Category: Geekitude

Monday Links

Reason links first.

Tariffs could increase console prices by $250.

U of M spent a quarter of a billion on DEI and made students unhappier. While I’m glad we’re getting empirical data on how bad these programs are, the damage is going to be far worse than wasting that much money.

Secondhand smoke dangers are getting a second look.

And another attempt at buying off voters – I mean, student loan forgiveness.

A thinkpiece on reforming Social Security.

Time for Ground News aggregations.

Lufthansa had to pay a fine for mistreating Jewish passengers. There’s something very wrong about this.

FTC institutes rule for click to cancel. Okay, there are something I would like to see, but I don’t like the FTC just making a regulation. It sounds like if this was a real issue, then Congress should do its damn job.

Amazon is going nuclear to power its future data center needs.

On to other stories!

WSJ article about Google joining Microsoft and Amazon in jumpstarting the nuclear power race. Better yet, both Google and Amazon are looking into current and future generation reactors that aren’t focused on creating nuclear warhead material.

Reuters article on the pager bombs Israel slipped Hezbollah.

ArsTechnica on the death of Ward Chrstenssen who created BBS’s.

Business Insider on China getting into the tilt-rotor game. Hope they have as much fun getting it to work as our military has had.

Cats beating babies at word association. (h/t Tam)

A couple of RKBA stories.

The Reload reports on the current NRA EVP finding himself in a scandal due to an animal cruelty charge from his college days.

John Richardson is on the ballot for NRA Board of Directors.

A couple of hurricane-related stories.

From Tampa Bay Times, an explainer on why some neighborhoods got the power back faster than others.

In true Tampa fashion, some local businesses are thanking linemen for their hard work by providing free/discounted services. Namely, the strip clubs. Welll, heck, why not lean into the rep?

Monday Links

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks. Some of these may be dated. Please see customer service for your refund.

Reason articles first.

Should Fauci be blamed for the pandemic? He certainly didn’t help with his actions. But I dislike mono-causal explanations for complex issues. Fauci was one part. So was political tribalism. So was an advocate media. So were many other things that we won’t fully understand for a generation.

California is going to try to regulate AI. I can see that going well.

No Trump, crime is not on the rise. It’s regressing back to where it was pre-pandemic. There is some evidence that some areas are seeing an unreported increase due to folks just not calling the cops. However, it looks like the trend is going back to where it was before 2020. And we’re still nowhere near the insanity of 1992 when violent crime peaked.

The NYT thinks DIY guns cause libertarianism. Eh, it’s probably more a case of correlation than causation.

Argentina ends rent control. Millions homeless? No. Falling rents and increased supply? Yes.

Now onto a hodgepodge of other items.

New technology keeps storm surge from flooding Tampa General Hospital. There has always been criticism of having Tampa’s main hospital on an island and surrounded by water. AquaFence did an amazing job during Helene. A reporter quipped that the company will now sell a bunch of them. Well, that’s what happens when your product performs that amazingly well.

Bloomberg reports on a new paper asserting online dating causing a rise in income inequality. An interesting thesis, but I’m not sure that it caused as much as accelerated a trend that was already happening.

From TechCrunch, the FDA granted approval for Apple AirPods Pro to act as hearing aid devices. I can see this as the start of lower cost hearing aids coming to market based on earbuds.

The Atlantic has an article on the demise of the minivan. Well, not quite demise, but definitely the dwindling of the market.

CNN article on how kiosks in McDonalds increased sales and need for workers. Again, technology didn’t change the need for workers, but changed what kind of work is needed.

The Verge reports YouTube is pulling songs due to its dispute with SESAC. This is impacting some older Metal Tuesday entries.

Transformers +40

Forty years ago, this week, the Transformers came to television. I’m not going to say that this show influenced my writing, but it was a big part of my childhood.

It also had those great openings.

And the often imitated transforming sound effect

Monday Links

Sweet FSM. I miss a week and the articles stack up. This is going to be a long links post. A lot of gun/RKBA related stories this week.

Let’s start with our normal collection of Reason articles. And talking about RKBA-related stories…

How courts are evading the Bruen decision. Color me surprised that lawyers and judges (but I repeat myself) are trying to push the guardrails of new legal theory.

Eighth Circuit strikes down Missouri’s 2A Sanctuary law. These kinds of laws are why I think we need an amendment that allows at least a majority of states to nullify onerous federal laws.

Another parent being charged with murder because their offspring decided to murder schoolmates and teachers. I am highly skeptical of this trend, particularly since it feels like we’re burning the parents in effigy (legally speaking).

A historical look back on arms bans prior to the 20th century.

