I’m testing some updates to our RSS feed generation this morning. Adding support for markdown processing in entry bodies, which has always worked on the web views but has been less than ideal in our feeds. Here’s a link to a randomly selected journal of mine for testing purposes: Monday, May 20, 2024 - Impeccable Stage Coach Timing.

I was hoping to have a perfect week this week, with respect to posting, but failed. Work and grass are primarily to blame. Tomorrow starts a new week, though, and I’m feeling fairly confident.

But two of its authors say the correction is insufficient and the study should be retracted. Henry Legg, a quantum physicist at the University of St. Andrews, also has concerns. “This is the latest in a long line of issues we have seen with Microsoft-funded research,” he says. “It seems when they turn up with funding, standard research practices can go out the window.”

So maybe don’t take the money next time.

The new reality for American academia (science.org)

After reading her insightful piece in The Atlantic about a potential way forward, I talked to Danielle Allen, a professor at Harvard University who studies political science, democracy, and philosophy. She argues for a new social contract between higher education and the federal government that simultaneously calls for a firm commitment to academic freedom and what she calls a “horizontal” relationship between universities and the American people—one that is based on mutual respect and reciprocity.

I’ve seen Dr. Allen (Harvard bio; Wikipedia page) mentioned a couple times over the last couple weeks, in different contexts (first in a New Yorker article on how universities are pivoting toward pluralism and away from DEI), and now in this Science editorial about how the social contract between universities and the federal government. I don’t know much about her work or positions, but I’m going to learn more about both as she seems to be leading new thought on the future of universities.

Associated Press finds 'no definitive evidence' to change credit for famous Vietnam War photo (apnews.com)

The AP concluded that it was “possible” Ut took the photo, but it was unable to be proven conclusively due to the passage of time, absence of key evidence, limitations of technology and the deaths of several key people involved.

At the same time, AP found no proof that Nguyen took the photo, the report said.

I’d love to watch this documentary on the authorship of the famous Napalm Girl photo, but I can’t find it on any streaming service.

Trump says talking to Fed boss Powell is like ‘talking to a wall’ in latest attack (independent.co.uk)

Donald Trump has offered his latest sharp criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, complaining during an Oval Office press conference on Thursday that dealing with the central banker is like “talking to a wall.”

Good. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work.

The big blunder was that Trump was holding a red lightsaber, which just about everyone knows is the weapon used by the very same evil Sith lords named in the post and in the Star Wars movies – not the good guys.

It’s funny to me that people actually think the inclusion of a red lightsaber was unintended. He’s rattling your sabers, folks. That’s what he does.

“Consistent with many national polls, we find that Trump has lost considerable support over his first 100 days, suggesting his honeymoon was short-lived,” Bowling Green State University political scientist Robert Alexander said. “Having a net negative favorability rating in a state he won by 11 points should be of concern for Trump nationwide.”

I haven’t felt this in Ohio yet, as most of the Trump supporters I know seem to be taking a buried-head, blind faith strategy so far.

Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again (wired.com)

A smattering of automakers are slowly admitting that some smart screens are dumb. Last month, Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt said that next-gen models from the German automaker would get physical buttons for volume, seat heating, fan controls, and hazard lights. This shift will apply “in every car that we make from now on,” Mindt told British car magazine Autocar.

I think the race to move all controls in a car to a smart screen squarely falls in the “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” department of innovation. We have two Teslas and the lack of physcial controls is one of our biggest complaints about the cars. Having to go to the correct page on the screen and then hunt to find the icon for opening the glovebox has to be the height of absurdity for the smart screen trend.

Moving back to buttons and other physical controls could be a difference maker for the traditional automakers, too. They have decades and decades of experience with human-car interface and have produced some amazing innovations in that space. Tesla literally has…a few (the scroll controls on the steering wheel are nice). Combining that history of innovation with advances in electric powertrains could be a difference maker as the GM’s and Ford’s of the world compete with Tesla and other electric-only manufacturers.

Frustration with the lack of physical controls in modern cars has been growing for some time. John Siracusa has been fighting this battle on Accidential Tech Podcast since before it was ATP (or at least since the day ATP launched its first epiosode).

Europe pledges half a billion euros to lure scientists as Trump battles universities (reuters.com)

The European Union and France on Monday announced half a billion euros worth of incentives to lure scientists to the continent, seeking to profit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal funding cuts and clashes with top U.S. universities.

