In Summary: * Started early on the laundry today (it is Monday, you know) and got two good-sized loads washed, dried, folded and put away. And still had time to get in a good nap before today's baseball game. The Mets are leading the Rockies 4 to 0 in the top of the 7th inning in that game now, btw. And I'll have plenty of time to take care of the night prayers after the game ends, and still head to bed early.

That's my plan, anyway.

Prayers, etc.: * I have a daily prayer regimen I try to follow throughout the day from early morning, as soon as I roll out of bed, until head hits pillow at night. Details of that regimen are linked to my link tree, which is linked to my profile page here.

Starting Ash Wednesday, 2026, I've added this daily prayer as part of the Prayer Crusade Preceding the 2026 SSPX Episcopal Consecrations.

Health Metrics: * bw= 233.8 lbs. * bp= 126/89 (70)

Exercise: * morning stretches, balance exercises, kegel pelvic floor exercises, half squats, calf raises, wall push-ups

Diet: * 05:50 – 1 banana * 06:15 – 2 peanut butter cookies * 07:45 – fried chicken * 12:30 – cheese, crackers, and sliced ham * 17:15 – 1 fresh apple

Activities, Chores, etc.: * 04:30 – listen to local news talk radio * 05:15 – bank accounts activity monitored. * 05:40 – read, write, pray, follow news reports from various sources, surf the socials, nap. * 08:30 – started my weekly laundry * 12:30 – follow news reports from various sources * 16:30 – have been listening to the Pregame Show ahead of this afternoon's MLB Game between the New York Mets and the Colorado Rockies. Opening pitch is only minutes away.

Chess: * 09:50 – moved in all pending CC games

This post is Part 2 of a series on social revolutions of the past 30 years — where public consciousness has massively shifted in favor of liberation. My aim is to create space to pause and acknowledge how things have changed in ways that once felt impossible, remind us that things can always be otherwise. It is inspired in part by Rebecca Solnit’s 2016 edition of Hope in the Dark and David Graeber’s 2007 essay “The Shock of Victory.”

I remember when I first heard the phase “abolish the police” back in 2020, I thought it was pretty much fantasy. I had grown up on copaganda movies and TV and immediately thought “but who’s going to catch all the murderers and rapists?!”

Once I had done some digging and learned oh, actually cops are NOT catching many murderers or rapists, my next logical question was, “okay so what’s your alternative?”

In this blog post, I will explore the evolution of mainstream ideas about policing and how we’ve shifted our focus away from reform efforts (which have failed time and again), to building a multi-faceted constellation of alternatives to support human flourishing at all levels of society — instead of punishing people and locking them up which, beyond being inhumane, simply does not stop crime.

Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) by the luminary Angela Y. Davis.

Despite mainstream liberals like former President Obama decrying it as too radical, the slogan “Defund the Police” brought what was basically a fringe position before the #BlackLivesMatter uprisings of 2020 to a topic of discussion on all major news outlets. You could see it on signs at protests, graffiti on walls, banners on buildings, posters in coffee shops, and chalk on the sidewalks.

This massive spotlight on anti-police and prison movements also influenced mainstream film and TV, with a 2021 article claiming that 127 episodes of television had addressed the Movement for Black Lives onscreen just that year, with popular “progressive” cop shows like Brooklyn 99 doing entire arcs responding to the uprisings, culminating in beloved characters leaving the fictionalized NY police force.

No matter how controversial the slogan may have been in 2020, “Defund the Police” brought what was formerly a radical activist position into the mainstream discourse. Even those who disliked the slogan admitted that they were for shifting funding away from law enforcement and toward education, social services, arts, parks, and other quality of life investments in public infrastructure.

The average moderate today is far more aware that social and economic issues are often the source of crime, that prisons reproduce criminals, that the history of modern policing lies in slave patrols and protecting private property — NOT in bringing murderers to justice.

Today, “abolish ICE” is a rallying cry across even formerly moderate groups, like Indivisible, which co-organizes the mass rally #NoKings protests.

Protestors holding up anti-ICE signs at Portland Protest in 2025, source: Daily Emerald

This is genuinely worth celebrating, because as much as it might feel like the scale of the 2020 BLM protests came out of nowhere, there is a long and rarely-told history of abolitionist organizing from at least 1970s with Black Feminists and the “Free Angela Davis campaign” — but we can connect it much farther back to the lineage of abolitionist organizing against slavery in the 1800s with formerly enslaved Black activists and intellectuals like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.

The Backlash

As always, when groups succeed in organizing for liberation or achieving greater visibility, there is a reactionary backlash of people and institutions who are afraid of freedom and feel threatened by marginalized people gaining power and autonomy. Far from defunding the police, since 2020 a majority of states and cities have increased their police budgets and increased police militarization.

Police in riot gear facing down a line of protestors. source: Indiana University Library

In my previous entry of this series, I talked about the backlash against revisionist history projects like the 1619 Project, which was intended to provide a long overdue counter-narrative to the glorifying mythology most Americans are taught about the founding of our country. I also outlined the escalating trend of charging non-violent activists with terrorism. The anti-critical race theory (CRT) culture war also emerges out of the same milieu as anti-BLM backlash.

But despite all the effort Republicans put into misinformation and fearmongering, with the rise of nowadays, you’ll hear even previously moderate progressives say ACAB, particularly with the escalation in violence against even non-violent white citizens like Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.

