Michail Chkhikvishvili,
a self-described cult leader who called himself “Commander Butcher”,
did not look like a Hollywood vision of a contemporary terrorist,
despite the bizarre, almost made-for-TV extremist actions he planned,
such as having people dressed as Santa Claus hand out poison candies on the streets of New York.
Chkhikvishvili appeared in a Brooklyn court last week as one might find an office IT tech:
close-cropped hair and black-rimmed glasses…

Q&A with OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo on joining OpenAI, ChatGPT users' mental health, profitability, data center deals, her chronic illness, and more (Zoë Schiffer/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/fidji-simo-is-ope…

OpenAI's Fidji Simo Plans to Make ChatGPT Way More Useful—and Have You Pay For It
As OpenAI expands in every direction, the new CEO of Applications is on a mission to make ChatGPT indispensable and lucrative.

Sonnet 080 - LXXX
O! how I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame.
But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark, inferior far to his,
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless de…

Disagreeable as it might be, it was necessary to swallow the bitter pill. Half of Paris was made of people of this sort. Their intentions were not criminal. They would not have hurt a fly as the saying goes. But they were protecting their families, their money, their health, their position, their reputation in the apartment house. To them we were terrorists, and they did not hesitate to say so. They talked about it among themselves, on the doorstep and over the telephone. If only we had not …

Had Fun

Bought a car/micro-camper

Bought a van to do up as a micro-camper, and did a temporary rush job of that conversion myself while waiting in the list for the pro to do it.
Then the pro gave himself a health criss the week it was booked so I took apart my temp job and only got another temp kit-job in it's place.
Went out in it like four times during that and then broke my wrist and couldn't really use it or improve it.
Then had to take it apart even more to try
and figure out where the ad-blue hole was.
I will do a proper permanent job of the
floor and walls and ceiling and adjustments to the kit-job to make it the nicest it's been so far during the spring next year.
My assumption that the prior conversion
into a van and for wheelchair-access meant the microcamper conversion was half-done already turned out to be false.
If I buy a new one, it'll be one that has never been wheelchair adapted.
But it's going okay. Only scraped it once so far.
Fewer than aimed for or booked, but I broke my wrist and had to cancel the second half of the summer.
Went to a conference about money and computers and fringe decentralized social media and it wasn't as boring as you might expect and felt pretty much like a festival.
Exactly the target number! It's lovely.
Took 3 times longer than I'd hoped and
50% more money than I'd planned for really.
Still improvements to make but they will
be incremental and gradual over the coming year or two now.
It's been interest-only for 20 years so a big old lump sum payment that I never really expected to be able to make. Expected to have to sell and move at the end of the mortgage term.
But surprisingly the stocks ISA got high enough to pay it off after all, so I did that.
Cash-flow ruined by that and the bedroom but should start to feel a bit richer next year.

Charlie Jablonski, an NBC Sports executive who won 12 sports Emmy Awards for his engineering and technology work on the Olympics, died on October 25 at age 69 (Etan Vlessing/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

Charlie Jablonski, NBC Olympics Veteran, Dies at 69
The NBC Sports exec earned 20 Emmy nominations and 12 trophies for his engineering and technology work on the Olympics, starting with the 1988 Games in Seoul. 

Sonnet 122 - CXXII
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full charactered with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain,
Beyond all date, even to eternity:
Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to subsist;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be missed.
That poor retention could not so much hold,
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;
Ther…

Good Morning #Canada
I'm sitting my sunroom sipping coffee and contemplating the year that's past, and thinking about #NewYearsResolutions. I've never previously indulged in making promises to myself that I forget about in a few months, but I might make one for 2026. According to Narrative Research, 48% of Canadians made resolutions in 2025, with most setting goals related to health or finances. More than 71% are confident they’ll reach their 2025 goals. Quebec residents are more likely to have made a resolution for 2025, and resolutions are more likely for Canadians age 34 or younger, with the likelihood decreasing with age.
What about you? Please select an option from the survey below, and please boost for additional data collection. I've included a tune to set the mood.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Poll
Do you make New Years Resolutions?
Yes, and I always complete them.
Yes, but I don't remember any.
Maybe, but it's confidential and between me and my bathroom scale.
No, I prefer to enjoy life, one day at a time.
I only make resolutions for other people.