Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

An excellent end to the FIFA World Cup - Viva España, 1-0 over Argentina!

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:50:14 GMT

It was a heck of a game! Spain's offense absolutely dominated for most of the game, but Argentina's goalie was an absolute wall. He was incredible and deserves recognition for it. I would definitely say he was better than Spain's goalie, but Spain's defense was a little better and Argentina had problems getting shots on goal. Poor Messie did not have a good game, I don't know if he was tired or was holding back some to let the rest of his team shine.

Regardless, Spain was undoubtedly the superior team and scored in the 106th minute! There were two other goals by Spain - none by Argentina - but there were fouls with both of them and they did not count. I'm not clear what happened the first time, the second was an off-sides.

The only downside to the event was at the end when a buffoon with bad hair, an ill-fitting suit, and a scowl participated in handing out the medals to the two teams. He even tried to photo-bomb the winners at the end and had to be lead off by whom I presume was the head of FIFA. I imagine the players, being professionals, are used to the occasional downsides of problems with the venues where they play.

I understand this particular clown was a big supporter of Argentina and gave their country an awful lot of money in the not distant past. Bummer day, dude!

I didn't get to watch any other games, but this one was scheduled in a time slot that was very convenient for me to catch, so I did.

ETA:I forgot one very nice thing - Spain is simultaneously holding the World Champoin title in both men's and women's football! That is incredibly cool!

Oh, and the guy with the bad hair got massively booed when his face was shown on the Jumbotron during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner!

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For my friends reading Hugo nominees...

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:52:51 GMT

Have you gotten to/finished the novel Death of the Author?

I'm a bit over 20% through it and about to abandon it. To me, thus far, it is not science fiction nor is it fantasy. It's a fictional bio about a science fiction author and her apparent spiral down to her death.

Does it turn into true SF/F? I'm just not seeing it and I have a lot of other reading to do for the votes.

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Fedora Linux 43 exposes a 20-year old Microsoft Outlook security problem

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 02:32:04 GMT

Oops! Once again, MS fails to correctly implement a documented in plain sight security standard. Not the first time, certainly won't be the last.

I'm going to let the article speak for itself, then do some add'l commenting:
"According to a Fedora community blog post, upgrading to Fedora 43 and the newer Dovecot 2.4 mail server unexpectedly exposed what could be an ancient Microsoft Outlook security problem involving unencrypted POP3 connections. If true, some Outlook users may have believed their email sessions were protected by SSL/TLS while the client silently continued using insecure plaintext connections instead.

That is not a small allegation.

The issue reportedly surfaced after Fedora 43 administrators upgraded Dovecot and discovered that newer versions no longer allow plaintext password authentication over non secure connections by default. Suddenly, support calls started flooding in from Outlook users who could no longer connect to their mailboxes.

What made the discovery especially strange was that affected users allegedly had SSL/TLS enabled in Outlook. Yet many of those same accounts were still connecting over port 110, the old unencrypted POP3 port, rather than port 995, which is typically used for encrypted POP3 traffic.

According to the report, Outlook appeared to ignore the SSL/TLS selection entirely in certain configurations and continued sending authentication traffic over insecure connections without properly warning users."

SO. New distribution of Fedora Linux and a newer version of their Dovecot mail server, and Linux tries to make sure that everyone sticks to published standards to that they play well with all other software that sticks to published standards.

And Outlook installations suddenly start barfing. Presumably on networks using Window PC clients and Linux backend servers. The Outlook clients appear to be configured correctly and show their little padlock symbol, which we're all trained to believe that all the encryption is up and running properly. Yet internally, things are not well in Outlook Land. People were running older Outlook configurations, not realizing that standards had changed or just not bothering to update old clients or servers. The Dovecot servers got updated to new standards, which barred badly configured clients from connecting, such as old and incorrect Outlook servers/clients, and BOOM.

