John Free was a very talented street photographer in Los Angelus, who I have admired for many years. I saw on Facebook that he passed away last night. If you’re at all interested in photography, have a look at his YouTube channel, where you will get a taste of his excitement, enthusiasm and energy for photography and people.
I forgot he posted a video from the Musée D’Orsay a few years ago, but I’m extra happy that I visited there last year, and as John suggested in the video, I was able to balance the subject with the art.
11Km of tunnels were built between some of the islands of the Faroe Islands, and right in the middle of one of those tunnels, 70 metres underground, is a roundabout. It enables drivers to go to Runavik or Strendur. It cuts travel time from just over an hour to 16 minutes. Hugely impressive.
I’d heard of the troubles Keith Jarrett had when he played in Cologne but forgot to find out what his music sounded like until I came across the incident again this morning while listening to Cautionary Tales.
Jarrett was due to play in the opera house there and requested a particular type of piano. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the one he wanted and provided him with a beaten up rehearsal model. It was out of tune, the pedals were sticky, and it was in a terrible condition.
He refused to play at first, but after the promoter, an 18yo woman named Vera Brandes pleaded with him to play. He had to avoid broken keys, and concentrated most of his playing in the middle of the keyboard.
To make things worse, he had driven over the mountains from Switzerland the previous night, his back was in a brace, and he was hungry, having had to miss his dinner earlier in the evening.
I haven’t listened to all of it, but it is remarkable what he coaxed out of such a broken piano! Sometimes, less is more.
Today saw the release of updates to two plugins I work on. The first, unsurprisingly, is WP Super Cache, and it’s a bug fix release. It fixed a PHP8.2 warning, adjusted some labels on the settings page, solved a problem with “late init” and POST requests, and some other changes, but the major news I want to share is not about that plugin at all.
I’m on the Jetpack Boost team in Automattic, and for the last month or so, we’ve been working on adding a full-page cache to the plugin!
Jetpack Boost is already a pretty remarkable plugin, with what it does to CSS, JavaScript and images, so a page cache was an obvious next step.
If you’re already using WP Super Cache, but you’re not using any of the advanced features, I think you should give Jetpack Boost a go. It works really well at serving cached pages fast. Jetpack Boost will be a drop-in replacement if you have these features enabled in WP Super Cache:
Simple caching
Caching Disabled for logged in visitors
Garbage collection set to one hour.
You’ll have to disable WP Super Cache first before trying Boost Cache, as they both rely on the same mechanism to load. Disable Jetpack Boost to go back to WP Super Cache. You can enable Boost again, without using the Cache module, and the two plugins will happily co-exist.
I’ve been using it here for the last two weeks, and it has worked flawlessly. I post images daily on my photoblog, and they get shared to Mastodon, where the expected deluge of requests from hundreds of servers happens each time. Between Jetpack Boost and WP Rest Cache, my server barely noticed. Just like with WP Super Cache.
“If it performs just like WP Super Cache, why should I use Boost?” I hear you asking. For some, you’ll need the extra features of WP Super Cache, but otherwise, Boost may be just what you need. Apart from the cache, it also has remarkable features that will squash your CSS and JavaScript in various ways that load super quick. Give it a go, and let WP Super Cache handle the cache if you need to.
If you’re still here, read on, and I’ll give you a whirlwind tour.
Boost supports an exception list like WP Super Cache does, and logging of activities in a similar, but easier to use way.
To simplify caching, only requests by logged out visitors are cached now, but that’s the recommended way of using WP Super Cache too.
Developers: like WP Super Cache, it also supports the “DONOTCACHEPAGE” constant. If you define that while a page is being created, then Jetpack Boost won’t cache it. If you can enable it before the page loads, then the plugin won’t serve a cached page either, but that will be difficult since the cache system loads so early.
To learn more, there’s a fine manual to read. It explains in detail how to enable the cache and how to use it. Yes, I’m biased, but I think you should give Jetpack Boost a go! Caching helps a lot, but the extra CSS and JavaScript features help render the page quickly once loaded.
Here in Ireland, we are holding a referendum on changing two sections of our constitution.