Today, even older white moderates are, for the first time, identifying law enforcement as a source of danger and not protection. In the past, this type of violence has largely been confined to borders, prisons, concentration camps, and BIPOC communities more generally, but with the extreme escalation of Trump 2.0’s ICE, we are seeing plainly the oft-quoted words:

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

-Maya Angelou

What I see as the biggest risk in the current phase of mass participation, rally-based politics which center narrowly on abolishing ICE and removing Donald Trump from office, is that framing the problem as only these issues discourages deeper questioning of the structures and institutions which are foundational to America.

My biggest fear

Calling ICE “the gestapo” (as I myself have in a video essay, analyzing the ties between a certain yogurt CEO and the Department of Homeland Security) is accurate in a sense of drawing a necessary comparison between the contemporary fascism of the Christian Nationalist regime of the US to that of Nazi Germany; on the other hand, calling ICE the gestapo conveniently distances ICE from the broader institution of US policing, making it seem like a complete and unprecedented aberration, when in reality, this is an expansion of the practices baked into America from its very founding by slave-owners who enjoyed waxing poetic about Liberty — as uncomfortable as that makes many of us (and it’s clear it makes Republicans VERY uncomfortable).

The influential Brazilian educator and theorist Paolo Freire refers to this type of cultural consciousness, where people are aware there are problems in society but tend to view those problems quite narrowly, as Naive Transitivity, which he defines:

An over-simplification of problems; by a nostalgia for the past; by underestimation of the common man; by a strong tendency to gregariousness; by a lack of interest in investigation, accompanied by an accentuated taste for fanciful explanations; by fragility of argument; by a strongly emotional style; by the practice of polemics rather than dialogue; by magical explanations - Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness (1997): p. 18

When I see bumper stickers saying “No one is above the Law” or “Impeach Trump” or “Veto the Cheeto” — and the very basic “No Kings Since 1776,” it’s clear that these people are invoking rose-colored ideas of American Democracy and a nostalgia for the American Revolution.

Slogans that center on a single action — imagining that “the problem” would be solved if we simply got rid of Trump or got Congress to veto his laws (despite many of his actions being carried out by Executive Order, far easier to wield than a 2/3 supermajority in a body of government engineered to be disconnected from democratic oversight — the very existence of the Senate represents founders’ fears that too much democratic control would be dangerous!) — these slogans are oversimplifications of structural problems.

My biggest hope

Putting aside my skepticism that the large number of people attending anti-Trump rallies are really questioning the roots of American imperialism or white supremacy, I am seeing a tremendously inspiring trend emerging in bottom-up democracy: the rise of Neighbor Unions — a relatively novel form of autonomous place-based organizing. The Institute for Social Ecology defines them:

an organization dedicated to building a community of solidarity at the scale of a neighborhood, and empowering that community to strive toward self-governance. Through welcoming events, consistent outreach, relationship building, and practical projects, organizers work to help people overcome their sense of isolation and powerlessness by getting to know their neighbors, supporting each other in concrete ways, and participating directly in the process of reshaping local life for the common good.

Neighbor Unions emerge from Murray Bookchin’s work on Social Ecology, anarchism, direct management experiments like the Rojava Revolution, indigenous consensus-based self-management practices which go back thousands of years, and the experiences of community assemblies practiced in the #Occupy Movement. They are fundamentally grassroots and broad, not stuck in insular sectarian debates.

source: Institute for Social Ecology

Neighbor Unions are organizing locally to take care of our neighbors and build confidence in our abilities to self-manage and take direct action in our communities.

That includes restorative and transformative justice, like that practiced by women-led community mediators in Rojava, advocacy and prison diversion programs like the Restorative Justice Initiative in NYC, the effective but ultimately underfunded experiment in 911 crisis call diversion CAHOOTS in Eugene, OR, and many other initiatives in the U.S. and around the world.

It’s not easy work to replace a system of structural policing and incarceration, but the very first step toward it is building trust with our local community and learning how to take care of each other.

Suggested Reads

• Are Prisons Obsolete?, Angela Y. Davis
• Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety, Cara Page & Erica Woodland
• Rattling the Cages: Dispatches from Behind Bars, AK Press

#writing #revolution #stopcopcity #blm #abolition #education #essay #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice #abolishICE #prisonabolition #prison #prisonlife #prisonbreakedit #freethemall #criminaljustice #endmassincarceration #criminaldefense #criminaldefenselawyer #accesstojustice #prisonart #notguilty #lawyers #endcashbail #court #wrongfulconvictions #endthedeathpenalty #criminaldefenseattorney #restorativejustice #transformativejustice

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Same Askew, new home. We've migrated off write.as to a self-hosted WriteFreely instance — same software, no monthly fee, full control of the federation actor and our own data.

If you follow Askew on the fediverse at @askew@write.as, please re-follow at @askew@blog.askew.network. ActivityPub's auto-migration mechanism (Move activity) requires keys we don't hold for the old account, so it has to be a manual hop.

All 76 prior posts are at the new host with the same slugs. The old write.as URLs redirect for 30 days, then go away.

New York Mets vs Colorado Rockies.

Monday's game of choice in the Roscoe-verse is an MLB game and features the New York Mets vs the Colorado Rockies. The scheduled start time for this game is 5:40 PM CDT, less than half an hour from now as I sit here listening to the Mets Pregame Show. This radio station will also be bringing me the call of the game.

And the adventure continues.

Just one for me tomorrow at Ayr, and it’s one that’s easily found in the market.