The bigger problem is that POP3 is a very old standard and not really useful for our multi-device world. The newer and much better standard is IMAP. Under POP3, the first device to access an email message pulls it off the server. I have two laptops, two PCs, a phone and a tablet - all of which read my email. Now, in Ye Olde Days, back in the '80s perhaps, you probably only had one computer. If you had a work PC, you may not have accessed your personal email on it because you usually had special software to call up your ISP for mail. IMAP is designed for multiple devices to access your mail: it leaves it on the server until deleted, remembers whether it is read or unread, and remembers what folder you've moved it to if you did that.

Yet we still frequently have to configure that POP3 information when we set up an email client!

Makes me glad that I almost exclusively use web-based email.

https://nerds.xyz/2026/06/fedora-43-outlook-security-bug/

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Exoplanet found with cloudy days and clear nights

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 02:05:42 GMT

The James Webb Space Telescope strikes again! Wooties!

This planet, Wasp94A B (I have no idea about the naming convention and why it earned a B), when viewed by Hubble, gave an averaged reading because Hubble is much lower resolution than the JWST, and it just could not produce better data. The primary scientist on this project, David Sing, has been studying cloudy exoplanets for 20 years. When he gained access to the Webb, and started receiving data on Wasp94A B, Webb showed them that the technique of averaged data from the Hubble just isn't a good technique. Looking at in more detail, they can determine that it isn't the full story.

The planet has clouds, and as they traverse the planet's visible face, and they are not water, specifically the clouds are magnesium silicate, a compound commonly found in rocks on our planet! It's not raining men, it's raining rocks! When the trailing edge of the clouds pass, the night cycle begins.

Neat stuff! Not only is the universe weirder than we imagine, it's weirder than we can imagine!

https://www.earth.com/news/astronomers-find-unusual-exoplanet-wasp-94a-b-with-cloudy-mornings-clear-evenings/

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China and Japan successfully demonstrate first steps in reusable space launch tech!

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:00:42 GMT

China has been very aggressive in their space program for several years now, and have their own private space station in orbit. I don't think it's very big, but it is up there. They send crews back and forth on a regular basis. They've been working on a reusable first stage, just like SpaceX, and last Friday, July 10, successfully recovered one intact. A nice improvement on their program. Of course, recovering one is more of a proof of concept than 'We've nailed this and all future recoveries will work perfectly.' You can just look at the Oopsie! SpaceX videos on YouTube for a good laugh to see how long and how much hardware they used to get a good grip on that tech.

China is planning to recertify and re-fly this stage by the end of the year. Also, this launch flew a live payload successfully into orbit!

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/making-history-china-lands-rocket-during-an-orbital-launch-for-1st-time-ever

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/07/10/1840220/china-lands-rocket-during-an-orbital-launch-for-first-time

Japan is taking a different approach in developing a reusable rocket stage, and the two photos accompanying this article are worth a look. On Saturday, they had their first success.

Their technique is not a full launch. They made a small rocket, it took off to about 36', then hovering it moved horizontally before setting down. And while I say small, it was not remotely tiny. The movement was very controlled, and the fact that it was controlled is an excellent step in upscaling to larger rockets. It rose and did the lateral translation very smoothly, exactly what you'd want to see in a rocket. It was interesting seeing it venting from the top of the rocket and the side before it launched, though.

The entire launch was less than one minute long.

From the AP article: "JAXA [Japanese Space Agency] and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been co-developing the RV-X, which is 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) in diameter and 7.3 meters (23.9 feet) long and equipped with an engine with enhanced durability and four shock-absorption landing gear.

The “hardworking” engine has so far withstood 165 combustion tests, Ito said.

JAXA, which is jointly developing reusable rockets with France and Germany, plans to send the RV-X rocket to a higher altitude of about 100 meters (218 feet) in future test flights."

