Woah, 10 days since my last filter pass!  What happened?  Nothing in particular, I've just been ... busy?  I guess.  The days go by.  Anyway here's a catchup... because [as you know] it's all happening...

In case you were worried: NASA's Kepler space telescope is back in good health.  Whew. 

Clive Thompson: The new site.  In case you were a fan of his Collision Detection, or especially if you weren't.  Check it out! 

It's funny to read about someone who thinks Moveable Type is legacy, when I started blogging, there was no Moveable Type, in fact, Blogger had just come out.  I had to write my own CMS, and it's still running.  Also, I had to walk in the snow to school, uphill both ways :)

From October, Heather MacDonald testifies before the Senate: The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism.  "The most poisonous claim in the dominant narrative is that our criminal justice system is a product and a source of racial inequity."  In which once again we see that correlation does not imply causality. 

Thirty years ago (!) - space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing all seven astronauts aboard.  For me this was totally a "remember where you were when you heard it" event. 

Scott "Dilbert" Adams ponders a presidential persuasion pardon.  "Let’s say Donald Trump promises that when he gets elected President he will pardon Hillary Clinton of any future convictions regarding her email server situation."  An interesting what-if, but I don't read him that way. 

Dumb dumb dumb dumb: PayPal withdraws from North Carolina because of new LGBT discrimination law.  The law is pretty benign - requiring each sex to use bathrooms for their sex - but everyone sure is jumping on this bandwagon.  This is nothing but virtue signaling, but it sure is compelling. 

Meanwhile: Chariot launches, an Uber-like service for women only.  No word about how they will treat men who "present" as women.

One down: Panama papers scandal brings down Iceland's prime minister.  Wow.  Wonder who's next? 

I use a tool called WordFence to protect eyesFinder's website (which is running WordPress); check out this post on the WordFence blog about how the Panama papers got exposed.

The latest sport?  First-person drone racing descends upon Wembley Stadium.  Wow.  And meanwhile, ESPN is trying to make drone racing a mainstream sport.  Well why not?  Better than poker :) 

The thing that will be really cool?  First-person drone racing ... in virtual reality!

Apropos: the reality of AR/VR business models.  A great survey.  Personally I think VR content creation will be like making movies ... a huge business.  (With many of the same people and players.) 

Related: How virtual reality is looking to reawaken the joy of arcades.  Might even get me back into one :) 

Major League Baseball approves wearable tech for in-game use.  Specific products for now, but it's a slippery slope. 

The three things Apple needs to do to unlock the potential of Touch Id.  I totally agree with the first thing: use Touch Id to override web passwords.  It is such a pain to remember (and recover) passwords on every site; how great would it be if authenticating yourself on your phone was all you had to do? 

The headline is clickbait but the article is better: a survey of the challenges that Yahoo faces, as it explores the sale of its core business.  Not a pretty picture.  How the mighty have fallen...  I thought Marissa Mayer had a chance to turn them around, but apparently she did not. 

I remember when I was at Intuit, in 1999, that Yahoo was THE online service, the Internet challenger to non-Internet AOL.  That was a long time ago, and in all that time Yahoo has steadily declined.

As Tesla Model 3 preorders approach 400,000: If you built it, they will come.  "Prior to the Model 3 event, the rhetoric you still routinely heard was ... that Tesla is a niche product, a 'Valley-thing.' These pre-order numbers destroy that notion. It’s still up to Tesla to execute on the plan, but at least right now, that plan is clearly working."  This is most definitely starting to look like genuine disruption. 

Oh, and: Tesla unveils new Model S design.  Wow for everyone, and Sigh for me.  The number of reasons to upgrade to a brand new one keep growing.  

Teslarati explores the details behind the Tesla Model S update.  Interestingly, they've got a "normal" center console now, standard.

Wrapping up, here we have The Bazooka, a huge super Canoli filled with 50 normal canolis.  Just when you think you've seen it all, you realize "it all" is so much more than you imagined :)