Astronomers Say Recent Rash of Meteor Sightings ‘Warrants Serious Investigation’ Yeah, there was even a recent meteor seen in Portland not too long ago. I think the earth is traveling through some debris-laden space right now. Get back into your Langrangian points, folks.
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Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website. What the hell!
This is nuts. And the thing is, you'll never know that it's going on.A patent granted to Google on January 27, 2026 titled “AI-generated content page tailored to a specific user” describes a system that evaluates your company’s landing page in real time and, if it decides the page won’t perform well enough for a specific user, replaces it with an AI-generated version assembled on the fly. The user never sees what your team built, they see what Google's machine learning model thinks they should see instead.
This isn’t a feature announcement, it’s a patent, meaning Google has legally protected the ability to do this. Whether and when they deploy it is a separate question, but the direction is unmistakable – your website may soon be optional.
The danger of using "Hide My Email" with third-party Stripe handoffs. I don't use Hide My Email, since I use another third-party email masking service. Thankfully this is getting fixed, but is a good example of how edge cases are so unpredictable. You never know what the user will do.
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I'm so relieved. Boosting Brain Activity While Sitting May Lower Dementia Risk. So it's not just sitting around that increases your dementia risk. It's what you do. Watching mindless TV – bad! Doing mind-stimulating computer stuff – good! I hope working on this blog counts as mind-stimulating.
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This is so funny. Nature published two studies: one that showed that atmospheric CO2 and methane (greenhouse gases) have been stable over the past 3 million years. They also published a study which determined the global heat content over the past 3 million years. This study found:
we find pronounced cooling roughly coincident with the Plio-Pleistocene Transition (around 2.7 million years ago), and steady temperatures across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (1.2 to 0.8 million years ago). Comparisons with a recent global sea surface temperature compilation3 show broad consistency in long-term cooling but important differences at the Plio-Pleistocene and Mid-Pleistocene transitions. We suggest that the different trends in surface temperature and mean ocean temperature during these intervals are related to a redistribution of heat between the surface and subsurface via changes in deep water formation and upwelling.
Sure doesn't sound like greenhouse gases are a problem in the grand scale, and that planetary changes in the ocean currents are the major drivers for surface temperatures. So what is the reaction of the climate scientists? Denial, of course. They worry that people might read these papers and start to doubt Al Gore's and John Kerry's climate religion.
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People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop Windows 11's mandatory Microsoft Account requirements during setup. Even Microsoft employees don't want to eat their own dog food. Apple strongly encourages one to have an Apple account, but it's possible to use the computer without it, although you can't use the App Store without an account. But Microsoft's system is more difficult and onerous to use. It's not user-friendly.
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Qatar Dethroned As 'LNG King' As U.S. Seizes Throne, Reshaping Future Of Gas. West Texas has so much NG that they throw it away. The United States is so well-positioned energy-wise. We really shouldn't have to be paying for high gas prices. But we do. For now. I'm looking forward to when energy will be cheap. Feel sorry for Europe and Australia, though.
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Interesting essay on gambling and the prediction markets. I agree that there is something fundamentally wrong with the prediction market system, especially when they let you put money on disasters or others' misfortunes. Because when there's money on the line, some people might want to make things happen, you know. Just because. And losing a bet does gnaw away at your ego and your sense of competence. Especially seeing the winners gloat and trumpet their good fortune. And losing a high-stakes bet is a good way to become suicidal, because you know that you'll never find anyone who will sympathize with you.
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Using a VPN May Subject You to NSA Spying. I've wondered about this since the Edward Snowden affair. But that was before Palantir and others. Still, the use of VPNs is mainstream now, so this issue is becoming less important.
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Under the old policy, San Francisco "tried to achieve equity not by raising the floor, but by lowering the ceiling," Thomas S. Dee, a Stanford University economist told the Times. "It’s a problem we see nationally," he continued.
Boy, I'll say. What a dumb experiment that turned out to be.
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Seattle Times addresses the issue: Why WA gas prices are so high: It’s more than just the Iran war. Yes, it's not just oil prices. Yes, it's the taxes. And they touch on the fact that gas in eastern Washington is lower than in the big cities. But then the article states:
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Like hell, Seattle Times! Ooo, you were so close.What can WA lawmakers do to lower gas prices?
Not much.
Even Multnomah County is seeing the flight.
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Oregon preps for being a datacenter dump. I would require that companies provide their own power source, preferably from SMRs. I don't know how they'll handle the water requirement. Eastern Oregon isn't exactly flush with water either. Poor eastern Oregon, they get all the windmills, solar farms, datacenters, etc. All the crap no one else wants in their backyard.
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