Greetings blog public, how is everyone today?  I'm doing well, thanks for asking ... a quiet day of coding, in which I discovered once again how much time good design saves ... sometimes ten minutes of thought saves ten hours of coding (at the end of which, you realize you did it wrong... and take those ten minutes to do it right :)  Sigh.

Meanwhile, on the Internets...

To be watched: Lo and Behold, a film about "the connected world" by Werner Herzog.  "Featuring original interviews with cyberspace pioneers and prophets such as Elon Musk, Bob Kahn, and world-famous hacker Kevin Mitnick, the film travels through a series of interconnected episodes that reveal the ways in which the online world has transformed how virtually everything in the real world works, from business to education, space travel to healthcare, and the very heart of how we conduct our personal relationships." 

To be read: Red Sparrow.  "There are two principal protagonists, and during the first part of the book their stories are told in alternating fashion. Nate Nash is a young CIA agent in Moscow. Dominika Egorova, the niece of a top-ranking SVR official, is prevailed upon by him to work for SVR, and is sent to 'sparrow school.'" 

Maximally dumb: Maximum wage.  "Let's say we decided as a society that no private company should have a pay ratio above 40:1. That would lead to a radical decrease in income inequality, and it wouldn't involve a cent of additional taxes...  This would no doubt be fiddling with the natural markets for wages, but we fiddle with these all the time, through progressive income taxes, earned income tax credits, subsidies, and tax incentives."  None of which work. 

Waiting ... tick tick tick ... iPhone 5se and its place in the Apple universe.  "A new 4-inch iPhone with an A9 processor and Touch ID solves a few problems for Apple, in one swoop. It gives Apple a modern iPhone to sell to people who really do prefer the smaller size, and it gives them a low-end-of-the-lineup model that is technically relevant for another 18-24 months."  Who wants a bigger phone?  (I want my Palm Pre back!) 

Mark Suster: Stay focused on your goals, not your critics.  Okay! 

This is so cool: A house with a rooftop infinity pool.  Wonder if it lowers the cost of heating? 

There are so many cool houses in this world ... I'd love to take a traveling tour visiting as many as possible.  Seems like something a lot of people would like to do?  On the other hand... maybe we can do it with VR?

Have you heard of these guys?  Penrose is the Pixar of VR.  "Penrose just wants you to empathize with its characters, to feel something."  I think VR content creation is going to be huuge. 

Richard Dawkins disinvited from conference for offending feminists.  The conference was on Science and Skepticism.  I swear the news reads more and more like the Onion every day...  and somehow the irony is lost. 

Heh this is adorable: Kitten fails to impress tortoise.  Click through, it's sure to bring you a smile...