rmd | Reading

Here we are in the middle of 2026, which is as good a marker as any to see where my movie watching is at. Thanks, Letterboxd, for enabling my OCD! All stats are as of June 30th.

I watched 197 movies in the first half of the year. I have a not totally serious goal of 500 this year, which is a number I hit in 2023 after which I decided to stop being quite so obsessive. You don’t need to make the number go up every year, so I pulled back for the sake of my sanity. Now, however, I have more free time. The math says… maybe, particularly since I’m gonna see like 75 movies at Fantasia. (I do count shorts in this.)

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/07/07/midyear-reels/

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Where can you find dragons fighting in the night sky?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260706.html

What are these two bands in the sky?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260706.html

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260705.html

What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260705.html

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260704.html

solarbird

Greater Northshore Bike Connector Map 2.1.4 and MEGAMAP 2.1.4 – both 3 July 2026 – are now available on github.

If you’re on a pre-2.1 map: Release 2.1.0 was massive, filling in large swaths in the south end. You absolutely want this update to catch up.

Full list of changes with this release:

EXTENDED: 228th Ave SW bike lanes in Esperance extended west to 80th Ave W. (Both maps)
ADDED: 80th Ave W sharerow markings between 220th SW and 228th SW in Experance. The combination of this and the above add improve connections to Mountlake Terrace Light Rail Station. (Both maps)
ADDED: The Bike/Ped multi-use path (plus bridge-only buffered bike lanes) on 145th from Shoreline South light rail station west to Corliss Ave in Shoreline has officially opened and joins the map. (Both maps)
CORRECTED: 5th Ave NE bike lanes in Shoreline on the east side extend two-thirds of a block further than previously indicated. This has been adjusted. (Both maps)
CORRECTED: When adding the bike lane extension on 124th Ave NE north of 116th in Kirkland, I just extended the existing lines up rather than marking them as barrier-separated lanes, which they are. (They’re up on the sidewalk level.) Thanks to to @amberhu-uw for the heads-up! (Both maps)
WARNING ADDED: Construction is underway on upgrading bike lanes and sidewalks on 80th Ave NE in Kenmore, so a construction warning has been added. (Both maps)

All permalinks continue to work.

If you enjoy these maps and feel like throwing some change at the tip jar, here’s my patreon, and here’s Angela’s Kofi. (I’m her wife, so it gets to me.) Patreon supporters get bonus map variants, like pre-sliced printables of the Greater Northshore and 0% compression versions of the MEGAMAP. Plus, I can be open to requests for special edits.

Enjoy biking!

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

chhotii

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chickpea flour (more if from Indian grocer, as that seems to be sifted more than Bob's)
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon salt or 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
(Optional: 1 tablespoon almond flour)

Mix in a jar until well-mixed. Close jar and set aside until yeast has done its thing and it's quite bubbly (20 minutes or so on the counter in hot weather; several hours in fridge).

When ready to cook, remove lid and microwave 1 minute.

Empty jar into pan with a little oil and cook for a minute or so, crumbling the chickpea cake and mixing into other stuff.

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260703.html

Some 190 million light-years away,

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260703.html

wotw

The air conditioning unit that cools my great room died a few days ago, and it's been very very hot in there ever since. The HVAC people say they can't come till late next week. Fortunately, the three other units that cool the rest of my living space have been working great.

Today I was out walking and I passed by that dead condenser unit, which gave me the idea to take a look at it and see whether there was a tripped breaker in there. I started trying (and failing) to open the unit up when I noticed the "Danger: High Voltage" sign and decided I should probably go trip off the breaker in the house before trying to tinker with the unit.

You might see where this is going. The breaker in the house was already tripped off. Somehow that possibility had never occured to me. I turned it back on a couple of hours ago and my great room is icy cold, just the way I like it.

lb_lee posting in

davis_square

Hey Boston folks! Copy-pasting from Reddit:

The Air Conditioned NESFA [New England Science Fiction Association] Clubhouse (504 Medford St, Somerville) IS open today Friday July 3 from 12 noon to 9/10 pm. Feel free to stop by and read a book, grab a snack or cold one (water and soft drinks), or just hang out. You don’t need to be a member.
It will also be open:

*Saturday 4 July from 12 noon to 6 pm for Library or just hanging out & 6 pm on for Video Night
*Sunday 5 July from 12 noon to 9/10 pm for Gaming, Library, or just hanging out

Again, you don’t need to be a member.

Stay cool, hot neighbors!

bryant

This is a Scott McNealy story. Kids these days may not remember Scott; he was the long-term CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems. He was legendary for being outspoken, opinionated, and a maverick. He wasn’t a technical guy at heart, leaning way more towards the business side. Nevertheless, he was pretty smart about which way the technical winds were blowing.

Sun Microsystems was built on the idea that a computer which wasn’t attached to a network – preferably the Internet – was less useful. I’ll loop back and talk about the first two jobs I had at Sun at some point. Right now, we’re gonna talk about the last job I had at Sun, which was working on the internal Javastation deployment program. Javastations were perhaps the pinnacle of Scott’s network-oriented philosophy, so this was pretty important stuff.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/07/03/attaching-files-to-email/

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260702.html

Sibling Supernova Remnants

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260702.html

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260701.html

Although they look like cotton candy, you cannot eat these clouds! Taken in

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260701.html

bryant

In my inevitable quest to learn more about the history of our new home in the Twin Cities, I recently read Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs as a primary source on the Minneapolis general strike of 1934. That strike was a significant moment in US labor history, beginning a shift towards industrial unionism – the idea that all workers in a given industry should be part of the same union, rather than organizing unions by trade. It also, not coincidentally, triggered real growth for the Teamsters and was one of the turning points leading American Trotskyists to split from the Stalinist Communist Party USA.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/07/01/teamster-rebellion/