It is oddly comforting to know, after all these years, that Scripting News is still updating regularly and still publishing RSS. I wonder how many others of the first 1000 blogs are still around. Not many, I’ll bet.
Finished reading: Elric: The Moonbeam Roads 📚. Another of my retirement projects is to read through the definitive author’s editions of Michael Moorcock’s works. This is the seventh (and last) of the Elric books, clocking in at a massive 1,000 pages. Well, it does contain three entire novels (Daughter of Dreams, Destiny’s Brother, Son of the Wolf). These were not even in existence the last time I read the Elric books a few decades ago, and they’re much more polished than the original novels. They also provide perhaps the best exploration of the complex metaphysics of Law, Chaos, the Eternal Champion, and the Balance, among other things. Moorcock is perhaps an acquired taste, but I acquired it long ago, and I’m enjoying getting myself reacquainted with the complex interconnections of his dozens of novels.
“Steps to Nowhere”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 14-42 kit lens @ 17mm, f/4.5, 1/500s, ISO 400. Along FR 5821 near Lookout Point Reservoir.
Garmin’s online map shows a point for the “Willamette Divide Trail,” for which there is no information online (just sketchy mapping apps that are all tapping the same database). I’m intrigued. Might have to poke around there some day. (Spirit Falls track to the left, Deception Butte to the right).
Fortunately, I live in Oregon, so there are always waterfalls to improve things. This is Moon Falls - I also hiked to Spirit Falls and Pinard Falls this morning. Cleaned up photos will no doubt follow; this one is straight out of the camera.
Why RFK Jr.’s pick for a vaccine-autism review may be familiar to Retraction Watch readers
And speaking of RFK Jr, his pick to run a new “study” of vaccines and autism has already been caught committing scientific fraud in the past. Picking an anti-vaccine activist with a history of cheating and practicing medicine without a license is bullshit and deserves to be called out as such.
Top FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks pushed out
I wonder if the “oh, RFK Jr isn’t that extreme” crowd in Congress are having second thoughts yet about the new anti-vax, anti-science, anti-transparency regime at HHS. Probably not. Marks’s full resignation letter is worth reading.
There is no doubt that Kennedy and his enablers are and will be directly responsible for killing children. This is despicable.
Flight bookings between Canada and US down 70% amid Trump tariff war
Guess it’s the turn of the USA to learn what the term “pariah nation” means.
Finished reading: The Cream of the Jest 📚. I do seem to be tearing through the James Branch Cabell lately. This one firmly ties his Lichfield novels into the wider Biography of Manuel series, with Cabell writing as the author Richard Harrowby about the author Felix Kennaston writing about the adventures of Horvendile and Ettarre, who appear elsewhere in the Biography. Beneath the comic story lie Cabell’s own speculations about life, love, and the purpose of a man.
First big AI IPO (CoreWeave) lands with a thud. From NYT:
The company priced its offering at $40 a share, compared with an initial range of $47 to $55. It also sold 37.5 million shares, about 23 percent less than expected. Overall, it raised $1.5 billion at a roughly $23 billion valuation, down from its initial hopes of $4 billion at a $35 billion valuation.
“Horsetail”
Olympus E-M10 IV, M.Zuiko 60mm f2.8 macro lens, f/11, 1/200s, ISO 4000. Along FR 5824 near the Eugene to Crest Trail.
I’m sure I’ll never be in a position to take any business to Skadden, Arps or Paul, Weiss, but if I was, I wouldn’t.
Much of my post-move life is perfectly described by the notion of putting ten pounds of shit in a five-pound sack. Maybe downsizing will be done before I die, but I doubt it. (Ideally I want everything to go to good homes while I’m still alive.)
Dear Canada,
We’re not all assholes. Honest. We’re sorry for the jerk at the top.
PS - How about you adopt us? I’m sure western Oregon & western Washington would be happy to be a Canadian province. Idaho will take the leftovers.
Utah becomes first state to ban fluoride in public water supply
Forward into the past.
I’ve managed to keep a sourdough starter going for years now (including a cross-country move) without a $160 gadget. I think I can pass on this.
(H/T The Verge)
Trump Slump continues. And accelerates. What a surprise, when you tank the economy the markets notice.
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Anyone who has ever been involved in a large software project will tell you this is the stupidest fucking idea ever. The ignorance of these kids is matched only by their arrogance.
With so many years in the industry, you’d think I could write simple Markdown without needing three tries. You’d be wrong.
- Gemini hackers can deliver more potent attacks with a helping hand from… Gemini
- Open source devs say AI crawlers dominate traffic, forcing blocks on entire countries
With the acceleration of AI nonsense, I’m starting to think the internet will be dead as a useful place before I am.