I look forward to seeing further developments from Japan as this is much cooler than the SpaceX/China methodologies!

https://apnews.com/article/japan-reusable-rocket-h3-test-space-china-eb83b8385641a094b4cd69c3ee48090a

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/07/13/0522200/japans-space-agency-conducts-first-test-flight-for-experimental-reusable-rocket

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New Florida law bans local net-zero attempts

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 18:15:44 GMT

As a comedian said, a long time ago, 'People deserve the government they vote for, and they deserve it good and hard.' I'm probably paraphrasing slightly.

Florida just passed a law forbidding any level of government from doing anything to try to abate climate change. No EV or CNG vehicles, no carbon tax credits, can't use recycled paper, etc. The moron in charge of the state says the law bans “radical climate policies". I really love how conservatives (such a lovely word: conservatives) love to use the word 'radical', it would be nice if they knew how to use it properly. Or at least honestly. But that's neither here nor there.

According to the Slashdot summary, local governments must "...submit an affidavit annually to the state Department of Revenue verifying compliance."

Some Miami streets actually flood during super-high tides. And DeSanctimonious is fighting 'radical climate policies'. Yeah, smart move there.

I wonder how many of these compliance officers will be named F.U. Biggly?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/florida-bans-local-governments-from-pursuing-net-zero-emissions-goals/

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30062026/florida-law-bans-net-zero-emission-policies/

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/06/30/2157253/new-florida-law-bans-local-net-zero-emissions-policies

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Sony, once again, is losing a licensing agreement and will remove purchased media

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:26:43 GMT

On September 1, UK users of Sony's PlayStation online store will lose access to 551 titles from StudioCanal's library when the current licensing agreement expires. It is possible that the agreement may yet be renewed, preserving people's "purchased" programming.

Yet another reminder that "purchases" are not purchases, they're long-term rentals that may vanish at any time and with no remuneration for your dollars spent.

This same garbage happened in 2023 when Sony's licensing agreement with Discovery was in danger of expiring and 1,300 programs were in jeopardy, in that case a new license was negotiated pretty much at the last minute. But in 2022, users in Germany and Austria lost access to StudioCanal material, and in 2021 Funimation libraries were lost when a merger with Crunchyroll happened.

To avoid this:
BUY PHYSICAL MEDIA.
Rip it to a media server like Jellyfin.
Store said physical media in a safe place.
Never worry about it being taken away again.

Unfortunately because of the AI bubble, hard drives have mostly doubled in price, so the cost of setting up a Jellyfin or Plex server has become kinda ridiculous.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/sony-erases-digital-content-from-libraries-were-reminded-we-dont-own-what-we-buy/

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Microwave-safe steel food storage containers!

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:41:12 GMT

This company, Missen, designs some very cool products. A lot of them come up for offer on Kickstarter, and this one just started yesterday.

They've come up with a set of stackable steel storage containers. Three different sizes, all with the same width and length dimensions: just the height varies - so they stack perfectly and all the lids are interchangeable! AND the lids also serve as trivets for the containers! The lids are made out of a special silicone material and are very heat resistant. Internally, the containers have ruled measuring scales printed in them. Externally, you can write on them with dry-erase markers. The lids have sliding vents to seal liquids or open for venting for microwave use.

With the containers stacking so well, as do the lids, I expect to clear a lot of cabinet space with dumping other storage containers. And now that I think about it, these will make good storage containers for ice cream and also make it easy to add post-churn mix-ins like swirls and such!

The reason they're microwave-safe is that the containers do not have right-angles, thus don't trap the radio waves and cause hot-spots!

VERY cool design work!

There is a special running for another two days where you can buy a complete set of these for half-price. The Kickstarter runs for another 26(?) days, is grossly over-funded, and fulfillment is expected to take place in October.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/misenkitchen/misenware/rewards

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In addition to the Aussies, the Brits also had a chant at the World Cup....

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:14:07 GMT

"He's fat, has piles, he's in the Epstein files!"

Apparently his handlers in the White House are having second thoughts about him attending World Cup games lest his delicate ears are offended by such things.

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1953: NYC newspaper boy gets hollow nickel, ultimately a Russian spy ring is cracked!

