1, Is the signal-to-noise ratio of the internet deteriorating? (Yes.) Is the divergence between actual content and the automated link-spider adsites, the thriving apocrypha trade, the articulate nonsense , the inarticulate rage, and the endless incestuous copy-paste regurgitated spam accelerating ? ... One day we may need state provision of mythbusting, meme-history, and quotation-sourcing: The Ministry of Snopes . ("An Enema for the Bottom Half of the internet since 2021.") (And that's before accounting for the operation of the iron law of trolldom: ) ********************************************************* 2, Several women I have known have eventually told me, more or less sternly, "Let's not talk philosophy." An awkward position, surely - for what else is there? ***************************************************** 3, Was aggressively asked the other day if I thought that being a vegan makes me better than other people. I thought about this for longer t