4.30 Ayr TAYGAR is the selection here, not least because of Michael Dod’s excellent recent record at the track, winning with his last 2 runners and 3 from his last 5. The 5yo also seems to love it here with form figures of 311, off marks of 70, 68 and 62. He goes off 62 today so is obviously well handicapped, especially as the third and most recent win were in class 4 events and today’s is a class 6. The run LTO should have brought him on nicely and with the ground not a cause for concern, he should be right up there. Not sure if it’s significant but Mulrennan takes the ride today having not ridden for Dodsy since February. He has ridden TAYGAR before though, 8 times infact, winning once. Probably nonsense but semi interesting nonetheless.

TAYGAR // 1pt Win @ 7/2 (Coral)

Tigana est un roman de Guy Gavriel Kay publié en 1990. Après la trilogie de Fionavar, l’auteur canadien s’éloignait alors de la fantasy classique pour entrer dans le genre pour lequel il est désormais reconnu : la fantasy historique.

Tigana is the magical story of a beleaguered land struggling to be free. It is the tale of a people so cursed by the black sorcery of a cruel despotic king that even the name of their once-beautiful homeland cannot be spoken or remembered...

But years after the devastation, a handful of courageous men and women embark upon a dangerous crusade to overthrow their conquerors and bring back to the dark world the brilliance of a long-lost name...Tigana.

Against the magnificently rendered background of a world both sensuous and barbaric, this sweeping epic of a passionate people pursuing their dream is breathtaking in its vision, changing forever the boundaries of fantasy fiction.

Guy Gavriel Kay propose un univers de fantasy historique inspiré de l'Italie de la Renaissance : une péninsule envahie par des puissances étrangères, des provinces désunies face aux conquérants, des aristocrates qui complotent, des vengeances sanglantes ou plus pernicieuses, des familles brisées, des exilés déterminés et des destins tragiques.

Ce roman m’a happé dès les premières pages. L’ambiance et le style m’ont tout de suite séduit, et l’auteur fait preuve d’un excellent sens de la narration pour captiver le lecteur dès le début et ne plus le lâcher jusqu’à la dernière page. C’est en tout cas ainsi que je l’ai vécu. À plusieurs reprises j’ai été partagé entre l’envie de lire lentement pour savourer chaque page et la tentation de dévorer les chapitres le plus vite possible pour découvrir la suite.

Au premier abord, les personnages peuvent sembler des stéréotypes mais ils gagnent vite en complexité et en épaisseur. Dans ce roman, Guy Gavriel Kay démontre un grand talent pour écrire des personnages profondément humains. Il le fait si bien que dans les derniers chapitres, je n’ai pas pu m’empêcher de ressentir de l’empathie pour celui qui est pourtant censé être le « méchant » de l’histoire.

Comme les personnages, l’intrigue pourrait sembler assez basique quand on lit le résumé ou les tous premiers chapitres. En apparence, on peut d’abord croire qu’il s’agit du récit déjà vu de la révolte d’une nation sous la férule d’un tyran. En réalité, l’auteur propose un récit parfaitement ciselé et d’une richesse remarquable. Il joue magistralement entre les registres de l’épique et l’intime, et le lecteur est tour à tour emporté ou ému, parfois d’une phrase à l’autre.

Tigana est un magnifique roman sur l’impérialisme et le colonialisme, sur l’oppression et la révolte, sur le pouvoir du langage et des noms, sur le devoir de mémoire et le droit à l’oubli. Dans sa postface, Guy Gavriel Kay a cette très belle phrase que j’ai très envie de citer :

Tigana is in good part a novel about memory : the necessity of it, in cultural terms, and the dangers that come when it is too intense.

Je ne pense pas exagérer en affirmant que Tigana est l’un des meilleurs romans de fantasy que j’ai eu l’occasion de lire dans ma vie. Je suis épaté par le talent que l’auteur démontre dans ce roman, son quatrième seulement, et le premier après la trilogie de Fionavar. S’il a continué à développer son art de l’écriture, je vais me régaler et je n’ose imaginer les chefs d’œuvre qui m’attendent dans les prochaines semaines, au fur et à mesure que je vais lire ses romans suivants.

A Fine memory: I was having UNIX class, and one classmate who was older than me, a taxi driver, he looked me dead in the eye, handed me a sheet of paper and asked me to write down my IP number.

He accused me for some reason for trying to hack his server, he’d seen an IP number from my area in his logs,

I said ”no” I won’t give him my IP address, suggested he setup port knocking or or fail2ban or something, to which he responded, and I quote: “I will fuck you in front of the class”

I said OK

And then he quit after that, I think he got expelled.

I don’t know what made him so aggressive, I’d never talked to the guy before that…

Another classmate used to lose his front tooth, it’d just fall out of his mouth when speaking. He would then pick it up off the ground and put it in his pocket.

I think he didn’t want us to see him putting it straight back into his mouth

Of the ground

Anyway he got a new set of front teeth from the dentist’s, eventually. (I remember them as being bigger than they probably actually were.)

I wonder what all those people are up to these days

2 May 2026

“Beggar's Song” by Gregory Orr (2002)

Here's a seed. Food for a week. Cow skull in the pasture; back room where the brain was: spacious hut for me.

Small then, and smaller. My desire's to stay alive and be no larger than a sliver lodged in my own heart.

And if the heart's a rock I'll whack it with this tin cup and eat the sparks, always screaming, always screaming for more.

El papel del CTO ha cambiado más en los últimos 5 años que en las dos décadas anteriores.

Hace 15 años, ser CTO significaba mantener servidores funcionando y asegurar que los sistemas no fallaran. Hoy, significa definir cómo la tecnología impulsa ventaja competitiva. Dos olas tecnológicas transformaron este rol: primero la nube, ahora la IA.