Von der Leyen announced the 500 million euros ($566.6 million) incentive package and said she also wanted EU member states to invest 3% of gross domestic product in research and development by 2030.

“We could well see a reverse brain drain…not just to Europe, but scholars are moving to Canada and Asia as well.”

There’s no “giant sucking sound” yet, but this certainly has the potential to become one.

The USA TODAY Network asked Microsoft Copilot AI to simulate the order of finish for the 2025 Kentucky Derby field based on the latest, odds, predictions and race factors on Thursday, May 1. Journalism came out on top in its projection.

The irony of AI picking Journalism to win the Kentucky Derby is bested only by the sad reality of the actual results – Sovereignty besting Journalism for the win.

Trump says he is not considering running for third term (bbc.com)

US President Donald Trump has denied that he is considering running for a third presidential term, a move which experts agree is banned under the US Constitution.

I hate that I feel relieved by this. I suppose we couldn’t stop him from running, but the 22nd Amendment prevents him from being elected more than twice. I guess I wouldn’t be surprised to see him leverage the gap between running and being elected to raise money from his base. To wit, “....The Trump Organization, has been selling ‘Trump 2028’ hats.…”

Tamron Q1 financial results: "Slump in sales" because of "risks and uncertainty over the policies of the new US administration" - Photo Rumors (photorumors.com)

Vietnam seems to be a big winner of the US-China trade war. This report from Tamron (lens manufacturer) shows it plans to decrease the China portion of its “production ratio” from 65% to 45% between now and 2028, while increasing the Vietnam portion from 25% to 45%.

A.I., Art, and Copyright: The Human Element That Makes All the Difference | Copyright (loc.gov)

Specifically, their comments centered first on human authorship and AI’s impact on human creativity. Second, labor effects—they fear that rapidly generated AI content could overwhelm human-authored works in the marketplace. Third, they want control and compensation for the use of both their personas and copyright-protected works. Fourth, they recognize innovation aspects—that AI can assist the creative process and even enable performances by deceased artists. Finally, regarding licensing, they consider what type should be preferred: voluntary, collective, or compulsory. In short, should they have to opt in or opt out?

The Library of Congress received and considered more than 10,000 comments from the public for its report on AI and copyright for Congress. The comments largely fell into the categories listed in the quote. Hopefully Congress approaches the issue with the same level of attention as the LoC.

No, Trump is not a fascist. He is a hypercapitalist and just as dangerous (aljazeera.com)

Trump and his cheerleaders want to go beyond neoliberalism, which maintains that a minimal state is ideal for economic prosperity, and establish hypercapitalism by dissolving any controls the state has over the accumulation of wealth by the extremely rich.

They understand that we are living in times when extracting profit from society is not as easy, so they want to free capitalism from the hindrances of democracy and the demands of the people that their rights – political, social and human – be protected by the law and by the state.

The tech bros that Trump has surrounded himself with have wrapped this hypercapitalism in a technological cover, claiming that technology can solve all woes and unlimited growth – read unlimited profits for the rich – is the only way to progress.

I’m not sayin’ hypercapitalism is a movement by the billionaire class to accumulate enough wealth to leave the planet, I’m just sayin’.

Alex Lifeson of Rush dives into new sonic realms with Envy of None's album 'Stygian Waves' (foxsanantonio.com)

“Moving Pictures was the most fun record we ever made. It was such a great energy and a great vibe,” [Lifeson] said.

This article is really about Lifeson’s new work but it has some interesting Rush-related info, too. Moving Pictures is such a great album…one of my all time favorites.

“[Local radio is] what made Detroiters different from Clevelanders or Bostonians.”

“The old way is over. Gone. Extinct. Swept away. Shattered into a million little pieces. The Digital Age has brought us an incomprehensible number of choices and has parked us into our own, self-defined worlds. To the extent we share it, we might be in synch with someone in, say, Cleveland or Boston.”

“With podcasts, with iPhone libraries, with satellite radio, the Golden Age of Audio has replaced the Golden Age of Radio.”

This is an interesting piece on local radio in Detroit. It touches on something I’ve thought about before — the social graph created by audio has shifted from local networks created by local radio to nationally and even internationally connected ones created by a mix of streaming services, satellite radio, and podcasts (among other things). That’s amazing from a consumer choice point of view (you can find content on anything!), but the shared local experience, and the local identity that flows from that, is being slowly muffled in the process.

