Got a call from the library where my kids are volunteering this summer.

Apparently someone used a cheap combination lock to lock shut a bin of materials for a young readers program, as a prank. My kids shimmed the lock open for the librarian.

And the librarian called basically to say ‘this was super helpful but also it seems like you should know they had it open in 5 minutes’

I don’t think she expected my response to be “that long?! I guess we need to practice”

This makes me groan so much. I always say "don't ask a question unless you have a plan to use the answer."

Betteridge's Law of AI Headlines: Any headline that asks the question "Can AI do X?" can be answered "No."

But the article never answers the actual question: who cares whether AI can do your boss's job? What would that mean? The fact that the AI came nowhere close to what the author wanted it to do means that (like so much AI output) the article is pretty pointless. The real story is stuff like:

• If the AI could do the editor's job, what should we do? Fire editors? Rearrange jobs in a newsroom? THAT's a hard question. An article full of AI failure never comes close.
• If the AI could write the story in a better style than the human writer, what would we do?
• And we never consider that writing a program to do some job requires skills beyond just being competent at doing job being automated.

And after so many articles--SO MANY ARTICLES--that are basically "I tried to use AI to do X and it didn't" why are we still publishing them? There is very little to be learned from what it DOES NOT do.

https://www.platformer.news/replacing-casey-with-claude/?ref=platformer-newsletter

One idea I had was to have the kids holding a bow, but with no string on it. Instead, they're holding a wrist rocket slingshot. The streamer is something like a tinsel streamer and is affixed to the golf ball somehow. The streamer unspools off the front of the bow (some kind of container mounted to the front of the bow).

golf-ball-sized LED ball

I have some simplifying/good advantages:

• We have budget. I can buy things (hundreds, up to a thousand dollars might be OK for the whole lot)
• They're props, so they can be made of anything that looks right. It doesn't (and kinda shouldn't) function as an actual bow.
• We have props on the field that have storage compartments, so kids won't carry all this stuff on them the whole time. They'll have time to walk over, pull them out, and then move into position to launch them.

Note:

• Consistency is important. The visual effect is paramount.
• Anything leaving the bounds of the field would be a penalty. That can't happen.
• Kids on the field must pick everything up in a hurry as soon as the show is over. They will be penalised for leaving anything behind or taking too long to vacate the field.

3/3

#marchingband

I have a few constraints:

• The "50 yard rule*. People are sitting 50 yards (50m) away. It's often night time with stadium lights. This has to be visible from a distance. It does not need to look like an arrow.
• Each person will launch their thing more than once, (minimum 2, maximum 5 times, depending on how well we make it) so it has to be reloadable in a few seconds.
• I have to make between 4 and 10 of these. (Depending on how easy/reliable/cheap they are to make)
• These are high school kids. They're all named Murphy and they all obey his Law. 😊 They will break, tangle, and load things backwards. I have to make stuff simple to do right.
• We have to do 10 shows in a season plus at least 10 dress rehearsal practices. They have to be reset for each one. They could be disposable, or they can be reusable.

2/3

#marchingband

Any drama / props / marching band folks able to give me ideas? I'm helping build props for my son's marching band. The prop is meant to look like a bow and launch something that gives the dramatic visual effect of an arrow. It's not a bow. It's not an arrow. We're not taking real bows and arrows onto school fields. This is a visual prop.

The goal is to launch something that arcs about halfway across the field with a brightly visible coloured streamer (2-4m long) behind it.

See following messages for constraints and info. Any folks familiar with this kind of prop-making, I'm all ears.

1/3

#marchingband

Imagine someone tells you:

"My salary last month was $7800 (gross) and I spent $8300 on household expenses. I also bought a car last month for $16,000."

They do not sound like a financially wise person. If this was someone you cared about, and you saw them behaving like this, you'd probably try to help them and maybe even try to stop them from financial self-harm.

But if you multiply those numbers by ONE MILLION, you can sell a trillion dollars of stock on Wall Street.

I don't understand this. It's part of what stops me from being CEO of an AI company. (The lack of billions of dollars is another part)

#SpaceX

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/spacex-spooks-investors-with-debut-earnings-report/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

My teenager just showed me a TikTok titled something like “joining a meeting with people who make 10 times your salary”. And it’s a guy mocking business culture by pretending to be 4 different people talking about how they need to compensate for the fact that February is a unique month that has a lot fewer days in it. He uses silly phrases like “irregular calendary constraints” and “you’ve granted me so much visibility into this issue” and similar. My son asks “is this what your work is like?”

My answer to my son predominantly trended positive in alignment with the evidence. Only a handful of minor points in the video deviated from a typical result.

I Am A Dog: A Tail of Two Kitties

Alien 2: Can You Love Like a Mother?!!

@michael_w_busch @paco @ai6yr There’s an actual thing called “bachelor scurvy,” most often seen in older men who have lost their wives and stopped bothering to eat fruit or vegetables.

Not my circus, not my Monkees

#TVShowProverbs
#HashTagGames

There's a sucker born every 60 Minutes.
#TVShowProverbs
#HashTagGames

Republicans just pulled the rug out from under 25 million seniors on Medicare drug costs.

They'll get the bad news this fall, right before they vote. Couldn't have planned that worse.

#RepublicanMedicareCuts #TrumpMustGo #KingOfTreason #RepublicansDidThis #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

@catsalad Wow, Cat. Thanks for sharing this “art” so I can never unsee it…

@jonny@neuromatch.social reading this hurts in places I didn't know could feel pain

The sun never sets over Philadelphia

#TVShowProverbs
#HashTagGames

I'm sure this updated vector of outsized influence on young men won't be a problem https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ea-is-now-owned-by-saudi-arabia-and-donald-trump-s-son-in-law

Some nights are just pure perfection….. and the #Sunset was pretty nice too 🤩

#Chesapeakebay

One if by Matlock
Two if by Night Court

#tvshowproverbs
#HashtagGames