Episode 384: Cosmic Jazz Hands

Merlin really likes the ones where Dan prepares.

Discussed: four-twenty in The Mile High state, some tv and movie recommendations, the creativity that comes from constraints, The Information Problem, plus thanks for some lovely gifts to Cash from listeners.

Most of the episode focuses on a provocative new article about whether podcast hosting should be "free."

Merlin nerds out on iOS Trackpad mode, and Dan drops a Science Corner about heat versus temperature. Also: Star Trek.

Links for this episode:

• Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #23 — Merlin Mann
  MERLIN MANN (Back to Work, Roderick on the Line, Reconcilable Differences, Do By Friday, You Look Nice Today, et al.) invites you to drop by Two Cats Comics on the evening of Thursday, July 26th to hang out, talk about comics, and just say, “Hi.” It's free and it's fun.
• Why You Should Never Pay For Podcast Hosting – Nir Zicherman – Medium
  We don’t want a podcaster to ever pay for hosting again. We believe real change in this space is long overdue, and we can’t wait to show you what we’re working on.
• Manton Reece - Anchor on free podcasting
  Some things are worth paying for. I share Nir’s goal that podcasting should be more accessible and more affordable to more people, but it’s dangerous to give one company too much control over podcasting. Anchor’s business model demands scale. It’s still unclear how that will play out.
• There's no such thing as free podcast hosting - Six Colors
  There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Anchor is spending some of its millions in venture-capital investment to give free hosting to podcast users with a business model in mind: create enough volume that it can eventually monetize those podcasts by inserting ads and taking a cut.
• Reconcilable Differences #82: Summer of Intentionalities - Relay FM
  This week's mini-topic involves Merlin's Summer Projects. Merlin likes choosing the right word, and John doesn't really do projects. This ends up leading to some deep discussion about buying a guitar and trying to get better at it.
• How to use trackpad mode on iPhone and iPad | iMore
  Turn your keyboard into a trackpad for even easier editing.
• iOS 12 brings trackpad mode to every iPhone and iPad | Cult of Mac
  In iOS 12, this neat trick comes to all iPhones, even those without 3-D Touch. Bonus tip: It also makes it even easier to use on your iPad.
• New in iOS 12: keyboard trackpad mode on non-3D Touch iPhones
  Apple customers have been able to leverage 3D Touch to turn their iPhone keyboard into a trackpad since iOS 9. Wouldn’t it be great if you could select text with precision on non-3D Touch devices, like older iPhones or the sixth-generation iPod touch? With iOS 12, you can!This lets you swipe on the keyboard to position the cursor accurately when editing text.
• Why won't Parker Solar Probe melt
  
• A Quiet Place (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes
  
• HBO Succession review: introducing my favorite show of the summer - Vox
  
• Patrick Melrose: Seasons, Episodes, Cast, Characters - Official Series Site | SHOWTIME
  
• ‘Succession’ and Updates on ‘Y: The Last Man’ and ‘Briarpatch’ - The Ringer
  
• How does Temperature Differ from Heat?
  
• Heat vs temperature - Energy Education
  
• Heat and temperature (article) | Khan Academy
  
• Minutemen - "Corona" - YouTube
  
• Star Trek: The Next Generation In 40 Hours – Maxistentialism Blog – Medium
  
• Fear, uncertainty and doubt - Wikipedia
  Fear, uncertainty and doubt (often shortened to FUD) is a disinformation strategy used in sales, marketing, public relations, talk radio, politics, cults, and propaganda. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information and a manifestation of the appeal to fear.
• Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth - Grammarist
  The phrase butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth or butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth describes someone who appears demure, innocent or sincere but is in fact unkind, devious or insincere.

Brought to you by:

• Squarespace (Start your free trial site today, at Squarespace.com and when you sign up make sure to use the offer code ITSYOURSHOW to get 10% off your first purchase).

• CacheFly (They’re the fastest most reliable CDN in the business. Check them out at Cachefly.com).