and the original European names are also pretty functional:

I believe Amsterdam is just “River Dam”

And York is just “Yew”, presumably named after trees that grew there. (Eburacon -> Eboracum -> Eoforwic -> Jórvík -> York)

But New York in the United States isn’t even directly named after the English city of York, but rather a person (James Stuart) who was the Duke of York when England took control of the territory from the Dutch.

I can’t say…

I have seriously thought about doing this. I believe if your car is stolen, your insurance will not pay out if you have disconnected the antenna. It’s probably not enough to stop me from disconnecting the antenna, but it’s infuriating how much the whole system works against privacy.

I want to have my cake and eat it too, though (privacy plus electric).

I’m looking at the new electric Slate pickup. As far as I can tell, this is the one EV that might not spy on us.

I haven’t read Shroud. I will put it on the list, thanks.

I recently read (listened to the audiobook actually) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

It’s about the life of Thomas Cromwell. The narration style is not for everyone, but it’s the best historical fiction story I’ve read.

Children of Time is great. I also thought Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky was interesting. Although I’m a little skeptical about how aliens work in that one.

Fuck billionaires.

They’re the ones who will profit from using AI to rewrite open source projects or to fire a bunch of developers.

Actions (prompt injections, boycotts, regulation, etc.) have to target billionaires above all or we’ll end up fighting amongst ourselves, as usual.

I love to see bikes overtaking cars.

I hate to see bikes not stopping and yielding to pedestrians using the crosswalk when pedestrians have the right of way.

I agree.

ASOIAF is amazing, and If GRRM can’t write a good ending, I’d rather the series stay unfinished than have finished it in a way that detracts from the story.