Gen Z parents are more likely than millennial or Gen X parents to say that children’s reading is “more a subject to learn than a fun thing to do”. HarperCollins said that parents in this age group grew up with technology themselves, so may think “fun comes more from digital entertainment than from books”.

We’re still learning the downstream effects of omnipresent computers – smartphones and tablets, etc. I’m glad to be on the backside of this generational divide.

Photography: An Evening in Georgetown DC - Adam Chandler's Blog (adamchandler.me)

This is another great photo-centric post from Adam Chandler, this one focusing on photos he took during an evening walk in DC. I made a brief post on Tuesday of this week about how much I liked his earlier One Day in DC post. Beautiful and inspiring stuff.

Medical journals hit with threatening letters from Justice Department (npr.org)

“Rubin says the letter mentioned that the journal has tax-exempt status.”

“‘It does feel like there’s a threatening tone to the letter and it is trying to intimidate us,’ Rubin says.

Trump has long been fond of claiming others have “weaponized” parts of government in their efforts to defeat him, including the entire Department of Justice. With these letters to medical journals and the higher profile threats to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status, which he has underscored, it’s becoming clear that Trump is weaponizing tax-exempt status in his attacks on science and higher education. It’s starting to make his Executive Order on Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government look disingenuous and even ironic.

Maine ‘took on Trump and won’ in legal battle over trans athletes, governor says (independent.co.uk)

“It’s unfortunate that my office had to resort to federal court just to get USDA to comply with the law and its own regulations,” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement. “But we are pleased that the lawsuit has now been resolved and that Maine will continue to receive funds as directed by Congress to feed children and vulnerable adults.”

Add another page to the resistance playbook.

It’s only been 100 days (plus a few more, now). Seriously.

Great photos.

I remember the exact moment I first heard an AC/DC song. A friend and I listened to his brother’s copy of High Voltage, on a record player of course. We fixated on T.N.T., and I’ve been hooked ever since. We didn’t understand “The Jack” at the time, but laughed about it later once we did.

That was in 1980-ish; sixth grade for me. A year or two later I taped a penny to a postcard and ordered Dirty Deeds with my Columbia House membership. I loved every song on that album. My mom did not. I’m pretty sure she was convinced I was becoming a devil worshipper at this point. (In her defense, the track listing alone probably would have concerned an older me, too; luckily, I don’t think she paid attention to the actual lyrics.)

My fandom faded in the early days of high school, but a dear friend rekindled it during our junior and senior years. He passed shortly after we graduated. To this day, I think of him every time I hear certain songs (mostly the lesser known tracks because that’s the stuff he really helped me appreciate). The last time I saw him, he gave me a bottle opener with a fish painted on it (we were at the lake and enjoying a few pops). With his goofy smile and wit, he told me “Matt, don’t ever lose the fish.” That bottle opener sits in the top drawer of my toolbox to this day. I threw it in the car as we left for Detroit Wednesday afternoon. I didn’t take it into the stadium, thinking it would be confiscated if I tried. But, it felt right and good to have it sitting in the car throughout the show. And you know they were loud enough to reach it.

AC/DC songs are relatively simple, of course. They follow the forumula to a T - power chords, inuendo, and a killer guitar solo. Heck, they pretty much invented it. But, while that recipe is what drew me into their orbit as a kid, AC/DC has come to symbolize a lot more than music for me. My friend, of course, is a big part of that, but there’s more. For me, the band is symbolic of brothers, and family as a whole, second chances, and second acts (if you don’t know the story and you’re interested, read about the history of Bon Scott, Brian Johnson, and the Back in Black album; it is, without question, the greatest comeback of all time). Don’t take yourself too seriously and be willing to be a little ridiculous. Also, knowing what you’re good at, sticking to it, and not apologizing for it. Angus Young doesn’t sing, and Brian Joshnson doesn’t play. And, after the concert in Detroit, AC/DC now symbolizes enduring passion for me. These guys are still doing what they love, and having a blast doing it. Brian Johnson quite literally smiled from ear to ear during the entire show, even screaming “I love this *hit” at one point.

At 55, I’m still 17 when AC/DC plays on the radio. I turn it to eleven when they’re on (any song, really), and occasionally throw the horns. Watching Angus and Brian Johnson give a high-energy, damn-near-perfect performance in Detroit this week, at 70 and 77, makes me want that to never change. They don’t swing from the gong of the bell any more, but they played non-stop for two hours and fifteen minutes, covering every square inch of the stage in the process. Do what you love, at 110%, as long as you can. Stay young.

