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Monday, January 19, 2026

Happy Birthday ...

Lysander Spooner would turn 217 years old today had he lived to ages typical of those asserted in the early Old Testament.

I quote Spooner at least once a week to the effect of:

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain -- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

But today I'd like to offer a second quote from him that I don't share as often but that's at least as continuingly apropos of current events:

A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government.

Web-Based Apps: Two Useful Tools of My Trade, and Maybe Yours

Over the span of several jobs/roles, I monitor -- and link to or otherwise make use of news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video content from -- more than 200 sites on a daily basis. Over the years I've tried out a lot of tools to make my work easier.

Two important specifications: These tools need to be 1) web-based and 2) cross-platform with respect to the browsers I can access them from. At any given time I might be working from a Linux desktop PC, a Chromebook laptop, or even an Android phone.  With respect to daily workflow, I need to be able to move from my desk to a car to a hotel room and not be messing around porting content from one machine to another.

To find the content, I use InoReader (not an affiliate link). It's a web-based RSS client through which I follow the 99% of my source sites which maintain functioning RSS feeds (shame on the others, but a couple of them are important enough to manually visit as necessary).

To set aside the content for further use, I can't just choose one browser and make sure I keep it synced across all the devices I use. Some of my devices can't run some browsers.  Booky (not an affiliate link) lets me keep nicely categorized bookmarks all in one place on the web and accessible to me whether I'm using Microsoft Edge, Chromium, Chrome, Falkon, Brave, whatever. On any given day, there's a good chance I'll be using at least two of those five.

If your job involves 1) many web sites and 2) multiple computers, you may find both of those tools useful.

Wordle 1675 Hint

 Hint: Like a car treated with Turtle, or a surfboard treated with Sex.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: W