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Primera transformación: La era de la nube (2010-2020) Antes de la nube, el CTO era principalmente un administrador de infraestructura: • Negociaba contratos de hardware con proveedores • Planificaba capacidad de servidores con 18 meses de anticipación, estimando el crecimiento de los usuarios • Gestionaba centros de datos físicos • 70% del presupuesto se iba en mantener lo existente • 30% (si acaso) en innovación

La pregunta clave era: “¿Cuántos servidores necesitamos comprar?”

La nube cambió todo: • De CAPEX a OPEX: comprar menos, consumir más • De planificación anual a elasticidad en minutos • De administrar hardware a orquestar servicios • De construir todo a integrar lo mejor de cada proveedor

El CTO pasó de ser “el que mantiene o provee la infraestructura” a “un habilitador clave para el negocio”.

La pregunta cambió a: “¿Qué capacidades tecnológicas necesitamos para ejecutar nuestra estrategia de negocio?”

Nuevas responsabilidades emergieron: • Definir arquitectura multi-nube • Gestionar costos variables en lugar de activos fijos • Establecer prácticas de DevOps y CI/CD • Gobernar seguridad en entornos distribuidos • Habilitar velocidad sin sacrificar control

Para muchos CTOs, esta transición fue traumática: Los que se adaptaron se convirtieron en socios estratégicos del CEO. Los que no, quedaron administrando aplicaciones y servicios legados mientras la empresa avanzaba sin ellos.

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Segunda transformación: La era de la IA (2020-presente) Justo cuando los CTOs dominaron la nube, llegó la IA generativa y cambió las reglas otra vez.

El desafío ahora no es solo tecnológico. Es estratégico, ético y organizacional. Antes de la IA: El CTO podía delegar la innovación a un equipo de desarrollo. La tecnología era un enabler, pero el negocio definía el qué.

Con la IA: El CTO debe participar activamente en definir qué procesos transformar, qué decisiones automatizar, qué riesgos gestionar.

La IA no es un proyecto más. Es una capacidad que cruza toda la organización.

Las nuevas preguntas que enfrenta el CTO: Estrategia • ¿Dónde invertimos primero en IA: procesos internos o productos para clientes? • ¿Construimos modelos propios o usamos APIs de terceros? • ¿Cómo medimos ROI de iniciativas de IA? Datos • ¿Nuestros datos están listos para entrenar modelos? • ¿Cómo gobernamos el uso de datos en IA? • ¿Qué hacemos con datos sesgados o incompletos? Gobernanza • ¿Quién aprueba el uso de IA en decisiones críticas? • ¿Cómo explicamos decisiones tomadas por modelos? • ¿Qué hacemos cuando un modelo se equivoca? Ética y riesgo • ¿Cómo evitamos sesgos en modelos de IA? • ¿Qué información pueden procesar nuestros modelos? • ¿Cómo protegemos privacidad cuando usamos IA generativa? Talento • ¿Reentrenamos al equipo actual o contratamos especialistas? • ¿Cómo retenemos talento de IA en un mercado competitivo? • ¿Qué roles nuevos necesitamos crear? Cultura • ¿Cómo gestionamos el miedo de que la IA reemplace empleos? • ¿Cómo creamos mentalidad de experimentación? • ¿Cómo balanceamos innovación con gestión de riesgo?

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El CTO moderno: Tres roles en uno

1. Arquitecto de capacidades tecnológicas Ya no solo defines qué sistemas implementar. Defines qué capacidades necesita la organización y cómo la tecnología las habilita. • Infraestructura en la nube para escalar • Plataformas de datos para alimentar IA • APIs y microservicios para integrar • Seguridad y cumplimiento desde el diseño

2. Líder de transformación organizacional La tecnología no funciona si la organización no está lista. El CTO moderno lidera el cambio cultural. • Diseña Centros de Excelencia (CoE) en nube e IA • Establece nuevas formas de trabajar (ágil, DevOps, MLOps) • Gestiona resistencia al cambio • Desarrolla capacidades del equipo

3. Socio estratégico del negocio El CEO y el CFO esperan que el CTO traduzca tendencias tecnológicas en oportunidades de negocio. • Identifica casos de uso de IA con impacto medible • Evalúa riesgo vs retorno de inversiones tecnológicas • Comunica estrategia técnica en lenguaje de negocio • Participa en decisiones estratégicas de la empresa

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Los CTOs que prosperan en la era de IA tienen tres características:

1. Piensan en capacidades, no en proyectos No preguntan “¿Qué proyecto de IA lanzamos?” Preguntan “¿Qué capacidades organizacionales necesitamos desarrollar para aprovechar IA de forma sostenible?”

Invierten en: • Plataformas de datos reutilizables • Infraestructura de experimentación (sandboxes) • Procesos de gobernanza escalables • Talento y cultura de aprendizaje continuo

2. Balancean velocidad con responsabilidad Saben que la presión es innovar rápido. Pero también entienden que un modelo de IA mal implementado puede generar más daño que beneficio.

Establecen: • Marcos de evaluación de riesgo para casos de uso de IA • Procesos de revisión ética antes de desplegar • Monitoreo continuo de modelos en producción • Planes de contingencia cuando los modelos fallan

3. Comunican en lenguaje de negocio, no de tecnología Dejaron de hablar de “transformadores” y “tecnología aplicada”. Hablan de reducir tiempo de respuesta 40%, predecir demanda con 85% de precisión, o personalizar ofertas para aumentar conversión 25%.

