donald Trump, have often accused Twitter of limiting prominent conservative voices on its platform.

In 2018, while still in office, Trump claimed Twitter was "SHADOW BANNING prominent Republicans" in response to a news story that alleged accounts owned by Republicans were showing up in a general search of the website but not automatically populating when typing their names in the drop-down bar.

Twitter later issued a response, attributing the issue to a platform bug.

[Source]

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I Had This…

…or some variation thereof, on my bedroom wall all through grade school. I took to drawing my own version of the planetsā€”no doubt as fanciful as these representations, neverĀ dreaming that during the course of my life we'd actually see each one up close via robotic probes!