The Biden administration is trying to go ahead with its plan to cancel student debt. Even though it’s illegal and the Supreme Court has struck down pretty much all attempts. Oh yeah, that will help keep the cost of college down. If it didn’t cost so much, I’d almost be in favor of it to help burst the college bubble.

A thinkpiece on what the .gov could do to help with the housing crisis. In the same vein, here’s an analysis on what happened when the Dutch recent tried national rent control. Spoiler alert: it ended up hurting the people it was supposed to help. Cue surprised Pikachu.

A recent survey of college students find almost a third think violence is an acceptable form of protest. I’m a little leery since I didn’t see how they worded the questions, but someone needs to explain to these young adults that the means you think are fully justified for your cause are going to be adopted by your opposition because they now think they have permission. Come to think of it, that describes a lot of what’s gone wrong in this century.

Have we reached peak public schooling? This rolls into one of my soapboxes that the nation needs to have a serious discussion about what it wants out of public schools. Everyone will say they want to make “responsible and educated citizens.” But let’s face it. It’s also state-sponsored daycare for a lot of folks.

Idaho’s Child Care Program expanded benefits and now is facing a $16 million deficit. Either there were a lot more needy families or there were a lot folks just lining up to the trough. These days, it’s probably both.

And now for some Ground News aggregations.

Trump is concerned how expensive IVF is and wants insurance to pay for it. Proving once again that Trump is fine with handing out goodies if he thinks it will get him elected, and he still has no concept of economics.

Okay, yes, the WHO beclowned itself with its obsequience to China during the pandemic. Still, it’s nice to have another study showing that there’s no link between brain cancer and cell phones.

NVIDIA is getting a hard look by the DOJ for trying to lock customers into its products. Companies being asses tends to open up the market for competitors, but DOJ is going to DOJ.

The US, UK, and EU sign an AI treaty. Yeah, that has beneficial to the growth of the technology written all over it.

Now for some more RKBA and gun related content.

John Richardson is reporting that one of the NRA directors is advocating for firing the Brewer firm. Jettisoning that firm would be a strong sign that the NRA is healing.

Speaking of John, guess who’s going to be on the ballot to become part of the NRA Board? Honestly, if I could immediately vote in the election, this might get me to join back. I’m still in my wait and see period.

TTAG article on Polymer80 closing up shop after years of fighting “ghost gun” legislation. It’s sad to see Pyrrhic victories in the gun world.

I’ve got a slew of tech-related/adjacent articles.

From The Verge, an article about how new AI-powered photo editing tools will make it harder to believe what you see.

Also from The Verge, Ecoflow launching a new series of batteries/powerstations. Honestly, I’m loving the innovation and expansion in this segment. I think advances in battery tech are crucial to improving the overall health of the power grid.

From The New Yorker, an essay on why AI isn’t going to be making art. While I think AI will make art creation more accessible to more people, it’s not going to replace the spark of creativity in humans.

From Bloomberg, Intel’s problems is endangering the promise of the CHIPS Act. Damn, it’s like industrial policy can’t overrule business / economic rules. Or that maybe the government has a bad track record of choosing winning corporations.

Via Wired, the Internet Archive got slapped down for lending out copyrighted books willy-nilly on its platform.

From MacStories, Reeder is launching a revamped product. I use the current Reeder (soon to be known as Reeder Classic) to gather the various stories that tend to end up here. (h/t The Brother)

Not tech, but of local interest, the local news station has an article on Tervis filing Chapter 11 reorganization. The Ward household has many of their products and hope they come out stronger.

Geek Culture reports on Transformers new line combining TF characters with other IP forms. Of particular interest to me is the Macross collaboration. Although I doubt it’s going to be a re-issue of the G1 Jetfire toy.

Monday Links

This is going to be a weird one, as I have only one Reason article.

Albuquerque police chief thinks it’s okay for cops to turn off their body cams under their Fifth Amendment rights. Um, no.

Now for a couple of Ground News aggregations.

DOJ is going after a software firm saying that their algorithm allows landlords to raise rents.

Former deputy who killed airman is being charged with manslaughter. I would like to think that a private citizen would get the same consideration in terms of charging.

For news items from other sources.

Duke Medical study finds gun laws have mixed impact on suicide and homicide rates. Almost as if murder and suicide are complex problems that can’t be fixed with “one simple solution.”

The Guardian is reporting on trouble in the dating app world. Namely, the apps are losing users / subscribers.

AP is reporting that the Fed Chairman is signalling that they may reduce interest rates in the near future.

Local news station is advising people not to trust flood maps when deciding to buy flood insurance. Note to any new or prospective resident of Florida – you need flood insurance. I don’t care where you live in Florida, you need flood insurance.