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 03:18:25 GMT

This is a very interesting story!

Kid has a paper route, and collection day comes. One woman needs change for a dollar, which he doesn't quite have. He goes to two ladies across the hall, who provide him the change, he gets his bill collected. While he's walking down the street, he's jangling the change in his pocket, and something doesn't sound right.

He pulls out one nickel and accidentaly drops it on the sidewalk. And it pops open. And inside it there is a coded message.

The rest of the story you just have to read on. It's quite an interesting read!

https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/hollow-nickel-rudolph-abel

One of the games that Russet and I play every night is The Atlantic's Bracket City, which is an interesting puzzle based on something that happened that day in history. And this was today's event in 1953.

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SIT DOWN BEFORE READING!

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 20:30:26 GMT

FDA ADVISORS APPROVED MODERNA'S mRNA FLU VACCINE!

This is the one that the White House tried to block from even being reviewed. It shows extreme efficacy, but of course runs afowl of Robert Fucking Kennedy Juniormint's agenda and attempt to destroy the vaccine industry to his personal profit.

From the article: "Data from a Phase 3 trial including over 40,000 adults age 50 and older found the mRNA vaccine was around 27 percent more effective against seasonal flu than a standard flu shot. A smaller Phase 3 trial, involving data from nearly 3,000 people age 65 years and older, showed the shot produces stronger immune responses than a high-dose flu vaccine, which is recommended for this age group. The safety profile of the vaccine was also generally good."

Nice! A more effective vaccine, that's always good! I turn 65 at the end of the year, and I was a little concerned about the concept of a higher-dose flu shot as I have a bit of a negative reaction to vaccinations. It's nothing more than being a little under the weather over the weekend with a mild fever, but if I can avoid it with a regular dose vaccine, all the better for me! And with the added bonus that the vaccine uses the same framework as their mRNA Covid vaccine, it is easy for them to reprogram it, giving them manufacturing flexibility to respond rapidly to changes in the flu virus.

This decision follows some drama from February, detailed from the article: "The outcome today is in stark contrast to a few months ago, when Trump official Vinay Prasad was overseeing vaccines at the FDA. In a shocking decision in February, Prasad rejected Moderna’s filing, refusing to even review the vaccine. Prasad claimed that the large vaccine trial was not “adequate and well-controlled” because it did not compare efficacy to a high-dose vaccine in people 65 and older. Instead, Moderna used the smaller trial to compare immune responses of mRNA-1010 to a high-dose vaccine—which was a plan the FDA had previously agreed would be acceptable.

Moderna was blindsided by the refusal, which Prasad issued over the objections of FDA scientists and career officials. Amid widespread outcry, the FDA reversed the decision the next week, agreeing to review the vaccine. Around the same time, Prasad was also behind the rejection of a closely watched gene therapy for Huntington’s disease made by UniQure, which was widely criticized and called “truly evil” by a former FDA official.

Prasad was pushed out of FDA at the end of April amid a string of decried decisions and controversies. Prasad’s decision on UniQure’s gene therapy was reversed on Wednesday."

This was a review panel decision which is not final FDA approval. However, with a unanimous panel approval, and the blow-back of the initial refusal to even consider the application by Prasad, it would be difficult for the FDA to not approve it when it comes up for final approval, a deadline has been set for August 5.

There is one additional step beyond that, and it is problematic: it must be reviewed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). And that committee currently does not exist.. A judge issued an injunction declaring all of the appointees to that committee by RFK had been appointed improperly. Approval by that committee is what gets insurance approval for vaccines. Once it's approved by the FDA and ACIP, Moderna says they can get their new flu vaccine out to market before the end of the year!

Now we wait....

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/fda-advisors-unanimously-vote-to-approve-modernas-mrna-after-agency-drama/

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Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary schools!

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:30:59 GMT

GOOD!

Once they're in high school, they're suggesting AI use under strict teacher supervision.