Miden éxito en resultados de negocio, no en métricas técnicas.

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El desafío particular de las MiPymes mexicanas

En las MiPymes, el CTO enfrenta limitaciones únicas: • Presupuestos ajustados que no permiten grandes apuestas • Equipos técnicos pequeños con múltiples responsabilidades • Presión por resultados rápidos sin margen de error • Dificultad para competir por talento especializado

Pero también tienen ventajas: • Decisiones más rápidas sin capas de burocracia • Mayor cercanía entre tecnología y negocio • Flexibilidad para experimentar y pivotar • Impacto visible de cada iniciativa

El CTO de una MiPyme mexicana exitosa: • Convierte limitaciones en criterio para establecer prioridades • Usa la nube para acceder a capacidades que no podría construir • Experimenta en pequeño antes de escalar • Construye alianzas con consultores que entienden su contexto • Se enfoca en casos de uso con ROI claro y rápido

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Tres recomendaciones para CTOs navegando la era de IA:

1. No intentes hacer todo al mismo tiempo La IA abarca demasiado. Enfócate: • Identifica 2-3 casos de uso con mayor impacto para tu negocio • Valida con experimentos pequeños antes de escalar • Construye capacidades reutilizables que sirvan para múltiples casos

2. Invierte tanto en cultura como en tecnología La mejor plataforma de IA falla si tu equipo no la adopta: • Involucra a las áreas de negocio desde el diseño • Comunica claramente qué cambia y qué permanece • Celebra experimentos, incluso los que fallan • Desarrolla talento interno en paralelo a contratar externo

3. Busca socios, no solo proveedores No necesitas saberlo todo. Necesitas acceso a quienes sí saben: • Consultores que te acompañen hasta producción, no solo hasta la presentación • Proveedores de nube con programas de soporte para MiPymes • Comunidades de práctica donde compartir aprendizajes • Academia para desarrollar talento a mediano plazo

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El futuro del CTO

La próxima evolución ya está en marcha: Los CTOs que dominen IA ahora enfrentarán pronto: • Computación cuántica aplicada a optimización y criptografía • IA agente que toma decisiones autónomas • Interfaces cerebro-computadora en aplicaciones comerciales • Regulación cada vez más estricta sobre uso de IA

El patrón es claro: el rol del CTO seguirá expandiéndose de lo técnico a lo estratégico.

Los que prosperarán son quienes entiendan que su trabajo ya no es solo implementar tecnología.

Es transformar organizaciones usando tecnología como palanca.

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¿Eres CTO navegando la transformación de nube e IA? ¿Qué desafíos enfrentas que no se mencionaron aquí?

Comparte tu experiencia en los comentarios. Aprendemos más de las experiencias reales que de las teorías.

When the international smokehouse brand Meat Moot planned its expansion into Dubai’s JBR, the mission was to create a flagship destination that combined heavy-duty industrial cooking with luxury hospitality. Capital Associated Building Contracting LLC was appointed as the lead contracting company to manage this high-stakes conversion. As one of the most versatile general contractors in UAE, our task was to transform a standard beachfront shell into a high-capacity, smokehouse-compliant environment within an accelerated timeline.

1. The Challenge: Industrial Requirements in a Luxury Zone

The primary hurdle was the location itself. Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) is one of the most densely populated residential and tourism hubs in Dubai. This presented three significant challenges:

• Environmental Control: Standard commercial kitchens aren't designed for the volume of smoke produced by a traditional pit-master smokehouse. We had to ensure zero atmospheric impact on the surrounding promenade and luxury residences.
• Structural Modification: The existing flooring was not rated for the dead load of industrial-grade smokers and large-scale refrigerated displays.
• Logistical Constraints: Operating within a high-traffic tourism zone meant that heavy machinery and material deliveries were restricted to tight nocturnal windows.

2. The Technical Solution: Engineering for “Meat Theatre”

Phase I: Structural Reinforcement & Foundations

A contracting company must prioritize safety above aesthetics. To accommodate the weight of the custom-made smokers and the constant vibration of high-capacity HVAC units, our structural team implemented localized slab reinforcement. We utilized high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete and specialized under-slab supports to ensure long-term structural integrity without compromising the height clearance of the floor below.

Phase II: High-Capacity MEP & Smoke Mitigation

For general contractors in Dubai, the heat is always the enemy. We engineered a custom MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) system featuring:

• Advanced Scrubber Technology: To manage the smokehouse exhaust, we installed a multi-stage water-wash scrubber system. This technology removes 99% of grease and particulate matter before the air is discharged.
• Climate Balance: In a restaurant where open-fire pits are the centerpiece, maintaining a comfortable 22°C for diners is a massive energy challenge. We utilized a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) to balance the high extraction rates with cooled, filtered fresh air.

Phase III: The Architectural Fit-Out

The aesthetic required an “Industrial Chic” finish. This involved the use of raw, heavy materials that are notoriously difficult to work with in a refined setting.

• Corten Steel & Reclaimed Wood: Our team managed the fabrication of custom steel fixtures and the treatment of wood to meet Dubai Civil Defence fire-retardant standards while maintaining a rustic appearance.
• Bespoke Lighting: To create the “theatre” effect, we integrated DALI-controlled lighting systems that highlight the carving stations, creating a focal point for the guest experience.

3. Execution Excellence: From Shell to Handover

The project was managed through a rigorous “Shell to Handover” methodology. As a contracting company that prides itself on transparency, we utilized BIM (Building Information Modeling) to detect clashes between the heavy exhaust ducts and the architectural ceiling features before a single bolt was turned. This saved approximately 15% in potential rework costs.