That was my first time seeing them live, and I’m forever grateful that Renee bought the tickets.

And, mom, I know it’s hard to see, but look at all those devil horns in the audience.  😈 😈 😈

AC⚡️DC concert tonight at Ford Field. I’ve been looking forward to seeing them for years. Should be a great show.

🎸😈🤘

I woke up at 6AM, flew to DC and....

I love posts like this one from Adam Chandler. Words help, of course, but a series of photographs with a day-in-the-life perspective really lets you quickly appreciate someone else’s experience. Fun. Adam’s text in the post focuses on the Nationals game he attended, but the pictures show that he did so much more on that day. Love it.

Amazon is not planning to break out tariff costs online as White House attacks potential move (apnews.com)

Amazon says it’s not planning to display added tariff costs next to product prices on its site — despite a report that sparked speculation the e-commerce giant would soon show the new import charges, and the White House’s fiery comments denouncing the purported change.

I knew I smelled something fishy when I posted about this earlier today (see my note in that post). Turns out, a report from a site called Punchbowl News citing an anonymous source is…not great.

Thank you AP!

OpenAI rolls back ChatGPT 4o model for being too much of a suck-up (mashable.com)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that “GPT-4o updates have made the personality too sycophant-y and annoying.” And today, Altman announced on X that the company was fully rolling back the 4o update for paid and free users alike.

“too sycophant-y and annoying” — sounds like much of the Republican Party these days. Can we get a full rollback on that?

Scripting News: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (scripting.com)

Bluesky is nice, but it’s fragile, and their hype says otherwise. That’s why they’re special. They should straighten this out so we can properly get decentralization into our networks. Bluesky could easily add a layer of RSS on top of what they have, so that news flow could survive a disaster. In 2025 this is a realistic concern, as it was in 1966. Also it would be nice if other network experts would support this, esp if they’re on Bluesky.

I’m not the network expert Dave is looking for, but I agree with him on this. I’d love to see an RSS layer on top of Bluesky. I’d really love to see RSS restored to its former glory all around the web, but, realizing that likely won’t happen, adding it to Bluesky would be a very satisfying consolation prize.

Bessent defends 'strategic uncertainty' of Trump tariffs (indiatimes.com)

“In game theory, it’s called strategic uncertainty, so you’re not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you’re going to end up,” Bessent told ABC’s “This Week” news program.

“‘Nobody is better at creating this leverage than President Trump,’ the treasury secretary added.”

Well, Bessent has a defensible point there.

Amazon apparently plans to “show how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product” in its massive online store. (NOTE: I have not been able to verify that Amazon actually made such an announcement; the linked page appears to be the only source reporting it, and attributes it only to “a person familiar with the plan”.).

The White House characterized this as a “a hostile and political act by Amazon”, which I suppose makes sense when your negotiation strategy is built on the creation of strategic uncertainty.

Maybe Trump forgot to sign the Elmer Fudd Executive Order telling all of us, including Amazon: “Shhh, be vewy, vewy quiet.”

Adults of America, you need to wake up. Allowing your political biases to create a future where children are treated with hostility while pursuing higher education is dangerous, no matter what political party you belong to. This is not just about Harvard. Or about me. It’s about the country we are building — one where young people are punished for thinking, dreaming and believing differently than the generation before them.

We are not your culture war – we are your kids. We are the future.

I really feel the emotion of this article, to an extent. My son is a Harvard alum, and his grandparents, on both sides, are Trump Republicans. My wife and our two sons are definitely the liberal wing of the family. So, we understand the feeling that arises when Republican family members ask about Harvard, although we’ve never been asked something as direct as “Harvard? Isn’t that a liberal school?”.

I’m proud of my family, though, because, unlike the author’s family, they have never abandoned what they understand about Harvard – it’s reputation for academic excellence. Every member of our family, including the Trumpers, has been outwardly proud of my son for his Harvard education. Many of them even travelled to Cambridge to attend his graduation last year (battling a torrential downpour in the process!).

I hope that pride continues to hold as the university battles Trump’s attacks on higher education. My dream is that their pride in my son actually grows into an understanding of academia and the importance of its continued independence. He’s in graduate school at M.I.T. now and has committed to a career in academia, so it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable ask. We’ll see.