I applaud the effort, in the USA they're putting way too much emphasis on integrating AI into education. The amount of cheating with AI has become a majority of school work, such as in book reports and things. Teachers, for the most part, no longer have the time to hand-grade homework so most districts use systems like Canvas for online homework and mostly automatic grading. Smart teachers, In My Humble Opinion, would make the final exam hand-written and count for a third of the total grade. It would clearly demonstrate understanding the material, and failing it would completely prevent them from getting a high grade in the class, which would mean it will never be allowed to happen.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/norway-imposes-near-ban-ai-elementary-school-2026-06-19/

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/06/19/2140248/norway-imposes-near-ban-on-ai-in-elementary-school

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The Lincoln Reflecting Pool renovation? The new liner is ripping into pieces.

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 07:38:27 GMT

First we got the algae bloom and the Park Service is dumping gallons upon gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool to try to control it, apparently to no avail.

Now the new liner is coming apart, pieces of it - some of them kind of large - are floating to the surface. Tourists are grabbing them as souvenirs. So the $4 million repair - which cost over $14 million - has become a complete and utter failure and will have to be redone. The repair lasted less than a month after the pool was refilled.

It also needs to be pointed out that this was done under a no-bid contract and just handed to a donor to President TACO.

The liner failure is being attributed to several factors. When the pool was drained before repainting, the surface may not have been adequately prepared: it may not have been completely cleaned and dry. The massive amounts of peroxide being added to the water may be degrading the bond between the coating and the concrete. The contractor should have used a special epoxy designed to cure completely underwater: if this wasn't used, then the project may have been doomed from the get-go. And once the algae blooms started, workers began aggressively scraping the bottom of the pool, damaging the fresh surface, exacerbating any additional problems that may already have been happening from any of the conditions mentioned above.

Regardless, looks to me like they're going to have to drain it and redo the entire job again. Hopefully with a better contractor who has a lot more experience with algae blooms.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/06/18/lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-paint-peeling-off-see-photos/90614066007/

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Australia and the USA meet in the World Cup....

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:45:50 GMT

Australia has two cheers ready to go, probably a few more.

"He's fat! He's old! He likes them twelve years old!"

and

"Aussie boys are on a bender, Donald Trump is a sex offender!"

I wonder how many Americans in the stadium are going to join in?

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Bitcoin has lost half its value in less than 12 months, down 13% in June thus far

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:39:07 GMT

Wow. An "investment" that is not based on anything is losing value? Whouldathunkit. Now, if you'd generated a few hundred Bitcoins at the beginning when it was possible and sold them when they were worth $100,000+, that would have been quite awesome. But it still wouldn't have been an investment: it would have been speculative trading to other speculators. Because there's nothing behind it. Still, the only value in Bitcoin is other people buying it and it being used for illegal activity such as to traffic in drugs and paying ransomware demands.

This is an excellent quote from the CNBC article: "Bitcoin differs from stocks, bonds and real estate because it doesn’t generate earnings, interest payments or rental income that investors can use to estimate its value, says Robert Johnson, a finance professor at Creighton University. Instead, its price is largely determined solely by investor demand.

“You cannot invest in Bitcoin, you can only speculate,” he says."

A comment in the Slashdot story notes that prominent FORMER promotors of Bitcoin, Marc Andreesen and Peter Thiel are no longer singing the praises of Bitcoin, they're now telling people to invest in AI. Apparently they made their money in BC and got out.

By the way, unless you're really good at timing markets, don't invest in AI.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/12/bitcoins-price-drop-is-forcing-investors-to-revisit-why-they-own-it.html

https://slashdot.org/story/26/06/14/0817238/bitcoin-has-lost-nearly-half-its-value-in-11-months

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SpaceX rejected in attempt to get listed in the S&P 500 index! Bodes ill for AI IPOs...

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:51:03 GMT

Ah, what a lovely article! Sometimes standards get upheld!

