How Engineers Kick-Started the Scientific Method Francis Bacon was inspired by the inventors of his day

Francis Bacon argued that making things was a valid path to science.

It seems like the Venn diagram of people who say things like "we're better offline," and people who seem to know about literally everything published to the internet, ever...is just a circle.

"Games are both easier and harder than the real world. They’re easier because there are fewer levels of abstraction. They’re harder because games are much more diverse. The real world has the same physics everywhere."

They're going for innovation in closet data centers.

Absolute authoritarian BS here.

Sharing this cool thing:

A reader named Andrea (@pinkevyis.bsky.social) is reading one of our books every month! If you want to link up & discuss, you can join her book club on the Fable app.

She's starting from the beginning with EarthBound.

fable.co/club/boss-fi...

Boston Dynamics just gave Spot a high-level reasoning model from Google DeepMind. The most interesting part may be what the AI still can't do. spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-spot-goo...

Age of Empires: How Ensemble Studios Made History The creation & legacy of the 1997 real-time strategy game, based on interviews w/ 29 former Ensemble & Microsoft staff.

We're already about halfway done with our AGE OF EMPIRES launch!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/gab...

#retrogaming #realtimestrategy #aoe #ageofempires #videogames #pcgaming

Of course, you might not have time to read the whole 400 page report ... so I dug up the key data points that I think tell the story of AI today.

It's the Stanford AI Index, a roughly 400-page report that includes everything from the rate of AI model improvement, to carbon emissions, to robotics deployment, to public sentiment, and way more.

Stanford's AI Index for 2026 Shows the State of the Industry AI investment is skyrocketing while AI’s impact on jobs and public perception remains mixed

What is the state of AI in 2026? The one big report that actually tries, and largely succeeds, in answering that question just dropped.

#ai #llms

Stanford's AI Index for 2026 Shows the State of the Industry AI investment is skyrocketing while AI’s impact on jobs and public perception remains mixed

US models, China’s robots, soaring compute, and mixed public trust: the 2026 AI Index redraws the map of where AI is really headed.

The four humans who have traveled the furthest from Earth. (Via NASA.)

You have to build the AI agents to do the monitoring with checks & balances spectrum.ieee.org/ai-reliability #ai

I can imagine a future, even, where Nvidia breaks apart its consumer GPU and AI products to some degree, providing options to buy it all in one for the base experience, or for power users to buy these alone and linked over a high-speed data connect to customize performance to their needs.

This is a change no one is paying attention to yet. AI is going to bring changes to desktop PCs. I think the idea of having a GPU that does graphics + AI obviously won't hold long term. We're going to see AI inference cards become a thing.

No Thanks.

AI Models Trained on Physics Are Changing Design Engineering Large physics models are increasingly used to bypass simulation

Large physics models are starting to challenge traditional simulation in auto and aerospace design

Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand MEMS array to steer lasers for quantum computer finds other uses

Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand

Negotiations between the 7 states that share the Colorado River's water have collapsed twice, and the federal government is threatening to impose a plan. AI tools are making the tradeoffs impossible to ignore. spectrum.ieee.org/colorado-river-water-sho...

I have thought about doing this as well. Seems like a fun and useful project.

The Moon as seen by Artems II on 4 April 2026. Mare Orientale is seen side on as the feature narrow feature on the right limb of the Moon, just past the darker blob of crater Grimaldi.

OK this is cool. The first time humans have seen the whole Mare Orientale on the far side of the Moon with their own eyes. See flic.kr/p/2s5HA2X 🧪🔭

Given how we use them, the team just refers to the solar arrays as selfie sticks.

EverQuest Legends introduces new video series that promises deep-dives into systems

EverQuest Legends introduces new video series that promises deep-dives into systems

A calico cat, Frida, lies on her side on a wooden table, one paw resting near a copy of Life is Strange by Kaitlin Tremblay, a Boss Fight Books title with a pink Polaroid camera on the cover.

A calico cat, Frida, sprawls across a wooden table, peering at the camera, surrounded by three Boss Fight Books titles: Life is Strange by Kaitlin Tremblay (pink Polaroid cover), Silent Hill 2 by Mike Drucker (grayscale TV cover), and Animal Crossing by Kelsey Linnin (green leaf cover).

Thank you @bossfightbooks.com 🙏 First giveaway I've ever won. I love their publications and every writer featured for how deeply and passionately they engage with games. So excited to read @kaittremblay.bsky.social's dive into Life is Strange.

Here are some photos of my small collection. Ft. Frida

Artemis II Prepares to Return Humans to the Moon After 50 Years Artemis II is set to take astronauts around the moon for the first time in over 50 years. How will this mission build on past space achievements?

NASA's Artemis II mission has launched. Read about how it all came together. spectrum.ieee.org/artemis-ii-l...

Didn’t expect to be emotional about a rocket today, but that first reverse shot of the boosters falling back to earth moved me to tears. Humanity has made a mess of the hopes and expectations for the future I held as a kid, and it’s overwhelming to see us reaching for our grandest aspiration again

Image from inside the core stage of Artemis II, showing the crew capsule separating and lots of shiny sparks in the space between.

Oh wow, the shot of the core stage sep is gorgeous

External view showing part of Orion and the Earth.

Good: getting some external images from Orion.
Bad: the crew is troubleshooting the toilet.

I spoke with the company's CEO, Eben Upton, earlier this year. And he said at the time to expect elevated memory pricing for at least a couple years.