Open Thread: Castles Are Forever

Fridays are for learning and contemplation

April 2nd, 2021

Yes, I saw the Gaetz news, but there’s probably nothing you or I can do about that today. Fridays are for learning and contemplation.

Learning: 

Anil Dash on how he and Kevin McCoy invented NFTs, and how it didn’t go the way they expected:

The idea behind NFTs was, and is, profound. Technology should be enabling artists to exercise control over their work, to more easily sell it, to more strongly protect against others appropriating it without permission. By devising the technology specifically for artistic use, McCoy and I hoped we might prevent it from becoming yet another method of exploiting creative professionals. But nothing went the way it was supposed to. Our dream of empowering artists hasn’t yet come true, but it has yielded a lot of commercially exploitable hype.

Contemplation: 

Let’s look at castles! “Scottish Castles Are Rare, Huge and Very Expensive” in the Wall St. Journal has some sympathetic burbling about how it’s a shame Lord Whosis and the Countess of Whatshershire have to sell the family seat, but honestly we’re all just here for the glamour shots.

And via Laura Olin, who has an excellent weekly newsletter herself, here’s Introspective Magazine on Jeremy Irons’s Irish castle and passion for interior design. It’s a couple years old but castles are forever. Don’t miss the bedroom with a wicker ceiling!

It’s an open thread! Happy Friday, happy weekend, next week the new Intern starts! Who will it be? I don’t know yet, I’m deciding today, but there are some very strong applicants. If you’re a subscriber, hit the 💬 and say hi.

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