The New Chair Arrives (scalzi.com)

There are not many physical things I actively covet in this world, but for a while now I’ve wanted a classic Eames chair.

I’ve wanted a Eames lounge chair ever since I first sat in one as a kid. We stayed in a condo owned by a friend of my dad. There was an Eames in the family room, and I think I ended up sleeping in it more than one night. I can still feel that chair decades (4+) later. Yeah, I want one but won’t be getting one anytime soon.

The Future of SCOTUSblog (scotusblog.com)

SCOTUSblog is delighted to announce that it has been acquired by Dispatch Media, Inc., and will round out The Dispatch’s coverage of the Supreme Court and the rule of law.

Back when I first starting blogging in 2001-ish, with my ill-fated Promote the Progress patent law blog, SCOTUSblog quickly became a model for legal blogging. The site has a long track record of consistently delivering current, high quality content. It’s weird to see this announcement that SCOTUSblog has been acquired by Dispatch Media, which has the following description in the title its main site, The Dispatch: Unbiased News & Informed Conservative Analysis. SCOTUSblog certainly has every right to choose its own future, but I hate to think of SCOTUSblog content as either conservative or liberal. The Founding Manifesto for The Dispatch does a nice job explaining that its focus is more on conservatism and not on the Republican Party, which helps but I’ll still be reading new SCOTUSblog content through a new lens.

OpenAI Adds Shopping to ChatGPT in a Challenge to Google (wired.com)

There is one major difference between shopping through ChatGPT versus Google, for now: The results you see in OpenAI searches are not paid placements, but organic results. “They are not ads,” says Fry. “They are not sponsored.”

ChatGPT is slowly eating Google Search, the way a bird slowly, then suddenly, eats an alligator.

Q: Please talk about the status of the price increase. If additional tariffs are passed on to product prices, how much of a price increase will we see in the end market?

A: We have notified major dealers that we will raise prices and are in the process of estimating the timing and amount of the increase.

This is a quote from the Q&A following Canon’s announcement of its 2025 Q1 financial results. I thought this particular question, and Canon’s answer, provides a succinct reminder of how tariffs actually work — producers raise prices to cover the tariff, and consumers pay more. Period.

But, hey, they protect the domestic camera manufacturers, right?

Splash-free urinals for global sustainability and accessibility: Design through physics and differential equations (oup.com)

Our results indicate that the relative splashed volume has an almost invariant inflection point independent of We and Re under conditions of human urination (see Methods section). The model predicts that at ⁠, the splash is reduced by about 95% from maximum splash. This implies the possibility of designing a urinal geometry so that the impinging angle is always at or below this critical angle; consequently eliminating splash regardless of factors dependent on the user.

I’m surprised the bathroom fixture companies haven’t solved the splash-back problem before now. I also wonder if these researches applied for patents on their invention and the Cornucopia and Nautilus designs. If they really reduce splash-back to essentially zero, I can’t imagine they won’t be an immediate hit.

Canon Releases First Quarter 2025 Financial Results (canonrumors.com)

As for the interchangeable-lens camera market, in addition to sales promotion that started last year, among the younger generation, for whom smartphones are the norm, there is a growing need for cameras that allow them to enjoy taking photos and videos that are different from others.

As a result, the market is expected to grow to around 6.6 million units in 2025.

In the first quarter, in addition to increasing sales of full-frame cameras, especially the EOS R5 Mark II that was launched in the second half of last year, strong demand for entry-class cameras, which are popular among young people as a step up from smartphones, resulted in a significant increase in sales of 15.5%

This is interesting from a “future of photography” point of view, maybe even a “survival of photography as a craft” point of view.

Canon sees an ironic twist in the saga of smartphones killing interchangeable-lens cameras (DSLRs, Mirrorless) – a desire to have photos that are different from those of everyone else (i.e., smartphone photos) is actually increasing demand for interchangeable-lens cameras. And the company’s 2025 Q1 financial results back this up with actual data. Smartphones aren’t killing higher-end cameras. To the contrary, the omnipresent nature of smartphones is actually fueling growth in entry level full frame models. It’s not far-fetched to think that this will, eventually, lead to growth in higher end models as some of the new folks buying entry level models move on to bigger and better models, adding lenses that fit all models along the way.

