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While driving home close to midnight on Friday night from a friend’s house, I had to stop at a red light at a four-way intersection. For over a minute, it was just me and a red light, and I couldn’t help but think how stupid and inefficient this was. Surely, sometime soon, AI will be integrated into a city’s traffic light network to keep traffic flowing and ease congestion.

But that did get me thinking about a conversation I heard about the future of self-driving cars and how that will dramatically change the world. Remember when people owned their own music and movies, and how they have been replaced by subscription services? Soon, there will be a subscription car service. It will be bigger than just Uber or Lyft, and the cars will be autonomous. That, in turn, will reduce the size of parking lots because they won’t be needed. Of course, the Cowboys and Rangers are going to hate losing that revenue from charging fans for parking. The cars will just go off and pick up another passenger or get recharged.

For those of you thinking charging will take too long, the Chinese have already solved that problem. Their BYD electric car can achieve 97% charge in under 10 minutes (10% to 70% in 5 minutes), with a range of 644 miles. The Biden Administration placed a 100% tarrif on those cars, so you won’t see them here anytime soon, but Europe, Canada, and Mexico are heavy buyers. Here’s an example.

This is amazing. We need these types of charging stations here. Game changer.

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— Dan🔭🚀🔬☮️🕊️ (@dan401w.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 5:22 AM

If car ownership is no longer a thing and subscription car services become a reality, the house of the future will no longer need a garage. That’s extra house space. I’m guessing the average garage is about 1/5th of the size of a house, larger than most bedrooms. Existing garages will be remodeled or used solely for storage. Truckers, drivers, and cabbies will have to find another profession. Cities will lose revenue from parking violations and other related things.

Autonomous cars will also decrease the death rate. There will be fewer car accidents. Drunk driving will become a thing of the past. Interestingly, this will also affect organ donation, but perhaps AI will help humankind find a way to create an organ compatible with the human who needs it, using CRISPR or genome editing. Speaking of which, some of those thoughts came to be because of this video.

What’s up with the narrator’s English or British accent for a Dallas Morning News story?

I’ve really enjoyed watching Jeopardy! over the past month, especially now that Jamie Ding is now in 5th place all time, winning for a 24th time last night. He always wears orange, and when he explained why, I couldn’t help but root for the guy.

“What’s with the orange?” Jennings asked.

“My parents grew up in communist China. You didn’t get to make choices there,” he said. “So, my mom has never had a favorite color. When my neighbor asked me, ‘What’s your favorite color?’ She didn’t expect me to have one, but I said, ‘Orange!’”

“Since then, my childhood bedroom, I made them paint it orange, every knick-knack. Since I got a disposable income, I’ve started buying orange things because I can. I rarely regret buying something just because it’s orange, but there’s a couch that I got from Amazon that was $80 that’s pretty bad. Maybe they make decent orange couches.”

Also, he and his sister have an Instagram dedicated to their love of General Tso’s chicken. They review it at different restaurants and post them online.

Funny thing about game show contestants: a lot of them have a LinkedIn profile you can peruse.

Here are two other tidbits about him:

• He also has the highest Final Jeopardy! wager lost with $44,200.
• He has the most correct questions in a single game of Jeopardy! (including Final Jeopardy!) with 45 (tied with Ken Jennings)

In case you are wondering, he s still 50 wins away from Ken Jennings’ record of 74 wins (2004), and 13th on the all-time money list (including tournaments), according to TheJeopardyFan.com.

US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, breaks record for longest deployment since the Vietnam War

Plano ISD plans to use AI to announce graduate names, but some students are petitioning against it – The district plans to use NameCheck, an AI-powered pronunciation tool that allows students to record and train the system to say their names correctly.

The scientists initiated this research to understand a specific political dynamic. They noticed that Donald Trump tends to retain widespread support even after facing severe accusations, including accounts of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, and efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack. To make sense of how voters mentally navigate this conflicting information, the researchers examined the situation using the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance.

The research suggests that when people face information that conflicts with their deeply held beliefs, they tend to reduce their mental discomfort by denying the allegations, focusing on policies over personal behavior, or claiming that other politicians commit similar acts.

Full Article

Dogs clearing the way for an ambulance . 😍

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— omgisme (@omgisme.bsky.social) April 15, 2026 at 9:50 AM

On THE NAKED GUN, Priscilla Presley’s first entrance was staged to evoke Charlotte Rampling’s balcony entrance in Farewell, My Lovely… then undercut with a pratfall. pic.twitter.com/cmG1n3xZoL

— All The Right Movies (@ATRightMovies) March 31, 2026

Witness the absolute pinnacle of military discipline and precision!] On April 11, 2026, the elite service members of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard Drill Teams went head-to-head at the annual Joint Drill Exhibition. Hosted by the legendary 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at the historic Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., this event showcases the flawless execution, dedication, and intense training of the nation’s premier honor guards.

Watch as the best of the best execute complex, synchronized maneuvers and gravity-defying rifle tosses in a battle for branch supremacy.

If there’s one sporting event that annoys the living heck out of me, it’s The Masters. But I like this photo.

