Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
I’ve been really busy at work lately but it’s felt really good overall. Sure I’m feeling a little pressure and I’m a bit stressed but that’s par for the course.
A random aside. There was a time when I did a Movie Line of the Week post on this here blog. It’s been seen from time to time but I thought I’d throw one in here this week.
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Jack?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.”
I love this film. It’s a great action comedy.
I hope you enjoy the links.
Dick Butkus, arguably the fiercest Monster of the Midway, has died at age 80, the Chicago Bears announced Thursday.
This man was an animal on the football field. I for one loved that style of play. I know it’s not great but I can’t help it. When I played football I always wanted to make folks remember I hit them. Problem was, I was a beanpole and was the one getting hammered! 🤣
RIP Mr. Butkus. 🪦
This month, Automattic had the privilege of working with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (BKC) to migrate their early 2000s blogging platform over to our Pressable infrastructure.
I’m really happy to see WordPress do this. There was a time when it seemed the Berkman content would just disappear.
Thank you Matt and WordPress! ❤️
Dr Katie Mack • BBC Science Focus
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of ancient galaxies that shouldn’t exist. A cosmologist explains what could be going on.
I love science. That about sums it up for me. We’ve now explored further than ever before and are finding new and interesting things to understand! 🔭
Microsoft’s data centers in West Des Moines, Iowa guzzled massive amounts of water last year, the Associated Press reported earlier this month, to keep cool while training OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, the Microsoft-backed company’s most advanced publicly available large language model.
It’s time for someone to work on a new cooling system for these data centers or stop doing what they’re doing.
Just burn the world down in the name of shareholder value! 🔥
Bad news for anyone using Unreal Engine for VFX or animation. Epic Games has confirmed that it will begin charging industries outside gaming to use of the 3D graphics engine next year. Fees will be charged on a per-seat basis.
I wonder how Hollywood is going to react to this news?
Also, isn’t Unreal Engine amazing? 🎥
In a sane world, such massive, sustained incompetence coupled with warning signs a mole rat could see from Mars would have killed Twitter by now, with Musk’s rep as a hands-on CEO on a par with Uri Geller’s as a metalworker.
Yeah, a Space Karen appearance. I have so darned many pieces stashed in Pocket about the man I need to do another Musk Files post.
Can someone please convince the man to sell the twitter.com domain to them and fire up a Mastodon instance? 🐘
Teslas guided by Autopilot have slammed on the brakes at high speeds without clear cause, accelerated or lurched from the road without warning and crashed into parked emergency vehicles displaying flashing lights, according to investigation and police reports obtained by The Post.
It’s time to remove “self-driving” and “assisted driving” technologies from cars until they’re proven to work.
Yeah, I’m a curmudgeon. 👴🏼
Jonathan Prynn • Evening Standard
First look inside Apple’s spectacular offices at Battersea Power Station
Now this is a cool looking office. It’s nice to see Apple renovate something instead of doing a new new build. More companies should do this. 👍🏼
John Yoon and Orlando Mayorquin • The New York Times
The authorities in Baltimore on Wednesday said they had not located any suspects or made any arrests after five people, including four students, were shot and injured on the Morgan State University campus on Tuesday night.
The fun epidemic in America continues. 😔
HILARY HOWARD and PATRICK McGEEHAN • The New York Times
The limit on the capacity of the city’s network of drains, pipes and water-treatment plants is the main reason New Yorkers across all five boroughs suffered through flooding. And this probably will not be the city’s last bout with heavy flooding as it plays catch-up with the pace of climate change, experts said.
Climate change is coming home to roost. I suppose it has been for a while now but it gets a lot of attention when a major American city gets hit.
I feel pretty gloomy about our future as a species. ⛈️
Shock as yew tree which ‘predates the Battle of Hastings’ felled
Two ancient trees felled in a weeks time. What is wrong with people?
Don’t they know we need more trees, not fewer? 🌳