Photography is not dying; it’s actually thriving and seeing a new generation of hobbyists and professionals enter the craft. They may have new reasons for showing up, with new and different goals, but that’s an evolution of the art and craft that everyone in the field should welcome. I do.

I wonder if the fear about AI killing photography will be turned on its head, too, in time.

Lawyer for MyPillow Founder Filed AI-Generated Brief with 'Nearly 30' Bogus Citations (gizmodo.com)

“Not until this Court asked Mr. Kachouroff directly whether the Opposition was the product of generative artificial intelligence did Mr. Kachouroff admit that he did, in fact, use generative artificial intelligence,” the filing states. “After further questioning, Mr. Kachouroff admitted that he failed to cite check the authority in the Opposition after such use before filing it with the Court.”

We’ll there’s a surprise – the clown hired a clown lawyer.

Ohio State Didn’t Lose A Single Scholarship Player During the Spring Transfer Window (elevenwarriors.com)

“I woke up with a little bit of a headache, because it was a long night last night. That first beer went down cold after the portal finally closed at midnight, I can tell you that,” Day said. “Holy smokes, what a world we’re living in right now.”

I can’t imagine being a college football head coach these days. They’re navigating uncharted territory on a daily basis. I admit to calling for Day’s firing after his loss to TTUN last year, but “[h]oly smokes” is he crushing it.

The state of Ohio State football is strong.

And we’ll get *ichigan this year.

We’re doing a little channel-surfing today and landed on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We jumped in at the scene where Professor Umbridge interjects her welcome speech at the feast on the first day of the term.

When asked what the speech means, Hermione Granger got right to the point:

“It means the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts.”

It’s easy to see, for most of us at least.

They may win the draft in tonight’s second round, though. They have the first and fourth picks. Could they get Sanders at QB and Henderson at RB? That combo would be…huge.

Go Browns!

Since Monday, viewers have watched nearly 7 million minutes of Conclave, a film about the process of choosing a new pope.

Monday evening, we said something to the effect of “we should watch that movie Conclave.” Haven’t yet, but will.

Appeasing Donald Trump Won’t Work (vanityfair.com)

The lesson from Harvard is: Stay visible, stay loud, and stay fighting. That’s the only way for institutions to survive what’s coming.

Columbia will forevermore be compared to Harvard for its response to Trump’s attacks. Columbia caved, while Harvard planned to fight, stood its ground when the attack came, and then started punching.

Our connection to Harvard is a thin one (our son is an alum), but we’ve never been more proud to have it.

It feels like something in Trump world broke yesterday. Or, more likely, that yesterday provided the first public actions resulting from a coordinated effort to walk away from the failed “policies” of his first months in office, without acknowledging failure of course. Consider the following, each of which happened yesterday:

• Trump said he had “no intention of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell” (implying that he has the authority to do so, which, currently, he does not, thanks to “[a] 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent [that] likely protects Powell from being fired by the president for anything other than misconduct or severe neglect of office.”).
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a major restructuring of the State Department, which State officials characterized as “…not something where people are being fired today…They’re not going to be walking out of the building. It’s not that kind of a dynamic. It is a roadmap. It’s a plan.” Clearly, State is trying to portray its reorganization effort as a thoughful and controlled exercise that has no connection to the Musk-infused chaos of the DOGE-led slash and burns we’ve seen over the last couple months.
• Treasury Secretary Bissent said that the trade war with China is “unsustainable” and that he expects a de-escalation”. He did note, in a private speech for JPMorgan Chase, that negotiations with China will be a “slog”, but also offered that decoupling from China is not a goal for America.
• Trump said, from the Oval Office, that tariffs he had imposed on Chinese imports would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.
• In a Tesla investor conference call, “…Elon Musk [said] he’ll spend less time working for the federal government — but that he has no plans to stop his work with DOGE entirely.”

With any luck, yesterday will prove to have been some sort of a watershed moment signalling a change from the disgrace we’ve been living since Trump returned to the Presidency. Please forgive me, though, as I remain extremely skeptical that he is capable of listening to good advice (assuming someone has his ear) or even perceiving reality.

This morning was incredibly frustrating but ultimately turned incredibly joyful and, I think, provided a story I’ll tell for years to come.

