Well, it’s escalating fast. It seems no sooner than the announcement of the paper that is supposed to be found photographic evidence of fungi growing on Marsthat the community of planetary science and exobiology descended on it like a ton of bricks. That’s right – extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and while the photos taken by Curiosity and Opportunity seem to show something very similar to a sponge, there are many other, more mundane ways to explain these formations. Add to that the leading author of Martian mushroom paper is a famous biscuit that once sues NASA for running over fungi instead of investigating them; the supposed mushrooms later turned out to be rocks, of course. Fortunately we have a geobiology laboratory currently roaming Mars, so if there is or has been life on Mars, we will probably find out about it. You know, with evidence.
If you’re a fan of dystopian visions of the future, where bloodthirsty robots tirelessly hunt the last few survivors, the news that the New York City Police decided to stop using their DigiDog robot will be a little drop. The move stems from outrage caused by politicians and citizens who have come up with all sorts of reasons why New York should not use this tool. And use what they’ve obviously done – the original Boston Dynamic yellow, shown through the NYPD’s many scratches and blackouts, means that this little creator has seen some things since he took to the streets in late 2020. And let’s think – this robot dog was only a few weeks from the filing of retirement documents.
Attention, Commodore fans based in Europe: the Commodore Users Europe event coming soon. More precisely, June 12. As has become traditional, the event is virtual, but it is free and they are looking for presenters.
In an attempt to continue Big Tech’s great tradition of knowing what’s best for everyone, Microsoft has just announced this. Calibri will no longer be the default font in Office products. And here’s the fun part: we all decide what the new default font will be, at least seemingly. The award-winning font at Microsoft has created five new fonts and you can vote for your favorite on social media. All font designers are eloquent about their candidates and there are some stylized examples of each new font, but what is missing is a simple way to judge what each font would actually look like on a page of English text. What happened to the “Fast Brown Fox” or even a little “Lorem ipsum”?
Finally, why are German ambulances – and apparently German medics – covered with QR codes? Obviously this is a way to to strike back against digital rubbers. The video below is in German, but the point is clear: people like to stop and take pictures of accidents, and smartphones have exacerbated this to the point that emergency personnel have trouble crossing to help. Not to mention the invasion of privacy; very few crash victims are really at their best at this point and shooting them is beyond rudeness. Oh, and this is illegal, punishable by up to two years in prison. The idea with QR codes is to display a website with a rubber warning. Our German is a little rusty, but we’re pretty sure it means “Hey idiot, get back in your car!” Feel free to fix us.
[Editor’s note: “Stop. Rubbernecking kills”.]
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