Recently updated blogs

Weekly, Regional Policy Director Dan Reed and DC Policy Director Alex Baca will share with you an action you can take in the immediate future that has the potential, sometimes great and sometimes small, to increase the number of homes in our region, decrease the trips people take by car, make all of it safer, and not screw people over in the process. This week: grumble about the National Park …

There’s something magical about walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City with a couple of new LEGO sets tucked under your arm. As I made my way from Grand Central through Bryant Park and Times Square to the flagship LEGO Store taking photos of the sets for a bit of a travelogue, I was dumbfounded that curious New Yorkers and tourists alike stopped me to ask, “What are those!?”When …

“House Speaker Mike Johnson declared Wednesday that lawmakers and staff will have to use the restroom corresponding with their biological sex, a statement directed at Sarah McBride, the first transgender person to be elected to Congress, months before she is set to arrive on Capitol Hill.” — AP - - -I needed to fix my lip liner, which got smudged after I drank coffee from my mug. I had to …

Eternal God! Maker of allThat have lived here since the man’s fall:The Rock of Ages! in whose shadeThey live unseen, when here they fade; Thou knew’st this paper when it was Mere seed, and after that but grass;Before ’twas dressed or spun, and whenMade linen, who did wear it then:What were their lives, their thoughts, and deeds,Whether good corn or fruitless weeds. Thou knew’st this tree when a green shadeCovered …

I am still putting together a major method list for 00-99. I had a plan to then convert those images to a PAO list, but I’m not sure what the advantage is here. I see the utility in PAO if I was in a memory competition or needed to remember a long string of numbers very rapidly, but my memory goals are a little less ambitious. I’m planning on going …

It is a pleasant experience when two previous interests suddenly reappear and combine to give something new. This happened to me yesterday, and to add to the pleasure, the two previous interests were things I had first worked on with former students: location parameters and twin vertices in graphs. Location parameters If you are lost, you look for landmarks, and find your position by using them. Location parameters describe this …

The number of eligible films is two shy of last year's record 33 contenders.

Gladiator II (2024) • View trailerFour stars (out of five). Rated R, for strong, bloody violenceAvailable via: Movie theatersBy Derrick BangAlthough the lengthy gap between this film and director Ridley Scott’s predecessor seems an eyebrow lift, scripters David Scarpa and Peter Craig cleverly work that passage of time into their plot. Although Lucius (Paul Mescal) isn't expected to survive his first bout in the Coliseum,he proves unexpectedly resourceful ... much …

Because there’s nothing you can’t do with LEGO, this is a video from the Brick Experiment Channel (previously), this time engineering LEGO cars to cross increasingly narrower bridges, eventually crossing just a string stretched between two tables. The solutions to balancing the vehicles while crossing the bridges are quite ingenious. At least I thought they were, maybe you’re an engineer and these were the logical solutions. Because I would have …

Yesterday, for the dozenth time, I mistakenly referred to the Korean movie The Handmaiden as The Handmaid’s Tale, causing great confusion. Will this curse ever be lifted?

by Dennis Crouch In a tight 11-10 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the PREVAIL Act (Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership Act) that would make substantial changes to Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings. The bill addresses perceived anti-patentee imbalances in the current inter partes review (IPR) system. However, a number of Senators raised concerns and were seeking assurances about a negative impact on generic drug …

More photos from the garden, a woodlouse having a close encounter with a flashlight. Also photos of berries, blackbirds, etc.

Manuel Moreale: Sometimes I spot posts like Chris’ Media Diet in my RSS feed and I’m always amazed by the fact the people manage to keep up with movies and TV series and the rest of the media landscape. I can totally see how someone posting a post like mine makes it feel like I just bathe myself in popular media. But to me it feels like the opposite, like …