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I like the push for electric/hybrid vehicles. Even if I’d like it sooner than 2032. Which reminds me, my lease is almost up…
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The first teaser trailer for the next Alien installment, Alien: Romulus is out. I’m getting some real “highly-regarded-Dark-Horse-mini-series” vibes from it.
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Long Form
The Struggles of Deciding Where to Host Your Site
Right now I’ve got a mix of sites on different hosting.
- I’ve got a Micro.blog. (marty.day)
- I’ve got blast-o-rama which has been on WordPress for SIXTEEN YEARS now.
- And I’ve got an omg.lol account.
I’ve been thinking lately about merging my WordPress stuff into Micro.blog, but now omg.lol’s creator is hinting on their own blog service.
What the heck do I do? I’d like something cheaper, lightweight, and distributable. That’s all I’m considering in this.
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Wow. X-Men ‘97 has debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% Fresh score. I’ll be damned.
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Spider-Man 2 for the PS5? Cost $300 million to make. Monopoly Go, a free to play mobile version of the board game? Spent $500 million on marketing alone. I have no idea how any of this is sustainable.
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Picked up Hi-Fi Rush last night, now that it’s available on PS5. Really awesome game so far, but as a Nine Inch Nails fan, I about lost my mind when “1,000,000” kicked in. HELL YEAH
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The trailer for the next Star Wars series – set well before the original films – has arrived. Say hello to The Acolyte.
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I can already tell that this article from The Verge about the changes (end?) at Pitchfork is going to be a good read.
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First, it was the Chicken Sandwich wars. Next? Chicken pizza wars. #FastFoodArmsRace
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Today I learned that there was a whole-ass variant of asbestos we hadn’t banned here in the US. Until today. And it’s still gonna take years for it to be gone.
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AI is Coming for the iPhone, Whether We Like It or Not
The Verge, paraphrasing Bloomberg (Paywalled):
Apple is reportedly in “active negotiations” with Google to bring its Gemini generative AI technology to the iPhone, Bloomberg reports, and has also considered using OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
CEO Tim Cook has already confirmed that Apple is spending “a tremendous amount of time and effort” on artificial intelligence features, and plans to release them to its customers “later this year.” Bloomberg’s report suggests that the AI features built into Apple’s products could eventually be powered by a mix of first- and third-party AI models. Apple’s models could power on-device generative AI with iOS 18, releasing later this year, while cloud-based AI features like text- and image-generation could come via partnerships with the likes of Google.
Yet another instance of Google getting a taste of the iPhone, should their partnership come to fruition instead of the one with OpenAI.
That said — given that Apple has recently made acqusitions in the AI space — I’d say this is a temporary leg up until they have their own version ready to go, a’la Apple Maps.
It’s now not an if, but a when.
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Picked up Balatro on Steam, since I could play it on my Mac. I totally get the hype. Now…when there’s a mobile version…
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Very excited to hear what Marvel has planned for the next era of X-Men comics.
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Very cool that Hello From The Magic Tavern is getting an animated series. Also: Turns out Sam Rockwell has a production company?
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The Pentagon's "There Are No Such Things as UFOs" Report has people asking a lot of questions already answered by the report
In the 1960s, secret test flights of advanced government spy planes generated U.F.O. sightings. More recently, government and commercial drones, new kinds of satellites and errant weather balloons have led to a renaissance in unusual observations.
But, according to a new report, none of these sightings were of alien spacecraft.
The new congressionally mandated Pentagon report found no evidence that the government was covering up knowledge of extraterrestrial technology and said there was no evidence that any U.F.O. sightings represented alien visitation to Earth.
The 63-page document is the most sweeping rebuttal the Pentagon has issued in recent years to counter claims that it has information on extraterrestrial visits or technology. But amid widespread distrust of the government, the report is unlikely to calm a growing obsession with aliens.
Suuuuuuuure. There’s nothing. And the report is true, not at all trying to calm a public hysteria.
And nice job trying to cover it up with the “individuals’ preconceptions and confirmation biases” dodge, Pentagon!
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Whoa, I'm excited for a Zatanna comic.
DC:
In the DC Universe, Zatanna is known for her backwards-speaking spellcasting, but what good is a backwards spell that’s locked away in your darkest memories? DC and magic fans will find out this June, as Eisner award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki (Detective Comics, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, Crush and Lobo) and artist Javier Rodríguez (Batman: The Brave and The Bold, The Dreaming: Waking Hours, Tales of the Titans) take Zatanna on an all-new adventure in Sin City as Zatanna: Bring Down the House arrives at participating comic book shops and e-tailers Tuesday, June 25.
I can’t say a Zatanna series was on my list of must haves…and then I saw this bit of art from the announcement post…
That looks dope as hell. I’m in.
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Many are going to be eulogizing Akira Toriyama today. With Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump and his designs for Dragon Quest, he was a defining artist for many. I’d like to shout out his work on the Tobal games, which didn’t need to go so hard for a game best known for having the Final Fantasy VII demo disc.
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Watching Kyle Kinane’s new special, Dirt Nap. Dude is one of the best going, hands down.
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An ongoing mystery I’ve not yet been able to solve. Of all the emoji you can get engraved on Apple products…why is the humble rocket 🚀 not an option?
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It says a lot that the bit I’m most excited about from this bit of news was the word Original when it comes to films.
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Surprised, and a little bummed, that among the many many creators, Jonathan Hickman is not among those contributing to the final Krakoa-era issue of X-Men.
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Toyota made a real Cat Bus with help from Studio Ghibli. I love it.
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VERY interested in this Steve Martin documentary coming to Apple TV+. https://www.thewrap.com/steve-martin-a-documentary-in-two-pieces-trailer/
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We had to know this was coming, right? If Nintendo didn’t think this was going to be a Hydra situation, they weren’t prepping correctly. https://www.gamesradar.com/barely-12-hours-after-the-shutdown-of-major-nintendo-switch-emulator-yuzu-replacements-began-surfacing-online/
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Are We Mentally Prepared for Mars?
That people will travel to Mars, and soon, is a widely accepted conviction within NASA. The target date for the initial human mission has drifted slightly — in a 2018 report commissioned by Congress, NASA estimated that the first human beings would land on Mars “no later than the late 2020s” — but the certainty has not wavered, even if technical hurdles remain.
Rachel McCauley, until recently the acting deputy director of NASA’s Mars campaign, had, as of July, a punch list of 800 problems that must be solved before the first human mission launches. Many of these concern the mechanical difficulties of transporting people to a planet that is never closer than 33.9 million miles away; keeping them alive on poisonous soil in unbreathable air, bombarded by solar radiation and galactic cosmic rays, without access to immediate communication; and returning them safely to Earth, more than a year and half later. Many other problems involve technical details so arcane that McCauley wouldn’t even know how to begin explaining them to a well-intentioned journalist lacking an advanced engineering degree. But McCauley does not doubt that NASA will overcome these challenges.
What NASA does not yet know — what nobody can know — is whether humanity can overcome the psychological torment of Martian life.
Really thought provoking article, asking a question I know that I certainly hadn’t considered: how do we prepare mentally for Mars?
NASA has some ideas, so they’re undertaking a remarkable experiment to test them out. How are they doing it? What’s it like for those trying? Read on, dear reader. Read on.