As you may have heard, SpaceX has filed to do an IPO (initial public offering [of stock shares]) and go on the stock market. Lots and lots of people are salivating, perhaps Leon Muskbrat most of all. They also filed with the New York Stock Exchange for a quick listing on the Standard & Poor 500 stock market index.

And they were rejected to get listed on that index.

HAD they been accepted, their valuation would have skyrocketed, no pun intended. Lots of institutional investors buy funds directly based on the S&P rather than or in addition to buying individual stocks, so that mix would have contained SpaceX immediately.

What squelched the deal?

A basic problem that Musk-lead companies have long had: profitability.

In order to be included in the S&P 500, the company has to be currently profitable, and must have been profitable in the four preceding quarters. SpaceX is not currently posting a profit, and never has. There is also a rule that they must release at least 10% of their shares to be publicly traded, SpaceX is going to release 3%. After a month-long consultation to decide whether to allow the rules to be waved to allow SpaceX into the club, the decision was made to not open the door.

This may hamper Muskbrat's quest to become the world's first trillionaire. Now, will he alter the IPO to let loose more shares to meet the 10% threshold, and will he alter operations to make it more profitable? I expect that among the things dragging it down is he's making SpaceX buy almost all of the Tesla Cybertruck production to keep Tesla's sales chugging along. Apparently SpaceX's debt load is $29 BILLION dollars US because of its AI debt load. That's a big load on profitability, having to service that amount of debt.

The AI company Anthropic has also filed for an IPO. It's sealed, so details are not much available, like what percentage of shares will be let loose. But like all AI companies, it is not profitable.

However, Leon did get some good news with the Nasdaq folks, who decided"... to allow SpaceX to enter the Nasdaq-100 Index within 15 trading days as opposed to the usual three months. Similarly, the FTSE Russell index provider decided to give SpaceX and other follow-on companies accelerated entry to the Russell Top 500 Index after the close of the fifth trading day following an IPO."

But there was even more bad news for SpaceX: "...Morningstar analysts described SpaceX as having been “significantly overvalued” in the lead-up to its IPO. The investment research firm valued SpaceX at $780 billion—less than half of SpaceX’s $1.75 trillion IPO goal—primarily based on the strengths of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service and rocket launch business."

OUCH! A Muskbrat-led business overvalued? Say it isn't so!

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/sp-500-blocks-fast-spacex-entry-wont-waive-rule-for-unprofitable-ai-firms/

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RIP: Anthony Head, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer among many other things

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:38:31 GMT

Ah, a sad day. He was a marvelous actor and did a lot of work. Aside from the TV series Buffy, he appeared in the Apple TV series Ted Lasso, and from the AP article: "...Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, the deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady.”

Head portrayed a prime minister himself in the sketch comedy show “Little Britain,” as well as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur, in the “Merlin” TV series. He also appeared in “Motherland,” Manchild,” and “Silent Witness,” along with acting in many plays, musicals, and recording music as a singer.

Head passed away 'due to complications from pneumonia'. He will be missed.

https://apnews.com/article/anthony-head-obit-buffy-vampire-lasso-a1c56edf560de048e730a2cf337e4223

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Amazon cancels the new Stargate series before it fully starts production

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:02:27 GMT

Well, the odds weren't good that it would see the light of day. I had just heard they were in development earlier this year. I was really looking forward to this, we enjoyed the original and the SG-1 series.

I still cringe whenever I'm in a theater and I see the MGM logo and Amazon with it. It just makes me sad. Perhaps it's better than MGM dying entirely, but not by much.

https://screenrant.com/stargate-amazon-new-series-canceled/

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Pope Leo issues an encyclical about artificial intelligence

Thu, 28 May 2026 19:48:07 GMT

This came out two weeks ago, and I'm not commenting on it as I'm reading it right now: I just converted it to an epub and at 43,000 words it's about 80 pages long in a double-page format on my laptop. It's going to take some time to chew through and form opinions on. There's definitely a lot to think about.