If I were to summarise the changes, I’d say:
The family one is to recognise that marriage isn’t the only type of long-term relationship a couple or two people have.
The carer one has been called an attempt to remove archaic and sexist language from the constitution when it says, “the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support”. That text will be removed and the replacement text recognise that family members care for one another.
On this, International Women’s Day, many of the woman I know are voting NO to both changes.
Women and men march in protest at the cervical check scandal. May 2018.
what if someone is married and has a durable relationship elsewhere?
“endeavour” vs “strive” to support. Which is stronger? Which word puts more pressure on the Gov to provide care?
I’m still not sure how I’ll vote. It will probably be no-no, but I may vote yet to the family one, as any ambiguity about the definition of “durable relationship” may be less trouble than the positives of having more relationships recognised. That’s up to the courts, however, which makes voting for this change so hard. Many of the people urging a no-no vote are not groups I would associate with, being conservative or right-wing. Meanwhile, all the Government parties and even Sinn Féin support a yes-yes vote. Sinn Féin say they’ll rerun the carer referendum if it’s rejected, and they’re elected into government:
Ms McDonald said that if the referendum was rejected, it would be her ambition to put the question to the people again “early in our term” if the party was elected to Government. …. She said the party would be returning to the recommendation from the Citizen’s Assembly which would include care not just at home, but in wider society.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said it welcomes the referendum widening the definition of the family beyond just those based on marriage. But on the care referendum, it said the Government should have gone further.
“Based on our analysis, ICCL believes that the proposed text on ‘care’ will not provide meaningful legal protections to any person who gives or receives care.
Overall, we feel the Government should have gone further to implement the recommendation of the Citizen’s Assembly and the Oireachtas Committee. This would have represented a more legally impactful proposal.”
There is an appeal by the mother of a disabled man who provides 24 hour care to him due to be heard in the Supreme Court in April. She wants to receive the carer’s allowance she deserves, but unfortunately for her, her partner has a job outside the home.
The appellant mother, who effectively provides 24-hour care to her son and has no means of her own, is disputing the Department of Social Protection’s decision that she is not entitled to the full-rate of the carer’s allowance because the weekly income of her partner, the man’s father, is €850.
If the constitution is changed, will it make it easier for the Government to ignore pleas for carer’s allowance?
Also, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, says it’s not the State’s responsibility to look after those that need care. The joke is he said the quiet bit out loud but read on …
As I was writing this post, I discovered that Simon McGarr reported a couple of hours ago that The Ditch has uncovered advice from the attorney general to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth about the referendums. Simon has some interesting commentary in his Mastodon thread. Here’s the bit from that doc about the Heneghan case:
The need for such clarity is particularly important when one considers this year’s Supreme Court judgment in Heneghan v Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. This is a notable example of the courts finding that they are entitled to consider the background and campaign leading up to a constitutional amendment when interpreting its purpose or scope. While that occurred in Heneghan in the context of apparent inconsistencies between different constitutional provisions, it is nevertheless a reason to exercise caution in communicating the purpose of the amendment in the course of the referendum campaign.
Irish Attorney General to Roderic O’Gorman TD
Leo saying that family should take care of family speaks volumes in that case. On the other hand, Simon admits that the future is uncertain.
Just in case you want more:
Free Legal Advice Centres are recommending a yes-no vote. An interesting piece explaining their stance that I found very convincing.
Mario Rosenstock interviews Larissa Nolan (she will be voting no-no)
And I can’t believe I’m linking to an interview with Peadar Tóibín, leader of Aontú where he argues for a no-no vote.
The yesyes.ie website urges a yes-yes vote but covers none of the grey areas of the changes.
As Anita says, most of the work done in the home will still be done by women, and that’s not going to change, no matter what happens today. My wife is meeting some friends this morning, but two have already had to cancel because they need to care for family members. Happy International Women’s Day.
I’m not a lawyer/solicitor. I just have a vote today. How will you vote? Did you vote already?
Edit: much later in the day:
Well done to all that voted, all 44.36% of you. Both changes were defeated by huge margins. Family: 32.31% Yes, 67.69% No. Care: 26.07% Yes, 73.93% No.
Now, let’s get back to not supporting the right-wing part of this country, ok?
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