Found this fellow on the front lawn. Maybe 8″ long. Thought it was a snake at first. Texas State Parks posted a photo of a similar one on Twitter recently.

From The Technium.

103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

So much to say about this. Homeowners in large Texas cities are getting hit hard with property tax increases. I suppose when there is no income tax and business gets off light, somebody needs to keep things running. Seems like a massive amount of extra income for the state. I wonder what they will do with all that money?

What the Bleep Is Going On With Texas Property Taxes?

Can’t say I know anything about this company, but I have been thinking about the possibilities of solar + reverse osmosis lately, mostly in the context of off-grid living. These guys seem to have a nice solution.

Elemental Water Makers

Big corporate logos, from kottke.org

Logos You Can See From Space

From the USA Today.

Renewable electricity powered California 100% for the first time in history

I suppose we should get used to seeing topics like this discussed in the mainstream news. For the record I consider myself pretty well informed on A.I. technology and have tried to keep up with developments since, well, the late 1980s. I have also done some similar circuit design work. I would probably also be considered an A.I. “skeptic” although I consider myself more of a “realist”.

In this story, some Google engineers have some issues with recent claims of using A.I. to build circuits. I’m sure this is a deep, inside baseball argument going on here, but not to be allow to be discuss this publicly is a bit strange. Again, for the record, I think there are many overblown claims for A.I. (self driving cars and IBM Watson, I’m looking at you) but maybe the real problem is that the overblown claims get all the attention.

Another issue with using nuclear power, especially in the western US. I originally saw this in an article about an Arizona nuclear power plant which is behind a paywall. A Google search turns up some numbers. From a UK article.

“A large nuclear power plant may use up to 1 billion gallons of water a day and, for this reason, they are often built next to rivers, lakes or oceans to utilise the bodies of water.”

Nuclear power and its water consumption secrets

Self-assembly? I waited, but it didn’t assemble itself. I finally did all the work. Instructions were easy and didn’t require any tools. I wonder if the Ikea help line gets any calls about this one?

The ads I get on line are usually accurate, sometimes to a scary degree. Recently I’ve had some that were way off target. Always a bit amusing. Had multiple ads for a “pipe cleaner”. Be ready for inspection! I had to click. Must have me confused with someone else.