Tuesday Trash Day Soiree
This is the time of year in Maine when the leaves start to change color and fall out of the trees. In Los Angeles the birds inhale the smog, turn colors, and fall out of the trees. But wherever you are, pumpkin spice season is here. It’s a good time to clean out your basement and tidy up your affairs. I’ll start by cleaning out my browser bookmarks. They’re things I’ve been meaning to read, but have been unable to find time for. So once a week, my website turns into the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Their motto? We’d rather waste your time, than ours.
California jewelry business sues Indiana over cash seized at FedEx facility
In April, police inspectors at the Indianapolis FedEx distribution center seized a box containing nearly $43,000 in cash. Even though no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the package, it’s been in the government’s possession for about four months.
Now, the box’s intended recipient, Henry Minh Inc., is pursuing a class action lawsuit against the state of Indiana.
I’m sure we’re all enjoying the government’s transition to a Letters of Marque operation. It’s like the IRS with fewer steps.
How to Make Millions as a Professional Whistleblower
Richard Overum is not a member of law enforcement or a government official. He’s something else: a rarefied practitioner in a line of work he’s all but created for himself. He hunts businesspeople he suspects are breaking the law—a job that by virtue of oft-overlooked sections of federal law can end up paying remarkably well. Tucked into the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal and the economic calamity of the late aughts, are provisions meant to encourage people who spot signs of potential financial wrongdoing to come to the government with information. The incentive? If the agencies take enforcement action based on a tip resulting in sanctions in excess of $1 million, the law says, one or more whistleblowers can earn an award equal to 10 to 30 percent of what’s collected.
I’m sure we’re all enjoying the government’s transition to a Letters of Marque operation. It’s like the IRS with fewer steps.
Tesla Locks Baby In Car On 109-Degree Day For Seemingly No Reason
Pineda has since reached out to Tesla to try and figure out what caused the car to lock with her child inside, with little in the way of answers offered by the automaker so far. According to Fox11, the company initially thought the issue stemmed from a software update, but upon inspection of the vehicle they found that “nothing was wrong with the car.”
Software. Is there anything it can’t do? Read that last sentence again, and think about what I really meant.
LLMs Will Always Hallucinate, and We Need to Live With This
This work argues that hallucinations in language models are not just occasional errors but an inevitable feature of these systems. We demonstrate that hallucinations stem from the fundamental mathematical and logical structure of LLMs. It is, therefore, impossible to eliminate them through architectural improvements, dataset enhancements, or fact-checking mechanisms.
Software. Is there anything it can’t do? Read that last sentence again, and think about what I really meant.
But here’s the strange thing. Readers are hungry for the longer, smarter writing that these periodicals refuse to publish. As a result, readers increasingly bypass the magazine and deal directly with writers.
That’s the new reality in media. Readers are now more loyal to writers than they are to periodicals. They seek them out. They trust them more. The magazine as an aggregating concept is increasingly irrelevant.
Video killed the radio star, and Substack killed Reader’s Digest. Or something.
Yet, that’s the problem: I am in love with the idea of having published a book, but not with publishing a specific book. I want to have published a book and have the identity of ‘author’, in the same way one might want to have ‘learned to read Mandarin’ or ‘become a bodybuilder’, but not to actually sweat through memorizing (and then forgetting) endless arbitrary characters or hours in the gym (followed by gluttony as cruel as the starvation).
Video killed the radio star, and Substack killed Reader’s Digest. And the lack of an advance kills books in the womb.
This adapter lets you use cheap eSIM plans on any Android phone
Why bother buying an eSIM adapter just to use eSIM plans in the first place? The reason is cost. The best eSIMs for international travel are often significantly cheaper than buying a local SIM card when you arrive at your destination. Plus, they’re more convenient to set up because you can buy them before you leave home.
I recently traveled out of the country, and my phone service provider charged me five dollars a day extra, on top of their usual exorbitant rate. Yeah, I want an eSIM adapter, and a couple of rolls of toilet paper to put in Verizon’s shrubs.
Your Very Own Personal Taxi Service (via Some It’s Just as Well)
I’m pretty sure that gave me diabetes. But I didn’t mind.
“The Church Lady”, Specializing in the Sale of Church Real Estate
If you are looking to buy or sell a Church, you have come to the right place! With full time real estate experience since 1987, and selling Church property since 1993, “The Church Lady”, will make your real estate purchase or sale go smoothly. As an expert in the field of Church Sales, Cheryl is well versed in the needs of today’s Churches, and will help you sell your existing property for top dollar, while assisting you in the purchase or construction of your new worship facility.
I’m pretty sure that gave me clinical depression.
The labor market impacts of ridesharing on American Cities
I estimate that Uber’s arrival to a city resulted in decline in the unemployment rate by between a fifth and a half of a percentage point. This suggests that Uber allowed many workers to supplement their earnings during periods of unemployment, framing the ridesharing service as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, traditional employment. I also find some evidence that Uber had a very small positive effect on wages at the lower end of the wage distribution, suggesting that Uber may have altered worker search behavior or affected bargaining power.
Everyone is taking an Uber ride everywhere except to church, I guess.
There’s the roundup for today. Now go out there and make Tuesday pay for the way Monday treated you.
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