Hopefully Artemis II lands safely near San Diego today. They certainly took some amazing photos. They fought hard to make the Nikon D5 their camera of choice. They seem to hold up well to radiation, and here’s something the typical person wouldn’t think about: it also has to compensate for any shaking from the photographer. Not to mention, a major part of their training is to learn how to take photos, and this is the camera they’ve been training on. And yes, the Nikon D5 is already slotted for the moon mission in two years, even though it was discontinued in 2020.

Even cosmonauts use them on the ISS.

One of the more popular photos was this one of the Earth ever so gently blocking the sun.

What a lot of folks fail to see or appreciate is the aurora borealis, found at 12 o’clock to 1 o’clock.

How is Artemis II sending all the photos and data back to Earth? This is a first, and something under-reported. A laser. That’s a HUGE upgrade from the radio frequency (RF) systems of the Apollo era.

The median download internet speed in the U.S. is approximately 242–306 Mbps. Where are they beamed?

Ground stations in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Table Mountain, California; and Haleakala, Hawaii, receive these beams, chosen for clear skies despite challenges like clouds or spacecraft wobbles.

Here’s another article on the laser transmissions, if you’re interested. I guess that’s one reason it took so long to transfer the Death Star plans from Scarif to Yavin 4.

This dog in Ireland has no patience for his owner’s return.

The Utach Mammoth unveils new Zamboni design: ‘Zammoth’ – Team redesigns old ice resurfacing machine from 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics

Zambonis have come a long way from the very first one, the Model A made in 1949 from surplus Army parts. Before the Zamboni, hockey rinks deployed teams of workers who used hoses and squeegees to resurface the ice by hand.

I forgot that George Brett’s last at-bat was against the Rangers at ol’ Arlington Stadium.

George Brett last at bat in the big leagues.pic.twitter.com/sKtog8AVJd

— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) April 7, 2026

It was nice to see Pudge, in this third year, give Brett a sidehug. It would have been funny if then-manager, Kevin Kennedy, had stopped the game to put Nolan Ryan in for relief. But he would have been unable to, because a month prior in Seattle, Ryan tore a ligament, ending his career two starts earlier than planned.

Is this the sort of education one can expect from Southlake Carroll? Good at football, bad at science.

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy insists 1969 moon landing didn’t happen: ‘Genuine propaganda’

“There is a zero percent chance we went to the moon,” McElroy said. “Zero. Total, genuine propaganda.”

Trump team eliminates 400-mile border wall plan after Texans push back – Local sheriffs call for ‘technology-driven, and terrain-informed’ solutions to illegal crossings, which Big Bend residents argue is simply not an issue in their region because of its difficult geography

“I wish the president would be more informed as to what’s going on,” said Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez about the work. “It’s a place where, if you cross the border, you got to at least walk three or four days… you don’t just walk across the river and expect to get picked up.”

‘Snoopy’, ‘Adolf’ and ‘Password’: The Hungarian Government Passwords Exposed Online

Baptism news from across the pond.

Pastor charged with manslaughter after man drowns during baptism ceremony

This happened on March 26 of this year. I admire the guy for shooting his shot. I just wish I could find a follow-up story. Anything, like, did he get to go backstage?

Just some church architecture I thought you’d appreciate.

Borgund Stave Church (Borgund stavkyrkje), located in Lærdal, Norway, is the best-preserved of Norway’s 28 remaining stave churches. Built around 1180–1200 AD, this iconic wooden, triple-nave structure features intricate carving, Viking-inspired dragon heads on the roof, and is a major tourist attraction operated as a museum.

The church of Borgund Stavkirke is one of the most beautiful in Norway 🇳🇴

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— ContempraInn 🌹 (@contemprainn.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 12:02 PM

I don’t understand the need for businesses, like my property management company, to access a $2.95 “e-Check” fee when there are options like the ACH, Bill Pay, Zelle, and Venmo. My guess, it’s just another way to make a little extra money. The only way I can avoid the fee is to write a check, drive from Grapevine to Southlake, and physically deliver it to their office during regular business hours.

Every now and then, I’ll pick up my copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, flip to a random page, and read for a little bit. This one line stood out, so I thought I’d share.

It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you – inside or out.

