Good Things Friday (387) and Link Love
July 31, 2026
When I was chastising myself for getting out of practice with parallel parking, it didn’t occur to me there’d be a Guinness Book of World Records record for parallel parking.
This is cool: Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery
This is why I tell the kids that Kalshi and Polymarket are evil: People are making wildfire bets on prediction markets. Experts say it could lead to disaster
This is fucking infuriating: You Opened a Credit Card. ICE Now Knows Where You Live
It’s bad enough that our credit histories are controlled by three companies we never agreed to track us, they consolidate our data and pass it on to a fourth company we never agreed to hold AND SELL that data??
This constant cycle of running a company into the ground with constant layoffs is infuriating, it’s happening everywhere and makes no sense: After A $1.4 Billion Box Office Year (So Far), Pixar Hit By Disney Layoffs Amid ‘Long And Lean’ Shift
Grrr give us the sequel! Dungeons & Dragons Movie Sequel Has a Script But ‘Financial Reasons’ Might Keep It from Ever Coming Out
I thought this was going to be more about game mechanics but he says something that really resonates with me: Miyamoto: Games based on developers’ personal interests resonate around the world, not those aiming for global appeal
“So, the reason Nintendo enjoys such strong global support is simply that we don’t start by asking: ‘What’s trending right now?’ Instead, we focus on who we’re actually doing this for. Who is it that’s putting up the money? I really dislike terms like ‘depreciation’ or ‘recouping costs.’ The people funding these projects are doing it to make a fortune, so why celebrate things like ‘we recouped our investment’ or short-term profits? To me, if you’ve burned through the talents of so many people just to achieve that, that feels like a massive failure.
This doesn’t surprise me one bit because it mirrors my concerns that were similarly dismissed about the rampant and unchecked irresponsible use of generative AI and I hate that this level of malfeasance is expected: Lawsuit Claims the Mayo Clinic’s Use of AI Is Butchering Patient Care
Oh for the…. FDA Lists 12 Ongoing Foodborne Outbreaks — 4 Cyclospora, 3 Salmonella
Chastising yourself for not practising parallel parking? Be kinder to yourself my friend!
So when I bought my latest car a few years ago I was very excited about the autopark feature (while I’m in the driver seat) because my street is a hundred years old and we all have to try to squish into whatever unmarked space happens to be available. Which can take a lot of car-butt wiggling in my two-way street that can only accommodate one car at a time. Well I got home and a smallish space was free so I thought perfect! The car can do a little 8 point butt-wiggling instead of me fiddling with it manually!
I lined up with the spot, pushed the button and my brand new autoparking car backed up allll the way up the street. I guess it doesn’t like to wiggle its butt either.
It was mild, promise! 🙂
Those tiny streets are terrifying to me. I avoid them at all costs – I would have been so excited to have a car do it for me, too. It’s a shame the car felt the same about the spot and wiggling 😀
That parallel parking video is so silly! and totally useless – how would they get out of the spot – but I can see the fun of it. In a similar vein, look up the opb dot org article from last year called Parallel parking contest in Southeast Portland keeps the city weird. Also fun!
I was wondering how they’d get out of the parking spots, too! Would they have to move all the other cars first? I found the article, how funny!