As background, I lost my wedding ring several years ago. Three, maybe five years ago. At the time of losing it, I had “locked in” on home being the last place I had it. I was confident it had to be somehwhere around the spots in the house where I usually handle it during the day – my nightstand, the closet, my family room chair, etc. So, over the last few years, I’ve turned each of those spots upside down looking for it. I’ve even repeated that process multiple times, knowing that I had done it before. It didn’t take long for me to reach that mental state where a lost item is nagging away at you, seemingly constantly. It was a low-level gnaw, but it was there, always. And it’s my wedding ring!

So you probably know where this story is going – I did in fact find my wedding ring this morning. What led to that is really the story, though.

I’ve been experimenting with an old Canon SD780 IS point and shoot camera over the last several days. I wrote about that yesterday, and have been having a lot of fun with it. I was planning to take a few photos on my way to work again this morning. As I got in the car and reached into the pocket in my backpack where I’ve been storing the camera, I realized it wasn’t there. I knew – knew – I had put it there just moments earlier as I packed up in the family room. What the heck happened to it? So, I went back to my chair in the family room and looked all around it, but found nothing. Doubt set in, and I convinced myself that I must not have put it in the pocket as my memory had told me. So I explored every other nook and cranny in the backpack.

No camera.

At this point, I’m doubting everything. Did I take it upstairs last night? I don’t think so, but…maybe? I tried to remember the physical details of my use of the camera last night, a trick I always tell Jake to do when he’s looking for something he lost. I could feel the memory of putting my computer down next to my chair, removing the memory card, and putting that back into the camera. But what did I do with the camera after that? My next memory was putting it into my backpack this morning, which my eyes had just told me could not have happened.

So it had to be in the chair…maybe. I ran my hand through the cushions and the back. Nothing. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and looked under the chair. Nothing. I’m not sure why I took this next step (I’ve looked for lost items in this chair many times over the years, and have never done this), but for some reason I raised the footrest and proceeded to use it to physically lift the chair, tipping it back a bit.

No camera.

But I heard a tink, and then the sound of something rolling along the floor, circling tighter and tighter, and then settling in a spot behind the chair. I caught a glimpse of something gold as it was rolling and I knew right away that I had found my ring. In a sort of Lord of the Rings moment, I dropped the chair and lunged for it. My precious wedding ring! After all these years, I had it back! I was so happy, mostly because I had my ring back but also because I knew the gnaw now would be gone. It took a few minutes, but I eventually realized that part of my happiness was due to knowing that I had been right all along – it had been sitting in one of the places I figured for the last few years. Eventually I realized that this also meant that my searches of those places had not been thorough enough. I should have turned everything upside down a fifth or sixth time, apparently.

Renee had left early so I didn’t get to tell her about it right away. I left for work and mostly forgot about the camera. Mostly. When I came home, I started thinking about how I was going to tell Renee about the ring (I decided to not say anything, just keeping it on my finger until she noticed it). I got out of the car, turned toward my workbench and noticed something black on the floor. There lied the camera, lens-side down on the concrete, wedged under the black case for my circular saw. I picked it up, turned it on, and smiled as everything seemed to be in working order (it is). It must have fallen from the top pocket in my backpack – the very pocket in which I knew I had placed it this morning, tumbled onto the floor, and slid beneath the case as I was focused on putting the backpack in the back seat. Says alot for the durability of these old cameras.

“This looks photoshopped!”, Conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel wrote below the post.

Well, they need something to argue about, I guess.

Google says DOJ's proposal for breakup would harm U.S. in 'global race with China' (cnbc.com)

This argument rings a bit hollow when it comes from a behemoth that has crushed innovation for years.

“That would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture. We’re in a fiercely competitive global race with China for the next generation of technology leadership, and Google is at the forefront of American companies making scientific and technological breakthroughs.”

First House Republican calls for Pete Hegseth’s removal in the wake of Signalgate 2.0 (independent.co.uk)

“If a Democrat did this, we’d be demanding a scalp. I don’t like hypocrisy. We should be Americans first when it comes to security,” he added.

This will likely be a tipping point for Hegseth’s career…or Bacon’s.

Jake and I resurrected a couple of old Canon PowerShot SD780 IS cameras over the weekend. They’re old point and shoot cameras from about 2008 or so. Jake said his friends have been using old point and shoots as their primary cameras and he wanted to give it a go. So, I ordered a battery charger from Amazon and away we go. Meanwhile, I learned about CDHK, the Canon Hack Development Kit, which enables RAW shooting and some other amazing features. So…I’m going to start having some fun with that.