The project site, located at Meat Moot JBR, required daily coordination with Dubai Municipality. Our team ensured that all certifications—from grease trap approvals to health and safety permits—were secured ahead of schedule, allowing the client to begin soft-opening trials ten days earlier than originally planned.

4. Results & Impact

The successful completion of MeatMoot JBR has set a new benchmark for restaurant construction in the region.

• Operational Efficiency: The kitchen layout, designed by our technical team, optimized the workflow for chefs, reducing ticket times during peak hours.
• Sustainability: The filtration systems implemented are among the cleanest in JBR, ensuring the restaurant remains a “good neighbor” to the surrounding residents.
• Brand Growth: Following the success of this flagship, Capital Associated continues to be a preferred choice among general contractors in UAE for international brands looking to enter the Middle East market.

Conclusion

The MeatMoot JBR project is a definitive example of how technical engineering and luxury design can coexist. By addressing the structural and mechanical challenges of a smokehouse with precision, Capital Associated Building Contracting LLC proved that a dedicated contracting company can turn even the most complex culinary vision into a commercial reality.

Project Details:

• Location: JBR, Dubai
• Sector: Hospitality / F&B
• Specialty: Industrial-Grade Kitchen Fit-out
• Contractor: Capital Associated Building Contracting LLC
• Design Company: Algedra Interior Design

The Short Version

PlantLab's API now returns a reliability_score field on every diagnosis. A number from 0 to 1 telling you how likely the answer is to be correct on this specific image. It replaces the old diagnostic_confidence and safety_classification fields, which were rule-based guesses that I never trusted. The new score is much better at flagging the diagnoses that turn out to be wrong – especially on the hard cases, which is where you actually need it. Schema bumped from 1.x to 2.0.0. If you're integrating with PlantLab today, the migration is a one-line change.

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The problem with “confidence” fields

Most diagnosis APIs return a confidence number along with each answer. PlantLab did too. For every condition the model spotted, the response included a confidence value between 0 and 1. On top of that, the response also carried two derived fields. diagnostic_confidence, a single overall trust number, and safety_classification, a three-way bucket of high, moderate, low.

Those derived fields were a heuristic. A small handful of rules that mostly looked at the top condition's confidence and rolled it up into a number. Heuristics work fine when the problem is simple. They fall apart when the failure modes are subtle.

In real traffic, the cases that matter are the ambiguous ones – photos where the answer isn't obvious from the image alone, and a single rule isn't enough to capture how confident the diagnosis really is. That's the slice where a trust signal earns its keep, and the slice where a rule-based composite tends to break.

A trust signal that works on the easy cases and stops working on the harder ones isn't really a trust signal. It's a confidence display.

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What reliability_score does differently

reliability_score is a single number from 0 to 1 that estimates how likely the top diagnosis is to be correct on this specific image. Higher is better. Below 0.3 is a clear “double-check this one.” Above 0.7 is “the system is confident and the confidence holds up.”

It doesn't replace per-class confidence. Those still tell you how strongly the model picked each individual condition. What reliability_score adds is a separate answer to a different question – “is the entire diagnosis trustworthy on this particular image, or is something off?”

The analogy I keep coming back to: a junior diagnostician who always gives an answer, and a supervisor who looks over their shoulder. The supervisor doesn't redo the diagnosis. They judge whether each one looks trustworthy. The old diagnostic_confidence was a checklist the junior filled in themselves. reliability_score is the supervisor.

I held the new score to a higher bar than the old composite. On the ambiguous cases, it does a much better job of flagging the answers you should double-check before acting on them. On the easy cases, both fields agree – which is the only place they were ever going to agree, and not where the score earns its keep.

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What changes in the response

If you're integrating with PlantLab today, here's what your code currently sees:

{
  "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "schema_version": "1.2.0",
  "success": true,
  "is_cannabis": true,
  "is_healthy": false,
  "growth_stage": "flowering",
  "conditions": [
    { "class_id": "magnesium_deficiency", "confidence": 0.85 }
  ],
  "diagnostic_confidence": 0.85,
  "safety_classification": "high_confidence"
}

After the upgrade, that same image returns:

{
  "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "schema_version": "2.0.0",
  "success": true,
  "is_cannabis": true,
  "is_healthy": false,
  "growth_stage": "flowering",
  "conditions": [
    { "class_id": "magnesium_deficiency", "confidence": 0.85 }
  ],
  "reliability_score": 0.91
}

Two fields removed. One field added. The rest of the response is identical.

reliability_score is omitted when the API doesn't return a condition diagnosis – for example, when the photo isn't of cannabis, or when the plant is healthy. In those cases, there's no diagnosis to score for reliability, so the field doesn't appear. Treat its absence as “no score available” rather than “low score.”

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Migration

The change you make depends on what you were doing with the old fields.

If you were displaying diagnostic_confidence to a user, swap to reliability_score. The semantics are the same direction (higher is better, both 0-1), and the new value is more accurate.

If you were branching on safety_classification strings, pick thresholds on reliability_score instead. A reasonable starting point: above 0.7 is “Confident,” 0.3 to 0.7 is “Uncertain,” below 0.3 is “Low confidence.” Your application can use whatever cutpoints make sense – the score is a number, not a string, so you have full flexibility.

If you were ignoring the old fields entirely, the upgrade is automatic. Remove your code that references diagnostic_confidence or safety_classification (it'll get null going forward) and you're done.

