Simply Refreshing (Issue #185)

Freedom tech, future of etherium, AI friends, even bigger tech, mental health, Wordpress drama, Cuban & Musk, BTC mining, OpenAI, Islam, social media, Uk politics

Hello and welcome to my newsletter!

Another season 2 instalment…

I tried not preparing the newsletter early this week, hoping to get back to a more normal issue structure. All those updates are really annoying, totally break the flow. Anyway it’s Friday now and I’ve been sparrow attacked by extreme sparrow people the past two days. They basically make it impossible for you to do any work. It’s like if sparrows or hummingbirds were continuously flying all up in your face. Anytime you start doing anything they sparrow attack. It got so bad that they are now sparrow attacking constantly even when I’m sitting completely still just listening to podcasts. I can’t even take notes. So obviously I’m worried the newsletter won’t get sent out, so I’m creating this minimal issue to ensure something gets sent out. Maybe they will allow a real issue of the newsletter some day soon.

The more they sparrow the less will be in the issue. I literally can’t do anything else.

Peace Vietnam peace.

Peace World peace.

☮️✌️🕊

I made quite a lot of progress on development on the website this week, hence the title of this week’s issue. There’s a bit of a refreshed look about it with updated titles and fonts. Might be the start of something big. Check it out :)

https://markjgsmith.com/everything

If you want to send me some peace, please donate :) I’m still saving for a new laptop, if I ever manage to scrape together enough for that the newsletter will for sure improve. It’ll be even better! I’ll keep publishing as long as I can.

https://markjgsmith.com/donate

Here are the blog posts I wrote this week:

• Configurable day and article headers https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/10/07/configurable-day-and-article-headers

• Another configurable headers test post https://markjgsmith.com/2024/10/08/another-configurable-headers-test-post

• New heading fonts :) https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/10/09/new-heading-fonts

• Scarebundance https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/10/10/scarebundance

• Tom Tugendhat on the british system of government https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/10/11/tom-tugendhat-on-the-british-system-of-government

• Joe Rogan and Michael Shellenburger on the current problems in science and society https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/10/11/joe-rogan-and-michael-shellenburger-on-the-current-problems-in-science-and-society

Quite a lot about development this week compared to normal, since I got several new features added to the website. Pretty happy about that.

And the main event…the podcast selection…loads and loads of awesomeness this week.

Podcasts

• Decentralising Freedom: Bitcoin, Nostr and Artificial Intelligence with Ben Arc (Mr Obnoxious Podcast) https://www.mrobnoxious.com/episodes/decentralising-freedom-bitcoin-nostr-ben-arc

• Where is Etherium Headed? | Mike Ippolito & Mike Neuder (Bankless Podcast) https://www.bankless.com/where-is-ethereum-headed-mike-ippolito-mike-neuder

• Get ready to meet your AI best friend (Vergecast Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/415434?episode=28772810691

• Why in the AI Age, Big Tech is going to get significantly BIGGER with Keith TearEp#2211 (Keen On Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/240566?episode=28840960689

• How To Stop Big Tech Damaging Mental Health (The Rest is Money Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6582865?episode=28875256660

• W Hot Drama Week (Wordpress, WP Engine, Web Component - Oh My!) Ep#636 (Shop Talk Show Podcast) https://shoptalkshow.com/636

• Marc Cuban | All-In Summit 2024 (All-In Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/1015378?episode=28744359031

• Elon Musk | All-In Summit 2024 (All-In Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/1015378?episode=28954861248

• Ocean Mining with Luke, Mark, Jason and Mechanic Ep#140 (Citadel Dispatch Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/1365851?episode=28952521749

• Why OpenAI is a Terrible Business (Better Offline) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6793395?episode=28988968484

• Maajid Nawaz on Islam, Identity and Political Agendas Ep#007 (Mr Obnoxious Podcast) https://www.mrobnoxious.com/episodes/islam-identity-and-political-agendas-maajid-nawaz

• Useful Lessons From ‘Slow Social Media’ Ep#403 (Tech Dirt Podcast) https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/08/techdirt-podcast-episode-403-useful-lessons-from-slow-social-media

• Tom Tugendhat on Monday der using the UK and Political Reform (Conversations With Tyler) https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/tom-tugendhat

That’s all from me…

Best regards,

Mark

Consider buying me a coffee or becoming a patreon, any support would be very much appreciated. Check out the donation page for all the donation options:

https://markjgsmith.com/donate

Thanks for reading!

@markjgsmith

If you liked this newsletter you might like my blog, daily linkblog or experimental podcast :)

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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!