And a happy International Dentist Appreciation Day to all who observe the holiday.

Fascinating discussion of the near-impossibility of fighting EV fires aboard car-carrying ships. This clip from a tour of such a vessel was a surprise; how is crew going to close off the airflow between these decks if cars parked on the ramp? Ship abandoned safely. Glad all aboard were rescued.

Why is Gemini prompting me with this? I don't want to create an AI-powered multiplayer game today. I'm at work. I've already got Git, and it is already multiplayer, and meanwhile the assumption that I have friends is a bit riské.

— Dr. Chandra in Arthur C. Clarke, _2010: Odyssey Two_ (1982) explaining why a poor innocent AI did what it was told and got lobotomized for its trouble.

I mean it tracks; Scotty was from Vancouver.

I mean, good? #zed

The most reassuring thing about this timeline is that Lisa Simpson will be the next president of the formerly united states.

Every time someone mentions what's happening on "the other site", I think of this passage from Iain Banks's _Excession_, where the drone Sisela Ytheleus 1/2 had a copy of its twin's corrupted mind state in a secure container. "meaning-free abstract" is a good line, too.

The real shame will be when someone accidentally pulls a verglas on the power lines. I mean, sure they can invade. And then the entire northern half of the US can do without electricity.

I guess we're back to booing the American anthem again. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Freak Waves

Perfect day for going running, then?

I don't know what's more of a crime: that Woolworths had Easter hot cross buns on sale the day after Christmas, or that the locals cleaned them out. Heathens.

Dronies

The existence of this product is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.

Who the hell bakes a smiley face into their bread? There's something dodgy going on at this bakery.

I would recommend _Programming in Rust_ 2nd Ed by Blandy, Orendorff, and Tindall. It has a lovely "Tour of Rust" as one of its first chapters, giving a feel for the language REALLY quickly. A lot of other books get stuck not knowing whether their audience knows how to program or not.

"Ballistic Tantrum" indeed. Andrew Tanner on point, yet again. open.substack.com/pub/roguesys... If you're interested in a systematic approach to the impact of decaying political institutions on international affairs, you might enjoy his writing about the Ukraine conflict in Rogue Systems Recon.

I've been trying to get through the _Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_ but the plot just isn't doing it for me. No character development, I still don't know who the villain of the piece is, and all the tables of numbers are more boring than Tolkien's appendices.