Book 4, Verse 8

Artemis II

• What’s in a name?
  • Apollo and Artemis are divine twin Olympians, born to Zeus and Leto on the floating island of Delos, fleeing Hera’s wrath. Artemis is the virgin goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and moon, while Apollo is the god of music, prophecy, healing, and the sun. They often worked together, punishing those who disrespected their mother.
  • But get this, “Artemis was born first, immediately helping deliver her twin brother, Apollo.” With this in mind, perhaps NASA should have named the program in the Sixties after Artemis instead of Apollo.
    • So, how did the moon missions in the Sixties get named after Apollo?
      • The Apollo missions were named by NASA manager Abe Silverstein in early 1960 after the Greek god of sun, archery, and music. Silverstein selected the name while browsing a mythology book at home, believing the image of Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was a fitting, grand metaphor for the ambitious space program. He also named the preceding Mercury program. Originally, the missions were going to be called Project Astronaut.
• I’m surprised that I haven’t run across anything calling this mission “woke” since it has such a diverse crew: a man of color, a woman, and a Canadian. That may be in part due to it starting in 2017, in the first year of Trump’s first administration.
  • I saw the Administrator of NASA, Jared Isaacman, being interviewed. Like all Trump Administration officials, he started off praising the leadership of Trump, even proclaiming how budget cuts to NASA would make the agency better. Here’s my prediction. Should this mission prove a success, and I think it will, be prepared for an announcement from the White House stating Trump’s name will be added to the Kennedy or Johnson Space Center. My prediction is that it will become the Trump-Kennedy Space Center. However, if I were an advisor, I would recommend not touching either but renaming Mission Control to Trump Mission Control. See, that’s how you stroke an ego.
    • Isaacman’s Wikipedia page states the co-founded Draken International, “a Florida-based defense aerospace company that operated one of the world’s largest fleets of privately owned fighter jets.” Honestly, I had no idea that fighter jets could be owned privately. I thought I saw something years ago stating that there was legislation to prevent any civilian from making or owning a fighter jet.
    • He broke the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet. The previous world record was set at about 82 hours. He and his co-pilot did it in 61 hours, 51 minutes, and 15 seconds.
• Did you know that all 50 U.S. states contributed to the Artemis missions? That certainly brings a nice patriotic feeling, especially when it comes to our nation’s 250th birthday, but it’s not efficient, and it’s stuff like that that is why these things take so long and cost so much.

Christina Koch on Artemis 2 underestimates the Battery Ejection Spring pic.twitter.com/WAwQjTrahD

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) April 4, 2026

Something hugely under-reported: Iraq trolling the U.S. with AI Lego videos.

Inside Iran’s meme factory – who is behind their viral campaign

From Lego Trump to anime-style battle scenes, Iran’s slick clips are being shared by millions. The ability to blend humour and propaganda using AI tech has surprised everyone, but Kevin L Schwartz and Olmo Gölz, experts in Iranian culture, argue that when you look at who is making it, nobody should be surprised

This is one of the latest aimed at Hegseth, even throwing in Epstein.

U2 surprised their fans with a beautiful little gift on Good Friday. They dropped a mini-album titled Easter Lily, offering songs of faith, hope, and love. Here’s a 54-page online magazine the band provided to accompany it. If you scroll down, you can view lyric videos for all the songs. If you are a fan of The Edge taking lead vocals, you’ll enjoy the first song.

Here’s a USA Today article about it.

Pure joy is getting to parent, like helping your son with his science fair project.

Nothing like firing the Army’s top chaplain during Holy Week, just the day before Good Friday. From Military.com.

Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s chief of chaplains, has overseen religious support across the force and advised senior leaders on troop welfare and morale. A former enlisted soldier who later became an ordained minister, Green has served as a chaplain since the 1990s and deployed in support of operations in Iraq. He became the Army’s chief of chaplains in 2023 and was only recently promoted to major general.

From BaptistNews.com

Ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George says U.S. soldiers deserve “courageous leaders of character” in outgoing email

Surely, this will earn him that Nobel Peace Prize he’s been craving. And yes, this is real.

And, so is this: Trump seeks $152 million to reopen Alcatraz as active prison

A reminder of when our country was served by presidents who deflected vanity and understood the bigger picture. My, how we have fallen.

Source (PDF) and source.

BoyGeeding keeps stealing my desk chair, so I ended up buying one on sale for myself. I was surprised it came with white cloth gloves for assembly.

This was a bit of a surprise. From an alum, here’s HSU news you can use.

Source

Care to guess how long residents of Washington, D.C. have had the right to vote in a presidential election?

Sixty-five years as of yesterday, when the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on March 29, 1961.

While the amendment provides presidential voting rights, it did not grant D.C. voting representation in the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate. However, due to the District of Columbia Delegate Act of 1970, D.C. has one non-voting delegate in the House. Since the 1964 election, Washington, D.C., has consistently held 3 electoral votes.

12 tons of KitKat bars stolen in chocolaty heist in Europe, Nestle says

A massive 12-ton shipment of Nestle’s crunch KitKat bars was stolen in a chocolaty heist that risks causing a shortage in stores right before Easter.

KitKat, owned by Swiss food giant Nestle, told AFP on Saturday that “a truck transporting 413,793 units of its new chocolate range has been stolen during transit in Europe.” The shipment disappeared last week while heading between production and distribution locations, the company said.

I found it interesting that the federal investigators I’m working with replied to an email at 3 AM.

Woman returns as doctor at hospital where she was born and worked as a janitor –
Shay Taylor-Allen will be one of Yale School of Medicine’s newest residents.

Texas House Speaker directs committee to study annexing New Mexico counties

In oil-rich West Texas, a town of 1,355 is building a $21M sports complex – The school district is leveraging its location in the heart of oil country to fund a massive athletics upgrade—before those tax dollars leave the region.