When infinite rebuyer Elon Musk merged xAI and SpaceX, he was quoted as saying “In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale.” I thought that sounded pretty stupid, but I didn’t dive into it. Thankfully, physics professor Rhett Allain has, in this Wired piece.

I’m pretty down on algorithmic newsfeeds. Also rather awful is the infinite scrolling that goes hand in hand with them. From Wikipedia:

In 2019, Aza Raskin, who claims to have invented the infinite scrolling technique, expressed regret at the invention, saying that he ‘did not foresee the consequences’ and describing it as ‘one of the first products designed to not simply help a user, but to deliberately keep them online for as long as possible’.

It seems unlikely that infinite scrolling will actually get killed by the EU, but I’ll hold out hope.

Machiel Reyneke thinks the modern longevity movement is a vampire disclosure program. There might be something to it.

There ain’t no rule says a dog can’t compete in an Olympic cross-country skiing event, so Nazgul the Czechoslovakian wolfdog went ahead and did this morning. There’s great video too.¹

Perhaps the best part is the amazing photo finish from Omega:

You might notice that the photo’s vertical line is aligned with Nazgul’s nose. My guess was that the system read his leg as a ski, and that the ski doesn’t count for crossing the finish line. A quick read NBC’s cross country primer seems to confirm this:

In cross-country skiing, the race finishes for each skier when the toe of their front boot crosses the finish line. A finish is not determined by the tip of a ski.

Nor, apparently, the tip of the leg of a dog.

The aforementioned primer goes on to note:

Electronic timing technology is used to identify official race finish times, like a photo finish system.

Thanks to that, we got this delightful photo.

Previously in dogs doing human activities: Peanut Butter Hit a Walk-Off Dinger

Footnotes:

1. Said video is, of course, archived here. ↩︎

I remain tickled by the fact that hundreds of people stood on the field dressed as grass during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show. Thanks to this article on what it was like to be one of these performers¹, I am now also tickled to see photos like this one. Spot the face smiling within the grass:

Who knew grasses needed glasses?

Footnotes:

1. “Performers” is probably a strong word. ↩︎

Now here’s a hook:

Every year, doctors at a hospital in the Yunnan Province of China brace themselves for an influx of people with an unusual complaint. The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures – marching under doors, crawling up walls and clinging to furniture.

The culprit is a mushroom, “Lanmaoa asiatica”, which causes hallucinations of tiny people if it’s not cooked thoroughly. And apparently, that mushroom can be found in multiple places around the world, with multiple appearances.

Listen, fella, if you’re not willing to inject your penis with hyaluronic acid to increase its circumference so that you have a bigger bulge when they take a 3D body scan to measure you for your aerodynamic suit where a larger surface area can increase lift and drag enabling you to fly farther, then maybe you simply don’t have what it takes to be an Olympic ski jumping champion. Come back when you’re ready to be a winner.

Previously in Olympic ski jumping: Olympic Ski Jumping Is No Longer Bullshit