Last week Julian got laid off, part of a bloodbath at Ars that resulted from the Conde Nast powers-that-be deciding that having excellent, industry-leading online properties didn’t fit with their long-term business strategy of making it to retirement without being bothered.
This was pretty disappointing to see, both as a friend and as someone who enjoys reading quality journalism about tech policy. However! Just because he’s no longer being paid to cover, say, government wiretapping, doesn’t mean that he isn’t making contributions to our cultural discourse. I can only assume this is what inspired Yglesias to write this.
(Lest anyone think I’m teasing Julian, let me remind you that I’m the same guy who once meticulously converted the Dharma Initiative logo into a vector graphics format — I’m not a fan of Fringe, but being the first to crack its code is pretty cool.)