Honda announced today that it’s going to close its plant in Swindon, UK in 2021, and that this decision has nothing to do with Brexit, even though the plant accounts for 1/10th the auto output in the UK. Why do I care? Our trusty CR-V was built in the Swindon plant and shipped here.
The loss of such a major employer in Swindon, which backed Brexit in the June 2016 referendum, risks a further 10,000 jobs in the supply chain, which could have knock-on effects for other carmakers due to the interconnected nature of the sector.
I guess voting against your own self-interest isn’t exclusive to the Colonies.
We had friends over for drinks and dinner last night and they brought the fixings for several different delicious cocktails. One of these was one I haven’t had, called War of the Roses, which features Pimm’s, gin (which I rarely drink), elderflower liqueur, and lime juice. It sounds like it could be very bad but it tastes very, very good.
Amazon announced yesterday that it’s buying Eero, a company that makes mesh wireless devices that apparently work very well. I’m not excited by this; I’m exhausted. The Verge says it perfectly:
It’s exhausting thinking about how rapacious big companies are when it comes to our data. It’s exhausting to think about how difficult it is for independent companies to stay independent.
I wanted a Nest thermostat really bad too.
Fight the Ship is an excellent longform journalism piece by ProPublica about the collision of the USS Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal, a 730 foot container ship off the coast of Japan. It’s also a scathing indictment of the Navy’s budgetary mismanagement of its global mission.
Back in the heyday of the Smashing Pumpkins, the band played a gig in 1992 at a club in Detroit and Billy Corgan’s favorite guitar was stolen off the stage. This was the guitar he used on Gish, and to hear him tell the story, it’s the guitar that changed his–and the band’s–sound for the better. Someone came forward with it this week and gave it back to him after buying it at a yard sale, turning down a sizable reward.
PS. he looks like a dope in that coat.
This is an online security checklist recently published as the result of a podcast discussion. There’s a ton of good information in there, not the least of which is 1.1.1.1: a DNS lookup service that promises not to sell your information to third parties. My switch away from Chrome is long overdue.
Billboard did an oral history of Nothing’s Shocking for the 30th anniversary of its release. HOLY SHIT I AM OLD. Previously, previously.
The Atlantic did a great pictorial of the 116th Congressional swearing-in. The difference between the Democratic side and the Republican side is stark and staggering.
ERP. If I had a couple million dollars laying around…
Huh. A 5-second timelapse video I posted on YouTube 10 years ago of me staining the porch floor has over 10,000 views. I have no idea why.