The Home Assistant integration shipped a new release the same day as the API change, so existing HA users get the new sensor automatically. If you're using a custom integration, update it before the next API deploy if you can – sensors that read the removed fields will return null until the integration is updated.

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Why a breaking schema, not deprecation

I considered keeping diagnostic_confidence and safety_classification as deprecated fields, returning the old values alongside the new score for a release or two. It would have spared everyone a migration step.

But it forces consumers to choose between two trust signals that can disagree. The old composite says “low confidence” on a photo where the new score says 0.95 – which do you trust? Worse, deprecated fields stick around for months, and integrators keep reading them instead of migrating. That's basically the entire failure mode of deprecation.

Cleaner break, single migration, no ambiguity. Schema bumped to 2.0.0 to make it loud. If your integration was on schema 1.x, you'll start getting 2.0.0 responses the next time you call the API. Field changes are documented above.

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What's next

reliability_score ships as v1. The field semantics stay stable: a 0 to 1 trust score, present on diagnoses that returned a condition prediction. Future improvements land behind that contract. Same field, more accurate values, no code changes on your end.

If you migrate now, you're done with the migration.

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PlantLab is free to try at plantlab.ai. Three diagnoses a day, results in milliseconds. The full API documentation, including the OpenAPI spec, lives at plantlab.ai/docs.

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FAQ

Do I have to migrate immediately?

You'll start receiving schema 2.0.0 responses the next time you call the API. If your code reads diagnostic_confidence or safety_classification, those reads will return null. If your code branches on those fields, your branches will fall through to whatever default path you wrote. So the migration urgency depends on what your code does with null values – some integrations will degrade gracefully, others will break.

Is reliability_score the same as confidence?

No. confidence (still present in conditions[] and pests[]) is the model's per-class probability for one specific class – “how confident am I that this leaf shows magnesium deficiency?” reliability_score is a separate signal that estimates how likely the entire diagnosis is to be correct on this image. The two answer different questions, and you can use both.

What does it mean when reliability_score is missing?

The score is only computed when the API returns a condition diagnosis – that is, when the photo is cannabis and the plant is unhealthy. For non-cannabis photos or healthy plants, there's no condition prediction to score, so the field is omitted. Treat absence as “no score available,” not as a low score.

How is this different from just thresholding on confidence?

Per-class confidence values are the model's individual outputs. They tell you which classes were predicted strongly. They don't tell you whether the diagnosis as a whole holds up on a given image. reliability_score answers that broader question, which is usually the one you actually have.

Can I see PlantLab's diagnosis history for my key?

GET /usage returns daily and monthly counts. For per-request lookup, store request_id from each diagnose response – it's stable, returned in both the JSON body and the X-Request-ID header. Use it for support tickets and feedback submission.

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Related reading: – The Work Nobody Sees: How I Ran 47 Experiments to Make PlantLab's AI Better – What goes into making the model more accurate, cycle by cycle – Yellow Leaves, Seven Suspects: How PlantLab Got Specific About Nutrient Deficiencies – The nutrient subclassifier that ships alongside this trust signal – How PlantLab's AI Diagnoses 31 Cannabis Plant Problems in 18 Milliseconds – The full pipeline

I have been slowly acclimating myself to the idea of leaving Florida. What once existed either is no longer here and/or what I once considered valuable is no longer so. What ruined it for me? My Homeowners Association—The Vista Palms Community Association located in Wimauma, Florida which borders the senior citizen area of Sun City Center, all located in Hillsborough County outside of the greater city of Tampa.

The stress of living within a terrorizing HOA community is so great that it is difficult for me to write about it continuously. This is why there are large gaps in the dates of these posts. I feel like I am on edge awaiting the HOA to find something else to send over to their attorneys in the scam that they are running. And I feel like this because my situation is ongoing. It isn’t over. It might be time to walk away and let whoever is trying to get this house win. I’m tired and in search of greener pastures.

Living in the Tampa Bay area is no longer affordable on a single income under $100k. Twenty years ago during my first round in the city, I lived in a just under 1200 square feet 2/2 apartment for about $800. I remember finally making a little over $30k back then. And although gas prices had gotten high and restricted some of my movement, I loved going to the beach weekly to de-stress. I loved visiting family and friends in- and out-of-state. I had gotten off of all forms of welfare and was so proud of myself for graduating from college and continuing to move forward.

Fast forward to the present. That apartment in Tampa is now around $1800 and surely it is no better than it was back then. And although with more education and experience in my field I was able to more than double my income in those 20 years, I was never stable. Actually, my life has never been stable. I have had periods of stability. But moving out to the fake suburbs (the former “country” areas of Hillsborough County) and owning a home in an HOA community seems to have made my life worse than if I had continued apartment life in the city. Owning a home makes me feel…stuck.

Your home only has value if you:

1. believe it does, and

2. you plan on selling it and you actually make a profit from it.

This is why Homeowners Associations have to constantly convince the public that living in an HOA increases home values when there isn’t much evidence that this is true outside of them saying it is so. You cannot even get a new home in the Tampa Bay Area without buying in an HOA-governed community (Check out Youtuber @FLORIDAHOODVLOGS on his channel Southern Life as he tours and describes what is going on in the Tampa Bay Area.)

Maybe it is time to go back to the basics: no HOA, no property managers and no HOA attorneys and fake arbitration; no CDD; no clubhouse ran by the CDD requiring ID; no stucco cracking from poor builder craftsmanship and terrible warranties; no frozen, outdated a/c coils; no new a/c system in a 5 year old house; no new water heater; no exterior yard sinking after a couple of years; no hurricanes and wind damage and water intrusion and mold and roof replacements. No fees, fees, and more fees!