The Verge is reporting that Chik-Fil-A is looking into launching a streaming service. Um, okay. Question. Will it run on Sundays?

Creative Loafing Tampa is reporting on Busch Gardens shutting down the Scorpion roller coaster. I remember when that coaster opened, and rode it a lot when I was younger, thinner, and able to ride coasters without feeling like I got bashed around.

Another Guardian article, but this one on the reveal of some of the major features of Civ 7. There’s been a lot of sturm und drang among the Civ FB groups on the changes. I’m going to wait until I’ve played before making judgements. I will say that I’m inordinately excited that rivers will now be navigable.

Via The Brother, there’s this nifty USGS site showing all of the world’s water in a sphere.

Not Exactly How I Planned To Spend My Sunday

Sunday began with the distinctive chirping of one of the smoke alarms telling me that the batteries were dead. Joy. After locating the offending device, I switched out the batteries. Still not working. Popped out the new batteries. Well, hell, that looks like corrosion on one of the contacts. Check the old batteries. Yep, one burst and managed to take out the alarm. Fortunately Amazon has same day delivery for a replacement.

The Wife and I then got ready for a trip to Apopka. On Friday, I won an auction on Gunbroker and the store handling the auction was in Apopka. Rather than have them ship the pistol over to their store nearby, The Wife and I decided it would be a fun little jaunt to just travel the two hours. It would give her time to crochet while the both of us listened to our audiobook.

We got to the store and found out that their Gunbroker auctions group didn’t work weekends. In other words, Derek jumped the gun instead of waiting for the email/call that my gun was ready for pickup. But it should be done in a day or two. Um, yeah, I’m not going to be able to make that trip anytime soon. I asked if they would please let their Gunbroker folks know to ship it over to the local store. They would have them call me.

As we were leaving, The Wife looked at her phone and asked if we wanted to go hit Disney Springs. After all, I wanted to pick up another lightsaber. We have plans for mounting them in the space between our offices. Except there was one small problem. I wasn’t planning on going to Disney, and I had a variety of devices that Disney frowns on bringing into their various attractions. Well, we were at a gun store. We found one that I liked and got it set up in the Ward Wagon. One of those times I was glad that I had TSA’d my sling bag.

Let’s just say if we knew we were going to make the trek to Disney Springs we would have made different wardrobe changes. But we hiked from the parking garage to the Star Wars store. There was momentary panic because they moved the lightsaber case. I had a hard time deciding between Luke’s green saber from Return of the Jedi and the Darksaber. The clerk informed us that if we ordered the Darksaber from the online Disney store, it was cheaper. That much was true. It was also sold out with no timeline for restock. The Wife looked at the budget and saw there was some play. Both of them ended up coming home with us. Now, I have to figure out how to mount the Darksaber, because it won’t use the ones I bought for my lightsabers.

It was not the day we planned, but it was a good day nonetheless.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – Deadpool and Wolverine

I don’t understand all the hate I’ve been hearing from the professional movie reviewers. It kind of reminds me the reviews around Bright. I was laughing pretty much non-stop throughout the film.

My general rule for these reviews is no spoilers. Which makes it difficult because there are so many – I can’t really call them Easter Eggs. I would call them more “surprise guest stars”. Let’s just say if you’ve been a Marvel movie watcher since the mid-90’s, there’s plenty of callback, gags, and homages.

I will say watching Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds together was a joy. It was clear they had a ball making the film.

Like the previous Deadpool films, there are a lot of fourth-wall breaks and callouts to the comics movie universe. It all comes fast and furious. I’ll have to watch again just to see what I missed.

Prime Day 2024

This year’s Prime Day was focused around a couple of re-orgs I’ve been wanting to do.

Bed stand Reorganization

My bed stand was getting cluttered, and I’ve been wanting to clean it up. One of the big areas is the collection of tablets. The tablet rack I was using wasn’t working and was too bulky. So, I switched out for this one.

Another item was all the charging cables. I reduced them somewhat and gained some space using this Anker wireless charging station for my phone, watch, and airpods.

Sling Bag Reorganization

After multiple times of having to quickly make my sling bag TSA-compliant, I’ve decided to just keep it that way. Which meant the knives and lighter. I switched out the lighter for one of these firestarters. Is it as convenient or handy as a lighter? Nope. Will it get through security? Yep.

I’ve also added an Anker Mag Safe battery pack. This one has a bit more oomph than the one I currently have. Plus, if our trip out west proved anything, it’s damned useful to have as much stored power as possible.

Miscellaneous

Some Amazon Basics paracord to restock.

This tiny S&W knife because I thought it was nifty.

Strangely, the only toy I picked up was a retro Autobot Blaster with Steeljaw cassette that Walmart had on sale.