So what do we have here as I open my RSS Reader. I may be one of the few who still use an RSS Reader. I don't think it is a popular technology these days. Once upon a time, it was a very popular way to keep up with our favorite blogs. There were a host of different apps and services that collected and presented RSS feeds in different ways. Then Google came and made Google Reader. While it wasn't a great RSS reader, it was passable and it was free. It quickly killed almost all RSS services on the web. How can you compete with free after all? Then Google killed it. With almost no services to turn to, many people just stopped using RSS. A handful of services and apps have arisen in the years since, but I think the idea of using RSS has only a fraction of the support it once did.

Anyway, I still use an RSS reader and check it almost everyday. So... what do we have as I open my Rss reader today?

Pope criticizes Harris and Trump, tells US Catholics to choose ‘lesser evil’ - Basically he says both candidates are sinful, but that not voting is terrible, so good Catholics must vote for one of them. So... is this a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation for Catholics?

Flit Through ‘Miniature’ Bavarian Alps in This Aerial Tilt-Shift Exploration - This is pretty incredible. Like most photographers, I have done my fair share of play with tilt-shift photos, both with special tilt-shift lenses and artificially through photoshop and the like. This video takes it to an entirely new level.

Introducing the Nine Candidates Vying To Become Japan’s Next Prime Minister - If you are into Japanese politics, there is a new prime minister coming. Here is a nice overview of the candidates for the job.

Woman versus bed bug: A battle to the death - This site is mostly trash, but this story tickled me, precisely because I can see my wife freaking out in this same way if she suspected we had bedbugs at our house.

America’s stores are winning the war on shoplifting - Seems like the shoplifting epidemic we were told to panic about last year was overblown. Not necessarily intentionally, but as a result of overestimating losses after compensating for underestimating them for years. In other words: it was all playing with numbers in a database.

And now, for your moment of Zen: Disco in the 80s but everyone is Lionel Messi

Wheee, wasn't that fun? I usually browse through my feeds pretty quickly, opening a few dozen in browser tabs as I quickly tab down the list. Then I'll switch to the browser and skim through the stories, closing most of the tabs but keeping a few to read or explore more carefully.

How about you?

Anyway, there you go, a handful of interesting stories for today.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.