Jeff Bezos’s $10bn philanthropic fund has stopped backing the world’s leading voluntary climate standard setter, following rising scrutiny over its influence on the body, in a move seen as the billionaire’s latest effort to curry favour with US President Donald Trump.
WRI has several large projects funded by the Bezos Earth Fund, which have done excellent work so far. We learned that Andrew Steer was stepping down from the Fund last week; several other colleagues who followed him have also left. Make your own inferences there.
I don’t remember where I stumbled across the link for this, but it’s a web-based reconstruction of Activision’s famous Pitfall. In the summer of 1982, I spent hours at my friend Mike’s house trading the Atari joystick playing this game; we didn’t have this for our Intellivision. Mike had spent long hours learning the game and thus knew which way to go, while I was still mastering the art of not being eaten by crocodiles. Be warned: you will lose hours on this site.
98% of Costco shareholders voted overwhelmingly to reject a review of their ongoing diversity programs. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, put forth the proposal, claiming DEI initiatives are somehow a risk to shareholders, which is fearmongering nonsense. We’ve been Costco members for years now, and I couldn’t be happier about it. In a time when we need to vote with our wallets (because our regular votes don’t seem to matter), this is one small bit of support my family can offer.
I stumbled upon an article on the Spartacus Educational website this morning about the JFK assassination and realized I was looking at the deepest of rabbit holes—a better organized rabbit hole than that of Wikipedia—which is saying something. There’s a ton of stuff to dig into there, on a site whose design dates back to about 2002, which is oddly comforting.
According to a well-placed source, Apple is working on a smart doorbell.
The lock would work just like your iPhone, automatically unlocking your door when you or another resident looks at it.
I would happily swap this out for our Ring doorbell; just having FaceID be able to unlock the door would be fabulous. We’ll have to see if they offer a video review system the same way Ring does.
Finn’s high school was ranked in the 99th percentile of Maryland high schools, according to the 2024 school report card. Not too shabby.
Here’s a list of the best budget medium-format cameras in 2024; I’m happy to say I’ve put film through two of these and have a third waiting for a test. I used and later sold my Rolleicord, but still have my Yashica-D and a very early Zeiss Ikoflex. I’d love to try out one of the SLRs but I’m just not shooting enough photos anymore to justify the cost.
Paste Magazine ranks its 50 best albums of 1994. The music of our youth is truly the best music; there are some bands on here I’ve never heard of, which is why these stupid lists are sometimes valuable.
Richard Benjamin, who now lives in a memory care unit at an assisted living facility, would look forward to the emails and texts, and especially to the ones thanking him for being a true American and patriot when he donated his money. This eventually led him to give about $80,000, leaving him tens of thousands of dollars in debt and his children angry at the campaigns who they say tricked their dad and took advantage of his compromised state of mind.
From CNN: Elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns. I can confirm this practice firsthand. The day after Election Day, Jen and I are going to work the phones and shut the spigot off for her father.
By all accounts, the recent Jane’s Addiction tour has been canceled after Perry Farrell attacked Dave Navarro in the middle of a song, and had to be dragged off the stage. Reading some first-hand accounts from fans who posted video of that show, the consensus is that the band sounded fantastic but he sounded like shit, was drinking heavily through the whole show, and was dropping verses in the middle of songs. His wife immediately went on social media to attack the band, and today they announced the tour was dead.
Having read about him and his treatment of the rest of the band I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m bummed out for them. I would love nothing more than (and would, frankly, be more interested in) the three musicians touring together with a guest vocalist, just to hear them play live together.