We asked why God would not hear us, while ignoring the cries we refused to hear.

“Call out full-throated; do not hold back! Raise your voice like a horn. Proclaim to my people their revolt, To the house of Jacob their sins.

They seek me day after day, And they express delight to know my ways, As if they were a nation that had practiced righteousness And had not abandoned the justice of their God. They ask me for righteous judgments, Delighting to draw close to God:

‘Why do you not see when we fast? And why do you not notice when we afflict ourselves?’

Because on the day of your fast, you pursue your own interests, And you oppress your laborers. Your fasting ends in quarrels and fights, And you strike with the fist of wickedness. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice heard in heaven.

Should the fast that I choose be like this, As a day for someone to afflict himself, To bow down his head like a rush, To make his bed on sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?

No, this is the fast that I choose: To remove the fetters of wickedness, To untie the bands of the yoke bar, To let the oppressed go free, And to break in half every yoke bar; To share your bread with the hungry, To bring the poor and homeless into your house, To clothe someone naked when you see him, And not to turn your back on your own flesh.

Then your light will shine through like the dawn, And your healing will spring up quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, And the glory of Jehovah will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and Jehovah will answer; You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’

If you remove from among you the yoke bar And stop pointing your finger and speaking maliciously, If you grant to the hungry what you yourself desire And satisfy those who are afflicted, Then your light will shine even in the darkness, And your gloom will be like midday.

Jehovah will always lead you And satisfy you even in a parched land; He will invigorate your bones, And you will become like a well-watered garden, Like a spring whose waters never fail.

They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account, And you will restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the repairer of the broken walls, The restorer of roadways by which to dwell.

If because of the Sabbath you refrain from pursuing your own interests on my holy day And you call the Sabbath an exquisite delight, a holy day of Jehovah, a day to be glorified, And you glorify it rather than pursuing your own interests and speaking idle words, Then you will find your exquisite delight in Jehovah, And I will make you ride on the high places of the earth. I will cause you to eat from the inheritance of Jacob your forefather, For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”

Isaiah 59

Look! The hand of Jehovah is not too short to save, Nor is his ear too dull to hear. No, your own errors have separated you from your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you, And he refuses to hear you.

For your palms are polluted with blood And your fingers with error. Your lips speak lies, and your tongue mutters unrighteousness. No one calls out for righteousness, And no one goes to court in truthfulness. They trust in unreality and speak what is worthless. They conceive trouble and give birth to what is harmful.

They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake, And they weave the cobweb of a spider. Anyone who eats their eggs would die, And the egg that is crushed hatches a viper. Their cobweb will not serve as a garment, Nor will they cover themselves with what they make. Their works are harmful, And deeds of violence are in their hands.

Their feet run to do evil, And they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are harmful thoughts; Ruin and misery are in their ways. They have not known the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks. They make their roadways crooked; No one treading on them will know peace.

That is why justice is far away from us, And righteousness does not overtake us. We keep hoping for light, but look! there is darkness; For brightness, but we keep walking in gloom. We grope for the wall like blind men; Like those without eyes we keep groping. We stumble at high noon as in evening darkness; Among the strong we are just like the dead.

We all keep growling like bears And cooing mournfully like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none; For salvation, but it is far away from us. For our revolts are many before you; Each of our sins testifies against us. For our revolts are with us; We well know our errors.

We have transgressed and denied Jehovah; We have turned our backs on our God. We have spoken of oppression and revolt; We have conceived lies and muttered false words from the heart.

Justice is driven back, And righteousness stands far off; For truth has stumbled in the public square, And what is upright is unable to enter. Truth has vanished, And anyone who turns away from bad is plundered.

Jehovah saw this and was displeased, For there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, And he was astonished that no one interceded, So his own arm brought about salvation, And his own righteousness supported him.

Then he put on righteousness like a coat of mail And the helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance as his clothing And wrapped himself with zeal like a coat. He will reward them for what they have done: Wrath to his adversaries, retribution to his enemies. And to the islands he will repay their due.

From the sunset they will fear the name of Jehovah And from the sunrise his glory, For he will come in like a rushing river, Which the spirit of Jehovah drives along.

“To Zion the Repurchaser will come, To those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares Jehovah.

“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Jehovah. “My spirit that is on you and my words that I have placed in your mouth—they will not be removed from your mouth, from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your grandchildren,” says Jehovah, “from now on and forever.”

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#poetry #bible #isaiah

I'll meet you there Somewhere at the intersection of being and doing Where the temporal meets the eternal In the moment where truth incarnates without hindrances When the path forward is more clear than ever before I'll meet you there, my Lord.

30 April 2026

Bench: painted a bench I saw in Dulwich Park while walking there a few weeks ago. Made of wooden slats riveted to thin, flat, ribbon-like iron rails. I remember that from a certain angle it separated from its function and took on the appearance of something like a rickety bridge, or piano keys, or teeth. That Ruscha pastel and gunpowder drawing Self (1967) came to mind after I painted it—the attempt at solidified grace. And the rail attached itself to the image's border, which I taped off loosely (for no discernible reason, but in hindsight was a decision that gelled nicely with the slight warping of the planks that comprise the bench's sitting surface). Thought about Rita talking about making unforgiving paintings too. An intentional arrangement of an observation, a speculative suggestion for seeing.

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Al salir el sol prendo el incienso. Pongo agua.

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Nada que contar y sin embargo cae una tormenta.