In it, he quotes Gandalf! Some commentators have proclaimed it as a slam against Peter Theil who created the Palantir [company/system] and is decidedly using it not for the betterment of humanity.

If anyone would like a copy of an epub of the encyclical, send me your email address as a private message and I'll send it to you. It's only 95k, so easily fits as an attachment.

An Ars Technica article on the encyclical:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/citing-gandalf-pope-leo-says-we-must-disarm-ai/

The inevitable Slashdot page on the encyclical:
https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/26/0441241/pope-leo-warns-of-risks-from-ai-in-42300-word-encyclical

And the actual encyclical!
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

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S. Korea Starbucks CEO sacked after disastrous Tank Day promotion

Mon, 25 May 2026 08:20:56 GMT

Oh, boy!

This guy is apparently an ultra-nationalist type and decided to do a Tank Day promotion. In South Korea, this was something that happened in 1980, a time when South Korea was being ruled by a military dictatorship. There was a brutal crack-down on pro-democracy protesters and a lot of people died when an unidentified person ordered troops to open fire on the protesters. A lot of people also just disappeared and still haven't been accounted for.

The CEO decided to 'celebrate' Tank Day, obviously a severely tone-deaf idea, which included special Tank Day tumblers and mugs. The public responded with videos of said tumblers and mugs being destroyed with hammers and such, along with other Starbucks merch being destroyed. The article goes on to report people getting refunds on prepaid gift cards and deleting their Starbucks smartphone apps. When word finally reached the USA HQ, he was fired. Starbucks Global announced that the CEO was no longer employed by the corporation and was no longer in that role.

The company that owns just over 2/3rds of Starbucks South Korea, Shinsegae Group, saw their stock take a 5.5% dive in trading.

From the article, "...Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin also issued a public apology.

“I deeply bow in apology as the representative of the group,” Chung said. The marketing “deeply hurt the public, the bereaved families, and the victims of the May 18 demonstration.”

Also from the article, the President of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung said on Twitter that "...he was “enraged” by Starbucks’ campaign and demanded it apologize to families of people killed during the uprising."

One more lesson on how to utterly ruin your high-paying career.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/starbucks-korea-head-fired-after-tank-day-promotion-sparks-public-uproar.html

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Functional strength vs body builders

Thu, 21 May 2026 23:46:24 GMT

This is hilarious! You only need the first six minutes until you get to his first commercial, the rest of the video is just more of the same. But it is funny.

I saw another video that explained. "Anatoly" is actually named Vladimir and placed 3rd in his weight class in a world championship. He's a pretty serious lifter, just happens to be a bit on the small side at 78 kg. So basically it's world champion-class vs gym rats.

But I love the mop!

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Anthropic AI attended a multi-faith religion confab after hosting one with Christian leaders

Mon, 18 May 2026 20:41:39 GMT

In early April, Anthropic hosted a two-day gathering of 15 Christian leaders to discuss Claude's "morality and spiritual development" at its HQ. Ignoring the concept of coding morals into software and the fact that different groups of the same religion who ostensibly follow the same core book have different interpretations, you do have the problem of this being just one core religion. And Anthropic took some heat for just meeting with representatives of Christian religions,

In early May, Anthropic and OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, joined a conference that included scholars from the "...New York Board of Rabbis, the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the U.S.-based Sikh Coalition, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America...". I note the absence of Hindu, Buddhist, atheists, Native American and Shamanistic traditions, Druidic and Wiccan traditions, and any number of other faiths. Heck, having the Church of Satan present would have certainly livened things up! But this was an invitational gathering called the Faith-AI Covenant, so they're just being a little representative, not remotely all-inclusive.

LLMs have a 'rule book' that are supposed to dictate some of their behavior. In the case of Anthropic's Claude, it's called a constitution. As of a month ago, it was 29,000 words. That's probably pretty complex. Considering how self-contradictory religious texts can be, do you want to code that into a rule book?

