A short night, late night, filter pass, as we await our longer blanket in the morning...

Have you been following the "Go" match between Google's AlphaGo AI and Go champion Lee Se-dol?  It's pretty amazing.  Se-Dol finally won a match after losing three in a row.  Some things that stand out for me: First, Go is far more complicated than Chess, from a "possible moves" standpoint.  So complicated that brute force cannot work, even for a fast supercomputer.  So this is a battle of heuristics.  Second, AlphaGo is playing "good Go".  Several observers have called its moves beautiful.  Third, AlphaGo is making unexpected moves.  It's creators are constantly amazed and surprised by what it comes up with.  So interesting. 

Joi Ito, director of MIT Media Lab, posted a nice article on DRM, the World Wide Web consortium, Net neutrality, and other tech policy.  "Intentionally or unintentionally, poorly crafted or outdated laws and technical standards threaten to undermine security, privacy and the viability of our most promising new technologies and networks."  

Glenn Reynolds' Tweet of the Day, from Scott Greenfield.  Agree completely.  (As I've often written, "the smartest people don't become journalists, so journalists are not the smartest people".)   This is why the Internet is so important. 

Dave Winer: The Political River.  An endless meta-RSS feed of posts on political blogs and websites.  Just in case you don't want 23-year-old humanities majors to be your source of news :) 

As much as I bemoan all the politics on my Facebook feed, at least my friends are not 23-year-old humanities majors ... or at least, most of them aren't ... even though they sometimes post as if they are! 

Seth Godin: the difference between confidence and arrogance.  Ah yes, this is certainly a fine line for me.  As it is for many. 

Of course: BB8 visits JPL.  Where the real space robots are made. 
I love the visitor's badge, nice touch. 

The recent Solar Eclipse, as viewed from Alaska Air.  You may know they rerouted a flight to give passengers this view.  Awesome! 

As you watch this, you can't help but think, what did ancient people make of this?  It could only be explained as the work of Gods, right?

And finally, of course Dire Straits Walk of Life improves every movie.  Of course.