blueduck

Axios coverage: https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/trump-iran-strait-hormuz-bombing-threat

Proprietary standard that’s worse than modern DisplayPort specs. Adds cost without adding features.

Almost done with The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons. My first time through the full Cantos. I’ve heard the series is peak in book 1 and 4 with a lull in 2/3. I found 2 and 3 much worse than Hyperion, so here’s hoping he can land the ship in the final book

I think next I’ll pick up The Antidote by Karen Russell - a magic realism book set in the 1930s Dust Bowl era

About 44% of new construction homes over the past 20 years have had 4+ bedrooms. The American Housing Survey uses categories rather than numbers, so 4 and 5+ is the most granular we can get.

It’s a significant problem in the housing market, often called the “missing middle”, where we don’t have enough starter homes for young/new buyers to get on the housing ladder. We are only building large homes used by families who already have a lot of equity

Loved both Sunshine and Eternal Darkness.

Another cool game was XIII. Entirely cel shaded and based on a Belgian comic book. Sort of like Jason Bourne in story, unique style of gameplay with kill cams.

Heh. Just read the two Hierarchy books and now I’m on book three of The Hyperion Cantos.

Hyperion is so good. Fascinating story. The space bits really aren’t that important. Simmons does a good job of not getting caught up in the world building and instead tells a story in a truly bizarre world.

Fall of Hyperion struggled to keep my attention both times I read it.

About 25% of the way through Endymion and I’m having a hard time getting into it. Just finished a long section talking about the MC’s next strategic move… only to then transition to the antagonist having the exact same, mirrored conversation.

I want to finish the series… but it’s been a challenge.

To be clear, he’s not being reasonable or democratic.

“What I’ve suggested is that the Democrats have gotten so extreme and unreasonable that I don’t know that they will ever be willing to fund Department of Homeland Security,” Cruz told The Hill Saturday.

“If that’s where the Democrats are, I’ve suggested let’s fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation. That Republicans can do with just 50 votes, we can do that relatively quickly and the Democrat lunacy on open borders can be put to an end,” he added. “I’m interested in any strategy to get the government open, to pay the Department of Homeland Security.”

He’s saying “let’s just separate the DHS funding from the main bill and then pass DHS along party lines through parliamentary procedure.”

IT’S GOT WHAT BABIES CRAVE

This provoked an interesting question for me…What is the median age of a United Nations member state?

Short answer is ~64 years old. That aligns to post-WWII decolonization efforts in Africa, with another spike in the 80s/90s as the Soviet Union broke up

Everyone knows Jesus was born one 0001-12-25

I ran gluetun + proton for 4-5 years. v3.41 broke the integration completely and I could never get it working. Tried both wireguard and ovpn setups.

My best advice is pin to the 3.40 release or change providers. The maintainer hasn’t address the specific problem with proton in over a year. There was some discussion recently about improvements to the healthcheck endpoint, so he is working on the project. But it’s slow going and proton is the only provider I know about that is having consistent issues

• Dropout.tv
• VPN + email
• Music streaming

Preheating makes a big difference

21/24, not a Brit but a good student of world history

That movie is my white whale. I have tried to watch it a dozen times and I’ve never finished it. Not for lack of interest or trying. Just can’t do it

• Whiplash
• The Princess Bride
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Rogue One
• Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions) <— annual tradition for me

Federal debt is subject to wage garnishment. They can just take it out of your paycheck if you don’t pay

OPEC+ already announced an increase in production to keep prices down.

Close of Friday was $60/barrel. Futures markets have them at $69 late on Sunday.

I doubt we’ll see anything in the $100 range. Too much cheap shale oil from the US and heavy, dirty crude from Venezuela having a market in the gulf should absorb major supply side shocks

Edit 00:04 UTC

Early market moves in East Asian are seeing +8% from Friday’s close at $72 and $79 (different oil grades). But this might be overreaction in the east as we wait to see what happens when the Middle East wakes up. It’s still 3AM in Riyadh, so it’s slow news coming out of Saudi Arabia

Heh I meant coffee or tea

Thanks for sharing! It’s a thing I don’t quite understand but I enjoy reading about characters with different experiences. Books can be mirrors or windows