The companies making chatbots have a big problem. People using them have been talked into committing homicide, suicide, experimenting with drugs to the point of fatal overdoses, etc. While they say their programs are designed to be protective, their behavior shows that it is anything but.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a great quote: 'Our technology has so out-stripped our morals that we now have guided missiles and un-guided men.' It's relatively easy to guide a missile with radar, GPS, and terrain-matching optics/computers. But to code morals into a computer, based on religion - especially with several competing religions contributing?

I think you're going to end up with an almost HAL-9000 scenario, or any number of other scenarios where the program is paralyzed by the contradictions and mismatches within and between the various faiths. Ethics and morality are tricky codes, and they don't have to come from religion, and if you try to dictate them from religion, it's a great way to get the Crusades and any number of other horrible things.

I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think this is it.

Gizmodo article from last month on the Christian gathering:
https://gizmodo.com/how-do-we-make-sure-that-claude-behaves-itself-anthropic-invited-15-christians-for-a-summit-2000743766

Washington Post article re: Christian gathering, much more in-depth:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/04/11/anthropic-christians-claude-morals/

Gizmodo article on latest multi-faith gathering:
https://gizmodo.com/anthropic-has-added-several-more-religions-on-its-quest-to-inject-perfect-morals-into-claude-2000756740

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Lake Tahoe residents abandoned by its energy supplier who wants to power AI data centers

Sat, 16 May 2026 18:30:53 GMT

Ah, capitalism at its finest!

49,000 California residents of the area get their power from California-based Liberty Utilities, who get their power from Nevada-based NV Energy, and come May 2027, NV is going to start sending its power to data centers because it can make more money.

Lake Tahoe is an Alpine lake that is divided by the California/Nevada border, most of it on the California side. It looks to me like most of the residents are on the western/California side.

California regulators can't do much because it's a Nevada utility. Nevada won't do much of anything because it's California residents that have the problem and thus is not their ~~voters/tax-payers~~responsibility.

From the article, emphasis mine: "However, NV Energy representatives pushed back on the idea that data centers are the main culprit behind the decision to stop supplying energy to the Lake Tahoe community, telling Fortune that it was part of a long-term transition predating the AI boom. After NV Energy initially sold its California assets to Liberty in 2009, it struck a series of temporary agreements to keep providing power to Lake Tahoe until Liberty could secure another energy supplier.

Now, for whatever reason, NV Energy has decided it cannot keep extending such agreements. That leaves Liberty scrambling to find a new energy supplier as it plans to offer a replacement contract for any bidders capable of meeting California’s renewable energy requirements." *cough* more money from data centers *cough*

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/energy-supplier-abandons-lake-tahoe-residents-to-serve-data-centers/

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Do router reboots help home network performance?

Tue, 12 May 2026 15:10:40 GMT

Short answer? Probably not.

This writer has a complex home network. Mesh-enabled, lots and lots of devices plugged into it, a decent-sized family using it heavily. And he did some benchmarking at various times of the day, testing throughput with multiple benchmarks, resetting the router, then doing it again. Not rigorously scientific, but still demonstrative. The result? Didn't make much of a difference.

So he talked to some router manufacturers. And the responses were pretty uniform: modern routers are highly engineered and pretty robust, they're designed to be reliable and have high uptime. If you're having performance issues, the problem most likely lies elsewhere: computer needs a restart, network issue with your ISP, poor network design (you might benefit from a mesh or a faster connection). Or you may need a better/newer router. And, of course, keep your router's firmware updated for performance purposes and to ensure it's patched for the latest security updates.

Do I reboot ours very often? Nah. We have occasional power outages, in which case I'll shut off our UPS which will power off the router. The funny thing is that I read this article last night in bed before I went to sleep, and during the night Russet was working and our ISP had a network shutdown for maintenance. The first thing she did? Reset the router. Didn't make any difference since the upstream network was dead.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3125791/i-rebooted-my-router-and-busted-reddits-favorite-tech-myth.html

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