Wally has started digging his dust bath patch so I thought I’d get a photo of the action. Instead he looks like he’s praying towards Mecca. (I checked and he’s off by about 40°.)
Status:
Slept much better and felt able to do some mild woodworking today. I’ve been working on the bath panel I planned out earlier this month at a glacial pace, making a cut then sitting with it for a couple of days, then making another, but had got to the stage where I needed to get out the router, which requires a bit of brain clarity as it’s not a tool I have a lot of experience with. I took my time, thought it through and managed to make a decent cut that fitted. Yay! And in my victorious reverie I figured I’d capitalise on this and do the next cut, forgetting the first rule of chronic fatigue: do not trust your adrenalised self. Cue spectacular failure. Thankfully I have spare wood.
I have been working on this on and off for 18 days and am about a third of the way through. I reckon it’s an afternoon project, if that. Pacing, innit.
Reading:
- AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying - A fascinating and disturbing article that quickly dispenses with the AI-chatbot-gone-awry narrative (by explaining why everyone gets this shit wrong) and dives deep on how the military has tried to shorten the “kill chain” with, as they say, disastrous results for those on the ground. In short, this is nothing new, just faster and more, and unless we muzzle the likes of Palintir it’s just going to get worse.
- H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright typographic mystery - An H on the front of the Unity Temple in Chicago is upside down. There now follows a deep dive into when that error happened. See also half of Hospital H signs (in the US at least) are upside down.
- Meta Loses Two Landmark Cases Regarding Product Safety and Children’s Use; Google Loses One - Nick rounds up some reporting on the ruling. I particularly liked this outrageous quote from Google in the Guardian’s report: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site”. O RLY?
- Everyone’s very angry online right now - At least they are from where Garbage Day is sitting. Thankfully I don’t sit there. (Angry people in my streams get muted for a week and then unfollowed.)
Watching:
- Colin Furze: The Secret Garage Car Lift Part 1 (29:52)
- Fill my parsnip tubes with me (3:44) - I’m mildly fascinated by Gerald’s method of growing parsnips in drain pipes to keep them as straight as possible for show competitions. He harvests one in this video. I’ve had a quick search and I can’t see any mention of this technique.
Telly:
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The Doug episode. Nuff said.
- Last One Laughing Ireland - such a weird show. On the one hand it’s hilarious and I love it, on the other it’s kinda cringe reality slop. But I laughed and have some new comedians to look out for now.